Who me

I have never said there were no errors etc in denomination, I have challenged you to prove your assertion.

One of the common threads that appears in testimonies at the church I attend is the personal contact with another Christian. It is what I see through out the NT the personal connection. And the key words are, ' there were hardly any unbelievers at them ' can you provide chapter and verse that says church services are for Christians only. I have no problem with non Christians attending church services, Paul talking about the spiritual gifts said that they were to challenge the unbeliever, so he recognised there would be non Christians in there services. It is why I linked James and the bias against the poor correctly with bias against atheists. Ultimately we are to imitate Jesus, we are to show our love for him by our obedience to his commands, which were to love God and to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. How loving is stopping an unbeliever from attending a church service?

No God the Father's testimony as that " This Is My Beloved Son." There is nothing in it that says Jesus became the Son of God at that moment only a public recognitione In England some forty years ago there was a public ceremony where Prince Charles was made the Prince of Wales. That ceremony didn't make Charles a prince, it didn't make him the Queen of England's eldest son. He was already that. In the same way Jesus was already the second person of the trinity, he had limited himself, taken off, hidden, his Glorious form in order to become a man. As you say at the end of your post following Jesus's resurrection believers became God's children.

Only in so far as Romans 12:1+2 implies acceptance. There is a need for us to learn about God and his will, a willingness to unlearn about the ways of the world and a willingness to do what having learnt about God's will means in terms of good works and love for others. Christianity is never, ever a passive believe. If you are being passive, not active try reading 2cor 13:5+6.

In the same way to share the gospel to anyone. Get them talking and interject at a suitable point with why do they believe that, about there moral convictions. To find out what there morality is based on, with older people they may well remember the ten commandments or something similar. In which case what God expects of all of us can be introduced and the fact that we all fail them, all deserve God's judgement and wrath. The good news of Jesus can then be introduced. With people with set habits, set ways of thinking it will take time for the reality of the gospel to sink in.

Why, does the discriptions of there behaviour match your behaviour? Or do you seek to do what Romans 12:1+2 says? Fear of something is based on a reason so examine yourself as 2 for 13:5 examine yourself to see if you are in the faith, Jesus is living in you unless you fail in the test. If you are Jesus's you do not have to fear being abandoned. An exercise for you. Find out all the physical, mental and spiritual abuse practise by the Romans when they crucified someone. Then find out about how a crucified man slowly died and think. If Jesus did that for you, how willing is he to let you go because of an imagined sin.

No it is about your church's public witness to the locality. Do those Christian care about there neighbours or are they only concerned about there right to meet together. The second commandment to Love your neighbour ( including your enemies ) as you love your selves. Yes here in the UK there are so many. So many in fact that here in the London suburbs we are not reopening partly because it will not be a worship service and with no fellowship will be pointless but also because of the logistical problem of getting people in and out of the building without also queuing in front of the neighbours houses. What we do have is an software programs called Zoom, it allows other users who have also downloaded the app to meet on line our midweek meetings use it for upto 7 or,8 homes to be able to interact, only open person can talk at a time, but with a little self discipline in an hour long meeting we can exchange news, have a short Bible study and a time of open prayer. It is all available for free, but requires the zoom user to know how to operate it and send out the online address to those church members with smartphones, tablets etc and the free app. Talk to your minister, he might think it worth investigating this.

Yes he does as John 1:12+13 tell us we have the Right to become Children of God. As 1 Peter2:9+10 says we who were not a people now are a people.

No what the Bible teaches covers every situation. Either there is repentance in which case we Must forgive, or there is no repentance in which case it is handed over to God, lock, stock and barrel for him to deal with and we start praying for the offender(s).

Thank you, but you still haven't substantiated your belief that denominational views distorts the gospel.

Use Google to investigate the beliefs of the churches in your town/district you will find churches with a less than orthodox view of Christianity. They are often lovely people and as you say ' are not christian' so how do you or your church evangelize them? Bias against the poor and bias against nonchristians is still bias against them and something Christians should not display.

May I suggest that you read James again. I would also like to ask a simple question. An atheist tells you they are interested in learning about Christianity. What advice do you give them? From your answers to me you would not suggest they attend a church. This rules out things like christianityexplord as two or three Christians are meeting together and that makes it ' a church '. Would you take the time to meet with this interested atheist, ah the problem is he is on a Christian forum somewhere in the world and you are elsewhere. While you can email, text, zoom etc surely the best option is for this interested atheist to start attending a church and talking with the members and minister. I would also suggest you ask your minister for his unofficial view as to how many non Christians regularly attend the church service? That I have to suggest this implies you don't know the other members and attenders of your church.

You have not shown that here is a contradiction. Let me illustrate it. You are sitting in your car, in one hand is a print out of how to drive from New York to L A without using major roads. In your other hand is a copy of what in the UK is called the Highway code, a book of the rules of the road, traffic signs, road markings, instructions how to make turns,overtake etc etc. Your passenger says why do you have both of those they totally contradict each other.. To explain. Scripture is the highway code. The teaching solar fidelity is the driving instruction. Only someone who does not understand these things would claim they contradict each other.

It appears to be the arrival of a pregnant Mary. So this was either a literal filling of the spirit prompted by Mary's arrival or more likely this happened when she became pregnant and Mary's arrival revealed the presence of the Spirit.

A great question and one where the answer should be clearly seen in our lives. How great a thief are you? Stealing from your employer time, resource etc. Legalism to be scrupulous about what you owe your employer or working for the honour and glory of God. Who is glorified when Christians cheat, lie and scheme to sell, get a contract, promotion what ever? Love your neighbour as your self, well Jesus explained that your neighbour is those people who have you and how do you love them? Donations to Hezbollah dominated Lebanon charity needs anyone. Do you love them?

You posted this in general discussion. Maybe you should think about using multip tags when making posts.

Yet what does Jesus expect of us? To show in our lives that we love him!

Ones specialist subject in life should be ," stating the obvious, cos the obvious is often not known! "

What are you talking about? This thread is about forgiveness and in Christianity there is No forgiveness without repentance.

When unsupported statements are made, yes I will ask for evidence.

And just what do you understand by the phrase join a church? Yes it can mean applying for membership of a church organisation. It can also mean to be regular in attendance at a church, your hysterical atheists cannot be members of the body of Christ, no by simple definition an atheist is not a Christian. So yes cannot be a member of the body of Christ, but the body of Christ is not the same as the local church and its members. Visit a liberal church, one that denies the resurrection etc are every member of person in attendance there a Christian, a member of the key of Christ. If they are not then to what body do those church members belong? Lastly ever read James on how Christians reacted to a well dress man and a poorly dressed man? How different is that attitude to the attitude of atheists cannot come in here?

A good question and one I'm not going to attempt to answer as there is a bigger issue that people ignore. God made many promises to and with the Israelites. What people forget is that there are conditions which lead to blessings or curses. Example God promised prosperity to the Israelites, but this was conditional on there obedience to his laws. They were his chosen people, but that didn't stop God sending them into exile because of there rebellious nature and restoring a remnant only on national repentance. God is not a sugar daddy.

No the questions are:- Why is there something rather than nothing? A philosophical question that science cannot help answer. What of ' cosmic fine running ' , the scientific problem that if atomic forces that hood atoms together were fractionally stronger or weaker then mater would not exists being to weak to hold together or would exist but none of the chemical reactions would work as the bonds would be to strong. Then there is biogenesis, how did life first start. This is a fun one how did life chemicals form by chance and how did a random process produce not only 100% pure chemicals by all left handed chemicals. How were the dozen or so chemicals need to form the amino acids required to make the proteins required to form the structure and DNA etc of a simple cell, plus how were they mixed while being protected from water, oxygen and ultra violet radiation. Another fun one once proteins have need formed these very long complex chains of proteins have to be folded into precise shapes to fit into a cell, but also so they can fit into the receptors in the cell and so work? Him form a receptor and a folded protein to fit and work together by chance. That is like selecting numbers for a lottery ticket while simultaneously making the machine that will pick the number and making by randomly putting equipment together. A rational look at evolution shows up multiple questions that science can only supply faith based answers.

Welcome to the forum. Why is it wrong to blame God for what happens? One reason is the assumption that one knows better than God what should happen in our lives. Another is the assumption that what happens is not deserved or is not our fault. You or other may protest at the apparent callousness if this last one. But turn it around, on what basis would you say that anyone has a right to a better life. Fairness/equality ok but judged on what basis, rights! Rights to what? Asking this question means you believe that there is a God. So what of God's right to obedience from his creation?

James urges those who lack wisdom to seek it from God, but that also implies that many already have that same wisdom. How do we recognise that someone has God's wisdom? How do we differentiate between the world's wisdom and God's Jason, if there is any difference. Note I used wisdom, not intelligence, or knowledge. To me a wise person is one who is seeking to serve God, they may not be as intelligent as some people, but the quality of there walk with Jesus, there spirituality will stand out. It can also work of that both there intelligence and there spirituality is above average. While salvation and heaven has been gained, we still have to strive to resist temptation, to seek to know and grow more like Jesus. Christianity is an active walk.