Rya:But, what must be realized is that not only are Jesus\' teachings good, philosophers before and after him have good teachings as well and thus, righteous inspiration doesn\'t necessarily come from Christ exclusively.
But even before Christ was on this earth from the years 0 to 33 AD, God was still talking to the people on the earth through prophets. I believe that all of our understanding of good came from God. Ever since the beginning of time he has been teaching his children right from wrong. Even if a religion doesn\'t believe in God, if they are teaching good principles, I believe their principles originally came from God.
I don\'t believe in God, yet I don\'t think that we\'ll cease to exist. Here\'s my thoughts on this subject:
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Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. But I don\'t think I would like having to find a girlfriend over and over and over very much. Finding one just once is hard enough!
You\'re right, a person living a worthy life has no reason to fear god, but when that worthy person doesn\'t believe in god, there\'s nothing to worry about. It\'s like if a person doesn\'t believe in vampires, then he doesn\'t have to worry about putting up garlic or getting his blood sucked because there\'s nothing to worry about.
Good point.
IronFist said: (for example, I don\'t know if we evolved from monkeys, or if we were put here directly from God with the snap of the fingers.
Rya said: I agree with everything you said before this quote. I can understand that people just straight up need an answer to questions as we\'ve been discussing and they\'d go searching for God or some other source to find this answer.
I never understood why finding out if we came from monkeys or not was so important to so many people. That kind of stuff just isn\'t important to me. But to each his/her own I guess.
But the quote I have put above, this is a silly question for me to ask (kinda like does Adam and Eve have belly buttons), do you think, that since God created animals before humans, he might have taken the monkey and the 24 hours on the 6th (?) day to evolve the monkey into Adam, leaving the traces of pre-primate remains to piss us off so he can get a good laugh?
Anything\'s possible. And I do believe that God has a great sense of humor, so it wouldn\'t surprise me.
But there are so many theories out there, it\'s best to not even worry about that. Oh, and I don\'t get offended very easily, so no need to worry.
So do you think that the Pope Pius XII embraced Hitler as his brother even though Hitler acted against one of the Ten Commandments of not to kill? And how about Osama bin Laden? Did Christians fail him too?
Hmmm...maybe we did fail them. We should have been out teaching them about God\'s plan before they turned into psycos. But we have to accept that we won\'t be able to teach everyone. And we won\'t be able to make everyone believe. Many many people are not going to make it to heaven. It\'s hard to accept, but it\'s the way it is.
And as broters and sisters in this world, why don\'t we see massive groups of Christians helping out the homeless? Why are there still homeless people looking for a doorway to sleep in for the night when, as a sibling, it would be logical to take the homeless person into one\'s own home and help that person back on his feet. With the Christians as the majority of the world\'s population, we shouldn\'t even see a homeless person on the street if we were to act as a family.
Well a large portion of the Christians out there don\'t believe in serving others. For the Christian\'s out there who actually do believe in serving others, you have to take into consideration that we all have our problems. We are not perfect. Sometimes we would rather take a nap than go out and help someone. I am trying harder to be a good Christian, but I still struggle at times.
In 2 months, I\'m going to live on my own back in Salt Lake City, Utah. Maybe I\'ll invite a homeless person to come and stay with me. He could be my cook.
I don\'t want to go to a school that has standards that I can\'t possibly agree with. Wouldn\'t a sibling accept and respect a sister\'s decision despite how much a sibling thinks it\'s a bad choice?
It\'s hard to just walk away when you truly believe you have something that will change someone\'s life for the better, but if the person is certain that they don\'t want to go to "my school", then I have to let them do what they want. God gave us all free agency, and I don\'t want to go against God by trying to force something upon someone.
So taking from what you\'ve said, a person who doesn\'t believe in heaven doesn\'t need salvation.
Today I was actually thinking about the definition I gave you, and I came to the realization that I gave you a wrong response (I never have been good at giving definitions of words
). The response I gave you, "Making it to the highest degree of heaven, and in turn, having eternal life" is what you get because of salvation. It is not salvation itself, but instead, it\'s what comes after salvation. Let me try again. I believe that salvation is "the process of overcoming both sin and physical death." Jesus Christ payed the price for both of those things (my church believes he payed for our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane, and payed for our death when he died on the cross.) Salvation is possible because of him.
Yup. Pretty sure. I was stopped by one missionary at school on my way home (or my way to class?) and he introduced himself and had a name tag. I can\'t remember if he had said that he was from the LDS. But after a couple of weeks, some missionaries, who were from the LDS, were going door to door in my neighborhood and asked if I had spoken to one of their representatives. I questioningly mentioned my school\'s name to see if they know of anybody who was missionary-ing (?) there and he mentioned the name of the dude I spoke to at school.
I still think it\'s weird that they did that. Hopefully it doesn\'t happen too often, because I can see how it could become distracting/annoying.
BTW, define the Holy Ghost. I ask a bunch of people and I get this weird answer from everyone I ask.
This is another one of the many ways in which my church differs from the majority of Christian churches. As you may or may not know, most Christians believe in the "Trinity" (although it is noted that Clowd does not.
) The Trinity comprises of God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost (or Holy Spirit) all combined into one "being". This is God to them. Jesus is actually just a part of God. The Holy Ghost is also just a part of God.
My church believes that God the father, his son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are three separate beings. God, and Jesus Christ both have physical bodies which look similar to ours. The Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit is just that, a holy ghost or holy spirit.
The Holy Ghost has many purposes. Because God and Christ have physical bodies, it would be impossible for them to dwell inside of a person. That is one major thing the Holy Ghost does. It is able to to be with the worthy and guide them in everything they do.
How will you know you got an answer if no mortal can hear his voice without having his head implode (that\'s what I heard can happen).
Well that\'s kind of true...well, sort of.
It is impossible for a normal mortal human to be in the presence of God and live. They would burn up because of the glory of God (kind of like how the wicked will be burnt up when Jesus Christ comes again at the Second Coming.) But it is known that prophets in the Bible have seen God, and have talked to God, so there must be a way to do so without dying. I can\'t remember exactly, but I think that if God shows himself to you, your body is first changed into a body that can stand up to the glory of God. But that\'s a little off topic...
In most cases God doesn\'t actually answer your prayers with his voice, but instead has the Holy Ghost answer them. Because the Holy Ghost can live inside of you, he can speak to you from inside. When you ask God a question, you will be able to "feel" the answer inside of you.
Wouldn\'t this be considered selling the religion? Trying to make it look attractive so people would join up? Kinda like "Hey our guys look cute; wanna date him? Join our church!"
Not at all. I would consider it looking your best so you don\'t scare people off.
The missionaries are not the ones who do the converting anyways, they only give the message. The Holy Ghost is the one who tells the people that what the missionaries are teaching is true.
Let\'s just say that my relationship with Ryu is close enough to the point that I can pick his nose without feeling embarrassed or grossed out
Now
that would make a great sig!
Ryu would probably ban me if I put it as my own sig though. lol.
