Not Easy Being Different.

A Christian is someone who truly believes that Jesus died for him personally

We certainly are at odds with the meaning of salvation based on what the Bible has to say on the subject. The message preached at the time was for sinners to repent for the forgivenes of sins and recieive the indwelling Holy Spirit who would inturn lead the penitent ones into all truth.

The indwelling Spirit of God is the sign that one is saved. This is step one on a lifelong journey based on obedience to His word.

Truly believe in Christ as Savior is what a true Christian is. If you have asked Him into your heart and believe, you are saved indeed. We need to stay in touch with Him, read His word, the Bible.

Re toby2day. Thank you for your input, i detect some problem in times past.Your answer is interesting based on your profile of I Am Pagan!!!

Very true. A lot of the 'new groups' came into being as a "flavor of the week", they cycle through. As things get tough in society 'new' denominatins pop up, when the going smoothes out they drop off. People seek when they have a need, and there are always ones who will have 'the best way, the ONLY truth". Usually ti's because they got ticked off at how their more mainstream denomination viewed something, or a personality issue.

Very few actually reead the bible. Preferring instead to act like it's ragu and tell you 'it's in there'. They thump the outside and rarely actually open it.



Christians..people of real faith, are individuals of integrity and hope. They are not doormats, nor are they instigators, they simply take life as it comes and try to give back to it. Their lives are their 'witness'. They don't need to go door to door proclaiming it.



They face adversity with grace and strength of character...because their faith gives them the ability and the strength to continue to move forward.



Fads in churches come and go...but faith remains.

omg

Re BlueGeorgia May 11th 2010.

In the OT it was necessary for the shedding of blood to cover sin,life is in the blood.Sin entered the world through Adam, the penalty physical death, you sin you die.

Remission of Sin for the individual or the Nation of Israel involved animal sacrifice.The practice was ongoing.The Israelites were given specific laws to cover daily living, and were made specific promises according to their obedience.The Biblical record shows obedience was rewarded, disobedience met with punishment.Throughout the OT was a thread pointing to a future Messiah.



Moving along, the Messiah came in the man Jesus.He preached forgiveness for sin based on genuine repentance,He gathered around Him fellow Jews to spread the word of the presence of Gods Kingdom in the immediate time, He clashed with the established leaders of the Synagogue

and became a target for their revenge, culminating in the Crucifixion.The crucifixion satisfied Gods law as to the shedding of blood to cover sin, the greatest difference being that the death of Jesus on the cross was the end of blood sacrifices the debt was paid in full.The partition between man and God had been taken away the Law was no longer necessary as a means of salvation, repentance and the forgiveness of sin was now the New Covenant.The resurrection of Jesus showed conclusively that Jesus was indeed all He claimed to be, the resurrection sets Jesus apart from all other so called Prohets.Jesus said during His brief time on earth that He would build His Church.That word mistranslated into English has caused more confusion and disruption amongst the bretheren that just about anything else. The Church is an organism not an organisation, refered to as His Body made up of many members universally and locally.The message given to those followers of Jesus was to be witnesses of Him preaching forgiveness of sin based on repentance.In the early years this message went to the Jews and the results are recorded in the Book of Acts that many thousands of men and women were added to the group daily, that had things in common and shared the results of those that sold possessions and property, they meet in houses and broke bread and drank wine in rememberance of Jesus as instructed, the Spiritual indwelling of the believer was testament that the Comforter as promised had been made known.Between the first century and the behaviour of believers and the current time is recorded in secular and Church history and cannot be summarised here.



The Bible predicted many things that would occur down the corridor of history and can be seen today in the way that the simplicity of the words of Jesus have been so distorted, that whatever anyone chooses as Scriptural by misuse of the Bible suddenly becomes merchandisable.

"Popular Christianity has as one of its' most effective talking points the idea that God exists to help people to get ahead in this world.The God of the poor has become the God of an affluent society.Christ no longer refuses to be a judge or divider between money-hungry brothers. He can now be persuaded to assist the brother who has accepted Him to get the better of the brother who has not" A W Tozer. The prosperity Gospel is alive and well. The individual that has reached a point in time where life in general seems futile, can call upon God to seek forgiveness by way of repentance with a penitent heart and God will answer. The truth of this is seen all around the world were individual men and womens lives have undergone a dramatic change in their approach to God and those around them.Such is a personal appeal to something that has been put in place by God, not any organisation that preaches a different Gospel mixed with the advancement of a particular group, psychology overtakes repentance, feelings replace wanting," Seek God first is the Biblical pattern, not to align yourself with any particular group pretending to have some 'New Light" most of these groups have been around for less than two hundered years and under the scrutiny of the Bible are found wanting.

Okay the bible is the denominator,,,, and the point would be? : )

re BlueGeorgia May 10 th.

The variety of those groups that do come knocking, or can be seen regularly on TV and elsewhere or have been around for centuries all profess to have some special enlightenment within their ranks.There is no room for free thought, all that has been taken care off and the only committment is to follow and promote.All religious groups are not headed to the same destination by different means. I could elaborate from the Bible, many do not believe the Bible is trustworthy, to quote from same to anyone so convinced would be a waste of time i am sure you would agree.If two agree that the Bible is everything it claims to be then my point could be better expanded, some folk believe the Bible contains the word of God, as such all is open to interpretation based on the individuals bias based on upbringing or denominational characteristics within certain groups,if the common denominator is the Bible then we can move on to my point.

I guess I am missing your point. Do you have one?