r/AskAChristian

Matthew 7:22-23

[22] On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ [23] And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Continuationism vs Cessationism

What Jesus says about Continuationism

Jesus warned repeatedly that signs and wonders can deceive. The question is never merely “was something supernatural?” but “is it true?” “Is it the Holy Spirit or is it deception?”

When Jesus rebukes the false Christian as he front up the heaven, and it’s not the cessationist that he rebukes! it’s the continuationists!

I've never succeeded in bringing someone closer to God. At least not that I know of.

While eating my apple, i thought about Adam and Eve and wondered, why aren’t apples considered sinful since that’s the first occurrence of sin? I know other religions disprove of eating pork for example, so I thought it was peculiar that of all things apples wouldn’t be an issue due to the well know story.

why does God help those people in life do small things like"oh god helped me find my keys, or saved my baby" (stuff like that people say) but god did not help the millions of dying children and stuff at the concentrations camps and etc, its like he helped the smaller things rather than the most important? Thank you! (I'm christian btw just confused)

Someone claimed that if You haven't experienced a supernatural encounter with God, then you're not a true Christian. I know people who've had many miracles done by God where gods even spoken to them, but not in this miraculous extravagant way like taking them to heaven and hugging them and (God) telling them they're his child or something like that...in other words, if you're one of God's people, His elect, his chosen, and you're a sheep 🐑 Who hears his voice and obeys his commandments, But if you haven't had that supernatural experience, going to make it to heaven...someone even spoke of this happening to them before they believed

...any thoughts ??

Why does God put some people in the wrong bodies? Today, Christians can understand homosexuality by saying that God does not make mistakes about people’s sexual orientation, but this explanation does not hold up when it comes to transgender people. While some babies are born with illnesses or disabilities, being transgender is neither a physical illness nor a mental illness.

If Jesus preached the Trinity as the core truth necessary for salvation, why do his earliest recorded teachings focus repeatedly on pure monotheism, obedience to God, repentance, prayer, charity, and submission to the Father, while the fully developed doctrine of the Trinity only emerged after centuries of theological disputes and church councils?

Jesus said:

«“The Lord our God, the Lord is One.” (Mark 12:29)»

He prayed to God.

He called the Father “the only true God” (John 17:3).

He said:

«“I can do nothing by myself.” (John 5:30)»

He distinguished himself from God repeatedly:

«“My Father is greater than I.” (John 14:28)»

Meanwhile Islam teaches:

- One eternal God with no partners

- Jesus as Messiah and prophet

- Virgin birth

- Miracles by God's permission

- Prayer, fasting, charity, modesty

- Submission to the will of God

In other words, Islam appears to preserve the actual theology and lifestyle of Jesus more consistently than later post-Nicene Christianity.

So my question is:

If a first-century follower of Jesus met:

1. A modern Trinitarian Christian who says God became a man, died, and is one essence in three persons

2. A Muslim who worships the One God alone, reveres Jesus as Messiah, prays like Jesus, fasts, gives charity, and rejects worship of creation

Which of the two would resemble the original teachings of Jesus more closely?

And if the Trinity was truly taught clearly by Jesus himself, why is there no explicit statement from Jesus saying:

“I am God, worship me,”

or:

“God is three persons”?

Why did later councils need centuries of debate to define what salvation supposedly depends upon?

My life has frankly been shit I’ve suffered for nearly all 19 years of it facing abuse of all kinds and other struggles, but one of the biggest things and the main thing that has shattered my trust in God is that when I was at my lowest God abandoned me, he went completely silent and only when I became a pagan did he come running back. I’m honestly mad at him a part of has started to see Lucifer in a better light, I don’t understand how an all loving all knowing all good god can allow so much suffering in the world without taking some of the blame since he could stop all of it.

I don't really understand the history behind it. Why would he die for our sins?

I've heard it is because humanity was building distance to God through sin and brought death. Jesus died, so that these sins can be forgiven and it's basically the ultimative way of showing love. Jesus was sinless yet died so our sins can be forgiven, but how is one connected with the other? Why would God forgive our sins by someone sinless dying? Instead of someone really sinful or maybe through apologizing directly to God.

And also sinning didn't stop after his dead so does someone else need to die, too?

At the end of the day, we still need to make sure not to sin, because well not all of our sins will be forgiven. So did Jesus die for nothing? If he died for all of our sins, why should we still need to care about them?

And if he didn't die for all of our sins, why did he die like that..?

Also how does his death bring forgiveness and why? One person died, but how is that equal to billions of ppl sinning every day without stop?

Isn't this the same principle of murdering someone every day for 10 years but shortly before your death you help a homeless person and everything else is forgiven?

And why did he have to die the way that he did?

I am genuinely trying to understand. My parents taught me that to truly understand the world, I need to understand the people, their morals and their beliefs. I've started with buddhism and islam, now I am trying to understand Christianity.

Does anyone have a scripture reference that says Jesus is uncreated, has no beginning, or always existed?

I can find lots of scripture saying he already existed before Abraham or was there in the beginning, but being before a thing doesn't mean you were always there.

I suspect the belief is rooted in the Greek philosophy. A prerequisite for divinity is being eternal or uncreated.

If the trinity is important, why is it not clearly mentioned by any prophet including Jesus?

Some people think He's angry. Some say He's gentle and calm.

I'm just trying to figure out how us Christians should treat others based on the way Jesus did.

I know that He forgave the adulteress, taught sinners, and healed the sick and ultimately died for us all.

But I wonder also if being soft and tactful with people rather than blunt is the way to interact with them.

Hello Everyone,

2 part question, I am at an impasse. I believe the consensus is that the Olivet Discourse, 1 Thessalonians 4.13-17 is speaking about the same event. Is Revelation 20 speaking about this day of the Lord as well, or is it possible Revelation 20 is projected into the future?

With that said, I am having trouble with Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2.2 - Not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.

Now, if Paul has to tell his audience that this Day of the Lord hasn't come, it seemingly cannot be a final end of the world judgment. They would definitely know if it had come already. This makes sense given the context of the Olivet Discourse but then its all one event. This implies everything had to have happened or something didn't go as they thought.

Please no dispensationalists commentors, unless its outside the box, I know this view already. Thank you.

Here’s a question that’s been on my mind recently: What would Paul have told the rich young ruler who had asked Jesus how to be saved? Of course Jesus answered him that by simply keeping the commandments he would inherit eternal life. But Paul was pretty explicit in his letters that it’s not enough to keep the commandments because a payment for your sins must be made, therefore one must also put their faith in Christ’s atoning death and resurrection. Is this a contradiction between Jesus’s and Paul’s soteriology?

To clarify, this is not a debate question. I often do debate things like Sola Scriptura vs appealing to the historical church and traditions and this question is regarding that topic.

We have Coptics, Eastern Orthodox, Arminians, Roman Catholics etc…. Each appeal to scripture AND their church tradition as primary authorities. One can ask “what establishes the authority of the church” and the answer is Jesus. I ask “show me” and they appeal to scripture. So if scripture establishes the authority of the church, but it is not the sole infallible authority. How do we determine which apostolic faith/church tradition is the one true church without becoming history majors and what authority outside of our own determination do we use? This question is even harder since the apostolic faiths are in schism and refuse to acknowledge the others as the one true church. What is the infallible authority we can appeal to that decides the correct church? Thanks.

Based on my research, these are the opinions I developed on Muhammad and Islam:

1. Muhammad is possibly a fictional character:

Sirah (or Sira), the earliest source of Muhammad's life records, was written about 150 years after his alleged death, and the Sirah was written in Baghdad (Iraq), nearly 1000 miles away from where Muhammad allegedly lived. 

The Islamic Hadiths, including Sahih (authentic) Hadiths, were written even later. The major collections of Hadith, Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, were compiled even later, roughly 200-250 years after Muhammad's alleged death. The Sirah is generally considered a weaker source for Islamic theology compared to the Hadiths.

Even if Muhammad was a real person, the stories of Muhammad described in the Sirah, Sahih (authentic) Hadiths and Hasan (good) Hadiths are highly unreliable as they were written several generations after the alleged death of Muhammad.

2. Islam is essentially 'Arab Judaism + Religious Proselytization + bits of others':

Islam and Judaism are political religions. These 2 religions have inbuilt legal systems that are morphed into 'will of God' and are supposed to be enforced in the name of God. Islamic Sharia has borrowed many, many elements from the Jewish law of Moses and Jewish Rabbinical traditions, such as male infant circumcision, some dietary laws like abstaining from pork, legalized enslavement of non-muslims, four wife limit, etc.

Whoever created Islam basically created an Arab Judaism, copying many traditions from the medieval Jewish communities of Medina

Islam claims Allah send prophets to every nation/ethnicity on Earth. However, most of the prophets mention Islamic books like Quran and Sahih Hadiths are characters from Jewish books like Adam, Abraham, Noah, Enoch, etc.

Jews were just one of thousands of ethnicities in the medieval period. So why are most prophets mentioned in Islam exclusively characters from Jewish books?

There are no Chinese or South African prophets mentioned in Islam. There are no Nordic or American prophets mentioned in Islamic books. No Indonesian or Sri Lankan prophets were mentioned in Hadiths and Quran. And, no Nigerian or Japanese prophets were mentioned in Hadiths and Quran.

Why most prophets mentioned in the Islamic books are exclusively of Jewish religion origin?

There are a few Islamic prophets like Hud and Salih mentioned in Islamic books that are not characters from Jewish books but most prophets mentioned in Islamic books are characters from Judaism and Jewish books/traditions. Additionally, Islam has also borrowed elements of pre-Islamic Arabia, such as the Kaaba stone in Mecca and a few gnostic Christian traditions such as 'Jesus did not died on the cross' and 'Jesus revived a dead bird.'

In conclusion, Islam is not an original religion. It's Arab version of Judaism with a few added elements from others like gnostic Christianity and Arab Paganism, and religious proselytization.

Is the Immanuel prophecy in Isaiah 7:14 understood as a reference to Hezekiah or Jesus?

And what evidence is offered in support of each view?