I will pray for you, John. We are all in the same boat when it comes to salvation. We all need it, and none of us can do it on our own. And while you are to be admired for being scrupulously honest in your business dealings, and no doubt your stay on Earth has been made happier by the same, but the Bible says that it impossible for us to earn our way into the kingdom of God. It is also good that you go to church every Sunday, but that in itself does not qualify you to spend eternity with God either. There is only one way to God, and it is through God the Son, who, incidentally, the Bible declares created the entire Universe and everything in it...and who is currently sustaining the laws that govern the Universe by the Word of His Power. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. I always try to keep that in mind when I pray to Jesus for anything. It helps me realize just who I’m talking to!
This is a very different tone than I have heard from you before, and I acknowledge and appreciate it. At the moment I have to go, but I will try and write a bit more later.
I knew if we persisted we would find something we agree on. God Bless.
I will pray for you, John. We are all in the same boat when it comes to salvation. We all need it, and none of us can do it on our own.
I'm glad we found some things to agree upon.
...the Bible says that it impossible for us to earn our way into the kingdom of God.
Oh, I know. And I agree. And it's good to be reminded that salvation is by grace.
At the same time, I think grace can become an excuse for whatever we want to do and for however we want to behave. When I say this, I'm talking about all of us, myself included.
I do also believe that if someone is genuinely seeking to follow the path that Jesus laid out, then it should make a practical difference. And personally, I think the biggest difference ought to be in the way that we treat each other. Again, I do include myself in this.
I've also become probably more content oriented, both in terms of others and myself, which is basically why, grace acknowledged, I mentioned some of the things like how I do business with others. Or maybe to put it another way, I'm not unaware of the statement "you will know them by their fruits."
Unfortunately, statistics on things like divorce don't seem to show much, if any, difference in this country between those who profess faith and those who don't.
The idea of a CINO bothers me, whether the potential CINO is me or someone else. All the more so because within the past couple of weeks I have suddenly become very conscious of how unfavorably "Christians" and "Christianity" are viewed by a significant and growing number of Americans. The image is one of intolerance and ugliness.
That bothers me. Even with my own come-and-go doubts about God, that does bother me.
You're right that I haven't read the whole book unChristian. You're even correct that I haven't read very much of it at all.
But still, I have read enough of it that it has shocked me what people think about Christianity and the church. Actually, I was kind of shocked even before I'd read any of it, as the gist of many of the main ideas were presented by the pastor of the church I go to. That's where I learned of the book.
Anyway, I do appreciate your prayers. I hope you understand a bit better where I'm coming from. I ended up saying a number of things that I didn't really intend to go into here, but I suppose that's sometimes the nature of conversation, and hopefully it will have all been worth it in the end.