I sure did feel the love and embrace of the son of God as his proud followers directly contributed to various traumatic experiences and abuses growing up that fucked me up as a child and led to me being an emotionally and mentally stunted adult. If this is God’s love, I ain’t impressed, and don’t gimme that shit about having my faith tested cause the sadistic bastard that sees global suffering en masse and explicitly allows it is not deserving of my faith.
Cool that your religion brings ya peace and joy mate, genuinely happy for ya. Shit sucks in the world and we all need some form of comfort, but my advice? Keep it to yourself.
I’m so sorry to hear that. Satan does infiltrate places where God is meant to be. What I am sharing is more than a religion. It’s a relationship with and eternal security in Christ. I stress this enough, the things that happened to you when you were younger WERE NOT okay in any way, shape or form. Bad things happen in schools as well, and other places that are supposed to be a sanctuary. Please don’t allow your bad experience to reflect poorly on Christ. I think it was Gandhi who said “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
Romans 3:10-12 ESV [10] as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; [11] no one understands; no one seeks for God. [12] All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” [23] for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
John 3:16 ESV [16] “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
1 Timothy 1:15 ESV [15] The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
Acts 16:31 ESV [31] And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Romans 8:1-2 ESV [1] There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. [2] For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
On relationship:
Matthew 18:19-20 ESV [19] Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. [20] For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
Romans 8:26-27 ESV [26] Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. [27] And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Romans 8:34-35 ESV [34] Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. [35] Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
Thanks for the reply.
Are you aware that you have used the Bible to explain your belief in the Bible?
As I understand your reply, you believe you have a relationship with Jesus because you believe he exists, and that relationship will continue forever after you die.
You believe this because it says so in the Bible.
I know this is difficult to admit to yourself, I’ve seen it in others, but this is circular reasoning.
It’s difficult to admit because we as humans are able to compartmentalise two opposing things in our mind at the same time. You can have a belief based on circular reasoning, and at the same time you can know that circular reasoning is not a good way to come to a conclusion on which to base a belief.
It’s your job as a Christian to make sure that your belief is true. By only looking at the Bible, you are failing in this endeavour.
“The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going.” Proverbs 14:15
“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” 1 Thessalonians 5:21
And Christianity is what you believe in. If you’re telling me that the source of your beliefs is the reason for your beliefs, well, that’s not a good way to know things.
I know this isn’t easy, having your belief system exposed as untrustworthy. You can double down of course, which will make you feel better. Unfortunately it won’t change reality.
No, I asked where in Christianity the idea comes from. You used doctrine to answer me, which is fine, but by doing so you revealed that your beliefs are derived from a book that tells you to have those beliefs.
I pointed this out to you because it’s a problem, for you and for everyone else. We as humans should strive to make sure that the things we know are true, otherwise we get into all sorts of problems both as individuals and as a species.
What you are doing is basically accepting this -
Is it possible for you to explain without referencing the Bible?
Wait dude, I just realized - do you also believe in the literal Satan?
I don’t know, I guess I was curious because this seems so important to you and I wasn’t expecting you to hinge your whole belief system on one ancient book.
I wasn’t raised around religion nor have I ever really been around it, so I find it fascinating. My, bad, I guess it was a big ask.
Yes? Because they are attestations of a guy who literally rose from the dead and fulfilled many verifiably older prophecies. We literally have surviving copies of prophecies about Jesus that were made before He was born. I’m sorry if I’m coming across as irate. Literally had someone tell me that it would be better if I and basically everyone I hold dear to me was dead. Along with 4 billion other people.
God is not all powerful if Satan can overcome him.
God was incapable of defeating him when a child was being raped and a perfect being is not capable of change.
The next child being raped will be watched by your God, too, as he will never be capable of defeating evil, as a perfect being will never change.
To change God would be to admit imperfection. Which is why I love the irony of the New Testament.
So if God is not capable of overcoming evil, and we know he is willing to watch innocent children be raped, why worship him?
All of these things are insignificant compared to Heaven. I think Job 38 illustrates God’s perspective on this perfectly. This life is all we know right now.
Revelation shows God defeating Satan. It will happen. Satan’s power is limited right now. Right now we have Jesus to save us in the meantime.
raped children don’t matter compared to my mental comfort
The disgusting selfish ego of the religious is the part I can never empathize with or sympathize with.
So, you admit God must change in the future to defeat Satan? You do not believe he is capable of defeating him as he is?
So God is neither all powerful nor perfect.
You do not worship the main texts of Christianity with those claims.
Notice how you don’t actually want to discuss the topics or respond to the things I’ve said. You want to inject some fluffy talk to reinforce hiding your eyes from the discussion to pretend like you are participating.
If I worshipped something as a God, I would be devout enough to discuss it with a person instead of just talking over their statements about it.
Let’s revisit where my previous comment started
God was incapable of defeating him when a child was being raped and a perfect being is not capable of change.
The next child being raped will be watched by your God, too, as he will never be capable of defeating evil, as a perfect being will never change.
You are happy to worship an imperfect powerless God who let’s children be raped because a book written by child rapists said things might get better one day.
Did you just edit my message? I never said that. I never said God needs to change, it’s just something He will do as described in revelation. And what’s this about the Bible being written by child rapists? It seems atheists cannot come to a consensus on who wrote it, but this is new. Then why doesn’t it proscribe child rape and justify their actions, if it were?
You might not know your Bible as well as you think you do.
This guy believes in literal satan and jesus. Don’t even try logic and reason, he is to far gone.
I’ll pass.