“REAL” Christians

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“REAL” Christians

Post by Tobias_Marco » Thu Aug 08, 2013 10:53 am

If you’ve read many of my posts on religion then you’ve heard me talk a few times about what it means to be a “REAL” Christian. I would like to take some time today to focus on exactly what I mean by that.
The first thing I want to look at is that if there are Real Christians, than there can be ‘Fake’ Christian, or ‘Counterfeit’ Christians.
Secondly, I am not talking about the difference in denomination. One person is a Baptist, another is a Lutheran, another person is a Protestant, and someone else is a Seventh Day Adventist.
I am not god, as such I don’t know exactly what he meant by everything he said in every verse in the Holy Bible, and I understand that there can be many different viewpoints on some issues.
One such thing that I have talked about before are the three views on Hell. 1. Hell is a death sentence, anyone who goes will be destroyed and their soul will be no more. 2. Hell is an inescapable prison. 3. Hell is like a nation where anyone who doesn’t want to follow The Lord God Almighty is given the freedom to go to if they want nothing to do with their creator. However once they get there they find that there are no resources to do anything with.
Another such issue that I haven’t talked about yet, or if I have it has been a while is the ‘tribulation’. This is a time of great suffering predicted in the Holy Bible, around the time of Jesus Christ’s return. There are three views of the tribulation, there are pre-tribulation believers, mid-tribulation believers, and there are post-tribulation believers. Let’s start with the Pre-tribulation believers, they believe that Jesus Christ will return and call up all of his followers, this will start the tribulation. If you want to know more about this there is a book series that you should read called “Left Behind”. It all starts on a seemingly normal day, when suddenly between 1/3 and ½ the population disappears. One scene shows a group of children playing soccer and suddenly there is only one little boy on the field. Everyone else is gone, however they left their cloths and teeth fillings behind. Elsewhere there is a funeral, 6 men are carrying the casket when some of these men disappear, the remaining men can’t hold it up anymore (between the surprise, and the unbalanced new configuration this is understandable) and the casket hits the ground and pops open, only the body is gone. Once again, all clothes, jewelry and teeth fillings are left behind, anything that wasn’t a part of the body is left behind. After this comes humanities’ last chance, many people have said “IF God really exists than why doesn’t he perform miracles like he did back in the day?” Well here it is folks: miracle number 1, the disappearance of all the believers. From that day on you have 7 years to accept the truth of the Bible and accept Jesus Christ as your lord and savior, or you go strength to Hell, do not pass ‘Go’ and do not collect $200. During this tribulation there will be many other hardships and it will be a very hard time for everyone on Earth.
The mid-tribulation believers see the tribulation being exactly like the pre and post-tribulation believers, the difference is that Jesus Christ returns in the middle of this 7 year period, and there is no clear sign when you enter it. I am reminded of a movie I saw once, it was a romantic comedy, I don’t remember which one. This woman is visiting another country and she is trying to find a park or something, it is an area of land that has been set apart to be relatively untouched by human hand. She gets so lost she doesn’t know where to go so she stops to enjoy her surroundings. Then a man stops and asks if she needs any help. When she asks for directions he tells her that she is already there. I guess in a way that is how the mid-tribulation believers see the tribulation. Lots of bad things are happening in the world, how much of that was predicted in the Bible as part of the tribulation and how much is just Humans being jerks to each other.
Personally I am a post-tribulation believer, however I will not get in anyone’s face if they don’t see it the same way I do. The whole 7 years of tribulation is taken from one single verse, taken out of context. Yes the Bible says there will be a tribulation, however it never says how long it will last. The verse that was talking about a 7 year period was talking about Jesus Christ. Jesus was baptized, that started the 7 years, at the half way point, 3.5 years later he died on the cross to pay for our sins; 3.5 years later at the end of the 7 years the Jews had their last chance to accept Jesus Christ before God gave up on them as a people, yet not as individuals, and sent out his message to the rest of the world. That is when the disciples and other believers went out into the world to tell everyone the good news of Jesus Christ. That was the seven years. Since then the world has gotten worse and worse, this is the tribulation, and there are many clear signs that say that we are in it, this tribulation will end when Jesus Christ returns, however when he comes you will not get a chance to change your mind. There is a game show that after every question the host asks “Is that your final answer?” well now there is an unseen timer, and when it runs out God will be locking in your answer . Then he will take everyone who wants to be with him and bring them to him, and he will take everyone who wants nothing to do with him and put them somewhere else.
I just told you about two sets of three beliefs that different Christians can have that seem valid to many and are based on actual verses in the Holy Bible. Three times three is nine, so that is nine different combinations about how you could believe about these two things and still call yourself a Christian.
HOWEVER there are some beliefs that are DEFINATLY NOT Christian beliefs. Not long ago I read a comment on Youtube, someone said that they were a Catholic, yet they didn’t believe in god.
NO! No. No.
The following are some rules for how to tell if you are really a Christian, they are not in any order other than what order I thought of them. Rule #1 is not necessarily more important than rule #5, however because I thought of it first there is a good chance that it is more important, however there is no reason to fight over the order here. If I end up with 100 rules here and you want to fight about rule #98 needing to switch places with rule #45 then you are missing the point.
Rule #001: You cannot call yourself a Christian unless you believe that there is one god and only one god. (Somehow that I don’t understand this god is divided into three parts that are all ‘god’ however they are still ‘one god’). Anyone who doesn’t believe that there are any gods or that there are more than this three-in-one god, CANNOT call themselves a Christian.
Rule #002: You must believe that Jesus Christ really existed, and that he is really is ‘part of the godhead’ and that he did come to Earth in Human form and that he really did die on the cross to pay for all the bad choices that you’ve made. By this I mean that every time you have broken the law or any rule, you were forcing a wedge between you and God, when Jesus Christ died on the cross he took that wedge away. Now the only thing standing in between you and God is your choice not to spend time with him.
Rule #003: You must choose to let Jesus Christ be the lord and savior of your life. I have talked about this in some depth before as ‘choosing citizenship’. Whoever you are, you are the citizen of some country, there may be a few people who have renounced their citizenship to all countries and haven’t gotten any new ones, however most people can call themselves citizens of one country or another. Likewise you have a spiritual citizenship, maybe it is to Christianity, maybe it is to Atheism, maybe it is to Buddhism, or maybe you religiously follow the belief of “I don’t give a rat’s but what’s out there, I’m going to live my life to the fullest and when I die I’ll find out for myself”. The point is that you chose your spiritual citizenship and can change it at any time. Who will you loyally follow? Keep in mind that when you die or when Jesus Christ returns your answer will be locked in and if you want to wait until you die and see the truth for yourself then, at least according to Christianity, it will be too late and your answer will have already been locked in.
Rule #004: Because you have chosen to follow our Lord Jesus Christ you must do everything in your power to follow his instructions. As a Christian you are ‘a follower of Christ’ by this I mean that if Jesus Christ tells you to do something than you do it, if he tells you not to do something than you don’t do it, and you have faith that he can see the big picture and he will not lead you down a bad path.
Rule #005: As I just said there is only one god, and we are to follow him. There is a verse in the Bible that says that you cannot serve two masters, you will love the one and hate the other. Picture this: every human being on planet Earth has a mother and a father. Your relationship with each may or may not be what you want them to be, however you do have them. Pretend that you are still young enough that you are living in your parent’s house, and they are married to each other. Your father tells you to do something, about the same time your mother also gives you a task to do. Which do you do first? What if it isn’t about doing one first and then the other? What if only one of these tasks can be done, then it would make it imposable to do the other? Do you do what your dad said, or what your mom said? Let’s pretend that you tell both parents about your dilemma, maybe both of them will say that one of these tasks IS more important and you should do that one, and the other parent will tell you to disregard their request. Now imagine that you’ve done that and both parents tell you they don’t care and they want you to do the task they told you to do and you had better do it right now. It is very sad when this happens in a real family, however it is even more sad when it happens to a person’s spiritual life. God tells us that he is the one and only god, yet many people choose to marry him to another god and follow both. “Oh I’m a Wiccan-Christian”, or “I’m a Buddhist-Christian.” Sorry, no; that is an invalid religion. Christianity says that it is not to be mixed with anything else. Now if you want to be a Wiccan-Buddhist, than you can ask your Wiccan and your Buddhist friends if you think it is alright to mix the two, from what I can tell they don’t care if they mix with something else, however that particular mix might or might not mix well. Think of Christianity like a noble gas, in chemistry we learn that noble gases don’t like to mix with other gases. Can I put a noble gas in the same jar as non-noble gases? Yes. Will they mix with each other? Yes, however you will not find any molecules that have a noble gas bound to a non-noble gas. That is how Christians are to live, we are to work our way in with the other religions, however we are not to bond with them. A Christian is to live like a visitor here. To put it another way, everybody lives somewhere, personally I am an American who lives in the inland northwest. If I were to visit New York, Chicago, Rome or Germany, they would be able to tell that I wasn’t from around there. Christians are to be the same way. I am here, yet I do not act like those around me. Yes there are many things that we can do together, however there are other things that are not part of my culture.
Rule #006: Understand that it will not always be easy. I have read pamphlets where verses have been taken completely out of context and they try to tell you that now that you are a Christian everything is going to start going your way, life will be easy and you will gain earthly riches beyond your wildest dreams. Um, no. Look at Jesus Christ and the disciples. Did they live in a big palace with lots of guards and servants? Not here on Earth they didn’t. They were hunted down and killed for their beliefs. Satan is called ‘the father of lies’ and this is one of those lies.
Rule #007: If anyone tells you that as soon as you accept Jesus Christ into your heart that you will become perfect and you won’t even want to do bad things anymore, then they are lying to you. We all have our favorite sin. They say that Satan doesn’t try to come in through a locked door when there is an open window nearby. Personally I can tell you that there is no way that I will ever commit this sin or that sin, because I have trained myself not to do those things, however there are gaps in my personal armor. There are a few sins that I could name, however am not going to, that I REALLY like to do. That is why we need God’s armor. Not our own armor.
Rule #008: Don’t be a ‘Bible thumper’ The Bible says that they will know us by our love, not by how hard we hit them over the head with a Bible. The Bible says “Take the beam out of your own eye before you try to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” What this means is that I have my faults, and I can’t be making a big deal about YOUR faults when I still have my own to deal with. Now I can pull you to the side and say “Hey, I noticed that you have this problem, I don’t know if you know this or not, but Christians aren’t suppose to do this kind of thing.” When I do this I am not to point you out in front of everyone, or make it seem like I am somehow better than you are, because I’m not. I am to humbly point out what you are doing wrong and help guide you to the true path and by working together with the Lord God Almighty we will all get there someday.
Rule #009: As I said before, there is only one god. When a Human being dies they do not become a god, nor do they become an angel. That is like saying that when a dolphin dies it becomes a horse. They are two very different animals. The Bible does say that when we get to Heaven we will be judges over the angels.
Rule #010: Reincarnation, the Bible says that it is for a man to live once and than face judgment. If you want to believe in reincarnation as part of another belief system then that is one thing, however please do not call yourself a Christian that believes in reincarnation.
Rule 011: Just going to church doesn’t make you a Christian, or the fact that your parents are or were Christians, not anymore than if my father was a doctor. “Don’t worry sir, I’m more than qualified to do this, my father is one of the top brain surgeons in the world.” “Really? How long did you go to medical school for?” “Oh I didn’t, but that shouldn’t matter, I’m sure the genetic memory will kick in just as soon as I get in there.” Yeah, I wouldn’t want that ‘doctor’. You are not a Christian because of what anyone else believes. You are or are not a Christian based only on what YOU believe.

I think that is enough for now, I could of course go on, however I think this is enough to start with. If you have any questions about any of this, such as what verses I am using to support anything that I have said, than please feel free to ask. I will gladly show you where in the Holy Bible I got anything you see above, however I didn’t feel like putting it in here. However before you come asking me where I got any of these, please read Exodus chapter 20, Leviticus chapters 18 through 20, and Matthew chapters 5 through chapter 7. Then please read through whatever posts I have made here about my views on God and Christianity. After you read those sections I will gladly do my best to answer whatever questions you have.

Today is Aug 28th, 2013.
I just watched a video on Youtube, in it someone was trying to prove Evolution and disprove Christianity. They did this by looking at a youtube video that was made by a Christian trying to prove Christianity. This person went over every single point that this "crazy Christian" made in their video and talked about how stupid this guy's arguments were.

There are a lot of videos out there that fit this description, so I'm not going to post a link, however I would just like to say that this Evolutionist did a good job with her video, and even though I didn't watch the Christian's video from all the things she said it DID sound very dumb.

That being said I am still a Christian and this video did not change my mind, however I just want you all to know that I respect the search for knowledge, (I think you already know that about me), and I hate these Christian videos as much as you do; at least the ones that are made by idios.

I am never going to tell you that "the evidence for evolution is nice but there just isn't enough of it to prove the theory, but if you just look at the trees that is evedence enough for me that there is an intellegent designer."

I believe that the same standard should be used for both. If I could come up with one simple statement that somehow proved that Christianity was true and Evolution was wrong, than you would just come up with an equaly simple statment that proved that Evolution is true and that Intellegent design is wrong.

I really hope that someday everyone on Earth can find the truth whatever it really is, and I also hope that when you hear reports of these "stupid Christians" that you don't put me in the same boat as them, I like to think of my self as an "educated Christian" the difference being that I actually think about this stuff before I post it.

Yes I have said things that were wrong before, however at least my wrong statements make more sence than all the stuff other people are coming up with.

There are many times when I will watch videos like this and then try to come up with good ways to debate them, sometimes I think I have something really good and I will post it here. The point is that I am at least thinking about what I'm saying and not yelling at everyone who doesn't believe as I do and calling them all fools.

There are many people on here who disagree with me about the Christianity vs. Evolution issue, yet I think it is fair to say that those same people would defend me in saying that I am not a fool. They may think that I am stubbornly holding on to a fairy tail, yet I am clearly well educated.

Thank you for your time.
True education, true science, true religion is the search for truth.
Matthew 28:16-20, John 3:14-20