Why I don't like Radical Christianity. ..

Originally posted by bettermakings
I am a Christian. Radical Christians are giving all other Christians a bad name, because:

1. The world is billions of years old, at least. I believe in evolution, with God as the guiding hand creating the universe in an orderly fashion. Creationists to me are ridiculous. Look at the stars! You are looking millions of years back in time; isn't that proof enough? What about 60,000 year old cave paintings? How can the world be 6000 years old?

I am Christian and have been for over 21 years. I think we need more radical Christians to bring the message of Christ to the world.
How do you know that world is billions of years old?
How can you believe in evolution when the Bible says that Christ created all things (John 1:1).
Gen 1:1 "In the beginning God "created" the heaven and the earth." Since you think creationist are ridiculous then you must think that God is ridiculous.
No one knows how old the stars are.
Who says the cave paintings are 60,000 years old?
Who says the world is 6000 years old?

Originally posted by bettermakings
2. I don't think Jesus is the only way to heaven. I think good people go to heaven, and bad people go to hell (I also think some people linger on as ghosts). Could God be that cruel to send a good person to hell just because they don't believe in Jesus?

You can't call yourself and Christian and believe that there's many ways to Heaven. There is only one way and Jesus said it below:
John 14:6 "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

Good works don't get us to Heaven. See this verse:
Titus 3:5a
"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us."

There is no lingering of ghosts. When a person dies they are dead. Evil spirits like to masquerade as dead people to fool the living.

God doesn't send people to Hell. They send themselves. God made the way and man must choose.

Originally posted by bettermakings
3. There is nothing wrong with gay people. I'm not sure if they should be allowed to get married, but that's a complicated topic. Marriage should be up to the church, not the state. Anyway, if a gay person is a good person, they should be able to get into heaven. That's all I'm saying.

As Christians we are to love the gay sinner and not his/her sin. Jesus said that from the beginning that the man is to leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. That 's God's plan for marriage.
Good people don't go to Heaven, only those who believe in Christ.

Originally posted by bettermakings
4. I believe in many lesser gods & spirits, other supernatural beings, and outer-space aliens (who may be somehow related to humans). I don't worship them, but we have a friendship. Radical Christians would say I'm pagan, and am worshiping the devil if I make an offering to a lesser god / spirit / saint, or whatever.

Your not pagan, your misinformed. There are no lesser Gods. In Isaiah 43:10 God says this, "before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me."
There are spirits; angels and demons. There's no aliens. Aliens are demons dressed up in alien clothes.
Your allegiance and friendship should be to Christ alone because He's the one that matters the most.

Originally posted by bettermakings
5. I don't believe there is any one "anti-Christ" because it doesn't say so in the Bible anywhere. An anti-Christ is someone against Christianity, which means billions of people today are the anti-Christ. I also don't believe in the end of the world. It might happen, but who cares? Do we have a choice?

There's anti-christ in the sense that they are against Christ but there's also going to be the real big anti-christ in the end. Anyone against Christ is anti-christ.

Originally posted by bettermakings
Finally, I will conclude by saying that Christianity is potentially a good religion. Jesus had a lot of great things to say, and good morals to live by. I'm sure thousands of years from now, even if Christianity ceases to exist, that Jesus will be quoted and read the way people quote & read Aristotle today, or some other philosopher-type person.
Thanks for your time.

Real Christians follow Christ. Jesus is more than a good guy, He is God. God came to earth in a mans body to die for the sins of people so they could get back to Him. Christianity will never cease to exist because Christ will not cease to exist.

Originally posted by ImplausibleDeniability

Originally posted by octotom
reply to post by reasonable

 

That's your choice to reject Jesus' words. I just think it's funny when people say that they're Christian and then go on to reject what Jesus taught/said.

I think it's funny when people take the Bible, a human document written by many humans, then edited, changed, and twisted by many other humans to serve human purposes, and call it the ineffable word of God. The history of Christianity is full of evidence that points to one fact...today's Bible is not the word of God, it's what men want you think is the word of God.

That's not correct. Your misinformed. The Bible states this about itself:
2Peter 1:21
"For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake [as they were] moved by the Holy Ghost."

John 5:39 [Jesus is speaking]
"Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me."

2 Timothy 3:16
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."

We have manuscripts from thousands of years ago that match what we have today.
This manuscript (P52) from John has generally been dated to A.D. 125. This fact alone proves that the original Gospel of John is the same that we have now in our Bibles.






[edit on 10/28/2009 by texastig]

Originally posted by ImplausibleDeniability

Originally posted by octotom

You're aware that there is little variance among the biblical manuscripts, right? The variances for the most part are in not so important places and are usually spelling errors or regional spelling differences. Knowing that, it is silly to say that the biblical base texts have been altered and edited, considering that there are no manuscripts that vary in any significant way to even show that there was intentional "twisting and editing".

I'm talking about editing and translation throughout history. The very fact that there is little variance among the gospels is because of the editing process!

There was an event in 325 called the Council of Nicea...it is a FASCINATING read if you have time: en.wikipedia.org...

In a nutshell, they 'standardized' the official books of the Bible and discarded religious writings that didn't support the new Church. Writings like the Gospel of Thomas (en.wikipedia.org...), the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, and many others...that were at the time considered by many people to record the true words of Jesus.

I am not saying they were right, I'm not saying they were wrong. But what I am saying is that during this process much of what people believed to be Christianity was made 'heretical' at the decision of a group of men. Not God, but men. For me this throws the authority of today's Bible into question...it opens up the opportunity for interpretation and questioning.

I find the whole history of the early Christian Church to be incredibly fascinating...I love this stuff.

Your misinformed again.
All the books of the NT were referred to by the church fathers in their writings as authoritative by the mid second century. We have references to various NT texts by Polycarp (c AD 150), Justin Martyr (c. AD 140), Irenaeus (c.AD 170).
Each book written was by a apostle or persons under a apostle.

Originally posted by reasonable
What I want to know is why christians of all flavors ignore so much of the bible, even the radicals. I know many radical christians who married non-virgin wifes yet the bible says they should have executed them. I mean to me it's all or nothing.. you follow the bible or you don't. The bible is god's will and the word of god or it's not. If you do not execute your non-virgin wife then you are not a christian. That is just one example.. I could list 100's of things completely ignored.

Your misinformed.
That's the Old Testament and it was toward the Jews. They executed the woman because she was a hoar and evil.
Now lets go to the New Testament with the woman caught in adultery. Jesus did not condemn her but told her to sin no more.
You have to stay in context of the Bible.

Originally posted by Gazrok
Thing is, Jesus' divinity was "decided" at the Council of Nicea.

Your misinformed.
The Bible speaks of Jesus divinity way before the Council.
John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Matt 1:23
Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.