Hi KFC, Happy Christmas to you, and to everyone at JU too!!! Hope you've had a good one so far,

A true Christian never becomes a "former Christian." It means they called themselves Christian but in name only. If you are "born" a Christian (by the spirit) you cannot become unborn. Once born always born. The physical is a picture of the spiritual. Just like we are born physically we also are born spiritually. Once born you cannot go back and be unborn any more than you can go back into your mother's womb.

I completely agree with you. It struck me while reading those books that the authors hadn't found Jesus in the first place at all. Otherwise they wouldn't have expressed such misguided, spiritless views. However, I found many valid points in those books which highlighted the small-mindedness and irrationality of extreme fundamentalism. 'Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist', in particular. The most intellectually mature of the batch was ‘All in the Mind: A Farewell to God’, by Ludovic Kennedy. Although Kennedy appeared very mature intellectually, spiritually he was a mere youngster and didn't grasp the deeper principles of Christianity.

See, there is no true religion!! They all think they have a corner on the truth. It's not about us or what group we belong to. It's all about the one holding the keys. Jesus said....."Who do you say that I am?" That's the question of all time. What are we going to do with JESUS!!! He is the truth. So you go to these groups and find out what they say about HIM. That's the key.

I can see what you're saying. But Christianity is the only religion which claims that Jesus is divine. In this sense, the religion we choose to follow will determine our thoughts about Jesus. In turn, I believe that the religion we choose to follow primarily depends on where we were born. It's still the same principle, in my view.

The Mormons have their Book of Mormon, the Adventist have the writings of Ellen White, the JW's have their watchtower and their own bible (the New World Standard), the Muslims have their Qur"an, the Swedenborgs have their 37 (?) volumes of Swendenborg.....etc. Who's right? They can't all be. It'd be like saying 1+1=1.....1+1=5.......1+1=6 etc. It can't all be true.

The underlying messages can be right, and in this sense they can all be true. That's the part that I'm more interested in. (i.e. God exists; there's transcendent purpose to life; death is not the end; the fundamental dimension of reality is divine Spirit, etc. etc.) All our world religions express such truths, and there is deep common ground to be found. All our religions are in touch with the same God, is what I believe.

But Christianity is the only religion which claims that Jesus is divine. In this sense, the religion we choose to follow will determine our thoughts about Jesus. In turn, I believe that the religion we choose to follow primarily depends on where we were born. It's still the same principle, in my view.

Reminds me of Joshua who said..."Choose you this day whom you will serve (follow)...as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

There are many people who were born in various cults and non Christian religions that have found Jesus. So I don't think it matters how you start the game of life. It's how you end it that matters. Look at Abraham as an example. God called him out of false religion to follow him. And he became the father of many nations and the one God used to start the Hebrew family.

In scripture God pleads...."Come out of HER (false religion) and be separate."

So if Christianity is the only "religion" that says Jesus is God....then it goes to follow that Christianity is where we should be. Now having said that......just because a "group" calls themselves "Christian" doesn't necessarily say they are. There is alot of deception out there. Satan is a clever devil. He doesn't care if we're religious. He just doesn't want us in communication with God...via reading his word and praying and meditating. There are many religious people out there that Jesus is going to say..."I never knew you."

My goal is to hear the words...."Well done, good and faithful servant." A goal worth striving for....in my view.

KFC

"To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me."

Reminds me of something...

Saint Augustine was walking the seashore one day, pondering the majesty of God. He saw a small boy who had dug a hole in the sand. The boy kept rushing down to the ocean, scooping up water in a seashell, and then scrambling back to pour the water into the hole he had dug.

"What are you doing?" Augustine asked him.

"I'm going to pour the sea into that hole," the boy said.

Ah, Augustine thought. That is what I have been trying to do. Standing on the ocean of infinity, I have tried to grasp it with my finite mind.

We can only receive a glimpse of God in this life... but woe to those who have seen the truth, even a glimpse of it, and walk away unchanged. And shame on us if we don't share the truth with those who are perishing. There was something about the cross of Christ that made every witness either step toward it, or away from it. It simultaneously compelled and repelled. So it is today... to quote Max Lucado, "It's the watershed. It's the Continental Divide. It's Normandy. And you are either on one side or the other. A choice is demanded. We can do what we want with the cross. We can examine its history. We can study it's theology. We can reflect upon its prophecies. Yet the one thing we can't do is walk away in neutral." There is no fence sitting when it comes to the cross. The question is... on which side are you?