There are many Christians who don’t believe all the things you’ve listed. But then, I’m sure you would just say that they aren’t really Christians then. So your circular logic supports your insistence that you’re right.
It’s funny to me, because Rod writes so much about the waning influence of Christianity in western society. And your wri…
There are many Christians who don’t believe all the things you’ve listed. But then, I’m sure you would just say that they aren’t really Christians then. So your circular logic supports your insistence that you’re right.
It’s funny to me, because Rod writes so much about the waning influence of Christianity in western society. And your writing and perspective is a perfect example of why so many people have fled the Christian church. But it sounds like you don’t want people like us anyway, so I guess you are fine with that.
All Christians believe the cardinal doctrines of the Faith. Briefly, here they are.
1. God is a Trinity, comprising Three co - equal Persons, each God.
2. The second Person of the Godhead became Incarnate. That is Jesus. The Holy Spirit generated Him in the womb of a virgin. Jesus is fully God but also fully human. In His humanity, He differs from the rest of us only in this respect: He doesn't have a sinful nature.
3. He came into the world to teach, to elucidate the moral law and to show us the extent of its measure and how drastically short we fall of its demand for perfection. Yet He himself kept the moral law perfectly, and He did this on our behalf.
4. He died as atonement for our sins and was raised from the dead. His perfect life and sacrificial death make it possible for God to forgive us for all of our sins and to generate new life within us, the true life, the life which The Holy Spirit alone can give.
5. Christ will return eventually. Salvation is assured to all of those who trust in Jesus. Damnation is the fate of those who insist on remaining His enemies. We all will be resurrected, those who have believed in Jesus in bodies akin to His. I'm not sure that anyone has ever tried to delineate what the resurrection of the damned will be like. It's too depressing to contemplate, for one thing.
6. The Devil and his angels, the demons, will be cast into The Lake of Fire, along with all unredeemed human beings. God will make a new Heavens and a new Earth. Righteousness, love, joy, and peace will be the undying possession of the redeemed, who will see God face to face.
This isn't theologically flawless. Even if I hadn't had to compress some things for the sake of minimizing length, it still wouldn't be flawless. But I think it's a layman's passable explanation of what the cardinal doctrines of the Faith are. Contrary to what you say, there are no faithful Christians who don't believe them. There are Christians who slip into heresy. They are not faithful Christians. And there are apostates. There is disagreement among Christians whether any true Christian can become apostates, but it's clear that apostates are people who have left the Faith they once were thought to have.
Your little girl - with - hurt feelings act doesn't sell. The last thing you want is Jesus Christ. I do hope you will change your mind.
You misunderstood me if you think my feelings are hurt. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just commenting on the irony that Rod is always talking about how Christianity is dying out, and yet readers of his like you are doing your best to drive people away.
There is no question that nothing drives people away like truth. And no, I didn't think your feelings were hurt. I was playing according to your disingenuousness in that sentence.
What do you think I should do to avoid driving people away? I would like to know.
I'm rather confident I have read a lot more nonsense/surrealistic literature than you have. Some of my favorite writers are Borges, Nabokov, the glorious Flann O'Brien. If you want to read something funny, there is something special for free online, John Lennon’s Sherlock Holmes parody, “The Singularge Experience of Miss Anne Duffield.” The chances are you are unaware that Lennon wrote two books of such stuff, which were published in the mid - 1960s. I love them both.
No doubt, you thought to shake me with nonsense. When you grow up, you'll learn that people are more complex than you ever imagined, and that your “cleverness,” at least currently, comes off more as sophomoric, brittle pseudo brilliance.
There are many Christians who don’t believe all the things you’ve listed. But then, I’m sure you would just say that they aren’t really Christians then. So your circular logic supports your insistence that you’re right.
It’s funny to me, because Rod writes so much about the waning influence of Christianity in western society. And your writing and perspective is a perfect example of why so many people have fled the Christian church. But it sounds like you don’t want people like us anyway, so I guess you are fine with that.
All Christians believe the cardinal doctrines of the Faith. Briefly, here they are.
1. God is a Trinity, comprising Three co - equal Persons, each God.
2. The second Person of the Godhead became Incarnate. That is Jesus. The Holy Spirit generated Him in the womb of a virgin. Jesus is fully God but also fully human. In His humanity, He differs from the rest of us only in this respect: He doesn't have a sinful nature.
3. He came into the world to teach, to elucidate the moral law and to show us the extent of its measure and how drastically short we fall of its demand for perfection. Yet He himself kept the moral law perfectly, and He did this on our behalf.
4. He died as atonement for our sins and was raised from the dead. His perfect life and sacrificial death make it possible for God to forgive us for all of our sins and to generate new life within us, the true life, the life which The Holy Spirit alone can give.
5. Christ will return eventually. Salvation is assured to all of those who trust in Jesus. Damnation is the fate of those who insist on remaining His enemies. We all will be resurrected, those who have believed in Jesus in bodies akin to His. I'm not sure that anyone has ever tried to delineate what the resurrection of the damned will be like. It's too depressing to contemplate, for one thing.
6. The Devil and his angels, the demons, will be cast into The Lake of Fire, along with all unredeemed human beings. God will make a new Heavens and a new Earth. Righteousness, love, joy, and peace will be the undying possession of the redeemed, who will see God face to face.
This isn't theologically flawless. Even if I hadn't had to compress some things for the sake of minimizing length, it still wouldn't be flawless. But I think it's a layman's passable explanation of what the cardinal doctrines of the Faith are. Contrary to what you say, there are no faithful Christians who don't believe them. There are Christians who slip into heresy. They are not faithful Christians. And there are apostates. There is disagreement among Christians whether any true Christian can become apostates, but it's clear that apostates are people who have left the Faith they once were thought to have.
Your little girl - with - hurt feelings act doesn't sell. The last thing you want is Jesus Christ. I do hope you will change your mind.
Like I said, circular logic.
You misunderstood me if you think my feelings are hurt. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just commenting on the irony that Rod is always talking about how Christianity is dying out, and yet readers of his like you are doing your best to drive people away.
There is no question that nothing drives people away like truth. And no, I didn't think your feelings were hurt. I was playing according to your disingenuousness in that sentence.
What do you think I should do to avoid driving people away? I would like to know.
I think Lewis Carrol answered that question the best in “An Aged, Aged Man”:
I tell thee everything I can;
There's little to relate.
I saw an aged aged man,
A-sitting on a gate.
"Who are you, aged man?" I said,
"And how is it you live?"
And his answer trickled through my head
Like water through a sieve.
He said, "I look for butterflies
That sleep among the wheat:
I make them into mutton-pies,
And sell them in the street.
I sell them unto men," he said,
"Who sail on stormy seas;
And that's the way I get my bread—
A trifle; if you please."
But I was thinking of a plan
To dye one's whiskers green,
And always use so large a fan
That they could not be seen.
So, having no reply to give
To what the old man said,
I cried, "Come, tell me how you live!"
And thumped him on the head.
His accents mild took up the tale:
He said, "I go my ways,
And when I find a mountain-rill,
I set it in a blaze;
And thence they make a stuff they call
Rowland's Macassar-Oil—
Yet twopence-halfpenny is all
They give me for my toil."
But I was thinking of a way
To feed oneself on batter,
And so go on from day to day
Getting a little fatter.
I shook him well from side to side,
Until his face was blue:
"Come, tell me how you live," I cried,
"And what it is you do!"
I suppose that's Lewis Carroll, Anglican clergyman, you're citing to try to evade matters.
I'm rather confident I have read a lot more nonsense/surrealistic literature than you have. Some of my favorite writers are Borges, Nabokov, the glorious Flann O'Brien. If you want to read something funny, there is something special for free online, John Lennon’s Sherlock Holmes parody, “The Singularge Experience of Miss Anne Duffield.” The chances are you are unaware that Lennon wrote two books of such stuff, which were published in the mid - 1960s. I love them both.
No doubt, you thought to shake me with nonsense. When you grow up, you'll learn that people are more complex than you ever imagined, and that your “cleverness,” at least currently, comes off more as sophomoric, brittle pseudo brilliance.