The Self-Delusion of Christians in Their Christianity: Let Us Count the Ways

a reply to: the2ofusr1

Thanks for posting that.

I needed to read it again tonight.

a reply to: stosh64

There is something you can do that is good enough.

Matthew 22
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Love God and your neighbor as yourself. Easy peasy. Know why it's easy? Because Jesus says so.

Matthew 11
30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

How do you fulfill the Law? By loving others as yourself, which is a sign of love for God.

Romans 13
10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Loving others unconditionally, no matter who they are or what they've done, is easy if you honestly try and want to open yourself up to love.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

Maybe one day people will wake up to the fact that they believe in a lie.

Says the guy who claims to continue to see the light. Or is that a lie to. You don't know what you believe do you? One second your making threads about the Bible to support your beliefs the next you turn right around and slander it. Make up your mind already, it's not that confusing, either you believe or you don't, which is it?

a reply to: RealTruthSeeker

You know Jesus' parable of the weeds and wheat? I see the bible as a prime example of that parable, truth being mixed with lies. I have only separated the two at the harvest. The harvest is self revelation.

Like I said, the Abrahamic God is the God of this world. Who else is said to be the God of this world? Satan. Take these as an example:

2 Samuel 24
1 Now again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and it incited David against them to say, "Go, number Israel and Judah.

1 Chronicles 21
1 Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel.

Which one incited David to number Israel? Was it Satan or was it God? The answer is simply: Yes.

originally posted by: 3NL1GHT3N3D1
a reply to: stosh64

There is something you can do that is good enough.

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Love God and your neighbor as yourself. Easy peasy. Know why it's easy? Because Jesus says so.

.

If you were honest with yourself you would admit that that is an impossible goal for fallen humans.

Try to uphold that standard for an hour perfectly.

There is no way to HIM by works alone, only through Repentance and accepting HIS gift.

I try my best to live by those 2 verses, but I am far from perfect at it. I do attempt to get better at it every day.

If you have it perfected my hat is off to you. You should feel proud on that fateful day when you stand before him and say 'look how good I was'.

Love God and your neighbor as yourself

Not quite, Love the Lord your God with all your heart.........and love your neighbor as yourself.
Big difference.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

So you like to harvest lies then. Why don't you just write your own bible instead quoting from one that is full of lies according to you.

originally posted by: RealTruthSeeker
a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

So you like to harvest lies then. Why don't you just write your own bible instead quoting from one that is full of lies according to you.

Good point.

2nd

originally posted by: TzarChasm
The best Christians are the quiet ones. The ones who don't do it for the attention and the cookies. Their faith isn't a trophy or a badge, it doesn't need broadcasting. Like breathing. You don't have to yell every time you inhale to get the job done.

The 'Christians' you describe are the ones in the threads title.

Some atheists have actually become disillusioned by Christians who didn't take their faith seriously enough to evangelize.

Penn Jillette is just one example...

In the below video he gives the analogy of a truck.

He says, if you were standing next to him in the street and didn’t believe that a truck was going to hit you, then there would be a certain point when Penn would tackle you to get you out of harms way.

I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. If you believe that there is a heaven or hell, or that people could be going to hell, or not get eternal life, and you think it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward…and atheists think people shouldn’t proselytize, just keep religion to yourself… how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? ~ Penn Jillette

a reply to: Murgatroid

As an atheist I have no trouble at all with christians who don't proselytize - I see no reason to follow Jillette's personal position.

a reply to: Aloysius the Gaul

Of course you don't...

I was once an atheist myself so I know exactly where you're coming from.

But when God shows up in a persons life like a Mack truck with no brakes, things change fast.

If that ever happens to you, I can assure you 100% that remaining an atheist no longer becomes an option.

Claire Kuchever: What if you had to tell someone the most important thing in the world, but you knew they'd never believe you?

Doug Carlin: I'd try.

originally posted by: the2ofusr1
a reply to: TombEscaper



May as well give the prayer you left out and see if what you are claiming Jesus said is in that part ...

According to the Bible, Jesus Christ has given to His Church the responsibility of representing His Kingdom to the world, and those within Christianity are quite complacent in believing that they adequately do this.

Joh 17:1 After Jesus had said this, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, so that the Son may glorify you.
Joh 17:2 For you have given him authority over all humanity so that he might give eternal life to all those you gave him.
Joh 17:3 And this is eternal life: to know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent—Jesus the Messiah.
Joh 17:4 I glorified you on earth by completing the task you gave me to do.
Joh 17:5 "So now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world existed.
Joh 17:6 I have made your name known to these men whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
Joh 17:7 Now they realize that everything you gave me comes from you,
Joh 17:8 because the words that you gave me I passed on to them. They have received them and know for sure that I came from you. They have believed that you sent me.
Joh 17:9 "I am asking on their behalf. I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those you gave me, because they are yours.
Joh 17:10 All that is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine, and I have been glorified through them.
Joh 17:11 I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by your name, the name that you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one.
Joh 17:12 While I was with them, I protected them by the authority that you gave me. I guarded them, and not one of them became lost except the one who was destined for destruction, so that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
Joh 17:13 "And now I am coming to you, and I say these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.
Joh 17:14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
Joh 17:15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one.
Joh 17:16 They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
Joh 17:17 "Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth.
Joh 17:18 Just as you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
Joh 17:19 It is for their sakes that I sanctify myself, so that they, too, may be sanctified by the truth. ISV

that is incorrect Yahoshua only says the disciples.He says and alludes to nothing about Christianity or Christians .He is talking of ONLY the disciples.The majority of the time he is only speaking to the disciples for them to understand(which they don't at first even when he explains it to them). He clearly stated to the disciples ONLY in the preamble to the explanation of the parable of the seed sown in the soils.

"It has been given ONLY to you[the disciples] to know the mystery of the kingdom of your heavens but to them[the people...everyone else] it has not been given.For whosoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but whosoever has not, from him shall be taken away even that which he has. Therefore I speak to them in parables; because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand".

This is a perfect example of all of Christianity.They believe they have but they have nothing because even that has been taken away.Christianity believes the parables are stories to make what their Jesus taught easy to understand yet Yahoshua says very clearly just the opposite because they think they already "know" when they know nothing and do not understand what Yahoshua said at all.

originally posted by: RealTruthSeeker

originally posted by: ChesterJohn
a reply to: RealTruthSeeker

It is not the largest religion on earth Islam is.

You might wish it was, but get your facts straight buddy.

Largest Religions as of 2015
Rank Religion Members
1. Christianity 2.1 billion
2. Islam 1.3 billion
3. Hinduism 851 million
4. Buddhism 375 million

The info I use does not put the numbers of protestant, evangelicals and Baptists with the numbers of Roman Catholics, Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses. If you remove their numbers from the 2.1 you have lesser number than Islam, making them the largest religion in the world.

We don't consider their numbers though some do. But when something is added tot he work of Christ it is no longer Christian it is something else.

Out of the three RC, Mormons and JW's RC is the largest followed by Mormons and then JW the three of them are larger in number than Protestants, Evangelicals and Baptist combined.

I'll see if I can get the exact numbers for you.

JTC

a reply to: RealTruthSeeker

Not at all.

Satan is the God of this world, the Abrahamic God is the most popular God of this world.

Hmmmmm..... let's put two and two together. Or we could not do that and just continue to accept the lie and live in ignorance. The thing is, the same tactics Islam uses to make its followers believe its doctrine is the same exact one yours uses to make you believe in its doctrine. Seems like you're all in the same boat to me, believing in things that cannot be proven. Satan would love for you to believe in things that cannot be proven, that's how he traps you.

a reply to: stosh64

Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. It most definitely is possible, it is only the belief that it is impossible that makes it impossible for people. If you already believe it's impossible then of course you're not going to try to do it.

With God ALL things are possible, even loving everyone unconditionally.

originally posted by: 3NL1GHT3N3D1
a reply to: stosh64

Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. It most definitely is possible, it is only the belief that it is impossible that makes it impossible for people. If you already believe it's impossible then of course you're not going to try to do it.

With God ALL things are possible, even loving everyone unconditionally.

As long as a saved man is this mortal body he will struggle with the nature he was born with,sin. But with help from the Holy Ghost that indwells him he can have many victories over his flesh but not one will be perfect until that day.

Now having said that you must understand that Jesus spoke those words before the crucifixion and that those words were for them whom he was sent to, Israel.

It was nothing more than what God had expected from them after He brought them out of Egypt.

An application can be made for the body of Christ today but it is not mandatory.

a reply to: ChesterJohn

Matthew 23
26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

If you clean the inside of the cup then the outside will follow. Your body is only as sinful as you allow it to be. If you believe sin is unavoidable and inevitable then you are not allowing the inside of your cup to be cleaned and thus the outside will not be cleaned either.

Ephesians 6
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Our battle is not against the body, it is against those who do not allow us to clean the inside of our cups. Christianity teaches that sin is unavoidable, it is one of spiritual forces that is being discussed here.

originally posted by: 3NL1GHT3N3D1
a reply to: ChesterJohn

Matthew 23
26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

If you clean the inside of the cup then the outside will follow. Your body is only as sinful as you allow it to be. If you believe sin is unavoidable and inevitable then you are not allowing the inside of your cup to be cleaned and thus the outside will not be cleaned either.

Ephesians 6
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Our battle is not against the body, it is against those who do not allow us to clean the inside of our cups. Christianity teaches that sin is unavoidable, it is one of spiritual forces that is being discussed here.

That is what I pointed out.

But you are quoting scripture to Israel and not the church. Read what Paul says in Romans 7&8. He struggled but praised God that Jesus Christ has already done the work

a reply to: ChesterJohn

So those of the church don't have to clean the inside of their cups?

Jesus says that those who do not follow his commandments are like a man who builds a house on a foundation of sand, it will come crashing down eventually. Paul admits that he does what is evil all the time, his house is built on a foundation of sand. I don't trust Paul any farther than I can throw him, though he does speak truth on some things.

a reply to: Rex282

From the op and from the same prayer "John 17
20 Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me. 22 The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one; 23 I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you loved me.

originally posted by: 3NL1GHT3N3D1
I don't trust Paul any farther than I can throw him, though he does speak truth on some things.

Your problem is not with Paul.

Your problem is with the Lord Jesus Christ himself...

He is the one that all of us must answer to one day, not Paul.

Anyone who assumes errors in Scripture contradicts Christ to His face. He said of the whole Scripture and every single word of it “And Scripture cannot be broken.” Those who wish to restrict the inspiration of the Holy Scripture contradict the Apostle of Christ who testifies “All Scripture is inspired of God.”

Scripture Cannot be Broken

“Every word of God proves true” (Proverbs 30:5).

• To be Anti-Paul is to tear the living heart out of the New Testament.

• To be Anti Paul opens up a Pandora’s Box among people as to what is inspired in the Bible and what is not. The Canon is a sacred Ark, man’s unsanctified hands are not to touch it. Will this foolishness never end? QUESTIONING GOD’S WORD DENOTES UNBELIEF!

• To be Anti-Paul lays that person open to the full force of Rationalism, Modernism, and “doubt” far worse than any NEO-ORTHODOXY ever dreamed of!

• To be Anti-Paul is an outright denial of the Providence of God in settling and arranging the Canon of Scripture as we know it. Of this Scripture the God of Israel is most jealous! The whole question is: MAN’S MOUTH versus GOD’S WORD!

www.ensignmessage.com...

A powerful testimony from a woman being interviewed by Nathan Leal. She tells of how she continued living her life in religious and self deception until she had a face to face encounter with the risen Lord, Jesus, who rebuked her and made it clear to her in no uncertain terms that it's either she was going to surrender all or nothing at all. This quote is the key point: "You don't believe my word the Bible. It's My responsibility as God to protect My word for you."