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How Important It Is To Have Jesus Christ As Your Personal Savior

Since this is a discussion not debate thread, I'll quote Meher Baba who in various ways indicated that a truthful, honorable atheist is more blessed than someone who says that they are a believer but does not put that belief into practice.

Everyone is an atheist until he finds God by actual experience. It is better to be an atheist and be honest in words and deeds than to pose as a lover of God and lead a dishonest life. God is completely independent. He needs no worship. He only wants us to be honest. Who is an atheist? « Avatar Meher Baba Hyderabad Center


How many Christians follow Christ's teaching to "turn the other cheek," or "to love thy neighbour as thyself?" How many Muslims follow Muhammad's precept to "hold God above everything else?" How many Hindus "bear the torch of righteousness at all cost?" How many Buddhists live the "life of pure compassion?" How many Zoroastrians "think truly, speak truly, act truly?" Meher Baba: My Silence Had To Be

From my point of view, far more blessed is the atheist who confidently discharges his worldly responsibilities, accepting them as his honorable duty, than the man who presumes he is a devout believer in God, yet shirks the responsibilities apportioned to him through Divine law and runs after Sadhus, Saints and Yogis, seeking relief from the suffering which ultimately would have pronounced his eternal Liberation. Messages
Thank you, Walter
 

danieldemol

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
As a universalist I believe God gives salvation to all who desire it regardless of their beliefs or lack thereof.

I happen not to believe in the need for Jesus as personal saviour.

In my opinion.
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
Faith involves believing without sufficient evidence. And that is a dereliction of the duty to think things out and to be skeptical.

But I do distinguish faith and confidence. I have confidence in my wife. I do because of a long series of experiences with her that allow me to predict her actions in many cases and to trust what she says.

Religious faith is nothing like that. Instead of their being a wife, there is an un-evidenced deity that you cannot comprehend, refuses to actually give evidence of existence that is clear to a non-believer, and seeing everything through 'faith colored glasses'. I see that as a type of self-delusion.

So, yes. I see faith as an evil.

In answer to the OP: I find it of negative value to have 'Jesus as your savior'. From what I can see, it wastes time and energy that could be better spent other places. But to each their own.
Faith can be an amplifier. I have seen it make decent people better and bad people worse. The absolute worst Christians that I have know of all tend to be into the very heavily faith based belief of "Once saved always saved". I will gladly deal with almost any non-believer instead.
 

PruePhillip

Well-Known Member
Faith isn't something I find to be a positive thing.

Jesus, if he existed, was a person who developed a following. He died. He remains dead. Very little that is written about him is accurate, especially in the Bible.

Such is my belief.

Two things about Jesus are super powerful
1 - that he was history's most famous person for a reason
2 - that as much as the Jews deny him as Christ, he is written about in their Tanakh
 

PruePhillip

Well-Known Member
Faith can be an amplifier. I have seen it make decent people better and bad people worse. The absolute worst Christians that I have know of all tend to be into the very heavily faith based belief of "Once saved always saved". I will gladly deal with almost any non-believer instead.

Yes, once saved always saved is a particularly deceptive doctine. It is crafted from various 'proof texts' and ignores any text which says otherwise.
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
Yes, once saved always saved is a particularly deceptive doctine. It is crafted from various 'proof texts' and ignores any text which says otherwise.
yes, deceptive is the word that I would choose. Quite often along with that is the belief that one can no longer sin. I cannot fathom where they got that from. But it appears that their rationale is that since they are saved anything that they do is not only alright with God, it is what God would want. So what they are doing cannot be a sin.
 

beenherebeforeagain

Rogue Animist
Premium Member
When I was young, I was a Christian. Then I wasn't a practicing Christian. In the last year or so I came to realize that I am not a Christian, as I don't believe any of the precepts (e.g., the Nicene Creed, etc.).

But I still had a born-again experience with Jesus when I was young; still remember and value it. But also value all that I have learned since then: not everything in the Bible is true. Very few of the stories and sayings in the Gospels are things that Jesus actually did or said; the rest of the New Testament is mostly irrelevant, as far as I am concerned.

So, I now call myself a Jesusan, because Jesus is my personal savior. But because I don't believe in the cosmogony and cosmology presented in the Bible and still represented among many Christians today, I really don't know what it means to say that I'm saved by Jesus. But it is important to me, personally.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Two things about Jesus are super powerful
1 - that he was history's most famous person for a reason
2 - that as much as the Jews deny him as Christ, he is written about in their Tanakh
I wouldn't say most famous. ;0]

There's certainly much to be said for the Roman and Greek pantheon of God's and demigods as well.

Can't be more famous than Thor, Zeus, Poseidon, or Apollo. Even Isis and Medusa have been made as beloved timeless well known icons throughout history.

Some, as most people are aware, have constellations in the sky named after them as well as planets in their honor.
 
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Polymath257

Think & Care
Staff member
Premium Member
Two things about Jesus are super powerful
1 - that he was history's most famous person for a reason
2 - that as much as the Jews deny him as Christ, he is written about in their Tanakh

1. You mean, after Buddha and Mohammad? They were people as well.

2. Such is what some believe. Others disagree.

And I don't see either as particularly 'powerful'.
 

Polymath257

Think & Care
Staff member
Premium Member
I wouldn't say most famous. ;0]

There's certainly much to be said for the Roman and Greek pantheon of God's and demigods as well.

Can't be more famous than Thor, Zeus, Poseidon, or Apollo. Even Isis and Medusa have been made as beloved timeless well known icons throughout history.

Well, he did say famous *person*.

Some, as most people are aware, have constellations in the sky named after them as well as planets in their honor.

Yep, hard to be more famous than Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Let alone Orion, Cassiopeia, and Perseus.
 
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