Let's Talk! Spreading the good news of the Christian Gospel - Page 3

Why are there so many denominations of Christianity, shouldnt there only be one? Who has it right?

Those who follow Jesus' example have it right.

After my recent experience, after figuring out for myself that only one God exists and that Jesus is his only son and our advocate, who reconciles us to God through his sacrifice, I earnestly asked what to do next. A voice in my mind said, "Keep His Word." Notice that I wasn't instructed to join a group or a church as a condition to gain salvation, since we are saved through God's undeserved kindness which enables us to sin no more and follow God's commandments.

Jesus commanded us two things: Love your neighbor and love God. We love our neighbor by not raising false testimony, not injuring someone with words or weapons, by not coveting the belongings of others, and honoring our parents.

I show my love to God by not committing idolatry and only worshiping ONE God, not taking his Name in vain, and keeping His Sabbath.

Above all, one must truly have faith and repentance to approach God through His Son and study the Scriptures to understand what is going on in the overall scheme of things. Remember that the god of this current age is Satan who is trying to confuse everyone, for he knows his time is short.

Are you jehovahs witness, abaddon?

I am studying the Bible with them at the moment, so I am not officially part of their congregation. I like the fact they offer free Bible study sessions and focus on spreading the good news of the coming Kingdom of God.

How do you reconcile with parts of the bible that clearly outdated? E.g slaves should obey their masters Or parts where God has clearly ordered a genocide, like Jericho?

I'm glad you bring that point up. Most cases like the one you mention are really pointing at one of Christianity's biggest problems, namely the problem of evil. The problem of evil is very difficult to deal with, and thus far, I have not really heard of a solution that really satisfies me 100%. I think this problem is just about the only problem (nearly an inconsistency) that I have with Christianity. Evil often makes me very suspicious of God and it has even made me wonder if I want to commit myself to such a God. It makes me wonder if God is an asshole at times, but it does not make me question his existence. If anything, the only thing that keeps me loving him is the fact that he gave his life for us. I know, this is strange, and explaining it would take too long in a post, but there are some great videos ( and scholarly papers) that explain it far better than I ever could.

Someone asked why there are so many Christian denominations and the reality is that there are so many of them because a lot of us disagree on details, but all of us accept and believe in God. Think of it as having two schools of thought in a discipline disagreeing on some topic, but still agreeing on an overall theory. Remember that being Christian involves shades of grey, it's not like you are or a not Christian one day. Being Christian is a constant struggle, but I commit to such worldview because "I" believe it to be the most rational worldview.

Again, I'm talking about mere Christianity despite my going to a catholic church or an episcopalian church.

God is sovereign over all. The Hebrew Scriptures gives us a glimpse of what YHWH is like and how He feels about nations who worship idols. Even Israel has been punished many times for having turned to idols.

Also, Paul summarizes this about the condition of humanity in general:

For God’s wrath is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who are suppressing the truth in an unrighteous way, Romans 1:18

And this:

For above we have made the charge that Jews as well as Greeks are all under sin; just as it is written: “There is not a righteous man, not even one;*there is no one who has any insight; there is no one who searches for God. All men have turned aside, all of them have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, not so much as one.”*“Their throat is an open grave; they have deceived with their tongues.” “Venom of asps is behind their lips.” “And their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” Romans 3:9-14

And:

For the wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23

Personally, I think religion promotes close mindedness more often than not. Leaving worries of why things are the way they are behind or being less than the will of god seems silly to me. Why worry about injustice if god will punish those that do wrong?(or is he just going to forgive them all)
Why try to change things?
Since science has helped us understand things better ( maybe the world god created) then I'll stick to science and dismiss god until I have a better understanding of things. Once I have sufficient knowledge I'll make the call. I mean what's the rush ? Oh yeah going to hell for not believing...

How can you switch science for God since science is not a world view? That's like me saying I'm witching for God instead of science.

Think of the universe as a ford car, you can't explain how such a car came to be just with internal combustion. To explain how such a car came to be you have to explain who came up with the idea, funding, ect...

If you mean that you rather stick to a world view that does not include God and still respects scientific reasoning, then you'd have to explain that and explain why you think that worldview is rational.

I hope you know that there is no real conflict between the concept of God and science. If you think there is, I can address that here if you want.

Some aspects of religion are fundamentally against science, because science is open to criticism and new ideas. God's existence cannot be challenged in religious circles; for the reason that religion all about faith.