Posted on 08/27/2006 12:41:00 AM PDT by Crazieman
Per Fox News
I was here from early on in the thread, and I saw when it turned. If you want, tomorrow I'll sift through all the threads and show you some rather innocuous posts that earned incredibly hostile replies.
And by the way, you can call me a fundamentalist if that makes you feel comfortable, but I can guarantee you that I don't fit through whatever you have in your brain as your little "fundie" template. I came into religion fairly late in the game, and there's no reason for an adult to do that unless it's out of actual belief. If that makes me a fundamentalist, well gee, I've certainly been called worse.
You either believe the Word or you don't. If you do, you also have to acknowledge that in some matters there are higher expectations for believers than for nonbelievers. This was one of those matters. You can't get around that.
all I have to say is look at Christ's example.. he died in the cross for our sins, he never denied our Father. He endured more than anyone here can imagine. and the 2 criminals.. one accepting the Word and the Lord, the other one renouncing and cursing the Lord. God will test our resolve and faith in him, and this may mean facing the blade.
"You either believe the Word or you don't."
Not true, unless you're a fundamentalist. Most Christians are not. They practice a basic faith in Christ and understand the wisdom of a forgiving God. They are all going to heaven, too, along with Jews, Muslims, and other people of good will and deed.
This is the typical response we get from people who are always the first to invoke the "judge not verse". (Usually in Elizabethan english) Then they go on to tell us how glad they are that they're not judgmental like us. You can't make it up.
This is part of a plan for domination. They're going to accomplish their goals through fear.
Yes it is. And the world is playing right into their hands. This is exactly the response they are looking for & expect. Years ago the idea that one religion could dominate the entire world didn't make sense to me. I couldn't see how it could happen. I see it now.
Under the circumstances of this kidnapping, the wise and loving Christ that I've come to know over my lifetime would have wanted these men to do exactly what they did in order to see their families again.
Some of the "emergents" are calling us "Bible heads". They meant it as an insult, but I have to tell you I like it. I like it a lot.
I've read and studied the Bible all my life. It is a book written by men who claimed to have been inspired by God, but I do not believe it is the complete or explicit word of God. I do not believe that Jews and members of other religions will be thrown into a lake of fire. "My Father's house has many mansions." Christ is not the *only* path to heaven, despite the words of men claiming to know the word of God.
I didn't realize belief was optional for all non-fundies. I thought that was just an aberration in the Episcopal church, which, BTW, I felt compelled to leave soon after joining.
Most Christians are not.
Going by your definitions of "Christian" and "fundamentalist", I can't do anything other than admit you are absolutely correct about that.
I don't have the heart today to argue the definitions, or the rest of your post.
I'm on board with you. Everything you said. This is turning out to be quite an interesting thread. (No poetry intended!:)
So what is your "compass"? How do you gain an understanding of the Will of God? Does it just depend on your mood that day...which way the wind is blowing...?
It's not a matter of total belief vs. non-belief. A fundamentalist is one who does not recognize the validity of variation in Christian belief. Most Christians are not fundamentalists.
I can't describe my "compass" in a few lines here, but it has nothing to do with my mood on any given day. Going back to the issue at hand, my compass -- and my belief about what God wants for us -- would have had me doing exactly what those kidnap victims did under those circumstances.
There are variations, and then there are variations.
There was a bishop in my old denomination that didn't believe in the divinity of God, let alone Jesus. But hey, he was a bishop in the church! And then he became a left-wing celebrity Christian! PBS still drags the old cadaver out of mothballs every time they want someone in clerical garb to justify gay marriage or mock the resurrection or deny any diety except "the god within us."
I don't know why anyone should be obliged to consider that a valid variation of Christian belief. It ain't Christian and it ain't belief.
That you can identify a practice that you believe goes beyond the bounds of validity does not forclose the possibility of variation. For example, most Christians believe that members of other religions are not necessarily condemned to hell for lack of Christian conversion.
Quite frankly, we don't know exactly what Jesus taught, we only know an echo, that is, what men wrote over a hundred years later. Moreover, what we think we know about what Jesus taught is itself subject to diverse interpretation.
Based on what I know about Jesus, and on what the entire Bible reveals to me about God Himself, I reject the notion that the only path to heaven is through Christianity.
Gee,if you're saying what I think you're saying, I think that goes without saying.
But once a church has varied itself so far away from anything Scriptural as to be actively contradicting it, it's not really Christian anymore, and its poll numbers among "most Christians" aren't the determining factor of its validity.
For example, most Christians believe that members of other religions are not necessarily condemned to hell for lack of Christian conversion.
Absent faith in Jesus, or a covenant with God, it is a pretty poor lookout. There remain justification by works (virtually impossible for most, which is why Jesus died for us) and outright mercy (not impossible).
Revelation 22:14
Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
1 John 5:3
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
Matthew 19
16 And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
Rev 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 20:13
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
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