When someone asks if you are a christian…
what in the world are they asking…
i am a christian but for me i dont believe in a judeo-christian god…
A Christian as far as I had been taught in those respective churchs means to believe in God, accept Jesus as their Saviour and try to follow the teachings in The Old and New Testament of The Bible.
What do you mean?
I think that pretty much says it.
i guess i am not a christian…too bad…they just lost a good one…
But not being a Christian, does not equate to not being Christian.
But I know what you mean… I empathize.
Do you want to become a Christian?
i dont think so…saint was right…i am being christian not a christian…that is good enough for me…
i dont think so…saint was right…i am being christian…i am not a christian…that is good enough for me…
Would you care to expand on that? What does it mean in practice?
sure-----“let he who has not sinned cast the first stone”…
Haha…
turtle, I’m curious…
I have a vague perception of your character (your “soul”) and wondered about other Christian principles to which you adhere.
I couldn’t think of one that you don’t off the top, but can you? (not counting the belief in the supernatural, but rather the principles of behavior)
saint i think we are on the same page…
i am only interested in the christian behavior but not all of it…
I don’t know that you can answer this but if any one can I’m willing to listen, does it actually say in the bible (quotes if possible), or does Jesus himself actually say that he is the “Savior”(quotes if possible) and what does that mean? I mean some say “he died for our sins” does that mean any sin we do know is ok, or that we are now able to repent, and the idea seems dangerous to me, since if one begins to think they can do any sin and just repent then it is all ok then they might go to hell in the long run… plus people tend to think that repentance is as easy as just doing certain prescribed physical things, i think it is more about accepting what you did is wrong, changing and not exactly helping those you hurt so much as learning to do good and doing good continually or as best you can after words.
And as far as saying i’m a Christian: The Qur’an says that any one who follows the jewish scriptures, the sabiens, those who follow Jesus’s scriptures, and the Qur’an (and there might be a few more) are all “Muslims”
which suggests that if you are a Christian you are a muslim. I prefer to refer to myself as one who has Faith. but I can call my self a christian or a Muslim because I have Faith in God, and Faith that Jesus was a prophet, and all the other prophets as well…
but then everybody has a different definition for these words and most tend to think that only their definition is 100% correct…
Abstract,
What you are referring to, by implicit familiarity, is the fact that all thus far collected material of the oldest linguistic copies of first through third century scripts have no literal translation that directly has a syntax or grammar in which is contained the claim that the Jesus individual is a holy begotten divine spiritual soul savior son of The omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God, and is the Word of God by which all of creation came from, by the same Jesus individual in self identification; nor by any internally referable acquaintances.
That Gettysburg Address never takes place.
What does take place is up for an extreme amount of interpreted contextual allusion.
So the previously stated long title of Jesus is ascertained by contextual interpretation supported by symbolic references discerned largely from an interpretation in the latter half of the early first century of the Judaic Tanakh. All interpretations following have been of the translated version reference in some fashion; with very few exceptions (though, some of the exceptions are really a fascinating read).
If you want some good resources to take a look at a large amount of material on the subject, click on my ILP Signature link that reads More ILP Related Links Here.
Once on the tumblr page, click on the link Click Here For ILP Classic Hebrew, Classic Greek, Coptic, and Dead Sea Scrolls Resources
Also, might I suggest, The Book: A History of the Bible, by Christopher De Hamel for a context of the sociological history.
Regardless of the possibilities of inaccuracy, or in other words the lack of 100% certainty, that doesn’t exactly discredit anything, as in all actuality everything is less than 100% certain anyways. For example all data we have could be a fabrication by Descartes’ Evil Demon. I prefer to say this: If you don’t know everything, then what you don’t know could be something that would make you think what you do think you know is false, as such whatever you think you know must be uncertain?
So it would seem best to me to consider the possibilities and make an attempt to understand what was intended. For I do think it is unlikely that everything in the bible was false, as such it is most likely that one can gain at least some truth with at least regards to what the original message was.
Perhaps you read something into my post from expectations built off of previous experience, I’m not sure.
But the post I made was a theologically indifferent answer.
The facts I gave are just that. I was not implying any theological conclusions.
You asked a question of context and translation, and that just happens to be what I enjoy studying, so I provided a brief overview of the expansive topic.
And I agree.
If you want to investigate the documents yourself, and piece together the social anthropology of each consideration you may have, so to place a context for what you translate, then the links I gave are a great start. Theology is not discussed in those resources.
For the social anthropology of the Levant region between 8th c. bce and 3rd c. ce, you will have to read quit a bit.
However, I can offer these three starters.
Family Religion in Babylonia, Syria and Israel: Continuity and Change in the Forms of Religious Life (Studies in the History and Culture of the Ancient Near East, Vol 7) - K. van der Toorn
Reconstructing the Society of Ancient Israel - Paula M. McNutt
These are good anthropological readings on the backgrounds of the people that you would be reading of, and reading the works of.
I also added these three to the resource link previously listed.
This is as close as Jesus would (or could) refer to Himself as ‘Saviour’. In essence I interpret this scripture as saying that Jesus is the crux for eternal life after our bodies die in which His sacrifice of life gives all people the opportunity to share God’s Realm
Yep.
yes perhaps i was reading into your writing…
but I would at least say that even history is a manner of speculation…