oh no, I'm a Christian, but I certainly don't believe in Jesus. I tried to be an athiest and didn't think about God much for many years because everywhere He goes He caused problems. But all the prayers of my youth which I prayed and pleaded to God fell on deaf ears and I had to give up and totally change my life even though the prayers, that is what I was praying for, never really died. I just figured I had made so many bad decisions that they could now never be answered. And then years later they were answered in what I can only call miraculous ways one by one and they now all fit in together with no conflict. Now about all I pray for every morning is for the wisom and the discipline to stay alcohol free for the day. And every night I give God thanks for that wisdom and discipline. His presence is always near when I look around at all I have with a thankful heart. But as far as the big picture, that is, is there a single creating force? Beats the heck out of me, but I enjoy listening to the scientific debate and new discoveries and ideas which sometimes make sense out of the fantastic old stories told about that force. How about you?
Joke? If you don't believe in Jesus you are by biblical standards not a Christian nor could you possibly have accepted the gift of salvation. I won't argue whether the Bible holds true or not (I fully believe every last word in the Bible, but respect others' choices), just wanted to state the obvious given you said you don't believe in Jesus. And obviously, trust in the Bible being accurate and true also has a huge bearing on whether one is a Christian, disciple, son of God, or whatever description you choose.
oh no, I was a born again Christian.Very involved in a evangelical church. Looking back it was all just churchianity. No, I don't believe the mother of jesus was a virgin. The solution to the middle east problem is in the New Testament. Yes, once born again always born again I suppose. I'm still a Christian even though I don't believe any of the myths including the mother all the way to the resurrection. If you have had your heart opened all the Truth and Message of Christ is in there somewhere. Reading the New Testament is more like investigating a crime. Nobody wants to tell the truth because they are all guilty.
Sounds rather highly confused to me given that you contradict the Bible. Either you believe God's words or not. If you don't take the Bible and God as authority then that is of course a choice but choices come with consequences even if we don't believe in them. We can either fully believe or not believe. The Bible and Jesus make that perfectly clear that there is no middle ground. That's not my own belief but is clearly stated in the Bible. But I concur with you in that we shall not believe in churches or religions as defined by humans
oh no, I don't take the Bible as any kind of authority. Most of the Old Testament is just holy propaganda to insure the supremacy of the Jewish People and who knows what they were thinking when they put together the New Testament. Now God? Oh, if they every figure it out He will be the Supreme authority even way more than gravity. As for my personal God, He is all wise if you ever need somebody who is an authority on any subject. I don't like it when somebody laughs at me for my belief in God so I won't laugh at you for your belief in the Bible, especially when I once believed it was the Word of God. But everything I need is in that book somewhere.
Maintaining a sound/analytical mind and logical/rational judgement is important when learning things/knowledge from books, any books. The bible in the old age was a collection of many ancient books, that is equivalent to today's a collection of many contemporary books in many fields including laws, sciences, medicines, sociology, psychology, philosophy, mythology, politics, etc., etc. A lover in reading/studying/learning the bible should also read/study/learn all other books with an open mind/heart! Perhaps claiming the highest authority in the bible could be a major cause of many conflicts. Due to proven contradictions within the bible books, as well as against non-bible books. That was why so many believers killed many other believers of the same bible in our human history in many times. And believers of one set of holy books killed other believers of another set of holy books. Forgetting the God they believe is merely one of the many Gods, as all these Gods were temporal results during mankind's searching process of the universal creator GOD! All sorts of science are developed/meant to discover more and deeper knowledge of understanding the mysteries of the creator GOD. Just 2 cents!
There are no contradictions in the Bible unless of course you yourself create them. Everything beautifully reconciles. I am willing to claim that any perceived contradiction can be reconciled and has probably been in length explained and pointed out in uncountable scholarly and theological texts online.
http://infidels.org/library/modern/jim_meritt/bible-contradictions.html http://infidels.org/library/modern/donald_morgan/contradictions.html http://bibviz.com/ http://www.thethinkingatheist.com/page/bible-contradictions http://www.answering-christianity.com/101_bible_contradictions.htm BTW, do you support slavery? Do you think drinking poison cannot harm believers? You can find Jesus-likeness in the bible in ancient Greek, but you cannot find the word Christ-likeness in ancient Greek bible! Why? Can you find any bible books written by Jesus? If not, why? Have you been baptised by fire yet, as Jesus mentioned? What is the fire, by today's words/forms? Are you going to burn yourself with real fire for baptism? ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-Letter_Christian http://www.redletterchristians.org/ Just 2 cents! Don't be too serious! Keep your faith! Ciao!