Posted on 09/06/2011 8:15:09 AM PDT by Colofornian
Thank you, Elsie, for taking me up on this.
I think Christianity has two components:
1) the message — what Christ is to have said about how to live a godly life
2) the messenger — the meaning of Christ personally, and his role as a unique messenger
Most denominations focus on accepting Christ as a messenger, without discussing the message so much.
What is the message, excluding the part that refers to Christ’s own role? At least this:
1) have faith in God and his benevolence
2) love your fellow man as yourself
3) be stoic in the face of life’s problems, relying on faith in God (a la Job)
In shorter form, these are:
1) optimism
2) good will and charity
3) stoicism.
So, in my opinion, the principles above are Christianity’s core, and ought to be seen as what Christianity offers to the world.
Note, I did not talk about the messenger much. Most Christian denominations focus on the messenger to a great extent.
If one has absorbed Christ’s message, then one becomes optimistic/good/stoic. Then, let the world do its worst, because it’s transient. We can live the life of Job, and NOT be healed at the end, because we’re that faithful and at peace with God.
Thanks, and Good Will, to you and all FReepers.
You have declared by your attempt to redefine this word as against him and are partners with the deceiver. I am not a Mormon, I think the religion is bogus, but this attack by twisting the meaning of words is evil in the same way that the devil likes to twist words and meanings. Be gone [Dila813 to Colofornian less than 2.5 hours previous to post #101]
Could the real Dila813 please assume the witness stand?
Are you a Christian?
Yea, if you go and attack him, I suppose he would.
Why don’t you just ask him to pray with you and have faith that God will enter his heart and open it to the truth.
Do you think God is that powerless? Are you insecure with your own faith?
I believe my God is all powerful and I am secure in my faith. I fear not for my God.
Christian = means belief in Christ
.............
Christians believe in a different Christ than mormons.
Yes, Mormonism's teachings are fundamentally different from Christianity.
But actually when it comes to the very specific Apostles Creed, there's really nothing there that's objectionable to Mormon doctrine.
The closest it comes is the mention of one holy catholic church (small "c"). The word "catholic" as applied to that time of the creed just = universal -- as in one universal church...not Roman Catholic with a big "C."
But, of course, the lack of Mormon provocation over details within the Apostles Creed in and of itself proves Joseph Smith to be a false prophet.
He claimed that the unnamed entities who appeared to him -- as outlined in Joseph Smith History, vv.18-20 in the Pearl of Great Price -- told him that ALL the creeds of the Christian sects were an "abomination" to them.
Mormon, tell us: What's so "abominable" about the Apostles Creed? What in its content is so objectionable?
I've looked @ Mormon doctrine in depth. There's absolutely Nothing objectionable or putrid or abominable about its content, as the entities who appeared to Smith proclaimed.
Go ahead. Read the Apostles Creed. Then ask yourself, what kind of a being of light would appear to man and claim that the Apostles Creed was an "abomination" to him? (And He didn't same some of the creeds were an abomination; he very specifically said "ALL.")
I think we know the origins of Mormonism. The Apostles Creed would only be objectionable as an "abomination" to demonic angels.
I read what you posted.....
Are you a Christian?
To me, the focus of Christianity is/remains on the message: be optimistic/good/stoic. Christianity is not a hurdle to be jumped over — it is an understanding of our role in the world, so that we can be harmonious with God, happy and helpful.
And, in the way I describe it, I am trying to live by Christian principles. The key principle, not mentioned above but implicit, is: value your own clear conscience. It is the most important possession you will ever have.
Really, you have to be a bigot to discuss religious issues. I may be new, but...
dila813: Instead of attacking the guy personally, maybe you should be trying to convert him to your church?
Nana: How ??? The guy cries like a girl if a Christian talks to him...
dila813: Yea, if you go and attack him, I suppose he would.
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Good grief...
Beck needs to “man up”
So you are saying that obeying the LORD Jesus and preaching the Gospel to Beck is “attacking” him ???
Would you come and shoo the 52,000 mormon mishies with their false religion from my door ???
Im about to cry...
In Israel Beck recited a mormon creed, the Adamic temple prayer (ie. translated version of pay lay ale) saying “Listen to the words of my mouth.”
This thread was about how Mormonism defined the man “Glen Beck” as if they are one in the same. Since this is the premise of this thread, I can’t buy into you trying to recast this entire thread. [Dila, post #156]
Come on, Dila, be fair. Can you name ANY adherent of ANY religion who absolutely 100% embodies every tenet, beatitude, nuance, behavior, practice, polity, etc. of that religion?
And therefore, are we to conclude, that because EVERYBODY has at least "slight wiggle room" that nobody is ever a representative of that faith or religion? Really?
I went to http://deseretbook.com -- which is owned by the Mormon church -- to find its description of a certain Glenn Beck DVD resource entitled An Unlikely Mormon: The Conversion Story of Glenn Beck (2008).
Here's an excerpt of their description of GLENN BECK's PRESENTATION that GLENN BECK APPROVED for his religious body to circulate worldwide!
...In this presentation, Glenn Beck tells an audience of nearly 7,000 about his conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...Glenn bears his testimony about home teaching, tithing, and the transforming power of the Spirit....Glenn's story will strengthen the testimony of any Latter-day Saint. In addition, An Unlikely Mormon will be an ideal missionary tool.
So. Here we have Glenn Beck himself allowing his testimony to be used by the Mormon church as "an ideal missionary tool."
Here we have Glenn Beck himself merging his testimony of this church with its missionary enterprises.
I don't see Glenn Beck "straight-arming" the Mormon church; but to hear you tell it, they are like ships passing in the night and any linkage at all is mere co-inkidink.
what??
“Come on, Dila, be fair. Can you name ANY adherent of ANY religion who absolutely 100% embodies every tenet, beatitude, nuance, behavior, practice, polity, etc. of that religion?”
That was my point. I am being fair, I don’t think others on this thread are.
Don’t read the cd description, talk to the guy, I bet he never authored what you are attributing to him.
I bet the church wanted his story as tilth to the church.
Hogwash tax. IF the Christian 'message' was to be optimistic/good/stoic there was no purpose in the cross and Jesus could have been just like one of dozens of philosophers throughout the ages. There would have been absolutely no necessity for his death.
Optimistic - Jesus told his followers that the world would hate them like they did him.
Good - Man is innately sinful and Jesus said "none are good but God".
Stoic - LOL, well I guess you better be stoic when you are relying on a perky, works based method of salvation Tax.
“To me, the focus of Christianity is/remains on the message: be optimistic/good/stoic. Christianity is not a hurdle to be jumped over — it is an understanding of our role in the world, so that we can be harmonious with God, happy and helpful.
And, in the way I describe it, I am trying to live by Christian principles. The key principle, not mentioned above but implicit, is: value your own clear conscience. It is the most important possession you will ever have.”
I’m afraid your view of Christianity is not line with the Bible. Living a certain way by one’s one power has nothing to do with Christianity.
The Bible describes humanity as lost in their sin in need of forgiveness. Jesus, who is Almighty God in the flesh, offered himself as a sacrifice for our sins. If a person accepts the sacrifice that Jesus made as payment for their sin and trusts in Him as Lord, then they are “born again” and will see the kindgom of God.
Did Jesus walk up to Prostitutes and say you are going to hell, or did he have another way of bring people to God.
Jesus’s most common tactic was telling parables that teach a lesson.
Going an attacking someone isn’t preaching God’s message, it is simple rejecting them.
Wrong again. God gives us (Christians) the authority to judge everything against the Word of God, with one exception - the heart, that alone is God’s judgment.
John the Baptist did “you are going to hell unless....”
Paul did “you are going to hell unless ..... “
Peter did “you are going to hell unless .....”
What do you think the parables are about “you are going to hell unless .......” About judgment .......how God’s love will Save you from the judgment.
Really, you have to be a bigot to discuss religious issues. I may be new, but...
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When the LORD Jesus Christ was here all He did was “discuss religious issues”
Oh and beforte he came and after also...
Why he wrote a whole book on “religious issues”
In your newness would you say the LORD Jesus Christ is a bigot ???
His whole business is about “religious issues”
Are you too new for the Bible ???
If so you might start with the Book of John...
Its in the New Testament after Luke..
I have no idea what you are talking about... go ahead and judge me
Please be aware then, that the judgment on me will come back on you...you can’t give yourself God’s authority on Earth without trying to usurp God.
This is just as bad as what people are accusing Glen Beck of doing.
I remember going to a Pentecostal Church one Sunday at the invitation of a friend of my Wife’s, the preacher said that we shouldn’t judge others less we be judged....later on in the same sermon he said that we have people coming into the Church saying they are Christians and we look at them and look at each other knowing that they aren’t Christians.
7 people rose in unison in the Church and walked out, I was one of them.
Sometimes people don’t even realize what they are doing or saying.
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