[[DISCLAIMER]]
These are my beliefs. I'm not flaming on anyone, I'm not hating on anyone, I'm just saying how I see things, trying to clear up some misconceptions, answer some questions, and the like. Meaning I don't want anyone running in here and flaming and hating, because that's not the point of this thread. If you wanna discuss, go right ahead. This is, after all, the Discussion forum.
I'm gonna try and keep this as organized as possible, but I've got a whole lot of ideas going through my head. I'll try and order them out in a way that makes sense.
[[QUESTIONS]]
These are different questions and such that I've been asked, sometimes by several people, and these are answers that might help clear up some comfusions people have.
Credit to Dionysus' fortune telling thread for giving me the idea for this.
Q: Have you always been Christian?
No. In fact, I was only saved last October. My family is Catholic, but none of them seriously practice. They tried to get me to be Catholic when I was young, but actually, it just made me hate the concept of it.
Q: Were you into religion beforehand?
I was completely devoted to Wicca immediately before I was saved, and had been for... five years, yes. I hated Christianity.
Q: Why become a Christian then?
I originally went to Wicca because it promised me real, solid evidence that it was legit... you know, feeling stuff, power, etc, etc, etc. I'm sorry, but it was never there for me. I believed it because at that point, I believed in the ideals, since I thought they were true. However, once I moved away from Hamilton and came here, a new friend convinved me to come meet his Youth Pastor. They had a worship session while I was there, and I had my first experience of meeting God. Frankly, once you've felt him, I don't really think it's possible to simply ignore him anymore.
Q: Are you sure you felt God? That sounds like a bunch of crap to me.
That question's like me asking, are you sure you've felt happy? You know you have, because you've felt it. You know. You can't give me solid proof, but you know. It's like that. I had a physical manifestation as well as an emotional and mental one. I know, 100%, that I felt God for the first time that day.
Q: What's that like?
The experience is what happens when you become filled with the Holy Spirit. It's a bit different for everyone. In Acts, a book in the Bible, is where this experience is first described. The Apostles are described as seeming like they were drunk, and as having spoken in tongues, with everyone present able to understand in their own languages. However, as I said, everyone manifests and feels it differently. Sometimes there are physical manifestations, such as crying, laughing, speaking in tongues, shaking, falling, dizziness, etc etc etc. Sometimes there are more inward ones, such as giddiness, black outs, visions, hearing God speak to you audibly, a feeling of being overwhelmed emotionally, etc etc. Sometimes there are mental manifesations, such as revelation, blessings for others, recieving Words of Knowledge for other people, etc etc. Personally I've experienced several of these. I have the bruises to prove a couple of them.
[[MISCONCEPTIONS]]
Alright, now to clear some stuff up.
First off, the whole rule thing, 'cause this one gets me the worst I think. Lots of people look at Christianity and the first thing they think is, "I gotta follow all of these stupid rules or else I'm gonna go to hell." And who likes rules? Nobody. No one likes rules. So, lots of people lose interest immediately.
However, in reality there really aren't that many rules. The Old Testament of the Bible is when salvation depended on following a strict set of rules. However, Jesus was sent to complete this for us, and die as a sacrafice to cover our sins, much like the Old Testament tradition of slaughtering an innocent lamb to cover sins. Jesus also changed the rules for us. He made it very simple: love your God, and love your neighbour. If you follow the rule of love, then following the rest of the commandments just comes naturally.
However, another thing changed. God made it incredibly, incredibly simple for us, even beyond that point. All he said we had to do was believe that Jesus was His son who died for our sins, and if we did that, then we were saved. Plain and simple. Once saved, He said to be like Christ. Who's Christ? He's God. They're one in the same person. Jesus was God in the form of man. And the Bible teaches us that God is love. So what do we have to do? Be like love. In other words, be loving. Simple, eh? Yeah.
Okay, furthermore, I. DO. NOT. HATE. LESBIANS. GAYS. BISEXUALS. WICCANS. ANYTHING LIKE THAT.
I'm very tired of people getting on my case about these things just because I'm a Christian. I don't support them, no. I don't agree that it's right, no. However, those are simply my beliefs. Thst doesn't mean I hate them because of it, not in the slightest; one of my best friends, who's female, has been telling me how much she likes me and would love to date me for nearly five years now.
Before you call me prejudiced, consider this: you don't think someone's being prejudiced if they say they don't think it's right that the druggy over there is smoking pot, do you? It's all a matter of opinion, realistically.
A Christian who isn't just talk and who actually lives the lifestyle will understand that you don't hate the person, you hate what they do. If someone's doing drugs, you don't hate them because they're a druggy. You hate the fact that they're doing drugs. And if they don't want help, then you know what? Alright. You leave it alone.
What's another one...
Oh yeah. I got this one the other day. The old, how can I call myself a Christian when I do this and this and this and blah blah blah.
Christians aren't perfect. Any who claim to be are ruining our name. We're just the same as everyone else, we screw up, we fall down, we do bad crap. The only difference is that as a Christian we feel we've got a safety net to fall back on, even if we do bad things.
Now, this opens up another thing. People seem to have the misconception that we teach that anyone will be forgiven of anything, as long as they just say a magic prayer. This isn't the case. If you don't actually repent, the forgiveness isn't there. God's not stupid, people. He's not gonna forgive someone who isn't actually sorry. This is why I totally don't agree with the whole confession thing they do in elementary Catholic schools. You know, where you go see the preacher, be all like, "My name is Bobby Joe, my last confession was three years ago, these are my sins" yaddayadda. And then he's all like, "Say three Our Father's and all is forgiven" blahblah. All you've gotten the kid to do is babble off some memorized verses. That's not going to help him unless he truly repents as well.
.....
I don't know if there's anything else to put here. I started typing this yesterday and now I just woke up and all my thoughts flew out of my head in my sleep.
This is all just my beliefs, remember. If you've got any debates, or wanna ask any questions, feel free to do so.
Blarg.
