This forum is called "RELIGION" but it doesn't often deal with any other religion than "CHRISTIANITY". Do you agree?
If you do agree that we are just about all Christians here dealing with issues from a Christian prospective, then you are addmiting we do have a basic bond that unites us. We do not "belong" to any particular "denomination". We BELONG TO CHRIST!
However, we do follow different paths. We do associate our selves with different denominations and views of "how to best serve the LORD".
In some ways out funemental bielifs make it near impossable for us to see eye to eye on some issues.
Many believe that THE BIBLE itself is the only source of infallibile, recieved truth, and that GOD's grace, is obtained through faith in CHRIST and not by good deeds or meditation of any religious institution. (this is apparently a big part of the fundamental differences between the Roman Catholics and most Protestants)
If we are on opposite sides of the above "fence" (that in bold), it is nearly impossible to agree on some issues. (When I asked the question in another thread "THE BIBLEis it ourONLY guide???" I should have realized that it was a fundamental belief of some and so they were bound to say YES!!!)
Perhaps we should have two forums here. One would be "THINGS THAT UNITE US AS CHRISTIANS" and the other would be "A PLACE TO DEFEND AND FIGHT FOR OUR DENOMINATIONS OR PERSONNAL BELIEFS"
Hopefully we would all spend our time in the first one and the second one would be pretty empty.
I like the post Duffy and agree with you. I will take your "CHRISTIAN" only slant here one further and say only certain types of christian beliefs are respected here.
This forum is called "RELIGION" but it doesn't often deal with any other religion than "CHRISTIANITY". Do you agree?
If you do agree that we are just about all Christians here dealing with issues from a Christian prospective, then you are addmiting we do have a basic bond that unites us. We do not "belong" to any particular "denomination". We BELONG TO CHRIST!
Robin in Rocky
Amen brother!
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Jesus said, "he who stands firm to the end will be saved" Mark 13:13.
Live Life in such a way that those who do not know Christ will come to know Him because they know you
I like the post Duffy and agree with you. I will take your "CHRISTIAN" only slant here one further and say only certain types of christian beliefs are respected here.
This is true but I think part of this is many feel that certain groups that call themselves Christians may not be deemed Christians by all. To decide the uniting and dividing factors I think we would need to come to an agreement as to what defines a true Christian. Take LDS for example, they call themselves Christians but many other denominations would not consider them Christians.
I like the post Duffy and agree with you. I will take your "CHRISTIAN" only slant here one further and say only certain types of christian beliefs are respected here.
This is true but I think part of this is many feel that certain groups that call themselves Christians may not be deemed Christians by all. To decide the uniting and dividing factors I think we would need to come to an agreement as to what defines a true Christian. Take LDS for example, they call themselves Christians but many other denominations would not consider them Christians.
While I agree on your point of what is dividing, I do not see how correct/appropriate it would be to define what a "true Christian is," as I am sureyou will get varying interpretations on things that makes someone a true Christian. Why not just universally respect the beliefs of anyone and everyone? How does a difference from one denomination truly affect that of another in any way requiring attention?
I agree with Red Lion. Instead of concentrating on what divides us let's concetrate on what brings us together. I say that it is was Christ would want us to do. We are all human here. We are all going to make mistakes and we need to be careful before we throw someone to the lions den for their mistake. If the intention is innocent, you've never had a continious problem with their doctrine then we need to cut them some slack.If you see a problem say did you notice that is wrong? If it's a mistake they'll fix it and apologize.
While I agree on your point of what is dividing, I do not see how correct/appropriate it would be to define what a "true Christian is," as I am sureyou will get varying interpretations on things that makes someone a true Christian. Why not just universally respect the beliefs of anyone and everyone? How does a difference from one denomination truly affect that of another in any way requiring attention?
Maybe I understood it wrong then but I thought the idea is to find out what unites and divides us "as Christians". I would think that defining what a Christian is would be very important then. You don't have to narrow the definition by any means to be extremely exclusive, I would think anyone that accepts Jesus as their savior would be acceptable to start. In fact anything that we find that universally unites us can be added to the definition.
I do understand your point though and I do agree. The problem is that someone's faith and beliefs are and if they aren't they should be the most important thing to that person so most (including myself) get defensive about this.
While I agree on your point of what is dividing, I do not see how correct/appropriate it would be to define what a "true Christian is," as I am sureyou will get varying interpretations on things that makes someone a true Christian. Why not just universally respect the beliefs of anyone and everyone? How does a difference from one denomination truly affect that of another in any way requiring attention?
Maybe I understood it wrong then but I thought the idea is to find out what unites and divides us "as Christians". I would think that defining what a Christian is would be very important then. You don't have to narrow the definition by any means to be extremely exclusive, I would think anyone that accepts Jesus as their savior would be acceptable to start. In fact anything that we find that universally unites us can be added to the definition.
I do understand your point though and I do agree. The problem is that someone's faith and beliefs are and if they aren't they should be the most important thing to that person so most (including myself) get defensive about this.
Yourright the thread is about what unites and what divides.By the way I only live about 10 minutes from you.
What unites us, What divides us.
