I’m curious about who still practices their faith.

Ever try small home groups? Iron sharpens Iron. The Holy Spirit works through His Body, it's a fact. Personally, I am part of a local Church I find quite uplifting. If you ever find a PERFECT Church and join it.....that will be the end of it's perfection!

 

So you judge people as wishy washy? Aren't you doing the exact same thing you accuse them of? My Dad, an unbeliever, once visited a Church that we once attended with my family. His comment to my step mother at the time was "Did you see how fake everyone was when they were singing? Holding their hands in the air and swaying back in forth?" I told my stepmother that I wasn't watching, my focus was on my Lord......ought to try it sometime. The problem with most their eyes are on people. If they really are "Believers" their eyes will be on the Lord.

 

I hear ya. I am Bible believing so my church revolves around studying the Bible. We have fellowship, support each other and they are my church family. It's a good fit and "sharpens my iron". I know when people move away we pray for God to lead them to their church family and people are lead to different churches. Churches...even if denomination are the same...are different... and a person might thrive in one but might not in another.

 

I should say at this point that I am extremely respectful to people of faith if they don’t cherry-pick which of their sacred texts they choose to venerate.

Once they do, my respect totally evaporates.

Too many examples to list.

 

I have seen those Greek writings, and it's exactly the same alphabet. The alphabet was stabilized 2,400 years ago in Athens during the classical era. Before that in archaic and ancient Greece, the alphabet was still developing and it was slightly different in different areas. The only difference with the writings today and that of the Classical and later Hellenic era, is that the sentences run into one another because there are no commas or periods.

I don't know where you get your ideas from unless you're from a non Western country where history is taught differently, - either that or you're listening to the voices in your head. Don't, they lie!

 

Faith is the search for transcendental truth.
I need to be more empirical while also respecting it.
I will admit that I have a problem with Paul saying faith is the evidence of things not seen but that is colored by the fact that he was a mass murderer who never apologized for killing Christians and barely even spoke of Jesus as he created his own following. When the Romans killed him, I had no sympathy for him as I consider him to be a usurper of Jesus’ message. No one ever corroborated his road to Damascus story and it was one of the last time Jesus even came up.

 

I don't judge them as wishy washy, it's an observation based on what actually happened by seeing this example first hand. I said "people", not everyone, not all churches. So no actually.

You just proved my point and judged me by the point I bolded. I do focus very much on the Lord, I tried many churches and honestly I noticed I either stopped going because they twisted the Bible, using it to get money from people, or I stopped going due to the people and for me to stop going because of people something really bad had to happen REGULARLY. A lot of people go for the Lord and the community, when the community sucks it doesn't make people want to go. You can agree or disagree, that's fine.

People base things on their own experiences, not everyone elses. Frankly, I enjoy my prayer time in the morning and at night, and sometimes I watch a sermon online from a preacher that I like, so my focus is plenty on the Lord and not just on Sunday. I am glad you, sir have a good church it's hard to find these days.

 

I think a lot would be subjective to how one defines practicing one's faith. I don't attend church anymore, but that is mostly because I haven't found any near me that feel right. During my stint in the Navy, I have been in churches of several denominations. Some I would go back to in a heartbeat, others of the same denomination I wouldn't touch with a 10 meter cattle prod. So right now I am solitary (well with the one wife). I have friends and family who still practice at various levels. The shutdowns have hurt those who tend more towards central places of worships. I think the least affected have been my Wiccan siblings.

 

Stereotypical Christianity, I would say, is on the decline, and some of the worse ones, such as WBC, are being loud in their death throes.

 

Even as faithful, active Christians, not all take the bible as literal, or in the same literal interpretation as others. For example, since the sun, which is what we use to measure days, was not created until day 3, to me a literal interpretation of the creation story is that each day is one of God's days, not one of ours.

 

Even Angela Merkel has publicly said that Christianity is the most oppressed faith on the planet. If Christians are practicing their faith in secret then is that not a violation of Christian dogma? “Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is” Muslims are in no such danger of persecution so freely assemble virtually everywhere. Which faith is waning and which is waxing?

 

Is it though? It's one of the top religions in the world, and has spent centuries oppressing others, at least as far as the organized religion goes. I think it can as easily be claimed that Islam is the most persecuted, especially for the moderate Muslims due to the actions of the extremists. Furthermore, look at all the flack the Jews have taken over the past couple of centuries. A whole war was about, among other things, their persecution.

 

Literal faith has historically been successful while it’s more wishy washy elements have not. Why follow a faith if you don’t see it as literal?

 

Outside of Myanmar and the Uighurs in China where exactly has Islam been oppressed?

The Koran is also clear about rooting out infidels and is open ended. Point to me anywhere in the Bible about open ended rooting out of non Christians.


ﮨ ﮩ ﮪ ﮫ ﮬ ﮭ ﮮ ﮯ ﮰ ﮱ ﯓ ﯔ ﯕ ﯖ ﯗﯘ ﯙ ﯚ ﯛ ﯜ ﯝ ﯞ ﯟ ﯠﯡ ﯢ ﯣ ﯤ ﯥ

SAHIH INTERNATIONAL
And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakah, let them [go] on their way. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.

Surah 9:5

Find anything like this in the Christian Bible.

 

My one wife was Lutheran, and occasionally calls it "Catholic Lite; all the ritual with half the guilt."

 

"Dear God, Please protect me from your fan club!"

 

Exactly why should Ms. Merkel's view or word on this be any more accurate than another's? While the more obvious persecutions have gone down, we experienced the spike around and following 9/11, and muslims are as much persecuted, again particularly the more moderate ones, as they do persecution.

 

Given that Jesus himself used parable and metaphor, so why would not large portions of the bible also include these. Plus as my example shows, my literal interpretation might not match yours. How can you claim a creation day is the same as a current day when the measuring tool wasn't created until the third day?

 

While, the Koran does openly call for it's persecution, Christianity has historically engaged in it, using scripture to support it. The Inquisitions and the Crusades are prime examples of such. Not to mention people using Exodus 22:18 "Suffer not a witch to live" as a reason to claim others as witches, and have them killed or imprisoned. Christianity has done it's share of persecution.

Of course there is also the fact that persecution is subjective. There are people today who want to claim that allowing a legal definition of marriage other than the supposed Christian one, is persecution of Christianity.

 

You can’t be serious after Merkel almost single handedly internally introduced the migrant crisis into Europe. After the New Years 300 sexual assaults on German women that Germany tried to cover up because they were done by Muslim migrants. The German government said try to understand that these are men that have never seen a woman in a miniskirt before!!!?? I would have castrated every one and made it into dog food but if you want to excuse it and wring your hands and talk about the poor Muslims then you disgust me. I have 4 daughters and if this happened to them I would find these Muslim men and torture kill them myself.

 

I’m not even a Christian anymore but I see it as far more peaceful than Islam. If you want to drag the medieval Christian world into this be my guest but this is 2020 and no Christian believes this BS anymore but Muslims are stuck in the medieval world.

 

Paul always stayed true to Jesus ...I'm not where you are getting that he wasn't. If you read Acts, and Paul's preaching, his sermons sound no different then sermans within a Baptist church today...sharing the gospel and good news.

 

Who outside of Muslims still uses antiquated scripture to murder the infidels and where in the Bible is open ended killing of infidels accepted? Muslims are acting on the fundamentals of their scriptural faith while Christians who acted execrably were not!

 

Paul used Jesus to further his own grifting ministry. Yes many churches still use his teaching and if Jehovah God exists, I think they will be judged for that. The Romans killed him. One of the few “Christian” murders I can understand. Paul needed the suffering of Christ and little else according to Nietzsche and I agree.

 

This does nothing to say why her opinion that Christians are the most persecuted religion should be held up as fact. The Muslims in question certainly were not targeting Christian women. There were targeting any woman, and religion be damn. I agree that what the German government did was wrong, but it is still a red herring to the point and the question.