u/Odd_craving

For the sake of argument, let’s say that the Roman Catholic Church is the correct denomination of Christianity - which the Roman Catholics believe to be true. Just within Catholicism alone there are 23 remaining denominations. Then we have roughly 20 major denominations (or movements) of Protestantism that gets spread out to the thousands within those 20 major movements. Some place the individual numbers of different Protestant congregations as high as 40,000.

All together, we see roughly 2.64 billion Christians with 1.42 billion identifying as Roman Catholic. So roughly 1.2 billion Christians would, theoretically, be outside of God’s true denomination. If all Christians are saved, then why does denomination matter? If 1.2 billion Christians aren’t saved, how do we account for this?

Marriage was not a religious event, and the Christian church had no role in it until the 12th century. Jesus defined marriage, but He said nothing about any church’s (or God’s) involvement on any level. In fact, marriage had been secular for a longer period of time than it’s been sanctioned by the church. What time period does Christianity consider marriage to be correct version of marriage?

Edit: The following is my opinion. I’m hoping someone could illustrate where I’m wrong and then I might better understand Christianity

You can converse with them, share ideas and learn from them. However, a person who subscribes to this kind of absolute thinking makes an open-minded conversation impossible. How do I know this? Because “absolute” means both the doors AND the windows are shut on information that doesn’t agree with that book.

This makes legitimate dialog impossible.

My Baptist brother is clear in his belief that biological evolution erodes society and leads to depravity and moral decay. Do most Christians share this view?

Lately, I’ve noticed an antifreeze smell when I walk past the hood, but not all of the time. My coolant level is a touch high, but not by much.

It’s a 2015 Latitude, 2.4 4x4. It has 147k miles and has been remarkably reliable and it still runs and looks great. I had to replace the radiator overflow bottle at about 60k miles ago. I forget why, but wasn’t a leak. I think it had melted and couldn’t be mounted anymore. This is the only work I’ve done to the coolant system - other than a radiator flush or two.

Everything under the hood is bone dry and I never smell antifreeze inside of the car.

Any thoughts?

If Jesus came to earth, born of a virgin and fulfills biblical prophecies, I would conclude that this was His 1st coming. Jesus then dies on the cross and departs the earth. Jesus then returns to earth (a second time) and demonstrates His presence, only to ascend to heaven.

Jesus did say “some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom". Matthew 16:28, Mark 9:1, and Luke 9:27. This would also support the idea that the resurrection was the 2nd coming.

I’ve never been religious, but I was raised in a Christian household. My brother and I are close despite the 3,000 miles between us. We’ve learned to avoid discussing religion or Christianity with each other because of our shared history of religious debate. We once had an eight-year-long email debate on evolution that landed us exactly nowhere.

I recently learned that he’s gone back to school for his master's in Apologetics - a field of Christianity that I find particularly harmful and dishonest. What a person has to do to defend Christianity disgusts me and should be one of the first things to illustrate the gigantic problems Christianity has.

I recently spent several days with him, and we had a great time. I also had a chance to see him use his years of study to thwart critical thinking amongst other people and it causes me so much sadness. The idea of someone using their intelligence and wit to disarm people and keep them in the world of self-loathing and fear horrifies me. And he’s good at it.

If Christianity were true, Apologetics wouldn’t exist because there would be no need for it. Imagine math or chemistry needing an entire field of apologetics just to keep people believing. The idea of halting critical thinking and gently directing people back to the world of superstition and fear upsets me.

Imagine a video game where you’re either the SovCit, the cop, the judge, the lawyer, a jury member or the bailiff. The game begins where ever your character gets introduced to the scenario.

The SovCit is pulled over. Magic words and insanity ensues. The game moves forward based on what happens next. Be the cop who busts the window or get your ass dragged out of the car. Use your inventory of magic of magic words and get contempt of court. It could go on for months.

It seems that just two or three years ago almost every SovCit that appeared in court eventually came around to the “I will not be judged by anyone other than my creator” to “I’m here on special appearance to challenge the jurisdiction of this court.” Occasionally they would claim that Jesus was their lawyer.

I’m not hearing the rehearsed lines about answering only to god at anymore. This current batch of SovCits are primarily “arguing” bad or non existent law now. Has there been a shift?

Just thinking out loud. If you follow SovCit beliefs, crimes aren’t actually committed. Even murder couldn’t be prosecuted because the court has no jurisdiction.

With this in mind, what do SovCits do if their identity is stolen, or if they are robbed on the street? What if their car is stollen? Does anyone know?

Come on, it must have happened somewhere. I’d love to know if someone ever did this.

It appears that whatever God does becomes instantly moral. I won’t bore anyone with the standard examples. Still, if you’re a Bible-believing Christian you know many situations where God has ordered things that ended lives, caused starvation, and drowned millions. Any one of these would put any of us behind bars for life. And they go against the 10 commandments.

For morality to be objective, there needs to be an objective measure. Morality can’t skip by some and be demanded of others. If God is not held to a moral standard, how can there be an objective morality?

Given the political climate in the US, this crazy idea seems plausible to me. I’d love to know if any SovCit successfully navigated an election and how he/she did with power.

Christianity places God as 100% in control and being 100% perfection.

This means that nothing can occur without God’s knowledge. Satan can’t sneak around God or trick Him, so whatever Satan does God must be allowing it. This would pertain to Satan attempting to trick us and our children.

Even if God simply looks the other way, God is still allowing this.

I’ve never been religious so I’m at a disadvantage in understanding how Creationist Christians argue their position by selectively introducing science. I’m looking for a little guidance.

Obviously, a Creationist will spit venom at science that supports biological evolution or the 4.5 billion year-old earth. But when they think that science supports their worldview, they lead with it. Arguments about the 2nd law of thermo dynamics and fine tuning take up a large part of their pro Christian position.

Many Christians try to get into actual chemistry and genetics when they feel that it strengthens their argument. Did you do this when you were Christian? And if so, what was your justification?

If the supernatural exists and interacts in our lives, where does this force stop being a viable explanation for real life events? The supernatural is daily credited with so many miracles, where would you draw the line?

Example 1) If a relative died and, after weeks of investigation, the police informed you that there was no natural explanation for the death - therefore the police ruled the death to be
supernatural. Would you accept this?

Example 2) Would you accept an arson investigator’s report that your neighbors’ house burned down because of a supernatural event?

Example 3) If your sick spouse was suddenly better, would you accept a hospital’s explanation that your spouse’s recovery was caused by a supernatural event?

The earth is roughly 4.5 billion years old and modern humans have only existed for about 300,000 years. This means that for 99.99% of the earth’s existence, there were no humans. Do most Christians accept these claims?

If you know a SovCit in your life, PLEASE find a way to pay them in straw man entity contract paper. Design a path where you need to pay them back for some kind of exchange - like pizza or a movie ticket. Anything.

If their commitment to the movement is valid, they should have zero problem with this.