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Where is Jesus’s body?
Surely the Pharisee ,Sadducee,and Romans didn’t want a story about resurrection . Jesus’s body would have proven once and for all the resurrection never happened. And it would have all ended right there.
But they couldn’t find the body because HE IS RISEN!
The apostles chose death rather than denounce Jesus.

One day you or a family member dear to you will be in need. I’ll bet you hit your knees and pray then....

JG is right

If you’re a non believer that’s fine by me, but even non believers ought to understand that a church that has nothing they believe enough to speak clearly and boldly is no church at all.

I'll disagree about evil. Billy Grahm.

Great question. I have not heard an answer to this yet.

Something caused all of this to happen. Self aware beings made out of meat didn't just spontaneously erupt up out a barren rock spinning through the universe.

Why? At a campfire people talk about all kinds of subjects. Don't open religion or political threads and you won't have to make a silly post.

One word. Evolution. The earth is an estimated 3 billion years old. Plenty of time for things to evolve or for other civilizations to drop off stuff to watch it grow and evolve.

We will have to agree to disagree. I know a dog or a horse or a cow have no conciousness. Not so sure about porpois, whales, and elephants.

I know a human develops a conscience as he matures after birth. I know that conscience fades away to nothingness and is no more as soon as electrons quit flowing in the brain.

You believe otherwise. That's okay. I would not try to convince you otherwise. The attempt would be to no avail anyway.

We will just have to agree to disagree.

No more mysterious than "Where did God come from?"

Paul was an advocate of female church leaders.
He praised Priscilla and Lydia as leaders in the early church.

Classic example is that 'real' Xtians don't believe
angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith...
but they believe their own Bible claims.

Thomas Jefferson, Issac Newton and Einstein
called bullschit on Bible miracle claims.

"And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus,
by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will
be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the
brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that the dawn of reason
and freedom of thought in these United States will do away
all this artificial scaffolding..".

{Jefferson letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823}

Newton was heretical in his beliefs , dismissing
the trinity and immortal soul among other things.
He would have lost his fellowship at Cambridge
Trinity college had King George not intervened
granting him an exemption to becoming ordained.


Mr.Einstein penned a letter to philosopher Eric Gutkind
((1954):

“The word God is for me nothing more than the expression
and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of
honourable, but still primitive, legends which are nevertheless
pretty childish.”

For me, it’s always been about the way churches preach group fellowship as almost being necessary to receive God’s blessings and guidance.

As if showing up in church is a way to prove your desire and a worthiness for God’s love.

Seemed to me that only proved a few things. Either someone enjoys being part of a congregation and wants to worship in a group. Or they want to be seen by others as a good Christian and use their attendance as proof of their commitment to Christ….Translation: Some are good people. Some pose as good Christians for show and tell out of personal pride.

People who find benefit in regularly attending a church, is cool. I’ve preferred to keep my spirituality between myself and God.

🦫

I just left a church after four years. It was a country club - nor a church. A nice place to make friends, eat lunch together and use the church gym together for basketball and badminton.

I have been in church all my life and will eventually find another church.

It was all about checking the boxes in regard to behavior, but totally ignoring the condition of the heart.

The church I just left has been dwindling in size due to conflict after conflict.

The members wonder why their teenage kids won’t attend the church - but never do any self examination.

Within the church, there are threats of lawsuits if certain people are selected for leadership roles.

I sat in a meeting of the leadership board - it was as if I were matching Matthew 23 (Jesus criticizes the Pharisees) unfold in front of me. Some of the board members were the biggest Pharisees you could imagine. They criticized people for not volunteering to serve with children so that a vacation Bible school could be held. Yet they themselves were unwilling to serve in VBS (they are retired - they have time). The board wanted to be standing in the pulpit any time communion was taken so that they could be publicly recognized. The board members wanted to be the ones standing in the pulpit to pray and have their name printed in the church bulletin.

There is a 3-year still-unresolved major fight over allowing a start up church (of the same denomination) use the building on Saturdays - because they were a different ethnicity (FYI - the ethnicity of the main church is only 2-3% Caucasian; the start-up church was Syrian Christians; I was one of only 5 caucasians in the church). Four board members have left the church, the missions director left the church and three pastors left the church because this request was refused and they themselves were attacked and slandered.

Board members made room deals made with the previous pastor - “I will support your budget request if you endorse me becoming an elder in the church.”

Contentious church meetings where disagreement results in some people standing up and calling other members evil. I have been called evil by multiple people, including the board members I exposed.

Some wealthy people did not like the pastor and offered him a substantial amount of money if he would resign from his position.

The denomination has finally stepped in and taken over governance of this church. Of course, this has brought threats of more lawsuits.

In case you are wondering what the primary ethnicity of the church - it is a Chinese Christian church. Just not very Christian.

Are people wonder why churches are dying. And they wonder why their kids are leaving the church.

Church is not a museum of Saints, rather a hospital for sinners.

Garhering in Church serves two purposes.
1 It keeps folks available for weekly brain washing reinforcement.

2 Without such gatherings, the coffers would become barren and priests thin.

Disagree with the zealot theology of some CF members
and they will brand you evil.

That was the motto of my parents’ church.

The best church I have been in had a very strong Bible-based 12-step program. One of their favorite saying was “it’s okay to be not okay; but it is not okay to stay that way”.

Sounds like my church, there's more broken people on the inside than there is outside

Maybe I just go to a unique church but there's no illusion of perfection amongst the pastors or the congregation. Of course there's always going to be people that put on a front or fight all the way to church on Sunday and hop out of the car saying "praise Jesus" with a smile on their face. That's just the way life is, we're all struggling. The message of Christianity isn't about perfection, it's about rebirth and forgiveness.

,...and you *still* lasted 4 years?!