@Atheist when u asked Andrew Kelsall that “What if you had found some other religious text and believed that to be the one true faith? How can you say that only your god is the real god when if you had been born in different circumstances you would be a different religion?”

I just want to say that I am a Muslim and I believe in One God, and our book is the Quran and we believe in bible too, we know Jesus as a prophet and our is lord is only one GOD. Therefore to answer your question is that even Muslim people believe in bible and that bible is a true book, because whatever Jesus said there are all true as well as the Quran is true too.

And I have heard that many people who was born in different religion, they became Muslim when they grew older, and to be honest I have never heard anyone who are Christians or Muslims who turned to atheist.

May many be reached through your blog. God bless!

There’s no need to be sarcastic (about your address). However, I apologise, as like you said, I should have asked you for clarification about the meaning of your comment. Thanks for the additional input.

there are sooo many things that are said against god and the truth, and i am sorry if i’m not living up to your standards of what it means to stand up for it, but how can you tell me that it’s about time i stand up for what i believe in, when i just did, albeit, unclearly? (“so christianity is the right path to me, but if christianity is the right path for one, it is for all.” <—what i said).

do i care that this is a popular belief of our times? i absolutely do. i was explaining, obviously not well, how hard it was for me to believe at a time, but now what it means for me to accept jesus christ. not believe that he existed, but really believe in what he came to do, his intentions, and his identity as deity as well as man, and what it means for me to accept him.

it feels like you felt that I said that you were condemning in your post. please know that this is far far from what i was thinking or saying. i wasn’t saying that you were being condemning by pointing out the wrongness of a message. i agree with you. what i had in mind were other instances, not this one, so i apologize for not being specific. but no, i don’t go throwing tables around because i am not righteous by my own accord. i have planks in my eye. please don’t assume that i am against calling a stone a stone and not a blueberry pie. discernment is important to me, i wish i had more of it. i get just as frustrated with arguments such as “there is no god, so be happy!” because for me, without god i am the exact opposite of fulfilled, happy, right. i’m in hell.

christianity is dying down because people think they don’t need god, or they think it’s just another religion, and that the height of humanity is to just tolerate. because they don’t know the love of christ just as i once did not know the love of christ. without that, it’s just another religion. just another set of morals that fall apart. a lot of my friends are atheists or of some other set of beliefs. when i talk to them, even the ones who went to lutheran school their whole lives, when i start talking to them about WHY jesus did what he did, they say, wow, i didn’t think of it that way, or i’ve never heard it that way before. because it often got taught to us as jesus died on the christ so he saved you, and thus the message becomes abstract, and impersonal, the exact opposite of how god is and works. a lot of people, including myself, have thought, “what’s the big deal if jesus died when he was god anyway?” which can be boiled down to, “why should i believe if it didn’t cost this god anything to love me?” so that is how i stand up for the truth, by talking about it. by talking about who we are, the conditions of our hearts, how god loves us so much, and the atoning blood of the lamb. and that it cost god everything, his beloved son, the sole righteous one, to love us.

and i accept your admonishment, and will not repeat the mistake again.

but for the future should i comment again, and should you choose to reply, if you don’t understand something about what i say, instead of concluding that it means that i am disagreeing with you/not standing up for my beliefs, maybe you can help me out and ask questions about what i’m trying to say, if you’d care to.

thanks.

Thanks for the comment/essay, but I don;t really get what you’re talking about. I can’t tell by what you say if you are a Christian or not—or if you were, but no longer see yourself as a Christian any more.

I’ll just focus in on a sentence I understood:

…it doesn’t give me a card to go around condemning people or forcing them to do what i think is right by law or coercion.

In this post, I have not condemned anyone. I love the sinner, hate the sin. I have pointed out a deplorable campaign which is, when it comes down to it, an attack on Jesus, for He died for us and rose again.

The reason why Christianity, the Truth, is declining in some areas of the word such as the UK, is that Christians seem to lie down and take this kind of injustice all the time. No more. I’ve been guilty of this myself.

Can you imagine Jesus not turning over the tables in the synangoue? Instead, saying “no, lets not condemn”.

It’s about time, if you are a Christian, you stood up for what you believe in. And “YYK”, please leave you’re name if you comment again. Are you ashamed that I know it? The atheists wouldn’t let me know theirs, but I can understand this.

PS, I have ***’d out the abbreviation that translates into “Oh my …”. Such blasphemy is NOT welcome on this blog. Be warned:

Exodus 20:7 | “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

Something to think about…

yes, we should be good to one another. no fights or wars. be good to one another. all the time. but how do we do this? we throw each other under the buses all the time, whether out of malice, contempt, or anxiety. we shout community, but when it counts, we take care of ourselves. even when we want to take care of each other and be good to each other, we fail all the time. be truly good, not just on the surface, but in the heart where it matters. we would rather people stay in denial and be in our homes where we don’t need to watch out for them. even when we say “i didn’t mean it,” to someone we hurt, we did in that instance. or we didn’t mean it, but we didn’t care enough to be thoughtful did we.

i was in the church at 14, didn’t go back until 21. became a hardcore socialist in college on the track of being a political theorist. i’d sit there in human rights class, looking at my class including myself, and knowing that coming to and from class, we all just passed by a homeless person or people in need and didn’t even help. or that we harbor some people in our hearts with contempt because of a-z. so we should be the makers and the overseers of human rights? how do i justify to a person who doesn’t care and is drunk with power that he should consider showing dignity to people he wills to destroy for his satisfaction? how do i explain my desires for justice and the lessening and obliteration of injustice- how do i define injustice. how do i define what is good. and separate that from what is bad, when from my own mouth and actions i have created injustice and suffering. maybe to one person, but that still counts. change by my own hands, maybe we’ll get somewhere, hell other people are way more successful than i was/am. but the contradictions would still be there, and that i couldn’t stand.

i sought the source of what is good, and that light showed the darkness of my heart, and that i found hard to stand. i crouched back. i didn’t believe in jesus. i didn’t get it. i didn’t understand the purpose. and that is how i differentiate from all the other religions, is why god does the things that he does. and for me, in christianity, it’s why god sent his son down to earth, completely human, yet completely filled with the holy spirit. and why he let him die on the cross. just like it’s not about what we do, but why we do it, this matters most. and some days are hard to believe. i get impatient, sometimes i even feel abandoned because things in my life aren’t going the way i think they should, and i think why, if i’m praying, that they aren’t happening. but i can’t control or manipulate god. he is the ultimate good, i wish i knew that more in my heart. like when you love someone for the first time and you just totally, totally believe that he is it.

and to acknowledge god as the ultimate good is not to live in a bubble where i am so bad i am so bad *** i am so guilty, i have to -do- things to make up for it, for that price has been paid. when i forgive someone, the last thing i want is for them to stay in a state of constant guilt and self-flagellation. i forgive for their sakes, not so much of mine, because it hurts to forgive, but yet for my sake, because i want reconciliation.

so jesus, if/as he is who he claimed to be, the son of god. deity in human form who didn’t come down to see what it’s like, but who came down so that he could let death take him, then all who believe in this, all who believe that he did it for everyone who has ever existed, including themselves, will be reconciled with god, who becomes the father. who is so kind, loving, gentle that he would not look upon us and say, “father, why should i give up my kingdom for these people who don’t even believe you, who speak out against you, who ransack and murder each other’s homes and hearts” but instead, offer himself as the ultimate sacrifice for those who not only didn’t deserve him, but wholly rejected him. i have a hard time being nice to someone i felt spat in my face, even when i deserved their contemptuous reactions/behavior; i cannot imagine doing it for the entirety of humanity when i didn’t deserve a quark of it.

so that’s what it means to me to believe in jesus. to know who i am in his light. it doesn’t give me a card to go around condemning people or forcing them to do what i think is right by law or coercion. his teachings are hard to swallow because he asks for mercy, not sacrifice, he asks that we wash the feet of people whom we are in conflict with, not slap them on their faces or regard them as irrelevant. and i fail often. but he loves us to accept us as who we are. but he also loves us too much to let us stay that way. by his blood, by his hands, not mine.

[...]you’re kind of saying that Christianity is more “right” than other beliefs

I’m going to get straight to the point here. Yes, Christianity is the right “one”, the right “choice” and some would say “religion” [by category]. If you ever get to a place in your life where I am in Jesus, you Know He is real.

Yes, I cannot prove God, and cannot prove to you or anyone else that He is real. As the Word says:

Galatians 3:11 | Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.”

…and

Hebrews 11:6 | And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Anyone who believes in the existence of God needs to first have faith that he exists, for we cannot please God without it. Therefor, without making that step, you will never know if the LORD Jesus is real.

Then, once you Know Him, His Spirit will be in you…and you KNOW that he’s real. I’m not joking, you can feel the LORD just like you can your own thoughts and being.

If I were to be born with the upbringing of another ‘god’, I believe I would not believe in this god, as this god would not be with me.

I’m a rather smart person, like many are. If I couldn’t feel God, I would look somewhere else.

—–

The purpose of the Ad IS negetive, as it could possibly steer people on the wrong path. I believe that homosexuality is a sin, because the Bible tells me so. I’m not debating this issue…yet.

no war or fight between religions and beliefs

You’ve hit the nail on the head there. Religion has caused war, but there wouldn’t be any wars if these people had the true Belief of Christianity.

On a final note, the Bible had 1000′s of prophecies contained within it. The books of Daniel and Revelation pay particular attention to the end times, which many believe we are in right now.

I not only know that the LORD Jesus is real because his Spirit lives in me, but by the proof of His word. For instance, and to cut a long story short, I know because of the Bible, a one world government will be formed, I know that a World leader will arise (the anti-Christ), I know that the LORD’s land will be parted ushering in Armageddon—and that Russia and the Chinese make to first strike.

There’s a lot going on out there in the interpretation of Bible Prophesy. There’s no denying the the LORD’s word is living proof that he is there…and the at Christianity is “the right one”.

By the way, I would like to thank yourself and @atheist for you professionalism is airing your thoughts. You haven’t over-stepped the mark, but engaged in meaningful debate with myself. This is the kind of maturity from people of different opinions and thoughts that I would like to promote on this blog…

And I’d like to add to his argument the following:
What if you were raised in a not monotheist belief or religion? And all the gods you’d belief brought you comfort and you could feel and relate to them? Wouldn’t you think differently of how you think now?

I’m sorry, but when you say that “there are people even in the depths of the jungle and people who live in countries where Christianity is illegal, who find Jesus, despite their country having a popular religion and opposing god.” you’re kind of saying that Christianity is more “right” than other beliefs because there’re christians in advert conditions, but there’re also people that aren’t christians in countries that Christianity is the main belief. They didn’t find the comfort you found in Jesus Christ. They found it in others beliefs.

Christianity is the right path for you.

I don’t think that religion nor spiritual beliefs are bad. They bring emotional comfort to people who need them. That’s why and how they appeared. But not everyone need them for that, some can find that without any belief in any kind of god or spiritual belief.

And this purpose of the ad is not negative, is just saying to people to live their lives, because in many religions, there’re a lot of restrictions, prejudice and other things.

Love the other ad that I hadn’t heard about. Let’s just be good for goodness sake.

No condoms-restrictions from the catholic, no restrictions to love to people from the same sex, no war or fight between religions and beliefs. Let’s just try to be good. And do what’s right, respect the other, and do not harm the other.