/christianity/ - True Christian Fellowship & Debate

> I would like to know where I go from here?

Go to Church. There you will learn more and more. Don't be afraid!

Go to Church – pray there, and pray at home.

The only way to learn prayer is by praying. Keep praying, even though you may feel you are "not doing it right" or "failing" at prayer. It is like swimming. The only way to "fail" is to stop and drown. If we are not praying "rightly", then praying more is the only cure.

Seek and you will find!

>Contact the priest at your local Church, or even better an elder at a local Monastery

>Start attending services

>Reach the overloving fuck out of that Bible

>Buy a decent prayer book (at the least a Great Horologion and Psalter

>Pray a shitton

That's basically all their is to it. Your Elder will guide you along the rest.

Also, get some good books on the Church. I belief the works of Lossky and Alfeyev are originally in Russian.

>>120

1. Remember that we live by the New Testament (aka The Gospel, aka Evangelie), so many laws described in Old Testament are deprecated now. New Testament is the bigger priority for learning. If you feel you get stuck in a language barreer (oh, and glava means chapter), feel free to get an English copy. They're all originating from Greek text anyway.

2. Learn "The Lord's Prayer", which is also known as "Our Father…", or Otche nash.

3. >>145

4. Learn about confession and the Eucharist. Observe yourself and notice your sins. Pray about noticing them better. Make a confession list for your first confession (and probably for the next ones) and muse on it for a while, thinking about how every thing on this is actually not worthy to do, how they ruin your precious soul, and how you want to abandon these sins.

5. Don't get despaired if you aren't immediately perfect. Be humble and understand that it's not in your powers to become saint right away.

>>97

Circumcision is practiced for non-religious reasons by the majority in the US. This should be obvious, since any literate person who consults the New Testament will be able to see that circumcision is not necessary for Christians. If you look at the history of circumcision in the US it became popular because of supposed health benefits, not any religious mandate. Nevertheless, while circumcision is not necessary, nor is it inherently evil. If it were, God would never have ordained it in the first place. The anti-circumcision activists seem to be primarily comprised of a) fedoras who hate circumcision because of its perceived association with religion b) homosexuals who fetishize the foreskin as a sex object c) people with mommy/daddy issues who get to justify their hatred of their parents based on the fact that they had this procedure done d) neo-Nazis who think since the God of Israel ordained circumcision it must be 'Jewish' and hence evil.

Is this something Evangelicals and Baptists do or is it something done by all American Christians, including Catholics?

Also is there some big they were they take the kid to the doctor to get it snipped. Is there a religious ceremony?

Just curious because I find this to be a very weird custom.

Paeodcircumcision results in enhanced abstract thinking skills.

An infant brain is composed of a vast mesh of neurons, reflecting the mental potentiality of the developing human. This is why children learn things faster and retain those skillsets into adulthood, e.g. multiple langauges are easier to imbibe the earlier you start, and results in the preservation and development of the language centers of the brain.

The neurons which are hard-wired to the nerves removed in paedocircumcision are trimmed, because they are never used, allowing competing neurons to be retained. This results in enhanced abstract thinking skills for people who were circumcised as an infant. This is also why being circumcised as an adult is pointless.

http://www.circumcisioncomplex.com/

>>150

It's something thats practised by most white americans, i don't think what christian denomination they follow really matters that much. For what it's worth circumcision tends to be more common with conservative parents than liberal ones so baptists and evangelicals might be more likely to cut their kids. Hispanics don't circumcise their sons as they come from countries where circumcision is unheard of. States with a high percentage of hispanics have very low circumcision rate, only something like 20% of boys born in California get cut. Blacks are also much less likely to circumcise their sons, though this might have more to do with their economic situation.

It is a very strange custom. It started as a way to keep boys from masturbating in the early 20th century. It started being done for medicinal reasons in the 1930s and became common in the 40s. Non religious circumcision also used to be practised in Canada, New Zealand and Australia for the same reason but it has since died out there.

>>106

Do you hate jews?

I hear it's hard and kind of off for a white American to join the church. Is this true?

This bait baited me.

>the bible is nothing more than a collection of ancient stories from around the ancient world meant to promote ethics, morals, and understanding.

Nice bait lad

What is that book? I cannot stop reading KJV to pick it up.

>>85

>I don't get skeptic/atheists' obsession with literalism.

It's because most them on the internet were brought up in some Evangelical denomination in the american midwest that pushes absolute literalism above all else… with a healthy dose of championing self-interpretation and 'priesthood of all believers' above 2000 years of scholarly theology.

>>83

The passages he quoted weren't

>random

they were the context left out of the Skeptic's Annotated Bible which takes the alleged contradiction between Paul's letter to the Romans saying none can be justified by works, and the first portion of a letter to James from Paul which appears to say that people CAN be justified by works, but that appearance of a contradiction fades as one continues reading and realizes that Abraham wasn't justified by his works, but that his works were done by his faith in God and it was that faith (the kind of faith that calls people to action) that he was justified.

Anyway, I still don't think Paul was an apostle, but one's beliefs of Paul do not matter. OT has better contradictions, but they are solely due to the fact that certain records required more accurate counts than other records.

Now Matt, Mark, Luke and John are the only books needed to find salvation, and they have small differences in their finer details, but even these differences between stories do not disprove the Bible, they simply enforce the fact that they are simply 4 testimonies about the life of the messiah prophesied by the prophets of old.

If their stories all matched completely, it would be suspiciously rehearsed, but their differences confirm the authenticity of their testimonies, and if you take the bits and pieces from their stories and view the story of Jeshua through 4 different viewpoints, you can piece together the full story, and compare it against the prophecies of old.

Never-the-less, I do enjoy the Skeptic's Annotated Bible as it allows me to see some of the problems through the non-believing perspective and as such it allows me to better understand their true issues and to deal with those rather than each individual "contradiction"

From Brothers Karamazov, Book II, Chapter IV. "http://www.gutenberg.org/files/28054/28054-h/28054-h.html#toc33"

Lady: “I suffer … from lack of faith.”

“Lack of faith in God?”

“Oh, no, no! I dare not even think of that. But the future life—it is such an enigma! And no one, no one can solve it. Listen! You are a healer, you are deeply versed in the human soul, and of course I dare not expect you to believe me entirely, but I assure you on my word of honor that I am not speaking lightly now. The thought of the life beyond the grave distracts me to anguish, to terror. And I don't know to whom to appeal, and have not dared to all my life. And now I am so bold as to ask you. Oh, God! What will you think of me now?”

She clasped her hands.

“Don't distress yourself about my opinion of you,” said the elder. “I quite believe in the sincerity of your suffering…. No doubt. But there's no proving it, though you can be convinced of it.”

“How?”

“By the experience of active love. Strive to love your neighbor actively and indefatigably. In as far as you advance in love you will grow surer of the reality of God and of the immortality of your soul. If you attain to perfect self-forgetfulness in the love of your neighbor, then you will believe without doubt, and no doubt can possibly enter your soul. This has been tried. This is certain.”

Exact same boat OP..

I love Christ and Christianity more than anything but it just all seems ridiculous to me…

I kind of only like Christianity for it's culture, traditions and history.

I just want to fight for the crusade and Deus Vult my way through life but I just lack the spirit…

>>135

What is it that keeps you from believing?

Fear keeps me from not believing. If atheists are right and there is no 'God,' then they will either find that there is no hope, or that there is a greater alien race that aided.

In a best scenario, we will not be alone. We will find someone or something that has the answers that long stumped us. The issue is this, if that something or someone was to visit us and share such information, it would only do so because we appeal to it, or because it is advantageous.

If we are simply abusing our fellow men, forcing them to slave mine materials, causing desolation of farmland, tricking destitute families to work for the factories that destroyed their way of life so that we can undercut any business that tries to treat every step of the production process ethically and fairly; if we treat each other horribly, what sort of life would approve of this cut-throat survival of the fittest?

If they approve of our ways, then we will be their slaves lest we find a way to surpass our advanced captors, but if they do not, then war will be brought upon us. And if indeed we are alone in this universe with no God or other life, then that makes this world all the more important.

The teachings of Jesus are how to create Heaven on Earth. If everyone obeyed His words, we would have world peace and no poverty. Meanwhile, if we let into Heaven those who can't forgive or see past their own selfish need, it would only be a matter of time before they would turn paradise into a hell of their own making.

JUST DO IT

Srsly tho. When you start to doubt remember "Lord I believe, help my unbelief." And also check out Aquinas's Proofs and Orthodox understanding about the nature of God.

I have the same problem. I really want to believe but I cannot convince myself. The bible seems too human

>>92

>Romans didn't care about Jesus. Jewish authorities, however, did, and Roman authorities cared about Jewish authorities. Pilate would have released Christ, but Jewish authorities and the people wanted Him dead.

You're basing all of that off the Gospels.

there's written testimony of Jesus

what more do you want? a photograph?

you seem happy to accept the Big Bang without a photo or video footage of the Big Bang.

>>94

The Talmud says the same thing.

Actually it hints to the polytheistic origins of Judaism. The Canaanites where polytheists. El, was simply one god among many that a tribe of Canaanites swore fealty to and from there Judaism was born. The commandments were part of the pact between the tribe and El.

DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM

Because they believe they were selected in the beforelife to be Mormons on this earth so they don't fall off the path to direct Godhood.

Gwt out you nigger loving jew

>>>/gaschamber/

Leftypol,atheism,r9k go hand in hand

This thread AGAIN?

At least write up some new copypasta.

>>128

I'll be present looks really cool OP. Deus Vult!

>>132

Fucking ugly shitskins man