r/Christianity

EDIT: I got my answer guys, God bless yall! I’ve been really struggling comprehending this question. If God knows everything, and he gave Satan permission to inflict harm on Job’s life, how is it right that his family dies because of the permission God allowed Satan to have? Wouldn’t that make God immoral and responsible for the death of innocent people?

This is mainly for my Orthodox brothers and sisters, how do you respond to claims of people quoting the Ten Commandments with reference to the veneration of icon. I understand it to be veneration and not worship, my growing intrigue in Eastern Orthodoxy is making me question this more from those in the tradition themselves.

Many Protestants might argue against it being the church that Christ left due to icon veneration, but I think that’s an oversimplification on their part.

Storytime:

I am in college and veterinary students have manditory animal care shifts for the animals on campus.

Sidenote: I own a lot of cute overworn Christian sweatshirts that I wear to animal care shifts because I don't care if they get dirty.

We are scheduled with 4 other classmates during our shifts with one lead, whom was myself. So I was noticing my classmate who did animal care with me everyday, was avoiding talking to me but was really outgoing with everyone else on my team. I thought nothing of it but after about a week of this I overheard her talking with another one of our classmates about her girlfriend. I started to think that maybe she thought I hated lesbians due to my faith.

The next shift I went up to her and started trying to make small talk but she shied away and seemed kind of...scared? Is the best way I can describe it. So I asked if she did anything fun with her girlfriend the previous weekend and then she started chatting about how they went to a pumpkin patch and perked right up and became really chatty. We got to chatting and she saw the mini clay pumpkins I had on my backpack and I told her I could make some for her and her girlfriend if she wanted, etc. Long story short, she eventually opened up and told me that she has had bad experiences with Christians and that her mom doesn't talk to her anymore because of it. I told her I was sorry. That's all it takes.

I just wanted to tell this story because I want Christians to be aware that a little kindness goes a long way, and that everything we do as Christians, represents Jesus and Christianity at the end of the day. The only way we can make disciples of all nations is to let people around us see the fruit of the Spirit by our actions and how we carry ourselves. Plant that seed and let God do the rest. 😊🙏

God Bless!

Basically the title. I think I might be Christian of some kind. My parents were both “raised LDS“ but never really believed, so they’re pretty much raising me and my brother to believe that religion is ridiculous and we should just stay atheist our entire life. Well, one of my friends is highly religious (you don’t really find many people where I live who aren’t) and sometimes the topic of religion will come up. I share my opinion, which usually is “I don’t believe in God, I don’t believe in the Bible, I don’t really care” and then he’ll go on to explain that I’m a child of God anyways and that I should read the Bible and everything.

So recently I decided I should at least understand his side, so I started reading the Bible and stuff (Google told me to start with Mark so that’s what I’m doing) and it’s actually changing my perspective on things. The concept of faith is suddenly so interesting to me, and now I’m thinking “do I believe in God? Yes, I think I do now”.

But I’m still not sure if I can call myself Christian, because I see people online saying “Oh being gay and trans is a sin and God will never forgive you”. Like, is that a thing? Or are those people just complete bigots? Because my gay transmasc self really wants to have faith in something like God.

Also, I still believe in the big bang and I think Adam and Eve and noah’s ark and stuff never happened, so does that mean I can’t necessarily be a real Christian? I’m just confused to be honest.

I am a Christian in Asia, a country in SEA.

I was a Buddhist before but converted to Christianity for nearly 9 years now. I was first a Pentecostal for 2 years then got lost in the faith due to the way members treat some other people they consider sinful. I seek truth from Buddhism (Theravada and Mahayana), Hinduism, Taoism or even Islam but did not find anything to comfort me except Jesus. I love this man so much and truly believe he is the Son of God. I devote myself to Christianity again after those seeking time and became a Lutheran.

I am in this church for 3 years. First year it was full of joy, I saw a loving congregation, people love each other and accepting everyone's flaw but not affirm. I saw it as a true church which will lead me to God once again after all those years. I felt so happy and want to come to church every week. I want to start my bible reading which I finished a year later. I look forward to becoming a Lutheran pastor, but things slightly changed during the second year of mine.

I need to state first that my church does not have a pastor for all these years. Never have a permanent one, the pastor will only come for once a month and a missionary pastor also. So only 2 of 4 weeks that we will have a pastor and that would be different people. The members started to treat me as a preacher as I understand the bible more than anyone and I tried my best to learn by myself through Dr. Jordan B Cooper. I learned to use exegesis way of preaching and recently started to teach the Bible class. My church does not have many adults, only 5 people who are very weak at their faith. Two of them are Christian for decades yet never finished their bible, they are couple who live together in the church but do not marry each other. Another two also never finish, one of them do not even want to read the bible. I am the only person who encourages them and tried to make them understand what is meant by the scripture. Other than adults are 5-10 children who elder brought them to 'evangelize' though she cannot teach them any bible class. She put everything on my back; preaching, church keeping, bible study and many more things according to her will.

Although the church situation is not quite good, the church body cannot do anything much. The bishop might come to our church and praise our work, but it's just that. He won't take anything further action, and I cannot ask for anyone's assistant. The church body is heavily lacking the pastor. We have 5 districts throughout the country, yet they cannot make anyone a pastor. The Luther Seminary was closed last year, and I am the last generation. The church body was full of corrupted news from the past two years, financial corruption and previous bishop's adultery. Although the missionary from Norway and Finland still give the support, they won't take any further action as they want the local people to deal with their problems.

After taking everything on my back too much, I cannot handle my mental condition anymore. I got angry easily and it affects the work at the church on Sat and Sun as the children in my church are from slums and their behaviors are beyond imagination sometimes. I cannot blame them but as the elder wants to bring them all to church, she does not have the capability to take care of them, yet she asked everyone to take responsibility, and she will drive her car to somewhere else every time with her boyfriend when the children got out of hand. The adults are very irresponsible here even though I talked with them through.

We have less and less people and the church is super chaotic as we cannot control the kids anymore. They took over the church, and it is not a safe place for everyone anymore. They are from slums which they took their culture; cursing, fighting, stealing and many more. The elder brought them without thinking about the consequences. Now she cried but never saw that she is the only person who took them in due to her savior complex. I won't say anything about how she brought her bf into the church, but they sleep in the same room without marrying. They could do that outside, rent an apartment or something, but she chose to do that in the church. Moreover, it is the way that she hurts her boyfriend both physical and mental. There is violence when there is nobody in the church though sometimes, she confessed to me, but she will do it again when time passed.

This is very chaotic and I really want to go back to temple sometimes. I will be a M.Div. student next year, still on my path to be a pastor. Yet I am so hurtful with the thing that happen to the church according to some people's decision and irresponsibility.

I just want to put it down somewhere and want to be heard for my uneasiness. Thank you for reading and listening. At this time, I do not have Christian friend to share my feeling. This is the only space for me. I want to leave the church for years, but I still care for the teens in the church so that's why. Gladly, next year all of them will graduate and will leave the church. One of them cannot stand the elder anymore. I know it might be a sin that I talk about her like this, but I do not know what to do anymore.

Lucifer stems from the Hebrew word Helel ("shining one"), a title mocking a proud King of Babylon who fell from power, which Christianity later mistranslated into a proper name for the Devil; in contrast, Jesus calls himself the "bright morning star" (the planet Venus) in Revelation 22:16, reclaiming the title as a symbol of light and resurrection, which traces directly back to Inanna, the original Sumerian goddess of Venus who embodied both the morning and evening star, wielding the ultimate cosmic power over both life-giving love and destructive warfare.

While "Lucifer" became a misunderstood name for evil through translation errors, both the biblical metaphor of the morning star and the planetary force of Venus belong to a tradition of dual light and power that originated with the supreme Sumerian goddess Inanna.

I have been praying to God for years now, and it has changed my life. I love God immensely, and that is precisely why I want to take my prayer to a higher level; I feel the need to do so because, by now, there is nothing I do in relation to God that brings me satisfaction – I always have an IMMENSE desire to meet Him. No amount of prayer, Bible reading, etc. makes me feel satisfied; in fact, even when I pray, I feel it isn’t enough. I wish I could at least hear His answers, His voice, and speak to Him face to face, go for a walk with Him, and be able to hug Him. Not because I don’t believe, but because I feel that traditional prayer is no longer enough for me; it’s as if my way of praying is too superficial for the relationship I’ve now built with Him. Perhaps it’s because my way of showing love is through physical contact; that’s exactly what I’m missing from Him – something more tangible, a gentle touch, a voice… I also try to put into practice what I learn by treating my neighbour as I would myself

I apologise if I’ve been repetitive. May God bless you all, and thank you in advance

I’m a Christian but I’m struggling with my relationship with God which has been due to a factor out of my control but I had a point where I was trying to keep on praying and pushing myself to believe and trust in God but now I’m past praying (as in I don’t pray much anymore).

Now because of this distance I have been myself and God it has led me to doing other sins, especially a sin which I haven’t committed in years.

But now I’m stuck because I wanna get back on track with God but I’m overwhelmed by everything else happening in my life rn and I do kinda know the basics of where to continue with God but it feels like I’m being stopped by something.

It is not good to be a hypocrite. If you practice “thy will be done”, every day, you get closer and closer to the Kingdom of Heaven!

My take on the 'Orthobros' trend, as countries that are not traditionally orthodox experience a surge in converts. How positive or negative is this trend?

Really interested in hearing people's thoughts.

I (22F) am part of a small campus ministry — like 30 people, everyone knows everyone. I had sex with a guy from the ministry. He's not someone I'd actually date, but we were friends and he was affectionate and told me he liked me and I gave him a chance and we eventually had sex. Months after we had sex its now coming out in church

He bragged about it to one of our friends. While also bragging about sleeping with other girls. I found out through my friend. And now everyone knows.

Now my friends won't talk to me. They used to come get me for church, now they don't even text. It feels like I'm being treated like I AM my sin, not a person who sinned. What's crazy is a lot of these same friends struggle with lust too, so the judgment feels hypocritical.

I had a meeting with our pastor (he's also young) and he wanted details about what happened. I told him honestly and he got up and walked away mid-conversation. I do understand the disappointment but i feel more judged than anything.

I've been feeling disgusting and have been scrubbing my skin raw whenever i shower because I feel so dirty. I dont even know why i did it. I feel alone and like maybe I should just accept I'm going to hell.

Edit: It’s so many comments so I’ll edit it here, i‘m not a bot the post is REAL, I only deleted my previous posts because I have so much going on in my life and I only come to Reddit to vent, my previous post were about friendship and family issues and subjects like SA and religious questions. I think if I came here just telling the worst things and I’m telling about SA and family issues and stuff without deleting it then it seem fake and now this it seemed like I’m just making stuff up but I’m not. Also I have ss of every post I’ve made if ppl think I’m lying or making up anything and I have proof this is actually real. Regarding to the guy i think if I said what happened to him then people would think I’m lying more but he’s still in church and ppl talk to him still.

Basically the caption. I feel called to a higher church. Lutheran feels more closer to home and more comfortable coming from baptist but I understand that orthodox is the original. Feel free to convince me one way or another I need advice and guidance.

“A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.”

1 Timothy 2:11-15

What happened? Why was Paul saying this?

i dont know how to format this so here we go, i am a 20 yr old with autism/adhd/ocd/schizoaffective/ptsd (i know its a lot, ive been trying to work with psych to take down unneeded diagnosis's) who converted december 2025 after i nearly died of an arrhythmia from a bad psych med combo. before converting i identified as a transwoman and pansexual but immediately detransitioned and started repressing myself. i quit marijuana suddenly with Gods help, started studying my bible and praying excessively, and thought i was "cured" of being lgbtq. it turns out i was in a psychotic episode full force on and off and my ocd was controlling my theology. and after i converted my life immediately went down hill along with the aforementioned mental health problems. people started betraying me, my physical health began to decrease, my psychiatrists treated me horribly because i tried to collaborate with them, nearly dying on clozapine the day after getting my fiance baptized, death threats to my family out of the blue, moving out after a "friend" sabatoged me and my fiance by manipulating my parents, and everything else under the sun going wrong. i also just have a voice in my head pretending to be God just nagging me, just like a pharisee. probably from all of the Christian content i watched because i thought God was speaking me through it and the ai convos. i just want some sort of rest or peace, my psych/therapist doesnt even know what to do. ive been self medicating through marijuana, nicotine, alcohol, and the little i have left of my klonopin just to even survive the constant torture i feel on a daily basis. that and recently as they put me on an antipsychotic and antidepressant that finally works and i finally am able to see what is actually me and my dysphoria came back and started questioning everything. even started deconstructing and seeking the meaning of the clobber passages but i get so many conflicting answers and it makes me feel like its all completely hopeless. i just want certainty and the chance to express myself how i want but ill repress myself for God. all i want to do is please Him, even if it destroys me but that comes with a price. im just tured of fighting >!and everyday recently ive been considering checking out permanently so i can just get hell over with.!< i know yall will say call 988 or go to the er, but they both failed me so many times. ive been to the mental hospital 9 times and 988 just felt like a robot. i dont know if its because im not reading my bible enough, i dont know what i did. i just want a second of peace. sometimes i just want God not to be real because i just want the pressure of heaven and hell to be off my shoulders, i want the pressure of having theology right off, and i just want to be who i feel i am. i just dont even know, what do yall think?

edit added context, addiction is recent development after death threats, psych messing up my meds, and severe depression. i have a church and a pastor, i believe in the nicene creed, i pray regularly almost compulsively. i am currently in zyprexa withdrawal after my psych took me off in one month and my dumba** lost the bottle and found it the last day before i was taken off that and klonopin. i am also in a living situation where food supply is limited and i am unable to work because of my mental and physical disablillities. i dont blame God for any of this, i just cant follow Him right now

I read an article today about Pete Hegseth and his “Department of War,” and it was deeply alarming.

I fear many people will read the article and still not hear what is actually being said.

Hegseth is talking about restoring a “warrior” mindset within our military troops. He is talking about establishing a surveillance state with autonomous artificial-intelligence enforcement. He is talking about pre-crime.

And he is talking about specifically instituting a Department of Religious Affairs in America.

I’m sure many of our Christian brothers and sisters will feel vindicated, supported, and protected by such an institution.

But Hegseth has made a point of saying that this will not simply be a bureaucratic, paper-pushing endeavor.

He says it will have “real teeth.”

What does “real teeth” mean for a Department of Religious Affairs?

Throughout Scripture, Christians are described as sheep, and Christ is our Shepherd.

So what exactly are we supposed to make of a government Department of Religious Affairs promising to have “real teeth”?

Are we talking about particularly powerful sheep teeth?

Or the teeth of particularly powerful shepherds?

A shepherd doesn't use his teeth to defend the sheep.

What animal in the biblical imagery surrounding sheep has the strongest teeth?

The wolves.

Especially the wolves who come into the flock disguised as sheep.

“Real teeth” are not for gently guiding sheep.

Real teeth are for tearing flesh.

And this is where I believe Christians need to stop and pay attention.

This administration—and not only this administration, but administrations for many decades—has been laying the groundwork for the system described in biblical prophecy as the coming Antichrist system.

But this administration is accelerating that process at a breathtaking pace.

And tragically, the sheep have not merely been unaware.

Many of them have been cheering it on.

They are cheering for the very infrastructure that WILL eventually be used to control them.

The surveillance state being built and normalized under the banners of “safety” and “security” is precisely the kind of infrastructure necessary for comprehensive control of individuals.

Identification.

Tracking.

Facial recognition.

Artificial intelligence.

Predictive systems.

Autonomous enforcement.

Centralized records.

Transaction monitoring.

The ability to determine who is authorized to participate in commerce and society.

The ability to enforce compliance.

These are not imaginary capabilities. They are being built.

And Scripture tells us exactly where this kind of system ultimately leads.

Revelation describes a time when no one will be able to buy or sell without accepting the authority of the beast.

YOU WILL TAKE THEIR MARK OR YOU WILL NOT PARTICIPATE. 

You cannot implement a system like that without infrastructure.

You need to be able to identify people.

You need to be able to monitor them.

You need to be able to track their transactions.

You need to be able to determine who is permitted to participate.

And eventually, you need the ability to enforce the requirement.

We are watching the pieces of that capability come together.

Flock.

Axon.

Palantir.

Pegasus.

Oracle.

Autonomous artificial intelligence.

Digital currency.

Surveillance networks.

These technologies are being promoted to us in the name of safety, security, and convenience.

But a system designed to watch everyone WILL eventually be used against everyone.

And when the definition of “safety” and whose safety is sacrosanct changes, the infrastructure remains.

These systems have already been tested in other countries.

They are being expanded here.

And we are willingly building the machinery that makes comprehensive human surveillance and control possible.

That should alert Christians, because we should know the prophecies.

And for those who say, “Well, it is prophesied, so it is going to happen anyway,” and therefore sit comfortably excusing their apathy and inaction:

Yes.

It is prophesied.

But which side are you standing on in that prophecy?

Are you standing with the Antichrist and his coming system?

Or are you standing in opposition to it?

Are you neutral about where your allegiance belongs?

Because this is laying the groundwork.

And you are choosing a side.

Pretending not to choose is also a choice.

And this is imperative:

This is not ultimately about Republican or Democrat.

It is not about left or right.

Liberal or conservative.

Trump or whoever comes after him.

Those are the tribal labels people use to sort themselves into opposing camps while the actual question gets buried beneath the noise.

Trump is a political leader.

He is not Christ.

And yet we have reached a point where, for many Christians, your position on Trump has become a litmus test for whether you are “one of us.”

If you support him, you're one of us.

If you oppose him, you're  “deranged”  and/or “leftist.”

Keep seeing it that way if you want.

But understand what you are doing.

You are allowing political allegiance to become a substitute for allegiance to Christ.

And that is precisely why this is not merely a political issue.

This is a choice.

I have put the warning in front of you.

I have told you what IS happening on your watch in your name. In many cases, with your blessing. 

I have told you where this is leading.

You may reject this.

You may pretend to believe I am wrong.

But what you can no longer honestly say is:

“I didn't know.”

Because now you have been warned.

If you have eyes to see, you have had the opportunity to see.

If you have ears to hear, you have had the opportunity to hear.

And if you choose to close your eyes now, that is a choice.

If you choose to stop your ears, that is a choice.

If you choose to dismiss the warning because your political tribe tells you that you should, that is a choice.

And if you choose to pretend that you don't see what has now been placed directly in front of you, that is also a choice.

The responsibility for that choice belongs to you.

This isn't ultimately Republican versus Democrat.

It isn't Trump versus the left.

It isn't conservative versus liberal.

It is Christ versus antiChrist.

God versus satan.

No politician will stand before God in your place.

No tribe will answer for you.

You will answer for your own allegiance.

So I am sounding the warning bell.

I have spoken the truth to you, in love.

You can heed the warning.

Or you can ignore it.

You can shut your eyes.

You can stop up your ears.

You can dismiss it as paranoia, extremism, politics, or hysteria.

But you cannot claim ignorance anymore.

You have been warned.

What you do with that warning is now your choice.

I have done my part.

Your blood is no longer on my hands.

The moment has come that you must choose whom you will serve. No political party will be accountable for your choice.

“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”