I’m a Christian with very unique viewpoints and would like to hear people’s thoughts on them

[Legend_of_Shadow]

I’m a Christian with very unique viewpoints and would like to hear people’s thoughts on them. I’ll give some backstory of my life first so it’ll be easier for you guys to understand why I think the way I do. I have a habit of writing novel sized posts, so just a warning.

I’ve been a Christian since age 3. I’m now 22. My perception of Christianity has changed a lot over the years. My life experiences have been a huge factor.

A lot of what I mention will be ripe for debate, but I know this isn’t a debate forum, and my goal isn’t to question my individual beliefs, but rather to come to a clearer understand of whether my beliefs have been formed by erroneous logic or not. So I’m interested in if you guys think I’m basing my beliefs on logic, or if I’m letting the emotion of my past experiences get in the way.

I was a very devout Christian the first 8 years of my life. In Sunday School, I was almost always the first to answer questions, and possessed knowledge of the Bible that even stumped the pastors at times.

However, when I was 8 my dad lost his job and we were forced to move. My mom started constantly yelling at me out of stress, and was extremely restrictive of my activities out of fear. She’d been involved in a cult when she was younger, and wanted to make sure I stayed close to God so something similar never happened to me. As a result she extensively monitored everything I did. I was at timid kid, and my dad was scared of her too, so I grew up terrified of sinning, afraid of both what God and my mom would do.

When I was 18 I became bedridden due to an extremely rare side effect from depression medication I was on. This lasted two years, and for most of those two years doctors had no clue what was wrong. I constantly pleaded for God to heal me, as I was afraid of being helpless and miserable for the rest of my life.

Eventually doctors found a cure at age 20. For the next I did very little with my life, as I was terrified of life. But being bedridden had a plus, and I developed a yearning to no longer be a coward, and to live life the way I wanted instead of letting my anxiety dictate my life. On my 21st birthday I started a journey to reach that goal.

It’s now a year and a half later. I just recently achieved my goal. I’m now an optimist instead of a pessimist. Not only do I rarely experience anxiety, but hardly any situation stresses me out due to the coping mechanisms I developed myself and through my counselor. Even if I do become afraid, my motivation kicks in and the vast majority of the time I’ll do what I need to do. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been, and I understand myself better than I ever have before. But one thing that still confuses me is my relationship with God.

I’m very thankful to him for how he’s helped me. He healed an additional injury I had when I was bedridden that never heals unless you have surgery. And in the past year and a half of my life, during my journey, it’s absurd how well things have worked out every step of the way. I can’t believe things were merely coincidences. I’m very proud of how hard I worked to achieve my goal, but I don’t believe it would’ve been possible without his help.

Yet I feel the only reason I still follow God is out of gratitude of how he’s treated me. I don’t have any desire to read the Bible, I rarely ever pray, and I don’t desire a close relationship like when I was a kid. I go to church, but it doesn’t have a big effect on me.

Looking back on my life, I know that I extended my healing time when I was bedridden by relying too much on God instead of trying to find new doctors. Over-reliance on God was a theme throughout my life, and in the past year and a half I found my growth was at its best when I did things myself instead of looking to him for help. I feel like he would give me things to overcome, and my job was to do just that.

I also feel his treatment of people varies a lot. I’ve seen how people like my dad do their best to follow God yet end up miserable. They don’t get all the chances I did. I was a pretty cruddy person for a good portion of my life, yet God gave me a chance. But people who always followed him, who are really great people I’ve seen end up miserable, without the same chances.

I also disagree with him on certain things. I’ve never felt homosexuality was a sin. Some of the nicest people I know are gay, and I see no detriment to being homosexual. I don’t believe it’s a choice, and I feel that it’s absolutely horrible of God to allow people to be a certain way that they can’t change, and then tell them to change themselves. I recently read an article about a Christian who was gay and tried his entire life to change himself only to fail, and his misery broke my heart.

As a result I simply don’t feel that God is good. I feel he shows favoritism to certain people, such as myself, while ignoring some of his most devout followers, while being downright cruel to others, such as homosexuals.

I know no other Christians who feel like I do. And I would really like to hear what other people here think. Do you think my views are logical? Do you think I’m not seeing the big picture, or missing key information? Am I letting my emotions from past experiences influence my judgement? I’d really like to know. Thank you!

 

[Luciferi Baphomet]

I’m a Christian with very unique viewpoints and would like to hear people’s thoughts on them. I’ll give some backstory of my life first so it’ll be easier for you guys to understand why I think the way I do. I have a habit of writing novel sized posts, so just a warning.

I’ve been a Christian since age 3. I’m now 22. My perception of Christianity has changed a lot over the years. My life experiences have been a huge factor.

A lot of what I mention will be ripe for debate, but I know this isn’t a debate forum, and my goal isn’t to question my individual beliefs, but rather to come to a clearer understand of whether my beliefs have been formed by erroneous logic or not. So I’m interested in if you guys think I’m basing my beliefs on logic, or if I’m letting the emotion of my past experiences get in the way.

I was a very devout Christian the first 8 years of my life. In Sunday School, I was almost always the first to answer questions, and possessed knowledge of the Bible that even stumped the pastors at times.

However, when I was 8 my dad lost his job and we were forced to move. My mom started constantly yelling at me out of stress, and was extremely restrictive of my activities out of fear. She’d been involved in a cult when she was younger, and wanted to make sure I stayed close to God so something similar never happened to me. As a result she extensively monitored everything I did. I was at timid kid, and my dad was scared of her too, so I grew up terrified of sinning, afraid of both what God and my mom would do.

When I was 18 I became bedridden due to an extremely rare side effect from depression medication I was on. This lasted two years, and for most of those two years doctors had no clue what was wrong. I constantly pleaded for God to heal me, as I was afraid of being helpless and miserable for the rest of my life.

Eventually doctors found a cure at age 20. For the next I did very little with my life, as I was terrified of life. But being bedridden had a plus, and I developed a yearning to no longer be a coward, and to live life the way I wanted instead of letting my anxiety dictate my life. On my 21st birthday I started a journey to reach that goal.

It’s now a year and a half later. I just recently achieved my goal. I’m now an optimist instead of a pessimist. Not only do I rarely experience anxiety, but hardly any situation stresses me out due to the coping mechanisms I developed myself and through my counselor. Even if I do become afraid, my motivation kicks in and the vast majority of the time I’ll do what I need to do. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been, and I understand myself better than I ever have before. But one thing that still confuses me is my relationship with God.

I’m very thankful to him for how he’s helped me. He healed an additional injury I had when I was bedridden that never heals unless you have surgery. And in the past year and a half of my life, during my journey, it’s absurd how well things have worked out every step of the way. I can’t believe things were merely coincidences. I’m very proud of how hard I worked to achieve my goal, but I don’t believe it would’ve been possible without his help.

Yet I feel the only reason I still follow God is out of gratitude of how he’s treated me. I don’t have any desire to read the Bible, I rarely ever pray, and I don’t desire a close relationship like when I was a kid. I go to church, but it doesn’t have a big effect on me.

Looking back on my life, I know that I extended my healing time when I was bedridden by relying too much on God instead of trying to find new doctors. Over-reliance on God was a theme throughout my life, and in the past year and a half I found my growth was at its best when I did things myself instead of looking to him for help. I feel like he would give me things to overcome, and my job was to do just that.

I also feel his treatment of people varies a lot. I’ve seen how people like my dad do their best to follow God yet end up miserable. They don’t get all the chances I did. I was a pretty cruddy person for a good portion of my life, yet God gave me a chance. But people who always followed him, who are really great people I’ve seen end up miserable, without the same chances.

I also disagree with him on certain things. I’ve never felt homosexuality was a sin. Some of the nicest people I know are gay, and I see no detriment to being homosexual. I don’t believe it’s a choice, and I feel that it’s absolutely horrible of God to allow people to be a certain way that they can’t change, and then tell them to change themselves. I recently read an article about a Christian who was gay and tried his entire life to change himself only to fail, and his misery broke my heart.

As a result I simply don’t feel that God is good. I feel he shows favoritism to certain people, such as myself, while ignoring some of his most devout followers, while being downright cruel to others, such as homosexuals.

I know no other Christians who feel like I do. And I would really like to hear what other people here think. Do you think my views are logical? Do you think I’m not seeing the big picture, or missing key information? Am I letting my emotions from past experiences influence my judgement? I’d really like to know. Thank you!

I have a question. Are you having doubts about god? I am just curious.

 

[Laika]

hey @Legend_of_Shadow

I'm glad to hear that you are doing well and have recovered from depression (as recovering from depression myself, I can empathise). As an Atheist I am not really in a position to comment on your beliefs as I lack indepth knowledge on Christianity and haven't read the bible (even if I am familar with it by its cultural influence). However, as you said "I simply don't feel that God is good", you may be interested in Dystheism (and more generally in the Problem of Evil as reconciling the existence of evil with an omnibenevolent understanding of god). I have only heard about this view as a hypothetical position a person can hold. If it does fit, I will be looking forward to discussing things with you at some point as that is rather unusal. You may be interested in the Christian DIR to meet fellow Christians and get to know them. Overall were pretty diverse here so being different is generally good for everyone on the forum as hearing different points of view challanges our preconceptions about how the world works.

I think all that there is left for me to say I hope you enjoy your time here and Welcome to RF.

 

[Lyndon]

I would hardly think its fair to blame God for what some Christians believe. or even to think the Bible is a fair and accurate portrayal of what God really is.

 

[Aiviu]

Am I letting my emotions from past experiences influence my judgement?

Depends on how your emotions made you decide to judge over others. That means by judging yourself - you judge over others. Sometimes it happened unintentionally but was good for your own protection. But if you say your life is wonderful that reveals a lot about the people who were and are with you. They all had their chances and they had taken them. Its not for you to judge a guilt to God who they had become. They may seem not to forgive some people or themself but inside they are million steps ahead of what they saying. ...

But if one insists to blame someone else but them - he wont enter the true happiness in life. For us is to take away the guilt we unintentionally gave others.

 

[Father Heathen]

Hmm.. have you looked into Gnostic Christianity?

 

[George-ananda]

Do you think I’m not seeing the big picture, or missing key information?

Yes, I think you are not seeing the big picture and missing key information and focusing too much on tiny time frames where the full wisdom of things can not be understood. I believe we are on a very, very long journey to become united with God (I believe in souls, experiences on higher planes, reincarnation, etc.). Every part of the struggles and joys plays a part in this grand story that ends in eternal peace and love for all of us. Any problems and sufferings people experience are short and temporary in the big picture.

 

[Luciferi Baphomet]

However, when I was 8 my dad lost his job and we were forced to move. My mom started constantly yelling at me out of stress, and was extremely restrictive of my activities out of fear. She’d been involved in a cult when she was younger, and wanted to make sure I stayed close to God so something similar never happened to me. As a result she extensively monitored everything I did. I was at timid kid, and my dad was scared of her too, so I grew up terrified of sinning, afraid of both what God and my mom would do.

• What kind of cult was your mom in?
  
• Yelling at someone so nothing similar won't happen to you I am not sure about that. My step mom screamed and b*tched at me telling me that Satan is evil.
  
• Their is not nothing to be terrified of sinning. Sin is not real. It was made to control the mind so you can obey god.

 

[Luciferi Baphomet]

Yet I feel the only reason I still follow God is out of gratitude of how he’s treated me. I don’t have any desire to read the Bible, I rarely ever pray, and I don’t desire a close relationship like when I was a kid. I go to church, but it doesn’t have a big effect on me.

Are you afraid to know what is actually in the bible?

 

[First Baseman]

I’m a Christian with very unique viewpoints and would like to hear people’s thoughts on them. I’ll give some backstory of my life first so it’ll be easier for you guys to understand why I think the way I do. I have a habit of writing novel sized posts, so just a warning.

I’ve been a Christian since age 3. I’m now 22. My perception of Christianity has changed a lot over the years. My life experiences have been a huge factor.

A lot of what I mention will be ripe for debate, but I know this isn’t a debate forum, and my goal isn’t to question my individual beliefs, but rather to come to a clearer understand of whether my beliefs have been formed by erroneous logic or not. So I’m interested in if you guys think I’m basing my beliefs on logic, or if I’m letting the emotion of my past experiences get in the way.

I was a very devout Christian the first 8 years of my life. In Sunday School, I was almost always the first to answer questions, and possessed knowledge of the Bible that even stumped the pastors at times.

However, when I was 8 my dad lost his job and we were forced to move. My mom started constantly yelling at me out of stress, and was extremely restrictive of my activities out of fear. She’d been involved in a cult when she was younger, and wanted to make sure I stayed close to God so something similar never happened to me. As a result she extensively monitored everything I did. I was at timid kid, and my dad was scared of her too, so I grew up terrified of sinning, afraid of both what God and my mom would do.

When I was 18 I became bedridden due to an extremely rare side effect from depression medication I was on. This lasted two years, and for most of those two years doctors had no clue what was wrong. I constantly pleaded for God to heal me, as I was afraid of being helpless and miserable for the rest of my life.

Eventually doctors found a cure at age 20. For the next I did very little with my life, as I was terrified of life. But being bedridden had a plus, and I developed a yearning to no longer be a coward, and to live life the way I wanted instead of letting my anxiety dictate my life. On my 21st birthday I started a journey to reach that goal.

It’s now a year and a half later. I just recently achieved my goal. I’m now an optimist instead of a pessimist. Not only do I rarely experience anxiety, but hardly any situation stresses me out due to the coping mechanisms I developed myself and through my counselor. Even if I do become afraid, my motivation kicks in and the vast majority of the time I’ll do what I need to do. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been, and I understand myself better than I ever have before. But one thing that still confuses me is my relationship with God.

I’m very thankful to him for how he’s helped me. He healed an additional injury I had when I was bedridden that never heals unless you have surgery. And in the past year and a half of my life, during my journey, it’s absurd how well things have worked out every step of the way. I can’t believe things were merely coincidences. I’m very proud of how hard I worked to achieve my goal, but I don’t believe it would’ve been possible without his help.

Yet I feel the only reason I still follow God is out of gratitude of how he’s treated me. I don’t have any desire to read the Bible, I rarely ever pray, and I don’t desire a close relationship like when I was a kid. I go to church, but it doesn’t have a big effect on me.

Looking back on my life, I know that I extended my healing time when I was bedridden by relying too much on God instead of trying to find new doctors. Over-reliance on God was a theme throughout my life, and in the past year and a half I found my growth was at its best when I did things myself instead of looking to him for help. I feel like he would give me things to overcome, and my job was to do just that.

I also feel his treatment of people varies a lot. I’ve seen how people like my dad do their best to follow God yet end up miserable. They don’t get all the chances I did. I was a pretty cruddy person for a good portion of my life, yet God gave me a chance. But people who always followed him, who are really great people I’ve seen end up miserable, without the same chances.

I also disagree with him on certain things. I’ve never felt homosexuality was a sin. Some of the nicest people I know are gay, and I see no detriment to being homosexual. I don’t believe it’s a choice, and I feel that it’s absolutely horrible of God to allow people to be a certain way that they can’t change, and then tell them to change themselves. I recently read an article about a Christian who was gay and tried his entire life to change himself only to fail, and his misery broke my heart.

As a result I simply don’t feel that God is good. I feel he shows favoritism to certain people, such as myself, while ignoring some of his most devout followers, while being downright cruel to others, such as homosexuals.

I know no other Christians who feel like I do. And I would really like to hear what other people here think. Do you think my views are logical? Do you think I’m not seeing the big picture, or missing key information? Am I letting my emotions from past experiences influence my judgement? I’d really like to know. Thank you!

Every Christian experiences crises of faith. It sounds to me like that is where you are right now. I would recommend reading the Psalms so you can experience what King David did when he went through crises of faith.

God won't give up on you. Don't give up on Him!

 

[Luciferi Baphomet]

Looking back on my life, I know that I extended my healing time when I was bedridden by relying too much on God instead of trying to find new doctors. Over-reliance on God was a theme throughout my life, and in the past year and a half I found my growth was at its best when I did things myself instead of looking to him for help. I feel like he would give me things to overcome, and my job was to do just that.

I also feel his treatment of people varies a lot. I’ve seen how people like my dad do their best to follow God yet end up miserable. They don’t get all the chances I did. I was a pretty cruddy person for a good portion of my life, yet God gave me a chance. But people who always followed him, who are really great people I’ve seen end up miserable, without the same chances.

The problem is the some people rely way to much on god instead of getting into reality and getting real help.
One of the cruel things about god is that he likes to see people beg and pray to him. Only very few will get healed by him so others can believe he will heal them too so they can continue to follow him. God only want worship. He doesn't really care if you are dying. That is how I see it.

 

[Legend_of_Shadow]

Thank you to everyone who responded! I’ll answer each question in this post:


Priestess of Lucifer: Do you mean in regards to whether I’m doubting whether he exists? If that’s the case, I’m not. I’ve seen too many improbable and miraculous things to do that. My doubt would be whether or not he’s good.

As for your next posts:

About the cult, I haven’t discussed it much with my mom, so my knowledge is very limited. We’ve patched things up between us, but I haven’t delved further into that particular matter. As for the yelling, that was just stress, although sometimes it would coincide with her desire to shelter me from everything she deemed as evil. Once she started yelling it just meant she overreacted more to those types of situations. As for being afraid of knowing what’s in the Bible, nah. I simply don’t see the point. I try reading it, and it doesn’t feel like I’m gaining anything from reading it, hence the lack of interest.

As for your last post:

I agree about too many people relying too much on God. I see it with my dad and it really saddens me. As for your last point, I don’t view God as simply cruel as I feel you do. Rather he seems…”human” to me. He wants to help people, doesn’t want to help others, and is cruel to others. So he seems to me almost like a normal person with miraculous powers. That’s a very different viewpoint from Christians who consider him perfect.

Laika: Thank you, and I’m glad to hear you’re doing better as well! The “Problem of Evil” is very interesting, and I’ll look more into that later. That got me to thinking, and I realize the big issue I have with God is simply I feel his treatment of people isn’t fair. If he chose to create the world and stand back and watch things unfold I doubt I’d be upset, although I’d probably be indifferent to him. But I feel he treats people very differently and I don’t think that’s right.

Lyndon: How could I get an accurate portrayal of God if not from the Bible? The Bible is an integral part of Christianity. Where else would I go to find out about him?

Aiviu: The way you worded things confuses me a bit, but if I understand correctly, you’re saying that it’s not fair to blame God for people being miserable because I can’t see the choices they themselves make? If that’s what you’re saying then I think that’s a very fair point to make. The reason I personally don’t feel that way is because that would mean the reason I succeeded and they failed is because I’m stronger than them. I know I’m stronger than some people I know, but I see a lot of people I consider stronger than myself suffer, so it’s difficult for me to share your belief.

Father Heathen: I’ve never actually looked into another religion before.

George-ananda: You have a very similar belief to a lot of Christians I know. I feel similar in regards to the fact that my current journey is short and temporary, and it’ll eventually end in eternal peace and love. (Heaven) That being said, my whole struggle with my belief about God is whether he’s “good” or not. In that, I feel I follow him now due to gratitude, but I’m not very devoted with him as I don’t feel he’s “good,” and thus don’t desire to follow him that devoutly. I miss the happiness I felt in a relationship with him as a kid, but I doubt I’ll ever find it again unless my perception of him changes.

First Baseman: Thank you for the support. I don’t want to give up on him unless I’m 100% confident in my beliefs. That’s why I made a topic like this, because I want to get a clearer understanding of God.

 

[First Baseman]

Just remember that God loves you no matter what and that Satan will do his utmost best to convince you that God doesn't really love you.

You might try reading Job or having someone explain the story of Job to you. It might help.

 

[Luciferi Baphomet]

As for your next posts:

About the cult, I haven’t discussed it much with my mom, so my knowledge is very limited. We’ve patched things up between us, but I haven’t delved further into that particular matter. As for the yelling, that was just stress, although sometimes it would coincide with her desire to shelter me from everything she deemed as evil. Once she started yelling it just meant she overreacted more to those types of situations. As for being afraid of knowing what’s in the Bible, nah. I simply don’t see the point. I try reading it, and it doesn’t feel like I’m gaining anything from reading it, hence the lack of interest.

So what do you mean that you aren't gaining anything from reading it?

 

[Luciferi Baphomet]

As for your last post:
He wants to help people, doesn’t want to help others, and is cruel to others.

What do you mean?

 

[Unveiled Artist]

I’m a Christian with very unique viewpoints and would like to hear people’s thoughts on them. I’ll give some backstory of my life first so it’ll be easier for you guys to understand why I think the way I do. I have a habit of writing novel sized posts, so just a warning.

I’ve been a Christian since age 3. I’m now 22. My perception of Christianity has changed a lot over the years. My life experiences have been a huge factor.

A lot of what I mention will be ripe for debate, but I know this isn’t a debate forum, and my goal isn’t to question my individual beliefs, but rather to come to a clearer understand of whether my beliefs have been formed by erroneous logic or not. So I’m interested in if you guys think I’m basing my beliefs on logic, or if I’m letting the emotion of my past experiences get in the way.

I was a very devout Christian the first 8 years of my life. In Sunday School, I was almost always the first to answer questions, and possessed knowledge of the Bible that even stumped the pastors at times.

However, when I was 8 my dad lost his job and we were forced to move. My mom started constantly yelling at me out of stress, and was extremely restrictive of my activities out of fear. She’d been involved in a cult when she was younger, and wanted to make sure I stayed close to God so something similar never happened to me. As a result she extensively monitored everything I did. I was at timid kid, and my dad was scared of her too, so I grew up terrified of sinning, afraid of both what God and my mom would do.

When I was 18 I became bedridden due to an extremely rare side effect from depression medication I was on. This lasted two years, and for most of those two years doctors had no clue what was wrong. I constantly pleaded for God to heal me, as I was afraid of being helpless and miserable for the rest of my life.

Eventually doctors found a cure at age 20. For the next I did very little with my life, as I was terrified of life. But being bedridden had a plus, and I developed a yearning to no longer be a coward, and to live life the way I wanted instead of letting my anxiety dictate my life. On my 21st birthday I started a journey to reach that goal.

It’s now a year and a half later. I just recently achieved my goal. I’m now an optimist instead of a pessimist. Not only do I rarely experience anxiety, but hardly any situation stresses me out due to the coping mechanisms I developed myself and through my counselor. Even if I do become afraid, my motivation kicks in and the vast majority of the time I’ll do what I need to do. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been, and I understand myself better than I ever have before. But one thing that still confuses me is my relationship with God.

I’m very thankful to him for how he’s helped me. He healed an additional injury I had when I was bedridden that never heals unless you have surgery. And in the past year and a half of my life, during my journey, it’s absurd how well things have worked out every step of the way. I can’t believe things were merely coincidences. I’m very proud of how hard I worked to achieve my goal, but I don’t believe it would’ve been possible without his help.

Yet I feel the only reason I still follow God is out of gratitude of how he’s treated me. I don’t have any desire to read the Bible, I rarely ever pray, and I don’t desire a close relationship like when I was a kid. I go to church, but it doesn’t have a big effect on me.

Looking back on my life, I know that I extended my healing time when I was bedridden by relying too much on God instead of trying to find new doctors. Over-reliance on God was a theme throughout my life, and in the past year and a half I found my growth was at its best when I did things myself instead of looking to him for help. I feel like he would give me things to overcome, and my job was to do just that.

I also feel his treatment of people varies a lot. I’ve seen how people like my dad do their best to follow God yet end up miserable. They don’t get all the chances I did. I was a pretty cruddy person for a good portion of my life, yet God gave me a chance. But people who always followed him, who are really great people I’ve seen end up miserable, without the same chances.

I also disagree with him on certain things. I’ve never felt homosexuality was a sin. Some of the nicest people I know are gay, and I see no detriment to being homosexual. I don’t believe it’s a choice, and I feel that it’s absolutely horrible of God to allow people to be a certain way that they can’t change, and then tell them to change themselves. I recently read an article about a Christian who was gay and tried his entire life to change himself only to fail, and his misery broke my heart.

As a result I simply don’t feel that God is good. I feel he shows favoritism to certain people, such as myself, while ignoring some of his most devout followers, while being downright cruel to others, such as homosexuals.

I know no other Christians who feel like I do. And I would really like to hear what other people here think. Do you think my views are logical? Do you think I’m not seeing the big picture, or missing key information? Am I letting my emotions from past experiences influence my judgement? I’d really like to know. Thank you!

My first impression was, out of all you have gone through, what you experience and gratitude for god, and goals you have achieve, among other things, I think maybe your view of god is changing based on the reflections of other people's relationship with god. Kind of like "I am happy that I received an A on my test and now I see someone has Fs and now my A doesn't sound as good because the teacher is not being fair to give other people As as well." Maybe see that reflection as as way to help other people see their "Fs" as starting points as you had been to get to those As.

Maybe see it from the person's perspective rather than god's. I don't know how to see god "doing" anything to people. I feel if that is how you feel (and especially if it comes from the Bible), maybe read the Bible from a people perspective not a god perspective.

For example, god did not say homosexuality is a sin. He said sexual perversion is a sin. (Case in point italics unrelated to point) Homosexuality is an orientation. Sexual perversion from same-sex relations to rape are actions. So god is not being cruel to GBLTS individuals. He is looking down on people (GBLTSetc) and sin (unfortunately, both) because of their behavior gay or straight; it doesn't matter. He singles people out based on their behavior not their sexual orientation. This is any sin not just sexual perversion.

I think it would help with the homosexual issue is to understand homosexuality as a sexual orientation; and, that god looks down on sin/action not the person. So, basically, GBLTS people are who they are and blessed by god unless they commit actions that separate themselves from god (sin). Their sexual orientations have nothing to do with it. Maybe see it that way?​

So, it isn't favoritism if you see it as the behavior of the person and how his or her relationship with god rather than the the character of god.

I do feel, and it is normal, that your emotions are kind of steering your perspective. I agree with @First Baseman that it could be a spiritual crisis; and, that's expected in any spiritual walk. In my words, I'd say see the Bible from a people perspective. I say that because today we have so many interpretations of how Christians relate to scripture and each view is personal to the person who believes it. 3,000 years ago wasn't that long ago. Biblical people are by no means an exclusion to this.

Also, I'd keep in mind the Bible was put together by the Church not by god himself. So, my personal advice is go back to prayer and speak to god face to face. Use the Bible as commentary but I personally wouldn't use it as a foundation to my faith. God is the foundation of your faith.

That's my view. I see using the bible as a foundation a form of idolism. So, if you find different ways of looking at how the bible is written, who wrote it, and why from a people's perspective, maybe you can talk more to god and try not to focus on what god doesn't like based on the bible unless he told you personally.

This is just my opinion. If anyone wishes to challenge it, please create another thread.

 

[Akivah]

And I would really like to hear what other people here think. Do you think my views are logical? Do you think I’m not seeing the big picture, or missing key information?

G-d is the ultimate goodness. G-d created this world for our pleasure and told us the best way for us to act in it.

G-d gives help in the way and manner that the recipient can use it. He could provide more aid to a person that needs more help. In addition, the souls might have earned merit from a previous life. And people can seem to get more aid from G-d based on that. Basically, we have no idea of why some people seem to have more blessed lives than others. It is impossible for us finite humans to see the entire picture. We just act in the best manner that we can.

 

[Luciferi Baphomet]

For example, god did not say homosexuality is a sin. He said sexual perversion is a sin. (Case in point italics unrelated to point) Homosexuality is an orientation. Sexual perversion from same-sex relations to rape are actions. So god is not being cruel to GBLTS individuals. He is looking down on people (GBLTSetc) and sin (unfortunately, both) because of their behavior gay or straight; it doesn't matter. He singles people out based on their behavior not their sexual orientation. This is any sin not just sexual perversion.

I thought the bible said that homosexuality is wrong. http://biblehub.com/leviticus/18-22.htm

 

[Legend_of_Shadow]

My first impression was, out of all you have gone through, what you experience and gratitude for god, and goals you have achieve, among other things, I think maybe your view of god is changing based on the reflections of other people's relationship with god. Kind of like "I am happy that I received an A on my test and now I see someone has Fs and now my A doesn't sound as good because the teacher is not being fair to give other people As as well." Maybe see that reflection as as way to help other people see their "Fs" as starting points as you had been to get to those As.

Maybe see it from the person's perspective rather than god's. I don't know how to see god "doing" anything to people. I feel if that is how you feel (and especially if it comes from the Bible), maybe read the Bible from a people perspective not a god perspective.

For example, god did not say homosexuality is a sin. He said sexual perversion is a sin. (Case in point italics unrelated to point) Homosexuality is an orientation. Sexual perversion from same-sex relations to rape are actions. So god is not being cruel to GBLTS individuals. He is looking down on people (GBLTSetc) and sin (unfortunately, both) because of their behavior gay or straight; it doesn't matter. He singles people out based on their behavior not their sexual orientation. This is any sin not just sexual perversion.

I think it would help with the homosexual issue is to understand homosexuality as a sexual orientation; and, that god looks down on sin/action not the person. So, basically, GBLTS people are who they are and blessed by god unless they commit actions that separate themselves from god (sin). Their sexual orientations have nothing to do with it. Maybe see it that way?​

So, it isn't favoritism if you see it as the behavior of the person and how his or her relationship with god rather than the the character of god.

I do feel, and it is normal, that your emotions are kind of steering your perspective. I agree with @First Baseman that it could be a spiritual crisis; and, that's expected in any spiritual walk. In my words, I'd say see the Bible from a people perspective. I say that because today we have so many interpretations of how Christians relate to scripture and each view is personal to the person who believes it. 3,000 years ago wasn't that long ago. Biblical people are by no means an exclusion to this.

Also, I'd keep in mind the Bible was put together by the Church not by god himself. So, my personal advice is go back to prayer and speak to god face to face. Use the Bible as commentary but I personally wouldn't use it as a foundation to my faith. God is the foundation of your faith.

That's my view. I see using the bible as a foundation a form of idolism. So, if you find different ways of looking at how the bible is written, who wrote it, and why from a people's perspective, maybe you can talk more to god and try not to focus on what god doesn't like based on the bible unless he told you personally.

This is just my opinion. If anyone wishes to challenge it, please create another thread.

Thank you very, very much for this. This post really opened my eyes. I think you’re spot on about my view on God being based on how others see him. I can’t read their minds, so I can just assume they aren’t being treated fairly. And I feel I’m judging God too much for human’s actions as well.

For example, homosexuality. I’ve studied the scriptures intensely, and agree with you that God doesn’t say homosexuality is a sin. I didn’t word my initial response well, but I’m angry at God not due to a belief that he says it’s a sin, but due to a belief that he could’ve had the Bible written in a way so that the majority of Christians today don’t believe it’s a sin. I got upset at God for giving humans free will.

And in regards to God treating people unfairly, I don’t know what’s in their hearts. So it’s very possible God gives them many chances and they don’t take them. God can only do so much, and it’s not right either to blame him for situations like the gay Christian either who was raised in a family who continually pressed him to change, and influenced his beliefs very strongly just like my mom did when I was young.

I’m going to take a break from answering questions as I don’t have the time right now, but I’d like to say thanks again to everyone, whether you were a Christian offering me advice on how to get closer to God, or simply someone else who pitched in their opinion on the matter. I need to ponder things more, but I feel less angry at God now, which I’m very happy about.

 

[First Baseman]

I thought the bible said that homosexuality is wrong. http://biblehub.com/leviticus/18-22.htm

It does. Carlita is twisting the language around. People often do it to rewrite the Bible to what they think it ought to say instead of what it really does say.