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Originally posted by Eclipse
Interesting thread. I am a Christian and as a song that I love says "that means I'm far from perfect, simply redeemed."
I believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God--that he breathed life into the words and while allowing an individual's personality and experiences to shine through. I believe that the Bible is 100% true in it's original languages and to have a full, true appreciation of the Word you must understand it in it's original languages.
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I can appreciate this on many levels, although I disagree with how strict you are on this, but that's just personal opinion/faith-based. For instance, in any language the Bible infers the value of pi to be three ("a circle thirty cubits around, and 10 across") - Do you mean that you believe everything originally written as the Old and New Testament was true, and may have been lost and/or changed by human error along the way? Just making sure I get where you're coming from - this way makes more sense to me, but that's purely subjective.
Quote:
Originally posted by Eclipse
I am probably what some of you would call one of those "Bible Thumpers/Pusher, etc because I evangelize with my church. I also feed the hungry, provide clothes to the homeless and do other "good deeds", but I believe that the most important gift that you can provide to someone is the gift of salvation. If I knew someone was killing themselves with drugs, about to jump off a tall building, etc. I would feel like it was my duty as a person to stop them. Same thing about salvation.
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Again, I vehemently disagree with you here, but your argument is cogent and makes sense from the level you're looking at it.
Quote:
Originally posted by Eclipse
I believe that those who consider Jesus a "good man" or a "good teacher" only have fooled themselves. He said things like "I am the way, the truth and the life. None come to the Father except through me." and "I an my Father are one." If he was not God, these things are an insult to God and would put him in the company of Jim Jones and David Koresh, not a good teacher.
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There have been many men that have said things similar to the claims made by Jesus - what exactly has convinced you that he is the Messiah? I think that's the root of what this thread would be, to me - you seem very strongly religious, what provides you with the certainty you have in your faith? How can you be sure that you're not fooling yourself, much like you think non-Christians do? I think these questions are the more important to those that don't necessarily hold your viewpoint, for our purposes of discussion here.
Even if it's just 'blind' faith - which would mean taking one hypothesis as fact, and using it for the basis of other inferences - I'm interested to understand how your faith works. I'm not from the south, and midwestern religion (especially protestant churches) tends to be less in this vein.
On a separate note - what are your feelings on issues such as evolution, etc?