Thinking of Becoming Christian (No Troll)

Off Topic Politics & World Issues
101

[quote]pushharder wrote:

[quote]Varqanir wrote:

…I like my life today primarily because a group of men, who would have been tortured and killed in the 13th century for heresy, made it their business to enact a law that forbade church policy from being state policy… [/quote]

These men did not enact a law.

And what they did do only applied at the federal level.[/quote]

Interesting semantic point. Do you not consider the Constitution to be the supreme law of the land?

And as such, don’t any amendments to it carry equal force of law?

The Bill of Rights restricts what legislators may do at the federal level, but the rights they protect apply to everyone. Which is why the governor of Illinois trying to enforce Shari’a, or the governor of Idaho trying to enforce Mormon law, or the governor of New York trying to replace the state legislature with a Sanhedrin, would be immediately deemed unconstitutional.

The claim that the Constitution applies only at the federal level can be addressed by looking at the aftermath of the Heller v DC decision. If the second amendment only applies at the federal level, then the Court’s finding in favor of Heller would only have guaranteed the individual right to keep and bear arms in the District of Columbia, which is in theory the actual extent of federal jurisdiction. However, note that Morton Grove, IL, the first community in the United States to enact a law banning the private possession of handguns, has, since Heller, lifted that ban on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.

Of course, the ban was contrary to the Illinois state constitution to begin with, but that’s neither here nor there.

102

[quote]Varqanir wrote:
Stupid gold coin. [/quote]

My dear old friend - where have you been?

103

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:

[quote]Varqanir wrote:
Stupid gold coin. [/quote]

My dear old friend - where have you been?[/quote]

Around.

Kinda dropped off the face of the earth for a while, and contemplating another adventure before too long.

You still have my email? I don’t do Facebook anymore, and while I think I still have your email address, it might have gotten lost when the old phone bit the dust.

104

[quote]Varqanir wrote:

[quote]pat wrote:

This is as religious as you will ever see me get, I don’t know why I felt compelled to write that as I usually keep it to myself, but some for some reason, I felt the need to say it. [/quote]

Well, who knows. Maybe God used me to extract a public declaration of faith from you. Never can tell how these things work.

Well, I should have specified this, the ‘you’ in my statement wasn’t you specifically, but I meant ‘you’ as in anybody.

I wasn’t angry, just passionate. Something I usually keep in check. I was trying to really make a few basic points. That this conversation was too complicated in it’s scope. There are to many really huge things being drawn in to have a rational and sensible conversation. Each thing deserves it’s own in depth analysis. Because the truth of each lies in the details, not in dates and events. For instance, Charlemagne alone is a large topic. He did a lot of good too, and why he treated those with a convert or die attitude may have been an attempt at clemency rather than malice. To give the condemned a chance to change their ways or be executed rather than become a Christian or die. I don’t know the details about it, I would have to study it, but it doesn’t stand to reason that on a date he forced some innocent people to convert or die is all the facts on the matter. And such details can make a big difference on the truth. Same with the Spanish inquisition, that was state sponsored, the church condemned the practices when it found out what was going on, but Sixtus was powerless to stop it.
You also have to consider then also, the force of good the church was through out history, not just the black eyes to give a fair and balanced view.

So my point was to simplify the conversation.

They way I look at it religion, philosophy (a personal passion), and basically everything is to look for the truth. Whether or not bad people did bad things has no real bearing on that. And if others have found the truth, or a truth I don’t know. I would imagine these other religions also made a connection with God in someway, maybe not. I believe they must have in some way. And any connection you make with the Almighty is a powerful one. I believe religious truth must square with truth in general. The truths even if taken out of the context of the religion is still true. I find that in spades with Christianity. But again, we have to drill down on specific topics with in and give them the appropriate treatment, not bring in large swaths of info and try to deal with all of it simultaneously.

105

[quote]Varqanir wrote:

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:

[quote]Varqanir wrote:
Stupid gold coin. [/quote]

My dear old friend - where have you been?[/quote]

Around.

Kinda dropped off the face of the earth for a while, and contemplating another adventure before too long.

You still have my email? I don’t do Facebook anymore, and while I think I still have your email address, it might have gotten lost when the old phone bit the dust. [/quote]

I do not. PM it to me and I’ll email you so you have mine.

106

Actually found a temple around 5 miles from my house. LOL!

So I may ‘return to the fold’ after all.

TY everyone! And the theological discussions, while quite a bit over my head, were an enjoyable read.

108

Well this sums it up for me! LOL! If you haven’t seen it, well worth the watch. Too funny. Just stick with it.

109

[quote]pat wrote:
Well this sums it up for me! LOL! If you haven’t seen it, well worth the watch. Too funny. Just stick with it.

[/quote]

OMG that is too funny. JC is my Nigga.

They are going to be excommunicated from the Church of Christ because they had music in the background. No Music allowed in the Church of Christ.

110

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:

As Chushin said, PMs aren’t working. No worries, just sent an email to your North Jersey account.

111

I just now saw this

[quote]Headhunter wrote:

[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
Church Headhunter. You’re still welcome. I know you get up here. (thuogh I’m about 95% sure yer trollin.)

Oh, yeah Christianity ain’t got nuthin to do with happiness. “Happiness” is not the same as Peace and joy. They come from new life in Christ having been born again from sin and death. Might as well put this over here too. Here’s our pastor from last Sunday. Dead tired n half asleep. Complete with all the “magic stuff”. Once God gets it in your head that He has called light, matter and all the vast cosmos into existence from nothing by fiat command? The magic thing takes care of itself. Mak, great to see ya buddy.
Pastor Christopher W. Brooks. Destroyed Foundations. DOMA. - YouTube [/quote]
I’m thinking of going back to my roots, in Judaism. Too many choices among the Christian faiths.[/quote]
They’re not nearly as different (theologically) as you think Headhunter and you are the one who said “Christian”.

On Sunday morning at our church different people chosen by clergy on a monthly basis will take the platform when it’s time for service to start. Sometimes a husband and wife and sometimes not. One will give a scripture reading. Say something from the Psalms, like this for instance Psalm 33 ESV
Then the other will pray that the Lord join us and be pleased with our offering of praise and worship. Depending on who’s doing the praying this could be 5 minutes of corporate repentance, thanksgiving, glory and honor to our God.
When finished praying they turn it over to Pastor Mike our worship leader, and our praise team. This isn’t our church, but it will go and sound pretty much exactly like this mp3 file. http://gregnmary.gotdns.com/audio/blessed-be-the-rock.mp3 This is a mostly black church though I am white. There’s a method going on here. The leader gives little cue’s that you’ll catch at the end of each stanza telling the musicians, the singers and myself running the big screen with the words for visitors http://gregnmary.gotdns.com/pix/evangelscreen.jpg where to go next in the song.

Picture a thousand people bouncing up and down, hands raised, clapping and singing and dancing to the Lord our God. There is NOTHING in this world I’d rather do. A bit emotional you say? Absolutely. People can paint themselves and scream and yell like lunatics for a meaningless football team. Bless God we can celebrate the triumphant conquering creator and King of the Universe with all our might. He loves that and therefore so do we. I have a second floor perch from which I do my job. I can see everybody. The ladies really get me goin sometimes. By which I mean nothing provocative whatsoever. I know where many of them came from. Watching them rejoice in their freedom is like WOOOOO !!! YEAH!!! HAHAHA!!! LOL! Thrills my heart man. LOL!

Once you understand what death in sin is and what it cost to raise you from it, 2 things will happen. You WILL have joy and you WILL tell somebody about it. You can’t help either. Happiness comes when things are goin yer way. Joy and peace come from the knowledge that no matter how THINGS go, the rock of your salvation, Christ Jesus, is eternally faithful to His church bride. This IS the promise to Father Abraham that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. You can starve me, beat me, burn me and kill me. What NOBODY can EVER do is separate me from the love of my Father God. (Romans 8:18-39 Romans 8 ESV ) As the famous hymn says: “when we’ve been there ten thousand years bright shining as the sun. We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun.” Think of the people you know that call themselves “Christians”. Here or anywhere else. How many actually believe that and live like it?

112

3264×2448 2.51 MB

My current view of the world. God is good!

114

[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
I just now saw this

[quote]Headhunter wrote:

[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
Church Headhunter. You’re still welcome. I know you get up here. (thuogh I’m about 95% sure yer trollin.)

Oh, yeah Christianity ain’t got nuthin to do with happiness. “Happiness” is not the same as Peace and joy. They come from new life in Christ having been born again from sin and death. Might as well put this over here too. Here’s our pastor from last Sunday. Dead tired n half asleep. Complete with all the “magic stuff”. Once God gets it in your head that He has called light, matter and all the vast cosmos into existence from nothing by fiat command? The magic thing takes care of itself. Mak, great to see ya buddy.
[/quote]
I’m thinking of going back to my roots, in Judaism. Too many choices among the Christian faiths.[/quote]
They’re not nearly as different (theologically) as you think Headhunter and you are the one who said “Christian”.

On Sunday morning at our church different people chosen by clergy on a monthly basis will take the platform when it’s time for service to start. Sometimes a husband and wife and sometimes not. One will give a scripture reading. Say something from the Psalms, like this for instance Psalm 33 ESV
Then the other will pray that the Lord join us and be pleased with our offering of praise and worship. Depending on who’s doing the praying this could be 5 minutes of corporate repentance, thanksgiving, glory and honor to our God.
When finished praying they turn it over to Pastor Mike our worship leader, and our praise team. This isn’t our church, but it will go and sound pretty much exactly like this mp3 file. http://gregnmary.gotdns.com/audio/blessed-be-the-rock.mp3 This is a mostly black church though I am white. There’s a method going on here. The leader gives little cue’s that you’ll catch at the end of each stanza telling the musicians, the singers and myself running the big screen with the words for visitors http://gregnmary.gotdns.com/pix/evangelscreen.jpg where to go next in the song.

Picture a thousand people bouncing up and down, hands raised, clapping and singing and dancing to the Lord our God. There is NOTHING in this world I’d rather do. A bit emotional you say? Absolutely. People can paint themselves and scream and yell like lunatics for a meaningless football team. Bless God we can celebrate the triumphant conquering creator and King of the Universe with all our might. He loves that and therefore so do we. I have a second floor perch from which I do my job. I can see everybody. The ladies really get me goin sometimes. By which I mean nothing provocative whatsoever. I know where many of them came from. Watching them rejoice in their freedom is like WOOOOO !!! YEAH!!! HAHAHA!!! LOL! Thrills my heart man. LOL!

Once you understand what death in sin is and what it cost to raise you from it, 2 things will happen. You WILL have joy and you WILL tell somebody about it. You can’t help either. Happiness comes when things are goin yer way. Joy and peace come from the knowledge that no matter how THINGS go, the rock of your salvation, Christ Jesus, is eternally faithful to His church bride. This IS the promise to Father Abraham that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. You can starve me, beat me, burn me and kill me. What NOBODY can EVER do is separate me from the love of my Father God. (Romans 8:18-39 Romans 8 ESV ) As the famous hymn says: “when we’ve been there ten thousand years bright shining as the sun. We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun.” Think of the people you know that call themselves “Christians”. Here or anywhere else. How many actually believe that and live like it?
[/quote]

So here’s the deal, you can see that both Tirib and I are both passionate about our faiths, even though on the surface it seems we agree on very little. It doesn’t matter really because we do agree on the one truth of Jesus.
What I would like to point out about our dissimilar points of view is that our motivation, our passion is not driven by fear, by fire and brimstone, by rewards, or by any other superficial type of motivation.

We are passionate because we love God and we have a relationship with him we consider quite deep and personal. You insult God, it’s like you are insulting my mother, or worse. To me God is family. It’s also why we are so fiercely protective of our faith. Not because we are afraid you will poke some holes in it, or find a weakness in it which we’re afraid may prove it wrong, or something like that. We love it, it’s our passion, it’s that which our lives are based on.

The other thing that non-believers don’t get, is this relationship is reciprocal. It’s not like we just do a rain dance and silly superstitions, and coincidentally things work out, it goes much deeper than that. We see God active in our lives and in our hearts. We can see it so clearly sometimes, that it’s very humbling as to how unworthy we are for all the goodness we receive. It’s not about being bad or good, it’s about relationships like any other, you want to make someone you love happy.
That’s the deal about being a believer. It’s not just believing, it’s not just accepting what you are told without question, it’s about fostering a relationship with God. And while religion can help, ultimately it’s up to you to get it done.

I presumed to speak for tirib here a little in terms of passion for our faith. So tirib, if I got something wrong about that, I apologize, I don’t think I was far off though with regards to your passion and motivation for your faith, but if I was feel free to correct.

115

[quote]Varqanir wrote:
Hmmmm.

Heads, I allow myself to get sucked into another religious debate, tails I don’t.

(Flips gold coin)

Sigh.

Okay.

[/quote]

Dickhead. You just wanted to show off your gold coin. I suppose I would too.

116

[quote]Mikeyali wrote:

Dickhead. You just wanted to show off your gold coin. I suppose I would too.[/quote]

117

The power of prayer!

LOL!