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Posted (edited)
8 minutes ago, Jatrain said:

God is perfect?
 

The God who commanded genocide?  Who allowed the rape of virgins?  Who explicitly prescribed slavery?  Who killed children over a bet?

 

That God?

Yes. 

God (and even Jesus despite the hippie-fiction of him in the West) is violent. And perfect.

There is a time to kill, as the old proverb goes.

Edited by Vegas64
Posted
8 hours ago, gsoda3 said:

There was a point in every Christian's life where they hadn't yet submitted their life to Jesus. 

Nah.  For most, there isn’t some God given epiphany where Christians (or any other religion) are touched and come to their faith.  Most Christians are Christian because of where they are born.  Most Muslims are Muslim because of where they are born.  Most Hindu are Hindu because of where they are born.  Rinse and repeat. 

The rate of conversion is consistent across religions.  That would be true if one was God favored over others. 
 

 

Posted
6 minutes ago, Vegas64 said:

Yes. 

God (and even Jesus despite the hippie-fiction of him in the West) is violent. And perfect.

There is a time to kill, as the old proverb goes.

And we know God is perfect, how?  Because, in collection of stories written by a bunch of goat herders a couple thousand of years ago, they claim him to be?  If a person did the things attributed to God you’d call him a monster, rightly so.

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Posted
20 minutes ago, Jatrain said:

And we know God is perfect, how?  Because, in collection of stories written by a bunch of goat herders a couple thousand of years ago, they claim him to be?  If a person did the things attributed to God you’d call him a monster, rightly so.

It’s what I believe because I’ve experienced it. If you haven’t, that’s okay too.

Your post reminded me of a famous quote

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

Posted
On 4/24/2025 at 8:46 PM, gsoda3 said:

 

Other than repentance after acknowledging the work of Christ on the cross and His resurrection there is nothing you can do to be a Christian.  Your works will reflect whether your faith is genuine.  The Pharisees tried to work their faith out solely through works and Jesus condemned them to hell. 

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Posted
On 4/24/2025 at 3:31 PM, Brisketexan said:

Bozo said this once (and I attribute it to him, because it's damned good): when asked if he's a Christian, the right answer is "no, but I'm trying to be."

To call on a point of reference that most of us will recognize, I think often of the last bit of Saving Private Ryan, as the old Ryan, remembering the sacrifice and loss that were necessary to get him to his old age, asks his family "tell me I've lived a good life."

The way I see it, there are two types of people in this world: 1) those who ask that sort of question at the end of their life (and are never satisfied with the answer, because they know there's always something more/better that they could have done) and 2) those who really don't even give a fuck about that question.  I have told my wife more than once that one of the things that keeps me up at night is the knowledge that I've fallen short: I haven't done enough to help, I haven't been as kind as I could be, I haven't done as much good as I could have.  The answer of "you've done plenty" is unsatisfying, as you're acutely aware that you could have done more . . . and if you could have done more, then that means you haven't done enough.  Intellectually, I know that's not true.  Spiritually....well, spiritually speaking, I'm not very intellectual.  I'm a simple man.  If I gave someone my shoes, my question after the fact is "wait, why the fuck didn't I give him my socks, too?"

And by the way, I am NOT posting this to make a point that I'm some good person - quite the opposite.  I fall short more epically and profoundly than I could ever be comfortable with.  I'm not shit.  And even though I say "but I'm trying to be" with respect to being a Christian . . . am I really?  Am I really trying?  Or am I another selfish lazy piece of shit?  Signs point to the POS option.

Maya Angelou told of an encounter she had with one of her bright young students who proudly proclaimed to her that she was Christian. Angelou responded rather quizzically, already???

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Posted
4 hours ago, Jatrain said:

Nah.  For most, there isn’t some God given epiphany where Christians (or any other religion) are touched and come to their faith.  Most Christians are Christian because of where they are born.  Most Muslims are Muslim because of where they are born.  Most Hindu are Hindu because of where they are born.  Rinse and repeat. 

The rate of conversion is consistent across religions.  That would be true if one was God favored over others. 
 

 

 

The very first "Christians" were born Jewish and preached Jesus to the peril of their physical lives.

The next generation of Christians, one degree removed from Christ Himself, were born worshippers of Zeus, Jupiter, an Unknown God, and multitudes of tribal gods and goddesses.  This generation converted in the face of overwhelming persecution and continued in the faith, somehow winning converts. 

In the past 50 years, China is the country with the largest number of Christian converts - the overwhelming majority of them coming from a Buddhist family.  

Since 2000, Iran is in the top three countries (if not number one) of new Christian converts despite it being illegal to convert Muslims or to own a Bible at the pain of death.  

 

 

Posted

If someone is trying to get out of a spiritual rut, I would first ask them why do they want to get out of it? Maybe that is where you are meant to be.

perhaps the problem is the idea that one must be spiritual or religious. And instead of worrying about or trying to fix it, continue as-is. If someone is meant to be on a spiritual path, they will find themselves there without forcing it.



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