ziffel

I'm not sure what your religious background is, but having been down Fundy Road, I would say that it's not a matter of thinking that you yourself are infallible.

Deus Ex correctly states that the belief is that the person is filled with the "indwelling of the Spirit". There's a strong euphoric sense of "closeness to God", which is reinforced by a strong social connection to other fundies.

It's a feeling of having discovered ultimate truth. So to the rest of the world, it appears as though the person is coming across as infallible, yet all he is really is heavily indoctrinated in a very cult-like teaching that he/she possesses ultimate truth, and that anything (anything!) that contradicts this "truth" is a lie of the devil. Even things as scientifically clear as evolution or the age of the earth become demonic lies meant to thwart the believer.

I never thought of myself as infallible (far from it), but that I had a solid hold on "God's Word", which was infallible in my mind. I felt I was believing precisely the right things.

Jayrok

This has to be some kind of shtick. Bill Joel is one of the skeptics on this board who got bored and created an alias. Well done! Because this cannot be for real.

babelfish

What I don't understand about the Christians I am acquainted with is, how do they explain another Christian, who is just as spirit-filled as they are, yet who completely disagrees with them about basic doctrines? Doctrines like the age of the earth, the existence of hell, the status of homosexuals, etc.?

It is this kind of certainty that you possess the "Truth," that just amazes me. It's like they are desperately lying to everyone, including themselves.

And it is often the most arrogantly certain Christians who claim to be the most humble and unworthy.

Demigawd

Consider Bible John's posts. He had more vitriol for liberal Christians than nonbelievers. He called them spiritual terrorists and went on and on and on about how Satan was working through them to ruin true Christianity. Given the Bible has bits about how even the Devil can quote Scripture, it's pretty easy then for one type of Christian to dismiss or condemn another type.

ziffel

It's very difficult to tell the difference between someone parodying a fundy, and an actual fundy.

ziffel

From my fundy days, I'd say it would depend on which group of other Christians you were talking about.

Church of Christ: no pianos? seriously? a little too strict but ok I guess.

Presbyterian: Hey, they've got D James Kennedy, how bad can they be?

Methodists: Ok, not too bad, could be better.

Baptists: Excellent!

Catholics: Some of them might be saved. Most are idolaters, and they drink booze! ack!

Episcopalian: see above.

Mormons: Cult. Hellbound. :angry:

Jehovah's Witnesses: nasty cult. Hellbound. :angry:

"Non-denominational": hey, that's me! must be perfect! ><

Church of God: pretty much like me. A+

Pentecostal: pretty great, these people are very close.

Pentecostal snake handlers: WTF? settle down, noobs.

Joe Bloe

The world would be a better place if Poe's Law were not valid.

Clivedurdle

Excuse me, as one of those, filled with holy spirit, can still speak in tongues (I was wondering about lessons for atheists...) I thought I was definitely in the Lamb's Book of Life!

Well I mean, I had a vision of Jesus when I took Jesus into my heart. I saw a shape of a human in white in my room just after having an argument with the babysitters about could I watch the man from Uncle - my parents were splitting up and my mum was in hospital for a serious operation.

Fascinating things human brains - can get us to the moon. Seeing visions and speaking in tongues is easy peasy. Being bitten by snakes and surviving is probably do-able with the placebo effect!

ziffel

Sorry, didn't mean "very close to being saved", I meant very close to having it perfect, you know ... like me

babelfish

I do believe you just described the thinking of several Christians of my acquaintance quite perfectly.

Also what I've noticed is that depending on the circumstances, "Christian" can be a very flexible nomenclature.

"Atheists are just stupid. After all, 90% of Americans are Christians."

(In this case, all liberal Christians, Catholics, Mormons, Jehovahs' Witnesses and assorted snake-handlers are lovingly counted as members of the Christian Brotherhood.)

"Our Founding Fathers were Christians."

(In this group, Paine and Jefferson, who were deists, are counted as Christians.)

"Our guest today on Focus on the Family is Mr. ___________, a Catholic activist who is Pro-Life."

(Never mind that devout Catholics aren't part of the chosen who have been born again, and they're probably going to hell. As long as you agree with us that women should have no right to choose, you are a-ok in our books, brother!)

But like you showed so nicely with your list, the people who believe the right way (i.e., the way I, the True Believer believe) are very few and far between, if the True Believer really wants to be honest about it.