My questions about modern day Christianity..
By Uwilltap3
@Uwilltap3 (7)
United States
March 22, 2008 2:15pm CST
Before you read, I dont worship Satin and i'm not trying to find a reason not to believe. I believe that before you follow any set of religious beliefs you should understand them.
First I want to start by asking how anyone can claim to be a whole hearted Christian. To be whole hearted and believe you should try to follow everything that the bible teaches. Obviously nobody is perfect but blatant non-conforming ways is what what i'm talking about.
For example, you'll find many Christians who dont believe in cussing, many who believe its wrong to kill, but when it comes time to give 10% they decide they can't. Come on folks, you either believe or you dont! If you really believe whole heartedly then God will take care of you. I think giving 10% of a persons earnings is probably the hardest thing to do, especially with the economy the way it is.
Next is why has there not been anyone with "supernatural" powers in recorded time? As you read through the bible you will find stories of people who are able to part the seas, a guy who gets swollowed by a whale only to be saved by Jesus who comes down to get him out, and Daniel gets thrown to the lions only for God to tame the lions to prevent him from getting eaten alive. When in modern time has anything like this happend? Only in the bible has anything like this taken place.
Christians use the term "miracle" often. If a baby is in the hospital sick, everyone prays and hopes for God to save it. If the baby survives its called a "miracle", if the baby lives everyone says that "it was Gods will". Win-win situation.
To sum it up, who wrote the bible? How do you know it was real? What makes the Bible any easier to believe then lets say the Koran? The bible has been written and translated so many times, who says the original was even accurate? Most bibles have the red writing meaning that they are direct quotes but how do we know this is even true? As kids we played the game where the teacher would say a sentence in our ear, we would whisper whats supposed to word for word into the next guys ear and by the time it got back to the teacher what happend? The original sentence had totally changed.
Everyone has in they're mind that hell is a bad place. How does anyone know if nobody has been there and came back to tell us? Lucifer left Gods side because he wanted all the power and so God sent him down to Hell where he could have control of that. Why would Lucifer want to torture everyone for eternity? For all we know hell isnt what we have in our heads as "hell". It may be just like another Heaven, only ran by Lucifer.
God is "loving" however God also sets us up for failure. If you believe that God already knows what is going to happen in your life before you do, how can you have free will? Supposedly God knew that 9/11 would take place. He just let it happen? He knew it would happen long before the terrorists were even born. That's almost evil. Then again we have free will right? No wait, God knows exactly whats going to happen. (Its a catch 22) He put Adam and Eve on earth knowing that Eve would eat that apple. He put us on earth knowing that there will never be a man that can follow his word how he wants perfectly. Why would he do that? Why would he make it so hard for us to follow him? Thats setting "his children" up for failure. It would be like expecting a 3 year old to learn calculus in a year and then punishing him for it!
Where did the dinosaurs come into play? Did God make the dinosaurs? If so, did they come before Adam and Eve or after? If they came after where did the humans go while they were here? Were the dinosaurs an experiment for God that he got tired of so he killed them?
There are many questions that I probably will never have an answer too. I dont need proof for everything but I do have the right to ask questions, especially if I am to follow a religion to the point that it changes my everyday life. I'm not a Satin worshiper, I am just throwing all this out there to see what people say. I dont want to hear what someone told you, I want to know what YOU think and if so why.
2 people like this
5 responses
@CherBear04 (483)
• United States
23 Mar 08
Ok, first of all giving 10% is not necessary. If you look at the Bible in the Old Testament only landowners were required to tithe 10% and they were only required to tithe to the Levite Priests. If anyone tithed to anyone other than a Levite it was a sin. There are no Levite priests in existence today. How do I know? Because there were none in existence when Christ was walking the earth (it says so in the NT). Secondly, Tithing was under the Mosaic covenant - when Christ came he erased that covenant and put in place a new covenant.
In the New Testament it says "Give with a willing heart" and "give as much as you see fit". There is nothing mentioned about 10%. If you give 10% that's great! If you give more, that's great! But it is not required, nor should people be going into debt to do so.
In Revelation it describes what Hell is like. It is not just like another heaven in which Lucifer runs. It is described as gnashing of teeth, fire, burning coals etc.
When it comes to the free-will situation, I think of it more like free-will to us, predestination to God. We do not know what God knows, God knows that every choice we make we will make it, we have the decision to make that choice or not. To us it's free-will. Hopefully that made sense.
I think that it's possible that there were dinosaurs/dragons, if you read Exodus (I believe that is where it is) it talks of a large creature with scales that could breathe fire. All of these would have been wiped out during the flood. Maybe the dinosaurs / dragons were not mean and vicious like people make them out to be, or maybe they just lived in another part of the world - like North America where there were no people lol.
I think the reason he makes it so that we can't follow him perfectly, is so that we understand that he is great and powerful. If you did not have failure, you would not have success, if you did not have hate, you would not know the true power of love, if you did not have pain, you would not know joy. Does that make sense?
I also believe that the reason we don't have these "supernatural powers" is because we don't believe enough. I saw "miracles" happen before my eyes when I went to Dominican Republic. There was a woman who had one leg shorter than the other, and people laid hands on her and prayed over her and right before us her leg grew out to match the other one. A friend of ours went on a missions trip to somewhere in South America and there was a man who was blind. He said that his eyes looked milky-white, as a blind person's eyes normally look. They laid hands on him and prayed over him and he said that his eyes just started watering this milky substance out and the man was able to see. It is incredible what happens if people just have the faith. But people here do not rely on God, they rely on medicine and science to fix everything, so there is no reason for them to rely on God.
Well I hope that helped, if you have more questions feel free to ask or discuss what I've posted. You know how to contact me!
@Tchantal01 (59)
• Philippines
23 Mar 08
I totally agree with most you are saying, and I have found the answeres in most already. Try readin the Hiram Key by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas. Maybe you already know that most of modern day christianity developed from the nicean creed called upon by roman emperor constantine. He was a believer of the sun goddess that is also why easter and christma fell on days where pagan celebrated the sun goddess. I personally do not believe in the adam and eve story so I think the dinosaurs were first. I dont believe in adam and eve because the bible was written by man and not god, and gos is a creation of men. Nevertheless I don't think man can live without a god because they like to have faith and the comfort. The bible was generally created and accepted by this nicean creed as well, which also means that the gospel of jesus of nazareth and the gospel of judas have not been included because it was in this creed were a few people decided that jesus should be a god. We have history to verify all the events that happened in the world, why cant we use our historical knowledge by analyzing the bible and the most probable scenarios. There were never miracles, its just the way they wrote the bible and there were many misunderstandings, but you find most of the explanations in the book. Like the age of abraham, come one, nobody has been over 150 years so why should he be 600 years or so? Given the times and the quality of living. But most people would never analyze it that way because they think the bible is holy and it would be blasphemous. But dont get me wrong,
i believe that there is a god-like spirit, but the whole formation of christian church is a lie and that is also a reason why I dont give the church. I give to beggars on the streets, but the church is most likely to keep its treasure just like the vatican. I'm roman catholic, but the vatican is worth millions if not billions of euro and they have a library which contains every secret on earth.Anyways this gets a little too long... ^^
1 person likes this
@CherBear04 (483)
• United States
23 Mar 08
I disagree with you. A lot of what is in the Bible has been historically accurate so why would it not be true? It would take way too long and I doubt it would change your mind.
@JoeCoolJSI (27)
• United States
23 Mar 08
Ah, Tchantal01 you are right about some things we cannot prove some things written in the bible but as each year goes by we find evidence to prove what was written in the bible from the old and new testament and there are other historians who do back up what was written one for example was Josephus a historian of non Christian belief who wrote about Jesus. You seem to want proof and even if it is shown to you, I believe you would most probably reject it as the religious people in the days of Jesus who rejected him because they had selfish desires or wanted power, greed and fame and they didn't want others telling them otherwise.( I am not saying you want those things I am just sensing that you are afraid of putting your faith in something you can't see) Since there are some things we probably won't ever hear the answer to while we are alive we go back to Faith. Yes there were other historians and writers in Jesus day and non of them refuted what the Gospels said he did. It appears you are basing what you believe from one book, someone who is probably not a Christian. Forget for a moment what they said about Constantine and read the bible and what it says which was written before Constantine's time. I personally will believe in the people who spent their lives dissecting the bible and understanding the people of those days and say that the more they investigate the bible the more they find it to be infallible and true. Ultimately it is each one of our own decisions to believe or not to believe, it is my hope that you take another look at the bible on your own terms and hopefully you can put your faith in the one true God and his redeeming son Jesus.
1 person likes this
@Tchantal01 (59)
• Philippines
23 Mar 08
I didnt say everything was incorrect. But just like you said there are some things which are historically correct and which are not because they were added. The real problem here s that the bible is the only written record of these times, so how can you back your statement up? It's barely possible because there is barely anything that backs up the so-called truths in the bible. I'm not trying to convince you in any way, but lets put belief aside and just focus on historical facts. Fact was that all the characters in the bible indeed existed and fact is also that most have done things described in the bible, but we do not know the background, the reason why they did these things because they were never backed up by other sources. Just like a good research paper you have to have more sources than just one. Have you read Wicked? its like a whole other story that adds to the wizard of oz ^^ just an example hehe
@Modestah (11179)
• United States
23 Mar 08
your posts and points are too many to digest at once in this forum - maybe you can make separate discussions for a couple at a time?
the one point though that no one with special "powers" as you put it... this is false.
There have been Saints permitted to do extraordinary and supranatural things.
@CherBear04 (483)
• United States
23 Mar 08
You don't have to be a "saint" to be able to do extraordinary / supernatural things. You just have to have faith that God will do those things.
2 people like this
@citrusemma (508)
•
23 Mar 08
I'll try and answer some of our points with my point of view as much as possible.
I'm not trying to convert you, but hopefully you'll see that (and I am very young) not all "Christians" are the stereotype of trying to covert everybody, single-minded, opinionated, won't listen to others, shun non-believers, but don't even know anything about their own faith .
I can't say I know everything, and I am definitely not perfect. But I try, and I hope I try hard enough ...
Why is there pain and suffering?
The nature of human beings is to be sinful. This is because God wanted to create a being that chose him not because they were made to, or that was how they were, that was natural to them, but chose him by their own free will. However, they also chose sin. For example, the story of Adam and Eve. They chose to disobey- they had the free will. I don't know whether the story really was real, or just a story to show that whilst there is sin, there is suffering. I believe there will be a Kingdom of Heaven on Earth- which will be free from sin and suffering....
Why aren't there miracles nowadays?
I don't believe miracles happen anymore. [see below]
Also, miracles aren't done to prove a point- it doesn't work that way. During Jesus' life, most of his miracles were done for/to the faithful, he didn't make people believe, they had to come to him by choice and I believe that was what marked Christians apart.
Why do some people pray for a miracle?
I won't pray for a miracle. I may pray for guidance, help, but I don't believe miracles happen any more. When the holy spirit resided in no more people- the disciples could pass it to other people, but the other people couldn't pass it on- it didn't stay on earth any more... Atleast, there were no more cases of it.
How do we know the bible is real?
I don't have physical, scientifical evidence. That is faith. However, I believe I can see God working in our everyday lives. I believe he answers my prayers. To me, he is real. He is most definitely there, loving and watching me.
Who wrote the bible?
It says in the bible, that it was inspired by God, and written by people who were guided by the holy spirit.
No, I don't know what is right or wrong. I believe God's ways, what he does, how he works, is too complicated for us humans to even begin to understand. But that is where faith comes in. It is simple. I have faith. Maybe it was just in-built as a child. But I've had plenty of opportunities all my life, many people doubting, I've seen many sides to religion, I've been snubbed by other churches, by my own. I've had reasons to give up believing... but He has always been there for me. And so I believe.
((and no, I don't think non-christians are satan believers, hehe))
@travibabiesgirl (1690)
• United States
22 Mar 08
Oh wow you just don't know how much you sound like me. I have often asked these same questions with no answers. I often wondered if some drunk guys sat around and decided to write the bible for a good joke, to see if people would really follow it. I have asked several people where the dinosaurs fit into the bible and the only answer I got was one of Gods days was like 1,000 of our years. You actually have a few more and better questions than I did. I do believe in God and feel that he has spoken to me twice in my time of need. I do not however really believe that the bible is real. I think parts of it might be but it is hard for me to believe all of it. I agree that it has been translated over and over and I think part of it may have gotten messed up in translation. I believe that I am right with God and I don't need the bible or a church group to make me right with him. I had to respond to this post though because I was amazed that someone had some of the same questions as me. Thanks for posting and I hope someone can give you and I both some insight.
1 person likes this
@CherBear04 (483)
• United States
23 Mar 08
I think his point was more of - God created us, God knew exactly what we were planning to do before we ever did it, so how does that make it free will? It could make God evil, or it could make us predestined.
It's also like, if God created Satan, and Satan is evil, and God knows all, then God would know that he was creating evil - so wouldn't he be evil? Or would he just not be all-knowing?
My reasoning for this is that without evil you would not know joy and happiness and therefore evil makes the world more enjoyable when it is not present.
2 people like this
