Why I am still a Christian.

[CaseyTheAthie]

Do you believe in Jesus Christ?

Give us something to work with grene. So far you have said what Christianity is not, according to your church.

What is it about you that makes you a Christian? What boxes do you tick?

First, I will answer MysticKnight:

I think I agree with Bart Ehrman that Jesus was an apocalyptic zealot whose sole desire was to get rid of the Romans. (Can you believe I got banned for just mentioning this in that blasted Christian Forum?)

So, I believe Jesus existed as a man. I don't think the real Jesus gave very good teachings. In all probability, my head tells me that he couldn't have the slightest love for Gentiles like us. He hated Gentiles like any Jewish zealot then (and possibly even today). He believed that even if the Romans killed him, he would return within the lifetime of his disciples and wrest power from the Romans and he'd rule Israel and there'd be peace etc. There is a huge amount of biblical evidence for this view so fundamentalists should really agree with me.

But he got killed by the Romans and that was that. His disciples remembered his words that he'd come back. So before long, the rumour spread that Jesus rose from the dead. Remember this was 2000 years ago and people were insanely superstitious. They started a new religion. But his followers were Jews and they didn't want to do away with their old religion.

Then came St Paul, a Hellenistic Jew who came into contact with mainly Greeks. He decided that things should be made easy for the Greeks. They didn't have to be Jews nor did they have to conform to those tedious Jewish laws. St Paul's church grew because the Greeks wouldn't dream of becoming Jews in the first place. And the Greeks were rich people while the old disciples only had Jewish converts into Christianity and so the church in Jerusalem was poor.

St Paul was plagued throughout his ministry by the fact that he didn't really know Jesus. Notice that in his epistles, St Paul made no mention of Jesus' life on earth because he knew bugger all about that. But he was the richie-poo while the Jerusalem church was poverty stricken. St Paul wanted to give money to that poor church in the hope that he would get some recognition from the real disciples. But they spurned him. Notice in his last epistle, he made a big do about sending them money - asking his parishioners to pray that they would accept the money. Why wouldn't anyone accept money unless they thought St Paul was a heretic?

Anyway, Richie poo's church won in the end. The disciples' church (historians call the Ebionites) died out after some time. Hard for them to get converts. St Paul's church became more and more successful until the Emperor converted and it became the No. 1 religion. By then, any remnants of the real disciples' followers would have been destroyed if they hadn't starved to death in their poverty.

In answer to MysticKnight's question, yes I believe in Jesus. But the Jesus I believe in is not the real racist Jesus who had grandiose beliefs about his own power but the one created by the church over the centuries. It's today's church Jesus that I believe in. The good guy who loves Gentiles and will die even for us. It's that concept of Jesus (evolved over the centuries) that I believe in.

In answer to FallentoReason's question what makes me a Christian. It's because of the following:
1. My baptism
2. I believe in Jesus Christ (as aforesaid) and willing to follow his teachings (actually the teachings the Church imputes to him)
3. I submit to and serve the Church of Christ. It's the same thing. Submit means I follow the teachings of the church which the church imputes to Jesus.

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Man, When I visited Europe that is nothing like you're saying. And that wasnt long ago. I was an theist then and got reemed constantly for it by european christians as well as christians in my unit. I think you speak too broadly to justify yourself.

What church did you visit in Europe and whereabouts in Europe was it? Of course there are pockets of fundamentalists everywhere.

it wasn't a church at all but people in open society. Don't get it twisted and assume religion only exists in churches. I did the normal tour around and such. People would overhear my buddies ragging me for wanting to see some nice buildings and such and jumped on.