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I used to attend what many refer to today as church, but

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
I no longer attend because....... ?
I stopped attending church because of my promise that I would do my best to try to convert to Christianity.

I had promised my wife (now ex-wife) that I would try to find a way to become a Christian. In order to do this, I started going with her to church, reading the Bible, reading the Catechism, etc.

When I went to church, I'd invariably leave either angry or sad, but always drained and frustrated. There was always something in the mass - whether in the homily, the readings, or something else - that didn't sit right with me.

Eventually, I realized that going to church was pushing me away from my goal of finding a way to convert. I realized that I'd be better off just staying home, since making no progress to my goal was better than actively getting farther from it.

Because of that realization, It was at this point that I also realized that I just wasn't ever going to become a Christian.
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
If you are in a converting mood then you must have converted from some where else--?
Not really. I started the process being pretty ambivalent to religion. I (incorrectly) called myself an agnostic because I didn't care enough about religion to take any particular position.

It was through my research, reading, investigation, and personal reflection aimed at becoming a Christian that I realized that I was an atheist... and an atheist with a pretty strong revulsion to a lot of Christian doctrine.

Where be you from-?
just asking :)-
Canada. Why?
 

GodInUs

Member
I stopped attending church because of my promise that I would do my best to try to convert to Christianity.

I had promised my wife (now ex-wife) that I would try to find a way to become a Christian. In order to do this, I started going with her to church, reading the Bible, reading the Catechism, etc.

When I went to church, I'd invariably leave either angry or sad, but always drained and frustrated. There was always something in the mass - whether in the homily, the readings, or something else - that didn't sit right with me.

Eventually, I realized that going to church was pushing me away from my goal of finding a way to convert. I realized that I'd be better off just staying home, since making no progress to my goal was better than actively getting farther from it.

Because of that realization, It was at this point that I also realized that I just wasn't ever going to become a Christian.

Many who attend will not of course agree with this but followers of Jesus today KNOW there is no such thing as GOING TO church or mass, they know and realize that they are His church. Church is not a place you go to or attend each week and it doesn't belong to ANY man of flesh/blood. True Christianity is a relationship with God, not a religion of a set do's and don'ts, when you have His Spirit living in you, it becomes a journey, a relationship you take on, and as time goes on you begin to gradually change by the leading and guidance of His Spirit that lives and dwells on the inside of you. It's not about going to find a church since you already are His church, and it's not about needing a pastor or a priest when the same Holy Spirit they have in them, you have as well. American Christianity, it's BIG Business these days. You have to attend, you have to shut your mouth and listen while no one else gets to speak, yeah! Sure! Right! Uhuh! NO! A supernatural relationship with Almighty God is what it's all about.
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
Many who attend will not of course agree with this but followers of Jesus today KNOW there is no such thing as GOING TO church or mass, they know and realize that they are His church. Church is not a place you go to or attend each week and it doesn't belong to ANY man of flesh/blood. True Christianity is a relationship with God, not a religion of a set do's and don'ts, when you have His Spirit living in you, it becomes a journey, a relationship you take on, and as time goes on you begin to gradually change by the leading and guidance of His Spirit that lives and dwells on the inside of you. It's not about going to find a church since you already are His church, and it's not about needing a pastor or a priest when the same Holy Spirit they have in them, you have as well. American Christianity, it's BIG Business these days. You have to attend, you have to shut your mouth and listen while no one else gets to speak, yeah! Sure! Right! Uhuh! NO! A supernatural relationship with Almighty God is what it's all about.
I get the sense that you're responding to points I didn't make. Regardless, I've never seen any sign that any person has a "supernatural relationship with Almighty God."
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
This has nothing to do with being a Christian

Some Jews are Christians
Jesus was/is a jew

Can't we just get along-? :)- as one

just asking
This is the second time in this thread that you've tried to tell someone that you know their mind better than they do. I'm not sure why you didn't learn your lesson after @ChristineM corrected you, but I'm not going to play this game with you either.
 

savagewind

Veteran Member
Premium Member
"supernatural relationship with Almighty God."
I think that a relationship with God is supernatural, of course. My relationship with God just means that I trust God to lead me and to correct me.

I think that "the Lord is my shepherd so I shall not want" means that I have to seek for myself what God has for me and not what I want for myself. THEY say it means that God is a person's provider. I don't believe that is the correct meaning. I think that it is my job to provide for myself what God allows for me. It includes the good and the bad. The bad being discipline because who likes it? I love it because it corrects my direction. If I go away from God my Shepherd I experience a force that can be very uncomfortable which can force me back if I am willing. Willingness is what I pray for and thanks.
 

GodInUs

Member
I get the sense that you're responding to points I didn't make. Regardless, I've never seen any sign that any person has a "supernatural relationship with Almighty God."

You see what you see in the natural with your natural eyes, the supernatural is a whole another world. In the natural you mostly register things with your mind/brain. The supernatural is Spiritual, or can be, usually is anyways, your spirit. So you are right to say, "I've never seen any sign that any person has a "supernatural relationship with Almighty God." Things aren't like what they should be these days since Christianity is BIG Business and not about a relationship with God but rather in finding YOUR church and a superficial spiritual relationship with a so called pastor, good luck there. Take it however you want.
 

Rival

Si m'ait Dieus
Staff member
Premium Member
Just out of curiosity, can you name one Messianic prophecie that Jesus is supposedly not to haved fulfilled?
Didn't gather all the lost tribes back to Israel.

Didn't build the Third Temple because the Second hadn't been destroyed yet.

Wasn't a King.

Didn't make the nations around realise that the G-d of Israel is the True G-d.

Didn't make it so that people know G-d and don't need to be told.

Didn't restore Israel to being a Kingdom.

Didn't bring peace for all the Jewish people.
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
You see what you see in the natural with your natural eyes, the supernatural is a whole another world. In the natural you mostly register things with your mind/brain. The supernatural is Spiritual, or can be, usually is anyways, your spirit. So you are right to say, "I've never seen any sign that any person has a "supernatural relationship with Almighty God."
Don't get hung up on the term "supernatural." I only used it because I was quoting you.

I don't look at the world in terms of "natural" and "supernatural." I look at the world in terms of "things we're justified believing in" and "things we aren't."

Now... I do notice that a lot of people like to slap the label "supernatural" on things we don't have justification for belief in. Still, I don't see the division as anything real or valid. By the way most people use "supernatural," it seems like they mean "what I don't have good reason to believe is real, but want to believe in anyway."

Things aren't like what they should be these days since Christianity is BIG Business and not about a relationship with God but rather in finding YOUR church and a superficial spiritual relationship with a so called pastor, good luck there. Take it however you want.
My wife's church certainly wasn't a big business.

My goal at the time was specifically to decide whether I could get baptized in good conscience. Rather, my goal was to stop my wife from bursting into tears at the thought of her unbaptized husband ending up in Hell.

As part of that, I considered God, but since I never even got to the point of seeing good reason to believe he exists at all, I certainly didn't pursue a relationship with him. That would have been putting the cart before the horse a bit, no?
 

GodInUs

Member
Didn't gather all the lost tribes back to Israel.

Didn't build the Third Temple because the Second hadn't been destroyed yet.

Wasn't a King.

Didn't make the nations around realise that the G-d of Israel is the True G-d.

Didn't make it so that people know G-d and don't need to be told.

Didn't restore Israel to being a Kingdom.

Didn't bring peace for all the Jewish people.

Those are very interesting viewpoints, you got me thinking (which is not often these days with the dribble people out there babble or their clueless to begin with, but make it sound like their Godstein) I would be interested in hearing your reasoning/thoughts on each one and discussing it all, but it would take too much time on here. Not that my intentions would be to try to prove your wrong but just to see what YOUR thoughts and reasoning's are, NOT to have to feel like, well, by golly they have to or need to be like MINE!! Not at all, that would be arrogance and a small tiny brain. Anyways thanks for the info. there, interesting the way you see it like that, hhhmmm.
 

GodInUs

Member
Don't get hung up on the term "supernatural." I only used it because I was quoting you.

I don't look at the world in terms of "natural" and "supernatural." I look at the world in terms of "things we're justified believing in" and "things we aren't."

Now... I do notice that a lot of people like to slap the label "supernatural" on things we don't have justification for belief in. Still, I don't see the division as anything real or valid. By the way most people use "supernatural," it seems like they mean "what I don't have good reason to believe is real, but want to believe in anyway."


My wife's church certainly wasn't a big business.

My goal at the time was specifically to decide whether I could get baptized in good conscience. Rather, my goal was to stop my wife from bursting into tears at the thought of her unbaptized husband ending up in Hell.

As part of that, I considered God, but since I never even got to the point of seeing good reason to believe he exists at all, I certainly didn't pursue a relationship with him. That would have been putting the cart before the horse a bit, no?

Let me say this first, I'm definitely not one to debate or to TRY and prove someone else wrong, NOPE! I listen and question and let the other person just be themselves and if we get somewhere in agreement we do so and if we don't, so be it! It's o.k., you've got your beliefs and I've got mine.

This is what I believe: I grew up going to "so called" church, when in actual fact you or we don't "go to" church. As a follower of Jesus Christ he doesn't instruct me or anyone else to go to some building that people prefer to label as their own responsibility. Meaning my responsibility as being in a relationship with God is not me having to go to a so called, church when in actual fact I am His church. His followers make up His church, not some building or place. It's my responsibility to be His church, NOT to go to a church, no such thing when it comes to a relationship. Now we're not suppose to forsake the assembling together with other believers, which church building people these days loooooooove to use Hebrews 10:25 to justify well you need to be in church, you have to go to church. Clueless! That's not even the correct literal translation of that particular passage they TRY to justify their church attendance by, foolish, silly, uneducated. Sadly, yeah sure we're suppose to fellowship one with the other but in order to do that today you have to go and choose to pick one and join one of their cults. The Bible they use states that one part of the body (of Christ) is not as important as any other. But today YOU need a church of your own (when it's no man's, but God's alone, not theirs) and you need a pastor to feed you spiritually. So this pastor is more important than all the other body, he's the only one who gets to talk and share, no one else, just him. I could go on with that one, I'll spare ya! Anyways A LOT out there today is a bunch of misled sheep, but if you've heard their way is broad and many enter through it. So all this you need to do this - CHECK!! and this - CHECK!! So many people out there telling others they need to do this or that and they have no clue whatsoever themselves. The same ones Jesus and John the Baptist came against too, vipers, whitewashed dish they called them. Going around making themselves look and sound like others were suppose to do what they were told because they were the chosen few, ya know, like MY pastor ;).
 

Faithofchristian

Well-Known Member
Didn't gather all the lost tribes back to Israel.

Didn't build the Third Temple because the Second hadn't been destroyed yet.

Wasn't a King.

Didn't make the nations around realise that the G-d of Israel is the True G-d.

Didn't make it so that people know G-d and don't need to be told.

Didn't restore Israel to being a Kingdom.

Didn't bring peace for all the Jewish people.

Well for one thing, you got those Prophecy's all mix up.
As did Israel back at that time of Christ Jesus.

Where Jesus was to come as the Lamb of God
Israel misunderstood the scriptures and thought Jesus was to come as a king.

Jesus coming as a king wasn't to happen until his second coming and not his first coming.
And as for the 12 tribes of Israel,
all the 12 tribes were all there at the time of Jesus, so there would be no gathering together of the 12 tribes.
The 12 tribes of Israel didn't get scattered until around the year 70 AD when Jerusalem was destroyed.

The disciple James wrote about the 12 tribes of Israel, in his book of James 1:1
"James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting"

So there were no lost tribes of Israel, seeing all the 12 tribes of Israel were there at the time of Jesus.

The 12 tribes of Israel didn't get scattered until around the year 70 AD when Jerusalem was destroyed. And then the 12 tribes of Israel were scattered throughout the known world at that time.

You see what your doing is the same thing that Israel did, is get the Prophecy's all mix up.
Where Christ was to come as the Lamb of God.
Israel misunderstood the Prophecy's and had Christ coming as a king.
As for Christ coming as a king will happen at his second coming.

The book of Revelation 17:14---"These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful"

Revelation 19:16---"And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King Of Kings, And Lord Of Lords"

This all takes place at Christ second coming and at this time then all the 12 tribes of Israel are gathered back.
 
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