Re: US Christians numbers 'decline sharply', poll finds.
Of course it's fallible. Men make mistakes. There is only one perfect Man who walked the earth, and He died. His words, however, are written in red, and I abide by them as much as I possibly can. See, I am human, so it means I am fallible. I make mistakes. Everyone does.
[sorry - had to snip due to length]
First off, you're aware that Christ never actually wrote
anything, right? The entire New Testament was written by his Apostles after the fact, or men who followed them. As such, the prospect of only paying heed to some of their writings, while ignoring others as being "fallible," is somewhat questionable at best. It was
all written by men. They simply happened to have been men who were blessed with divine knowledge and inspiration so that they could fulfill the mission of spreading the word of God.
As such, no. Their writings are not "fallible." At worst, the translations of their words can occasionally be fallible. Frankly, if some of their writings are, indeed, fallible, there would be no reason to assume that
all of them were not the same.
Secondly, there is a good reason why we no longer follow the Old Testament teachings of Leviticus, or the Mosaic law (no shellfish, no pork, no work on the Sabbath, etca). Christ pretty plainly told us that most of it wasn't relevant anymore, as his arrival on earth had already fulfilled the purpose of the Old Testament.
That doesn't change the fact, however, that he, and the Apostles responsible for recording and spreading his teachings after he had died, put down a New Testament for the disciples of Christ to follow. The simple fact of the matter is that this Testament just so happens, often times in Christ's own words no less, to pretty plainly condemn many of the things which Liberal Christianity likes to promote as being acceptable - like homosexuality, divorce, promiscuity, and etca.
Now, don't get me wrong, I respect the fact that you're at least
trying to maintain faith in Christ. That's more than a lot of people are doing these days.
No, I'm not going to claim that more conservative Christians are free from sin either. We're pretty far from it, in point of fact.
All of that being said, however, flaunting views in open defiance of what Christ taught on Earth, and denying that acts which he held as being sinful are even wrong, would hardly strike me as being a good place to start if one intends on finding their way to heaven. Christ actually taught that incomplete faith, or faith without acts to back it up, was a pretty surefire way
not to get in, in point of truth. This is backed up in many other places in scripture.
"If you are lukewarm, I will spit you out." - Revelation 3:16
In any eventuality, yes. Ultimately, you are correct. Judgement is up to God to decide in the end. The points raised above might be something to keep in mind, however.
God left certain instructions behind to be followed. Willful failure to do so is... Well, let's just call it "less than ideal." :twocents:
It will just be replaced by another religion, so I see no point in celebrating by the death of a relatively benevolent faith.
In this case, most likely philosophies which effectively double as ad hoc secular religions, paired with thinly veiled worship of the state, temporal power, material wealth, human being itself, and sensual excess.
The funny thing is that everyone seems to think that these are all somehow new, novel, and "enlightened" ideas. In truth, they are largely just a rebirth of the pagan social and moral order which existed in pre-Christian times, given a fresh coat of paint.
Everyone likes to claim that it's all those mean old social conservatives who can't get with the times who are responsible for declining Christianity, but the numbers tell us that it is mostly liberals leaving the faith. The more conservative churches have been dropping much slower or, in some cases
steadily growing.
Exactly. To be perfectly frank, why
wouldn't they leave?
We're talking about an entire generation (and sometimes more than one) of people who were basically raised with religion being nothing more than some annoying waste of time they were
occasionally dragged to against their will on Sundays. They have no intellectual understanding of its workings, and no real emotional or spiritual investment in its meaning.
Christianity, simply put, means
nothing to most of these people. Under such circumstances, the only logical conclusion
is to leave. :shrug:
This isn't some triumph of "knowledge." It is a failure largely born out of widespread apathy and ignorance.
