Hmm.
Oh! Good question. LOL I don't think everything in the bible is the truth.
This is probably why other christians and yourself have differing opinions. Most people who believe in christ and god believe the truth of scriptures. If this is not your foundation for truth, then when you say christ is your foundation, I have nothing else to go off of but my own experiences in The Church or scripture.
It wasn't meant as sarcasm. It is my opinion that people who smoke are not clear thinkers. It is my opinion that you are not thinking clearly.
I take medications and have neurological conditions. That aside, though, I came to christianity or christ and god from a different perspective. If I still practiced, I'd be all Catholic. Catholics have a more experiential view of christ rather than biblical. So, that's why this is hard for me to understand. I don't know your experience and you dont think everything in the bible is true, then I don't know what else to go off of. That's why I don't understand.
My belief in God is by Jesus Christ. I don't even know if HE was real.
I honestly don't understand that. One reason why is The Church is the physical proof that the body of christ thus christ exists. When Catholics join in communion and experience the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ in the Eucharist and communion of like believers, it's hard to deny that Christ is real. I'd assume this for most denominations and most christians in general.
Everyone grows at different paces though. If you're comfortable with belief, who am I to say you
need knowledge. Just to me it doesn't make sense to believe if you don't know. That isn't faith to me. Faith is trust in what you know is true without seeing it.
There is a difference between my belief in God changing me and God actually doing it. That I know.
I see them interrelated.
To trust a belief I have is to trust in myself. To worship God means to trust God solely. In my opinion. If I knew God existed I would be worshipping an image of my choosing. According to my belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter to me if God exists or not. The outcome will be the same with exercising faith.
That's pretty much the answer to the whole thread. Everyone follows christ and god differently or interprets it differently, I'll say.
In my opinion, most christians would put it like this (this is what I'm familar with):
To trust a belief I have to trust in god. To worship god means to trust god solely. In god's opinion, if I knew god existed I would be worshiping the image of god's choosing. According to the gospels of jesus christ, it would matter that god exists. The outcome would be different if god I didn't trust in god and god being my foundation as a motivation and means to exercise faith.
So far, I'm learning how people interpret christ from different ways. I would never say you don't believe in christ though.
Fair enough. I apologize. Please accept my apology.
You're good.
Do you have proof of this?
It would be proof if you believed the truth of the bible. If it's in the bible, to christians, it's true. The Moses account isn't written as a story but a literal account of Moses interactions with god. I can only quote and tell you my interpretation based on face value and my experiences as a Catholic.
Knew what? They knew that the spirit by Christ was real. I know that too.
Yes. They experienced it and heard it from christ himself. So from that, they claim knowledge not belief. Totally different perspective.
God does not exist for many people. Do you wish to explain that?
I can't find which quote this refers to. I'll look it up.
In my opinion, belief in god is subjective. People's knowledge is based on their personal experiences and interpretations of the world around them. So, my view that god does not exist to me is universal but to a christian it is false. Everyone is different and we come to our religions or morals different ways. Some with god. Some without god.
It's because we have a diversity of people. I can't remember what I said....
Obviously that text is about the people who actually saw him. Or not....I don't know!
Since you don't know if the bible is true, of course you would not know. It makes sense now.
I do not know what they do! I don't know what you do. I don't know what anybody does except I know what I do. I will compromise saying that my belief changed me. People think that belief has to be real. Why?
To me it's just naturally goes together. For example:
1. I experience suffering from my medical conditions.
2. I read the Dhamma and it talks about suffering and the nature of it
3. I believe in the Dhamma because it describes suffering in a way I can relate
4. I meditate and reflect and apply the Dhamma to my life
5. The application of the Dhamma changed my intellectual understanding and blind belief to that of fact
6. This fact changed my life and continues to do so
Once I have this fact it is considered knowledge. Something I know that is true not what I believe but have no idea why. I know why and how. That's why I follow it. I don't follow because I believe in the Dhamma. If that's the case, I'd still be christian. I believe in the Dhamma because I know it's true.
Belief in to me is trust another word for faith.
