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A question for Christians

Do you think Christianity is the true religion?

  • Yes

    Votes: 19 65.5%
  • I don't know

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • There's no such thing as "true religion"

    Votes: 10 34.5%

  • Total voters
    29
Do you have more information on this? I'd never heard this and would like to read more about it.

I don't have any specific information to refer you to, and I don't know where to start because I don't know the extent of your religious upbringing, but Saul of Tarsus was a Pharisee who persecuted the followers of Jesus. He was a very intolerant and ruthless individual who devoted himself to harassing Jesus' followers in real life.

After Jesus' crucifixion, Saul was travelling on the road to Damascus when he was struck blind and had a vision and conversation with the resurrected Jesus -- at least according to the official Christian dogma on the subject. None of his travelling companions experienced this vision, as the only accounts of this come from Saul, himself. As the story goes, however, Saul changed his name to Paul, became the most fervent follow, and Christians take this fervency as evidence of his conversion to the one true word. He then went on to establish this new religion Christianity.

My question, however, has to do with the source. Since the only source for this epiphany is Saul, himself, and Saul was a very fervent enemy of Jesus' followers, what if he saw an opportunity to co-opt the very movement he hated so as to put his own stamp on it?

Jesus, Himself is reported to have warned His followers to beware false prophets and so my own interpretation of this Religion is that it is Jesus who should be front and center and not Paul. Jesus said "Believe in ME" rather than Paul or anybody else, and so when Christians follow Paul, they are following a religion that may be about Jesus, but they really aren't following Jesus. They are following Paul.

I suppose if I were to refer you to anything, it might be the Red Letter Christians or similar movements, though.
 
Yes. I believe Christianity is the true religion.


Any Christian that answers otherwise is ignoring his own theology, as Christianity excludes all non-Christ-centered belief systems as false or at least inadequate.

Some like to think all paths lead up the same mountain, but that isn't particularly biblical.

In fairness, it has been suggested (in the Catholic Church, at least) that virtuous non-Christians could very well have a chance at heaven as well, if they never really had a chance to know Christ in life. It also holds that adherence to a non-Christian belief system can be virtuous, so long as it is sincere and conscientious.

The exact manner in which such things would be judged by God himself is ultimately anyone's guess, however.
 
In fairness, it has been suggested (in the Catholic Church, at least) that virtuous non-Christians could very well have a chance at heaven as well, if they never really had a chance to know Christ in life. It also holds that adherence to a non-Christian belief system can be virtuous, so long as it is sincere and conscientious.

The exact manner in which such things would be judged by God himself is ultimately anyone's guess, however.




I hope it is so, but I am glad not to be depending on it.
 
I don't have any specific information to refer you to, and I don't know where to start because I don't know the extent of your religious upbringing, but Saul of Tarsus was a Pharisee who persecuted the followers of Jesus. He was a very intolerant and ruthless individual who devoted himself to harassing Jesus' followers in real life.

After Jesus' crucifixion, Saul was travelling on the road to Damascus when he was struck blind and had a vision and conversation with the resurrected Jesus -- at least according to the official Christian dogma on the subject. None of his travelling companions experienced this vision, as the only accounts of this come from Saul, himself. As the story goes, however, Saul changed his name to Paul, became the most fervent follow, and Christians take this fervency as evidence of his conversion to the one true word. He then went on to establish this new religion Christianity.

My question, however, has to do with the source. Since the only source for this epiphany is Saul, himself, and Saul was a very fervent enemy of Jesus' followers, what if he saw an opportunity to co-opt the very movement he hated so as to put his own stamp on it?

Jesus, Himself is reported to have warned His followers to beware false prophets and so my own interpretation of this Religion is that it is Jesus who should be front and center and not Paul. Jesus said "Believe in ME" rather than Paul or anybody else, and so when Christians follow Paul, they are following a religion that may be about Jesus, but they really aren't following Jesus. They are following Paul.

I suppose if I were to refer you to anything, it might be the Red Letter Christians or similar movements, though.

So what I think I am getting from this is -- if you follow the true teachings of the Bible, and Jesus' words, then that's really following Jesus, but if you follow today's version of Christianity, then you are more like following Paul instead of Jesus? So what would a follower of Jesus be called?
 
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