[Salliter]

Normal middle aged guy? What NT have you been reading? Walks on water, turns water into wine, born from a virgin!! What kind of middle aged man was that? Plus doesn't he say he is the son of god, isn't that a god also?

[Salliter]

I don't have time this morning to read everything, but I'd just like to point out that Constintine was not Christian. He was a ferverent pagan follower up until his death when he was too weak to not be converted on his death bed. The reason that he chose Christianity over his own religion was because he just liked to bet on a winner. He also held a big meeting where he decided which of the 60 gospels would be included in the bible, and of which a major conflict was weather or not Christ would be portrayed as a god, or a man. They choose god just in case you were wondering.

[FelixQY]

Compared to beings that have an infinite knowledge, we are as simple-minded four-legged animals, I think.

1 Corinthians:
3:18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.

3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

3:20 And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

[masaredera]

I am a gay man living through the eyes of a christian nation, with my hands tied down and feet shackled. yes, christians have suppress and oppressed many people through time. however, this oppression has not ended. now in america most christians go around dictating their belief to everybody. these people still discriminate against people today. they discriminate against gay and lesbian people everyday. yes, they all have the right to personal belief, however, to surpress this belief amongst everybody else is absurd. I am not christian, that is that, i dont appreciate christians, their churches going around denying me the right of marriage. it is awful that in 2004, mankind uses religon to control people. i thought u.s gave us freedom of religon? freedom of life liberty and the persuit of happiness? the thing is, in my old country in mexico, the mexican government never promised anything, so i expect nothing, however, u americans sure do promise a lot, but always fail to deliver, so tell me, if i have freedom of religon, if america is the place of democracy tell me, how come gay men cannot marry, without using a religous excuse please!!!! Christianity is a posion, and it like every other religon in this world is used for power, money, and wealth.

[Filling25]

Every religion has a right and even a duty to define itself by its rules. One of the rules of Christianity is that marriage is only between a man and a woman. But that definition is for Christians. If you are not a Christian you may have other definitions of "marriage" and you are free to live by your rules. You are free to make any contract you wish with anyone you wish, including "marriage" as defined by you, or Power of Attorney for Health Care or money matters. You are even free to set up your own religion that includes homosexuals and marries them. So what exactly is your beef? You are even free to marry a goat if you want----just not by the rules of this particular society.

Marriage is also a "social contract" that has been recognized by the state and defined by the majority of this society which happens to be Christian. However, the rules of the social contract could be changed if the majority decided it needed changing. So far they have not. Most of that sort of unwillingness to change has nothing to do with religious belief but more to do with the economics, since it would put a lot of our present laws into a tailspin. It also has to do with giving "rights" to one group and therefore having to give "rights" to another group, such as polygamy or group marriages. In that case, just who would get the social security benefits or the insurance benefits? The head wife or husband, or all of them? And how expensive would that be? And who would pay for it?

Personally I think the law is fine just as it is. Marriage is mainly a benefit for the sake of children. I can tell you that if I were a homosexual I wouldn't try to change the rules, because I am free to live by my own rules anyhow, even in this society. I am free to make any contract I wish with anyone I wish, male or female. And I would make that contract without trying to change the rules as my culture has determined them over thousands of years. I do a lot of things and make a lot of decisions about my personal life that my culture may or may not approve of, but as long as I am not causing societal or economic chaos or personal damage to anyone else, I am also free to do that. Every homosexual is free to do the same.

[fil_nurser]

First off.... I think the evolution of Christianity (at least my view of it) is a little different... (I don't consider myself a scolore of the Bible so I might be mistaken as well)
Christianity is a fairly new term (not even as old as the story of the Christ), but what Christianity truly is, is a relationship with God. The only difference that I see between the Judaism and Christianity is that Jews are still waiting for the birth of the Christ and Christians believe that the Christ has already fulfilled the prophecies and was born of the virgin Mary, lived, then died at the hands of His people (yes, that was one of the prophecies, that he would be crucified by his own people) and that He rose again in 3 days. There were other prophecies, but I'm not going to get into that.
So, the history of the religion actually starts back in the beginning. The first parts of Genesis talk about the Creation ending in the creation of Man (and because it was not right for man to be alone, Woman as well... God did not say 'it was good' till after both man and woman were created.) After this, there was the fall of Man. We ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil hoping we could be gods ourselves with that knowledge. Thus, we were no longer allowed to eat of the Tree of Life. Slowly Man degraded, growing away from God, until God only found one fit among us. God destroyed the world with a great flood, sparing only Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives.

That was the first chapter of the earths history and this religions history.

Next, Man repopulated the earth (I guess we were good at that) and God found favor in Jacob and so He made a promise to Jacob that he would have many descendants and that they would be as numerous as the stars and that they would always be Gods favored (I used to feel jealous of that). After a lot of wandering around and some things I am a bit hazy on, they end up moving in with Joseph in Egypt. A few generations later, they run away from there and spend 40 years in the desert looking for a land that couldn't have been more then a 5 week journey away.
Finally they find there way to the promised land (right in the middle of countries that would love to remove the newly found Israel from history), which they took by force.

Life continues in its ever monotony and the Israelites start to become hardened to God, they turn this relationship with God into a hard spoken Religion with rules that cannot be broken or you will be stoned to death. (hmmm. That sounds like what happened to the Catholic Church in the dark ages)

Finally, the next chapter of earth comes (the one we are currently in), at the beginning of this chapter The Christ is born, but things dont get rolling till He is about 30. Then we all know the story right up to today I actually agree with what emo says, I just wanted to add this part to it.

The protestant movement was supposed to be a move back toward a living relationship with God and away from the strict rules of the Catholic Church. The Christian ÔÇ£religionÔÇØ was never supposed to be a set of laws that become the focus. Everything in the Bible has only one focus and thatÔÇÖs God and GodÔÇÖs Love. He wants us to love him back and we just look at him like a slave to his master. I canÔÇÖt find the quote I want to put here, but it says (as exactly as I can remember) ÔÇ£There will come a day when you will no longer call Me ÔÇÿMaster,ÔÇÖ but I will be ÔÇÿFather.ÔÇÖÔÇØ I will put up the exact quote when I find it, but the idea is still thisÔǪ God is the master of all things, but He wishes us to be His children and for us to call Him ÔÇ£Father.ÔÇØ
My father loves it when I call him Papa or Pop (or something along those lines), itÔÇÖs a symbol of my love for him as my father. He actually get visibly flustered when I call him be his name and he should, IÔÇÖm glad he does.

For the final question possed by emo, I ask you this... What is worship?

[FelixQY]

I'm not sure how jared_kipe misinterpretted my post so much, but I'll go on anyway.
Good point Tom. I agree and I believe I may have opened a can of worms that needn't be opened. Whether Jesus was or wasn't portayed as a God doesn't matter as much as what he stood for. Let's pose this, what did Jesus stand for?

[JosephNF]

if you all like to contact me on this matter then please do write to me at tijahrl@hotmail.com. thank you