Ex Christians

[Tarheeler]

If someone really did admit they were a sinner, and accept Christ, only, as their savior then they're a christain. I can't disagree with someone over that. And it seems like mostly everyone who's posted on here believed that and therefore was a christain at some point.

Good! I do enjoy being proved wrong every now and then.

I didn't know if by raised you actually accepted the beliefs for yourself, or just believed because you parents(or the people around you)did/told you too. My bad

If that had been the case, I would have made it clear in the post. I faithfully attended Sunday school and church, was baptized on Easter Sunday after my 21st birthday, and certainly believed.

Like many others, I went through a period of extreme doubt. And when it was over with, I could no longer call myself a Christian.

 

[waitasec]

Vadergirl,

You keep coming back to the 'personal relationship with Jesus' thing.
Inner 'relationships' with non physical entities are subjective experiences and expressions
based on/in (personal) feelings and mindsets.
Feelings and mindsets, however, do not make our beliefs, desires and intuitions 'so'.
('so' as in- objectively and independently existent beyond our own minds, hearts and feelings)

Our 'feelings' are chemical events.

The inner catalysts of one's chemical events can change
as easily as we can.
In fact, they tend to change in tandem.

feelings and mindsets tend change when impressions of the object of our affections are not reinforced.

 

[waitasec]

If that had been the case, I would have made it clear in the post. I faithfully attended Sunday school and church, was baptized on Easter Sunday after my 21st birthday, and certainly believed.

Like many others, I went through a period of extreme doubt. And when it was over with, I could no longer call myself a Christian.

i rededicated myself about 15 times.

 

[MysticSang'ha]

i rededicated myself about 15 times.

If I had a dollar for how many times I repented as a sinner and renewed my relationship with Jesus I would probably have a few hundred dollars.

 

[waitasec]

If I had a dollar for how many times I repented as a sinner and renewed my relationship with Jesus I would probably have a few hundred dollars.

you bad, bad girl

 

[MartyrX]

I was raised a christian and towards my later teenage years, is when I really started to question my beliefs. I had questions that went unanswered, or I was flat out lied to. It was only after years of research that I found answers to my questions. And so much that I was being taught, just didn't mesh with what I thought God wanted.

 

[ForeverFaithful]

Which one of the 2 ?



It is not my point ....read here >> Constantine the Great and Judaism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Because "jesus" did not exist before the year 325 AD , thats why. Study history. Yeshua is coming back, as a Jew not as "the Greek"



Christians can worship "their Lord" as they want, I just do not want any part of it anymore.


Yeh, just follow and put your head in the sand..



No you assume wrong : Act 15:21 For from the earliest times, Moshe has had in every city those who proclaim him, with his words being read in the synagogues every Shabbat."
[Synagogues gathered on Saturday not Sunday]



Nope, I started studying the Bible instead of reading it.
.

You're doing exactlty what the schismatics in the Church of Galatia, do you belive in the Trinity, do you uphold the Catholic faith given to both Jews and Gentils? If not I have to tell you you are not following Christ.

 

[mycorrhiza]

You could be more loving by only doing the good things and not killing people and encouraging others to kill people. He didn't have to send His son to get tortured, He could have just taken away the sins of people anyway. He is bigoted because He thinks that women are less than men and that homosexuality is immoral.

If you believe in hell, then he's really not that loving. I wouldn't want to sentence even Hitler to eternal torture. It's plain evil to torture someone, especially for all eternity.

To make it clear, my answer here only applies if you use a literal interpretation of the Bible, where what God did and said in it is correct and not metaphorical. If we allow God to be all-loving, then hell cannot logically exist and heaven will instead be a benefit for believers, while non-believers aren't punished (at least, that's my opinion on it). In the context of Jesus's words, hell seems like a metaphor. Especially since there is no hell in Judaism.

The stories in the Bible could also been seen as man's interpretation of God.

 

[bigbadgirl]

You're doing exactlty what the schismatics in the Church of Galatia, do you belive in the Trinity, do you uphold the Catholic faith given to both Jews and Gentils? If not I have to tell you you are not following Christ.

Uphold the Catholic faith? Do Catholic priests uphold the Catholic faith? Are the many gay pedafile priests that have gotten away with their sexual abuse for years, being protected by corrupt Cardinals, who are being protected by the Pope following Christ? It is only a yes or no answer. But I don't believe I will get a yes or no answer to that question.

 

[roberto]

You're doing exactlty what the schismatics in the Church of Galatia, do you belive in the Trinity, do you uphold the Catholic faith given to both Jews and Gentils? If not I have to tell you you are not following Christ.

I know I am not following "jesus"
I want nothing to do with "jesus"
I AM NOT A CHRISTIAN.
You should change your Title to "sun worshiper" as you are not following "the Light" that was created in the first three days.

 

[tumbleweed41]

MOD POST

Let's keep the discussion and debate civil and refrain from personal attacks, proselytization, and harassment of other beliefs.​

 

[Vadergirl123]

I held very fundamental Christian beliefs until I was 18 years old. I definitely felt I was in a relationship with God, and no, I didn't want it to end. During the period of losing my faith, I actually felt that I was losing my best friend.

I know that's how I'd feel

The concept that caused me to lose my faith in Christianity was the realization that it was unfair and unjust.

1. Unfair: If the only way to achieve salvation is by believing in Jesus, then salvation is largely contingent upon an accident of birth. It is easier to become a Christian if you live in western countries where it is predominant, than middle eastern or asian ones, where it is socially unacceptable or simply not culturally intuitive.

That dosn't make it unfair. Everyne has the opportunity to accept Christ. There circumstances or life style can make it harder for them sure, but it's still their choice.

Imagine that Islam was truly the only way to get to heaven. You have been raised as a Christian. While you are acquainted with the general claims, beliefs, and practices of Islam, you are highly unlikely to convert to it because of your upbringing, and your cultural conditioning. Do you think you have the same chance as Ahmed in Saudi Arabia at achieving salvation? The same is true in reverse, regarding Christianity.

It's not about the "highest chance" if Islam was the true religion(I don't beleive it is) then I'd still be able to chose to join the religion.

I was unable to correlate my belief in a loving God with such an unfair and dumb-luck method of salvation. I decided that while God existed, Christianity was not the way in which he operates.

So you don't believe in the God of the Bible then?

2. Unjust: After leaving Christianity I was able to see it from a fresher point-of-view. The whole concept of original sin-- whereby sin is somehow genetically passed on-- is incredibly unjust.

Choices have consequences, and Adam's choice had a terrible consequence. It's not unjust, when we disobey there are consequences. Do you believe it's unjust for a parent to punish their children. Also even if you don't believe in original sin you have to admit that we all sin anyway, and God tells us he'll punish sin.

The concept of killing an innocent person for the transgressions of another is incredibly unjust.

Yes it was unfair for Jesus to die, but he did so because he loved us. It blows my mind that he would go through all that for us(and still give us the choice to reject him)

The concept that eternal punishment is the result of even the most minor of transgressions, and that honest attempts at being a good person are not appreciated, is unjust. The concept that there must be a sacrifice in order for forgiveness is unjust.

We see certain sins as minor and major. God doesn't work like that. To him sin is sin and it can't enter heaven. Yes Christ's perfect blood had to be sacrificed for us, and it is unfair.(I'm personally glad he went to the cross though)

It's also irrational. God is omnipotent. He could have created any rules he wanted.

Yeah he could've, and I don't know why he didn't. There's a lot about God I don't understand(and I never will since he's so superior to me)

 

[Vadergirl123]

You could be more loving by only doing the good things and not killing people and encouraging others to kill people. He didn't have to send His son to get tortured, He could have just taken away the sins of people anyway. He is bigoted because He thinks that women are less than men and that homosexuality is immoral.

God is loving(However he's also just) there's a punishment for sin, and why would he reward us for sinning? Jesus was the only one who could take away our sins. He doesn't think women are less than men(he loves them equally) and yes he does say homosexuality is wrong.

If you believe in hell, then he's really not that loving. I wouldn't want to sentence even Hitler to eternal torture. It's plain evil to torture someone, especially for all eternity.

Again God is loving and just. We're all sinners, and sin can't be in heaven. However God gives us the opportunity to become his child by accepting Christ to take away our sin. Those who chose to be God's child won't go to hell, but if you're not his child then you will. You can't say God's unfair in punishing sin. Especially considering he gives us the choice to spend eternity with him.

 

[Vadergirl123]

did i mention that i lost my faith while alter serving or that i was preparing/studying to be a priest

Oh gosh, I take it you grew up a catholic? What do you believe now?

 

[Vadergirl123]

I was raised and indoctrinated in the Southern Baptist Church from birth. As I got older, I began to read and learn more on my own. At age 14, I realised I no longer believed. I felt so free! In a nutshell, I have always despised wilful ignorance, and that is what was most encouraged: if you were ignorant of anything other than what They taught you regarding the Bible, and the nature of reality, then you were encouraged not only to remain so, but to be proud of this ignorance.

I was raised in an independent baptist church, but my pastor encouraged us to read the Bible and to compare wht he said to what was in it. That's sad that y'all were encouraged to be ignorant.

 

[Vadergirl123]

And what reason(other than your upbringing and indoctrination) do you have for choosing the Bible over the Koran, or the Vedas, or the Zend Avesta? How do you know that these weren't "inspired by god" as well?

Well first off all of them can't be inspired by God. I've never read over them would be my main reason(I'm sure I will one day, or at least read what they're about). Do you believe all of them were inspired by God?

 

[waitasec]

Well first off all of them can't be inspired by God.I've never read over them would be my main reason(I'm sure I will one day, or at least read what they're about). Do you believe all of them were inspired by God?

all of them, including the bible, were inspired by man.

as they all pretty much claim unverifiable claims, define the undefinable and explain their version of god's will without any sort of criteria other than it being faith based

 

[Vadergirl123]

because i value honesty. it's the only way to grow, as far as i'm concerned.

Honesty is mportant

interesting huh?

Well we all have the ability to make choices. That's why we don't HAVE to become christains(God doesn't force us to) Also human beings can chose what they want to eat, wear, read, etc

i was baptist too.

then why is it so misunderstood?

People interpret it wrong. Some try to fit the Bible into what they want to believe/what makes more sense to them instead of what it actually says.

do you mean the bible
if you do, then you still haven't explained by what criteria you use to determine if this is the word of god.

That's like asking me why I believe a letter that says it's from Sandy is written by Sandy. If I had multiple letters(the Bible has books) form her and all of them were consistent then it woudl make sense that she wrote them. For example if in all the letter it talks about her love for lemonade, how her garden's almost done, etc then I'd have no reason to not believe they were from her. It's the same way with the Bible.

the only criteria i knew of was believing it through faith.
well, please don't take this offensively, what do you think those that flew into the WTC felt. i would imagine in order to kill oneself one is very sincere in their faith, right?

I'm not offended. The God of Bible wouldn't approve of them doing that.

that is giving license to very dangerous thinking. consider the defenseless children that have died at the hands of their parents in the name of faith healings where in the gospel jesus plainly says
mark 16: 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

I've never heard of these "faith healings?"

so if it's broken if it causes confusion, why would it be the word of god?

It causes confusion because people interpret it wrong.

 

[Vadergirl123]

Everyday life in general.

I just clamed up, dropped my beliefs, then observed, and noted the contrast between what was said and taught and compared it to what actually transpires.

Could you give me an example?

 

[Vadergirl123]

feelings and mindsets tend change when impressions of the object of our affections are not reinforced.

Salvation isn't really a feeling. It's more of a knowledge, like when you get saved you don't suddenly "Feel saved" per say, but you know that you are.