Believe

Originally posted by FMF
Like I said on page 2, I've always had your card marked as a non-Christian who is here to troll Christians in a rather artless and apparently inebriated way. When hardly any of them would talk to you, you amused yourself by heaping caustic abuse on a few individuals who did engage you.

Who are you? Who is dive?

Do you two think that posters must gain your approval?

Both of you should lose your ego.

Edit: Unless you both are too busy pinching each other's bottoms, lol, lol, lol.

Originally posted by chaney3
Who are you? Who is dive?

Do you two think that posters must gain your approval?

Both of you should lose your ego.

What qualifies you to declare someone - from a religion that you are not a proponent of - to be a "fake" proponent of their religion?

Originally posted by FMF
What qualifies you to declare someone - from a religion that you are not a proponent of - to be a "fake" proponent of their religion?

FMF......be real. You were a Christian. You will always be a Christian. Do you think that God has somehow vanished? Do you think that your lack of understanding or belief in the Bible decreases God' value?

You should look in your mirror, before attacking others. You believe in God, it is quite evident.

Originally posted by chaney3
Dasa is correct when he says that today's science, with a trillion dollars cannot produce 1 little ant.

I love that.

An interesting response from you, considering what I posted.

Originally posted by chaney3
FMF......be real. You were a Christian. You will always be a Christian.

You are mistaken.

The only sense in which it could be said to be true is in the biodata that I have to submit to get my identity card in the country in which I live

Originally posted by chaney3
FMF......be real. You were a Christian. You will always be a Christian. Do you think that God has somehow vanished? Do you think that your lack of understanding or belief in the Bible decreases God' value?

You should look in your mirror, before attacking others. You believe in God, it is quite evident.

FMF has given a detailed account of his belief and none belief in your other thread. I see that you have completely ignored it so far.

Originally posted by chaney3
You should look in your mirror, before attacking others.

What did you see when you looked at yourself in your mirror before you declared that divegeester was not a Christian?

Originally posted by chaney3
Do you think that God has somehow vanished? Do you think that your lack of understanding or belief in the Bible decreases God' value?

I am not aware of any revelation that God has made of Himself.

Originally posted by FMF
I am not aware of any revelation that God has made of Himself.

God has revealed himself in the man known as Jesus the Christ.

Originally posted by Suzianne
God has revealed himself in the man known as Jesus the Christ.

I spent a good chunk of my life examining your claim (and it's the claim of other Christians too, of course) and I even subscribed to it for a long time, but I no longer do.

Originally posted by Suzianne
God has revealed himself in the man known as Jesus the Christ.

Do you still contend that chaney3 is a Christian?

Originally posted by Ghost of a Duke
I think i would be happier in theological discussions if Christians merely 'hoped' that God existed. Hope is something an atheist can understand, and there is probably a part of me that also hopes God exists. (*Convincing and unequivocal evidence definitely required to fulfill that hope). Hope is something we have in common and is a good foundation f ...[text shortened]... ould be polite to atheists and merely hope he exists. (That would be the Christian thing to do).

Faith is not just hope. Faith is actually putting action to that hope.

A Christian actually has skin in the game while everyone else is just sitting around hoping..

Originally posted by FMF
I spent a good chunk of my life examining your claim (and it's the claim of other Christians too, of course) and I even subscribed to it for a long time, but I no longer do.

Interestingly, pretty much all religions around the world see Jesus as God inspired.......except maybe Judaism for obvious reasons. 😛

Originally posted by whodey
Interestingly, pretty much all religions around the world see Jesus as God inspired.......except maybe Judaism for obvious reasons. 😛

No they dont, one billion plus Muslims dont and there are numerous Christian sects that reject the claim that Christ is God.

Originally posted by vistesd
I think the word “believe” causes some confusion, both for Christians and non-Christians responding to its use by Christians.

When the KJV translation was done, I think it still meant “to hold dear”, and was not a bad (albeit perhaps somewhat poetic) translation of pisteo. And it would have been perfectly coherent to say something like: “I beli ...[text shortened]... at they “believe” (think) to be true—but I think that hope is also sufficient to activate faith.

Interesting topic Vistesd. .. let me add a couple points.

I have spend a lot of time discussing this with many Christians here who are of the opinion that 'believe' means to profess they believe with their mouth ie to be of the opinion that Christ did exist. They quote Paul :

Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

There is a lot of support in the Bible for your statement that “Believing and loving are closely allied.." And loving is closely allied to obedience to the commandments of Christ. Christ said:

Joh 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
Joh_15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

To believe means to love God.
To love God is to keep the commandments of Christ
To keep the commandments means you will abide in Gods love.

I can add more there but it is clear that believing [in the Bible] is not just about holding an opinion or thinking that something is true.