Carin Nel

Don't worry, Olivia, it's not you who have to decide.
But,
"You shall know them by their fruit." Surely you remember that verse.

There is an incident in the Bible that clearly demonstrates the "heart" of a true believer.
Luke 7 :36-50 - The woman with the alabaster box of ointment.


Regards,
Carin Nel

aperfectstranger

And that's the crux. Christians of any stripe are no different than anybody else. They do not display this evidence of the fruit of the spirit as mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

more than any other random group of people.

Those "true believers" you mention with the example in Luke who weep before the lord, sometimes don't make amends to those they sinned against. Neither have I ever met a believer that could perform the signs of Mark 16:17-18. And I know believers try to wiggle themselves out of that verse with their usual gymnastics.

Sven

Luckily, she does not even reply to me anymore.

Carin Nel

Olivia, they should. To die to the flesh is what Galatians 5 talks about compared to the fruit of the flesh.
Read from verse 13 - this is what I'm talking about. People who claim to be Christians and do not live the Way of Jesus, IOW by the fruit of the Spirit, in love, do harm to the kingdom of God. They are a disgrace to Christianity.
You should tell them that. If they are really concerned about the image of Christ and are caught red-handed, they should repent immediately to you and to God. The Bible says that "Only those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God" That is how serious God feels about followers of Jesus bearing fruit. We should be a message without having to use words - faceless.
I see Mark. 16:17-18 come alive in our ministry often, as well as other ministries, although I or my friends did not have to take up snakes or drink poison so far! I know of persecuted Christians who were forced to drink poison to show their mockers that those Scriptures are true, and to their amasement, they did not die, while the guard who also had to drink the poison, died instantly. (Vanya)

Regards,
Carin Nel

Koyaanisqatsi

And that's the problem. You aren't defending "His Word." You (and all of humanity) have no possible clue as to what "His" words actually were. You are defending the words of countless thousands of iterations over two thousand years of anonymous cult writers who claim that they are relaying "His" words, regardless of the facts that prove they couldn't possibly be doing anything of the kind.

That you cannot even concede that simple point proves that you are nothing more than a cult member.

:huh:

Sorry. Those are the facts. And here's further proof:

Do you have any idea how many hundreds of thousands of cult members all use this exact same fallacious argument? The exact same one worded almost exactly the same every single time.

And it makes no difference at all to these cult members to read the refutation of this argument; the argument is always used as if the very fact that it is a response is all you need to do; you just have to say, "Eye witnesses to a car accident" and then shut you eyes and ears like a child saying, "BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH I can't hear you."

Carin Nel

Shame, Sven, I had no idea!! :notworthy:
Your last words were:
We can take it up from there if you really want to, but I'm a bit weary at this point.
Maybe after a good night's sleep.
I know its morning for you, so enjoy your day.

Regards,
Carin Nel

Sven

No, thanks.

I, too. But not because of the time.

It's actually half past nine in the evening here. But thanks anyway.

Carin Nel

So tell me, Koyaanisqatsi, what is the purpose of your existence? Does it have a purpose and why do you say that?
When and how did the universe have its origin and for what reason?
Do you have faith?
That is if you don't mind me asking, of course.
Regards,
Carin Nel

Diogenes the Cynic

Answering for myself, my existence HAS no "purpose" except for whatever I arbitrarily assign to it.

Tell me something, Carin, why does God think it's a virtue to believe something without a shred of proof? Since all religions have exactly the same amount of evidence to recommend them -- none -- then arriving the "correct" belief cannot be accomplished by anything but a wild guess. If God saves people from himself only if they can correctly guess which belief out of an infinite number of possibilities -- all with exactly zero evidence -- is the true one, how is that any different from God demanding that people correctly guess what number he's thinking of between one and infinity? Why would that be a virtuous accomplishment? What kind of way is that to run a universe?

aperfectstranger

Life becomes far more meaningful the moment those absurdities are no longer a factor in it.