Dear heart, God ONLY helps sinners. (those with troubled and angry spirits)!
Mark 2:
See that? Jesus said, "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
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Dear heart, God ONLY helps sinners. (those with troubled and angry spirits)!
Mark 2:
See that? Jesus said, "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
Homie
Anti-Lefty
Or he can always look into Bahá'í Faith.
Hehe. Have you seen their temple in Haifa? Stunning. Cost like a gizillion dollars to make it too.
Homie
Anti-Lefty
It's not.
Unless you are talking about The New Jerusalem as revealed in Revelations, then yes, it is.
Demon influence or possession happens with an invitation. It is usually because that person is involved in the occult and they have a relationship with an entity they consider their "higher self" or the "spirit of their grandmother" or "alien" or something like that.
If that person is truly unwilling to give up this familiar, then they cannot be exorcised. It is free will again. It is not a matter of defeat, it is a matter of choice for an individual.
Homie
Anti-Lefty
Actually I would very much encourage you to profess your faith and ask forgiveness of your sins. Because the Bible tells us to (in Romans) to profess our faith in Christ, and Jesus tells us to repent and ask forgiveness.
All Protestants do.
The act of salvation is effected through an act of grace (unmerited favor) on the part of God, and faith alone on the part of man.
Homie
Anti-Lefty
I don't. One can lose ones faith and thus fall out of ones salvation.Katheryn said:
Quasar1011
King of Sylvania
Not according to Ezekiel 28:14. Mountains and coals are physical objects.
"You were anointed as a guardian cherub,
for so I ordained you.
You were on the holy mount of God;
you walked among the fiery stones."
Isaiah 14:12-14 adds that there are clouds and stars in Heaven, plus thrones; again, these are physical objects.
12 How you have fallen from heaven,
O morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!
13 You said in your heart,
"I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.
14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High."
You know, I meant in the beginning of the Protestant movement. Churches have pulled away from it these days, I suppose, but in the beginning, the reason for the "Protestant Movement" was primarily the fact that the Catholic Church was telling people that they needed to do things in addition to believing in Jesus Christ's vicarious atonement on the cross, and justification by faith.
I have trouble believing that all events that you pray to occur, then occur (unless, of course, you've wisely stopped actually praying for unlikely/impossible events to occur). But, regardless, I think it's fair to say that the majority of Christians don't have their prayers (for events) answered or fulfilled. So, the question is more directed to them.
*keep in mind that the atheist has an easy and obvious answer: no one has 'enough' faith to walk on water, heal amputees, move mountains, or curse fig trees because there is no God to answer prayers and that reality does not respond to faith at the levels described. Faith's value is its ability to inspire willpower, and its downside is that people assume that statistically likely events are affected by faith
Well, my knee-jerk response would be to state that murdering non-Christians for their faith is worse, if we assume that the Christian world-view is correct. I'd think that would be obvious. To any believer, the death of a Christian is not nearly the tragedy than the alternate.
True: it is worse for Christians to kill non-Christians if they are right than if they are wrong; they have just doomed their own soul, and out another in serious peril.
Indeed religous buildings are inspring: but imagine a culture where you are literaly subsiding, and any adversity could mean that you starve or survive? Now imagine that culture dragging stones a hundred miles with wooden rollers then across a 60 mile stretch of water, then across 60 more miles, to build an homage to the cyclic nature of the sun, for no other reason than the fact that religous people said they should. Power of cohesive religion.
GenMarshall
High Elven ISB Capt & Ghost Agent
I have looked at that. I have accepted that I am powerless on my own to help me off my feet. I have honestly and truthfuly brought Jesus into my heart. I acknowlage that I am a sinner and have truly and honestly accepted him as my lord and savior. However I am going to have to wait untill I make my first confession to truly repent all of my sins I have comitted since baptism (I am a Roman Catholic and I believe that my priest as "in persona Christi" can absolve my sins).
And imagine that that structure inspires in you and your fellows the cohesion needed to survive.
Humans are amazing things; I am reading a book that suggests that a particular hilltop temple in Asia Minor may have been the spark that started wheat cultivation.
You've got it and religion isn't an evolutionary advantage, I think not.
Look at wheat, you eat it it makes you sick, you pound it to a pulp and mix it with water it tastes like crap and it makes you sick. you leave it for a while after putting it in water and then bake it it works? Now this is trial and error of the finest order. Probablly inspired by a person who thought that all that grass should be used for something other than thatch. Basically leaders who inspired radical thought, mostly by religion in early societies, but later by having a way of original thought.
Pretty much, I do agree that religion has obvious evolutionary benefits.
Homie
Anti-Lefty
Well, it couldn't hurt. I wouldn't leave it at prayer and avoid studying the relevant passages, asking learned people etc...I would do all of the above.
As for the actual/natural meaning. I think Katheryn explained it pretty well. Sometimes when I read the Bible it "speaks to me" meaning I feel like it directly relates to me and gives me knowledge/wisdom or PRAYER ANSWER. The meaning I draw from it that I apply to my life can be one thing, whereas the actual reading is about Israel or the measurements of the temple or something else.
Actual meaning = Literally what the Bible is talking about
Natural Meaning = What I glean from the reading. Or even prayer that I feel is answered. What the Bible communicates to me.
Either one or both of them is just going by their feelings and saying "its God" because they have learned that when they pray and feel something, it means that God told them that. They even say "God told me today". I did a DTS (Discipleship Training School). You'll find fundamentalist/extreme Christians there, who really wish to improve their faith, relationship with God, and do something good in the world. They are 99% of the time evangelical, conservative Christians, very few (if any) liberal Christians there. They're great, BUT what always pissed me off is how light they would use the words "God told me" as if He literally spoke to them. And they were very spiritual, but often I found that spirituality to only mean that they were very emotional, and read every emotion as being from God.
The point I'm making is, some people say stuff is from God when it is all coming from their own feelings, and their own mind.
Edit: But even though they were a bit too emotional, at least they were trying to do something for God and their fellow man, and learn more about God. I rarely see this with liberal Christians, I often find them to be lukewarm and not living the faith at all.
I can't think of one instance where my opinion is not in jive with mainstream Christianity. But if it was, I would assume my position was correct because mine made sense and theirs didn't.
Homie
Anti-Lefty
Yep. However I doubt that is the case with the Bahai faith. They have alot of rich westerners sponsering everything, alot of hollywood names. Its a hippy faith, so its big with the showbiz crowd.
No, I think you are thinking of Scientology. The only Bahai actor of whom I am aware is the guy who plays Dwight on The Office.
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