Christians are the greatest sinners according to their god's law

[RoadRunner79]

That seems like quite a logic and grammatical jump you made there!

I'm not the one who insisted that the threats must be "credible," as though death threats that aren't intended to be carried out are somehow consistent with christian ethics and values. It's either that this demand for credibility is irrelevant, or this particular christian takes intimidation and threats of breaking a commandment to be perfectly moral, so long as there's no intention to carry them out.

There ain't exactly a third option there.

To me, it appears, that you are reading a lot into what was a fairly simple question by Pete.  I don't see any of what you are claiming within Pete's questions.

[Esquilax]

To me, it appears, that you are reading a lot into what was a fairly simple question by Pete.  I don't see any of what you are claiming within Pete's questions.

The word "credible" is in there. That word means something, and it didn't end up there on accident.

Even assuming you're right, then all he has said is "I don't believe you," which is little more than a "nuh uh!" So either the statement means what I took it to mean- being that the only thing I did is read the statement in the english language- or it effectively means nothing.

[PETE_ROSE]

You have actually received multiple credible threats on your life from Christians because you refuse to accept their personally held beliefs?  Is this an honest evaluation or embellishment?

So, you're perfectly okay with members of your religion threatening to kill people, thus treating one of the greater cornerstone ideas of that religion- the ten commandments- as semi-optional when you're angry enough, just so long as they don't really mean it?

That is quite an extrapolation of my question to the OP, even by AF standards. It dismays me to dignify your question with an answer, but I will fire away any who.

Of course I do not condone Christians threatening to do any harm to those who see things differently. Moreover, I can only imagine that this and other inappropriate behavior serves to do exponentially more harm than good.

Addressing the OP statement, absolutely will you receive no argument from me that Christians constantly break many of the commandments, everyone falls very short. It is just more noticeable when those that are suppose to set the example fail, we look like self righteous hypocrites.

[Drich]

I found an English translation of the 10 commands of their god and after some thinking (something the believers tend to avoid at all costs) I found out that their Church and they themselves keep breaking one of these commands. Well, they break a lot more than just one, but this one in particular is quite obvious.

The second command says "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them."

Well, your god is in "the heaven above", so is any other god who visited the Earth before your god did. Also, you keep claiming your god is in everything that is part of the Earth - the rocks, the water, the air and so on. But this command says you can not worship anything that is part of the planet. So basically your god commands you not to worship him either thus contradicting his own first command. And what about the "carved image" part? He commands you not to make a carved image of ANYTHING and yet you (christians) keep producing statues of christ and all sorts of things with his presumable face. So, the way I see it - you constantly break his law.

Let's skip to the 6th command - "you shall not kill". And yet it wasn't just one or two times when I was threatened with death by christians because I refuse to accept the bullshit they believe.
So, if my refusal to accept your bullshit makes me sinner, it turns out you're even more sinful than I am.

Don't forget "thou shalt keep the Sabbath day holy.." The sabbath is technically Saturday not Sunday.

So what does this mean for the Christian? That he is indeed at least willing to admit that his morality will never be up to par, nor will it ever be enough to enter into Heaven. Which is why atonement is offered by Christ, and received by those in whom He identifies as 'Christian.'

Meaning that a 'christian's morals' are not the determining factor of his salvation.

[PETE_ROSE]

I found an English translation of the 10 commands of their god and after some thinking (something the believers tend to avoid at all costs) I found out that their Church and they themselves keep breaking one of these commands. Well, they break a lot more than just one, but this one in particular is quite obvious.

The second command says "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them."

Well, your god is in "the heaven above", so is any other god who visited the Earth before your god did. Also, you keep claiming your god is in everything that is part of the Earth - the rocks, the water, the air and so on. But this command says you can not worship anything that is part of the planet. So basically your god commands you not to worship him either thus contradicting his own first command. And what about the "carved image" part? He commands you not to make a carved image of ANYTHING and yet you (christians) keep producing statues of christ and all sorts of things with his presumable face. So, the way I see it - you constantly break his law.

Let's skip to the 6th command - "you shall not kill". And yet it wasn't just one or two times when I was threatened with death by christians because I refuse to accept the bullshit they believe.
So, if my refusal to accept your bullshit makes me sinner, it turns out you're even more sinful than I am.

Nearly everything you have said is true. Your evaluation of how many Christians live their faith is at best a poor example to model to the world. It is disheartening that the Christians in your life have behaved in such a poor manner.

It does encourage me that you sought out and found a translation of the bible to read for yourself. I would like to point out that it is not by our "bullshit" that should be the metric you evaluate Christianity upon.

I would direct you to the life that Christ modeled. Mostly found in the books of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. This is the standard we should aspire to.

My original question concerning credible death threats may have come across with the air of disbelief. I was looking for clarity. I see you hail from Bulgaria and not the US as listed in your profile. I have been threatened with my untimely demise several times in this life. Credibly by my account. Only once because of my Christianity when I was in the Middle East, never when in Europe or the US.

I would willingly engage in a public or private dialogue with you concerning the bible if you ever desire. I do believe it to be God's revelation to us. Much of he reason I am here is to share that with any who are interested. I promise that I will never threaten you with the loss of your life for not agreeing, liking, or refuting anything I have to say on the matter.

What say you sir?

[rado84]

It does encourage me that you sought out

I did that because until now I've only heard those commands in an ancient version of my own language which is too hard to translate from. So I decided it would be easier to try and find them in modern English than translating from ancient Bulgarian to modern English.
So your encouragement is all wrong.

Someone asked who threatened me. It was a member of a religious sect who tried to lure my mother to transfer her ownership of our apartment to their community with the false pretense doing so would wipe her sins out. Needless to say if they had succeeded, we would be living in the street right now. Ofcourse me and my sister didn't take this lightly and while she did some digging on the internet about that sect, I went to one of their gatherings and told their leader to forget about us cuz religious bullshit isn't welcome in our home. Then he said if we didn't accept god, he would send us four members of his flock to "convince" us and the we wouldn't like how our meeting with them would end. But he didn't know who he was messing up with and in the end he was forced to forget about us. He's not the only one who knows thugs. The thugs I know and whom I payed broke his arms and after that he never contacted my mother again.

And, Pete, if you have any questions regarding what I think about this or that from the bible, feel free to ask. Whether in this topic or start another - that's your choice.

[PETE_ROSE]

I will take you up on your offer sir! First it is reprehensible the actions of this religious sect. Sounds like they will regret their treatment of you and your Mom. We are all protective of our mothers.

I would like to hear your thoughts concerning the bible and how it correlates with this experience. Specifically, given your understanding of the bible, how do you feel this religious sects request for your Mom's property and subsequent threats and treatment of your family parallel with the message and instructions found within the scripture?

Also, I commend you on your command of the English language. You are well spoken and articulate in your posts. I appreciate and respect that, especially from people living outside the US.

[rado84]

I will take you up on your offer sir!  First it is reprehensible the actions of this religious sect.  Sounds like they will regret their treatment of you and your Mom. We are all protective of our mothers.  

I would like to hear your thoughts concerning the bible and how it correlates with this experience.  Specifically, given your understanding of the bible, how do you feel this religious sects request for your Mom's property and subsequent threats and treatment of your family parallel with the message and instructions found within the scripture?

Also, I commend you on your command of the English language.  You are well spoken and articulate in your posts.  I appreciate and respect that, especially from people living outside the US.

I doubt you'll like my thoughts about the bible. Especially with the impression you make that you are religious. Even the most of the atheists here I doubt they would understand my thoughts about it. My thoughts and feelings are way ahead of this era, so I'm not inclined to share my vision of the bible or the whole religion thing, if I'm not sure of the reaction I'll get. Most people mock at me but I don't care. The time will come when people will think the same way I think now.
As for the long question - there's nothing to think. It's an obvious violation of their own command. I'm quite sure that when their god said "do not kill" he also meant "do not threat other people's lives".

I started learning English when I was 6 and continued to do so until I turned 28. Somewhere on the way I grew to like the language because it's a lot easier than my own. Not to mention that sometimes things sound better in English than they do in Bulgarian. At some point I liked American English better than UK English which is why sometimes you can read American expressions and words in my writings. For this reason where most people would say "pavement", "underground" or "bus lane", I would say "sidewalk", "subway" or "granny lane". And US English also happens to be a lot easier than UK English. In US English, if you're not sure of the verb's tense, you can always put an "-ed" as a suffix and it won't be wrong.

[PETE_ROSE]

I had such a time in college with my American professors. Being raised partly in the UK I loved using the spelling variations and omitting the word "the" from sentences. I'm going to hospital. I'm waiting in the in the queue to cash a cheque. Good times....

[rado84]

I had such a time in college with my American professors.  Being raised partly in the UK I loved using the spelling variations and omitting the word "the" from sentences.  I'm going to hospital.  I'm waiting in the in the queue to cash a cheque.  Good times....

Sorry but I can't see what not using "the" has to do with being raised in UK, especially when "the" is part of the language and when it's not a word but a definite article. Unless you're trying to turn English into Russian - they don't have a definite article in their language.