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RE: Maybe I never was a Christian?
September 14, 2012 at 9:57 am
(This post was last modified: September 14, 2012 at 10:02 am by Mister Agenda.)
(September 14, 2012 at 3:13 am)Polaris Wrote: Were you ever filled with the Holy Spirit? If not, then you were never a Christian. If so, then I don't know what to say other than believing that a Christian will always be a Christian.
I got the Holy Ghost and spoke in tongues. But believing whatever you want to believe is kind of your thing, so I don't expect you to adjust your opinion.
(September 14, 2012 at 3:22 am)Polaris Wrote: (September 14, 2012 at 3:20 am)Dumac Dwarfking Wrote: I was. I also spoke in tongues.
Wouldn't that be like saying that you swam in the ocean later to say that you don't believe oceans exist?
Is that what you would say to someone who had an experience of being abducted by aliens who has come to think their experience wasn't objectively real?
(September 14, 2012 at 9:54 am)Polaris Wrote: Many foreign languages appear to have no structure to Westerners, but they are still legitimate languages nonetheless.
Are you interested in knowing what linguistic studies of glossalalia reveal?
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RE: Maybe I never was a Christian?
September 14, 2012 at 10:02 am
(September 14, 2012 at 9:54 am)Polaris Wrote: (September 14, 2012 at 3:50 am)Dumac Dwarfking Wrote: I'd like to know why God would choose to speak through people in a language that they not only don't understand, but has no structure or attributes to qualify it a language at all. Not the most convincing way to argue with us English speaking folk.
Many foreign languages appear to have no structure to Westerners, but they are still legitimate languages nonetheless.
Foreign languages appear to have no structure, but structure becomes evident over time. Repetition of syllables within a certain order, words and context, meaning behind what's being said. No such structure exists when people speak in tongues. Every person will speak it differently. What do you think might be the reason for that? 
Anyone can string together syllables to form something that "might" be a word, it would be far more impressive if that exact stringing of syllables was repeated by a different person with the same meaning behind it.
Suli heph kipta ninsholla Polaris!
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RE: Maybe I never was a Christian?
September 14, 2012 at 10:09 am
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RE: Maybe I never was a Christian?
September 14, 2012 at 9:09 pm
(September 14, 2012 at 10:02 am)Dumac Dwarfking Wrote: (September 14, 2012 at 9:54 am)Polaris Wrote: Many foreign languages appear to have no structure to Westerners, but they are still legitimate languages nonetheless.
Foreign languages appear to have no structure, but structure becomes evident over time. Repetition of syllables within a certain order, words and context, meaning behind what's being said. No such structure exists when people speak in tongues. Every person will speak it differently. What do you think might be the reason for that?
Anyone can string together syllables to form something that "might" be a word, it would be far more impressive if that exact stringing of syllables was repeated by a different person with the same meaning behind it.
Suli heph kipta ninsholla Polaris!
They speak it differently because each are speaking a different language.
But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.
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RE: Maybe I never was a Christian?
September 14, 2012 at 9:14 pm
Quote:it was clear that Jesus filled me
That's what the priests tell the altar boys.
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RE: Maybe I never was a Christian?
September 19, 2012 at 6:18 pm
(This post was last modified: September 19, 2012 at 6:18 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
(September 14, 2012 at 9:09 pm)Polaris Wrote: They speak it differently because each are speaking a different language.
They "speak it differently" because they are gibbering, running off at the mouth. Sorry, them's the breaks. You see the trouble is not just that different people speak different sorts of gibberish, but that the same individual cannot be counted upon to speak the same sorts of gibberish. Disappointing for some, amusing for others.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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RE: Maybe I never was a Christian?
September 19, 2012 at 8:25 pm
@OP
Why do you expect them to deconvert the minute you give them the evidence? For me personally I would deny it with all my heart but at the back of my head I knew something was fundamentally wrong. It was only a matter of months before I was honest with myself and accepted the evidence.
Denial of the evidence doesn't say anything about, it says something about them.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" ~ Aristotle
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RE: Maybe I never was a Christian?
September 19, 2012 at 9:06 pm
That people can change their minds is hugely problematic for many sects in that they preach they have some special relationship with an unchanging entity. They have to explain why that entity might withdraw from the individual. The individual they might say has done some great wrong, which drove the entity away, but it is all too apparent in many cases of de-conversion this is not the case. So they are forced to take up the position that the individual was never in contact with the entity in the first place.
These are the normal anomalies that are thrown up when the foundation of a way of thinking is build on axioms that are foolish.
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RE: Maybe I never was a Christian?
September 20, 2012 at 12:46 am
(This post was last modified: September 20, 2012 at 12:57 am by Mystic.)
(September 19, 2012 at 9:06 pm)jonb Wrote: That people can change their minds is hugely problematic for many sects in that they preach they have some special relationship with an unchanging entity. They have to explain why that entity might withdraw from the individual. The individual they might say has done some great wrong, which drove the entity away, but it is all too apparent in many cases of de-conversion this is not the case. So they are forced to take up the position that the individual was never in contact with the entity in the first place.
These are the normal anomalies that are thrown up when the foundation of a way of thinking is build on axioms that are foolish.
In Shiite Muslim sacred prayers, it said "O Near one whom doesn't distance himself from those whom distance themselves from him".
And to be honest, it feels like to me those running away from him (atheists) have God's closeness to them the most, because they tend to in my opinion have the best ethics, even those denying morality being objective (which is ironic).
When you love, you when you care, when your passionate about an moral issue, when you want to make others happy and smile, that is God there being with you.
Believing him not, doesn't mean you are far away from him or against him.
People measure closeness to God by how much you devote yourself to him, but I think we see some very hateful people that are devoted to God.
Maybe it's not about how much we devote ourselves to that which is higher up but how much we treat our (relatively) equals and how much we act upon love and compassion that shows how close we are to god.
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RE: Maybe I never was a Christian?
September 20, 2012 at 2:50 am
(September 20, 2012 at 12:46 am)MysticKnight Wrote: In Shiite Muslim sacred prayers, it said "O Near one whom doesn't distance himself from those whom distance themselves from him".
And to be honest, it feels like to me those running away from him (atheists) have God's closeness to them the most, because they tend to in my opinion have the best ethics, even those denying morality being objective (which is ironic).
When you love, you when you care, when your passionate about an moral issue, when you want to make others happy and smile, that is God there being with you.
Believing him not, doesn't mean you are far away from him or against him.
People measure closeness to God by how much you devote yourself to him, but I think we see some very hateful people that are devoted to God.
Maybe it's not about how much we devote ourselves to that which is higher up but how much we treat our (relatively) equals and how much we act upon love and compassion that shows how close we are to god.
Give me a break. So if atheists are immoral it's because the don't have god in their hearts and if they are moral it's because they do inspite of not believing in him? Can you not see why every atheist would find your thoughts either funny or sickening?
I for one do believe in objective morality. I do not believe that there is a god. In fact, I'm pretty sure that there is no god. I don't believe in anything "higher" either. So please, tell me how am I "close to god"?
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