gemcgrew
Senior Member
Does your non denominational church contradict the Baptist, Methodist or Presbyterian?
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Why do we have "other faiths"?
- Thread starter Artfuldodger
- Start date
panfried0419
Senior Member
Lets re-read together sir. Non-denominational. Me and my family have found a church that's not heck fire and brimstone, no w2 checking, and teach the bible not self help crud.
gemcgrew
Senior Member
I understood you the first time. I just found it interestingly silly.
I gathered that from the earlier post.
Artfuldodger
Senior Member
For some reason I was reminded of this joke:
Drought Affects Churches
Severe drought affects churches in northern Alabama,
Tennessee, and northwest Georgia.
Did you know that because of the drought in these areas,
church budgets are greatly affected?
Baptist churches are having to sprinkle for baptisms; the
Methodists are using wet wipes for their baptisms; and the
Catholics are praying that God will turn the wine back into
water.
Drought Affects Churches
Severe drought affects churches in northern Alabama,
Tennessee, and northwest Georgia.
Did you know that because of the drought in these areas,
church budgets are greatly affected?
Baptist churches are having to sprinkle for baptisms; the
Methodists are using wet wipes for their baptisms; and the
Catholics are praying that God will turn the wine back into
water.
panfried0419
Senior Member
Not necessarily. Romans 2 indicates that someone who has never heard the Gospel can still go to a good place (perhaps not Heaven itself, but a good place and certainly not Hades) based on their actions... if they're a good person who, even unknowingly, acts as a Christian should. However, if one has heard the Gospel and doesn't accept Jesus, then they'll go to Hades because they are rejecting Jesus.
Of course, this gives rise to the question: If that's the case, why didn't the people who found the manuscripts burn them all so that all good people could go to heaven without having to wear funny hats or clothes or practicing strange rituals. Never hearing the Gospels means you can do well just by being a good person. Once you hear the Gospels, you have to make a choice since just being a good person doesn't grant you passage to even 'a good place that might not be as good as Heaven'.
centerpin fan
Senior Member
... but Rom. 3:23 says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. If all have sinned, all need a Savior.
David Parker
Banned
Other faiths exist, true statement. For what reason? I'm not qualified to answer. My faith is exclusive to me and by that I mean that I don't share or try to explain it. Faith is a word that people use synonymously with "belief in God", but it is also applied to a belief in doctrines and teachings. That's about as clarified as I can be.
So answering a question w/ a question here. Because I have faith, would I be considered religious? I don't consider myself religious, but I am as honest and moral as most and more-so than some. My belief or not in God is not part of this equation though, just that I have a belief in some principle. Is that a religion?
So answering a question w/ a question here. Because I have faith, would I be considered religious? I don't consider myself religious, but I am as honest and moral as most and more-so than some. My belief or not in God is not part of this equation though, just that I have a belief in some principle. Is that a religion?
Some say there are no contradictions in the Bible. So which is it, then?
centerpin fan
Senior Member
There's no contradiction here. Even in the passage you cite, it says, "All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law ... " (Rom 2:12.) Compare that with Rom 3:23 -- "ALL have sinned." Some have sinned under the law and others have sinned apart from it.
centerpin fan
Senior Member
I don't think it technically fits the definition of a religion. Sounds more like a personal philosophy to me.
Whatever floats your boat.
David Parker
Banned
My boat displaces an amount of water of equal mass, and the water exerts a bouyancy onto my boat equal to the mass of the water displaced.
philosophically that is.
That's a pretty small part of the other scripture.
centerpin fan
Senior Member
The reality of sin and the need for repentance runs through the entire Bible.
Yup. And then there's the bit about the folks who have never heard the Word of God.
Artfuldodger
Senior Member
Just curious as I've never read the verses about people not hearing the Gospel going to a better place but not Heaven. I have read verses about Christians that go on sinning being worse than to have never become a Christian.
2 Peter 2:20-22
For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
David Parker
Banned
conversely. If one person lives a far more virtuous life than a Christian, but doesn't declare a faith, are they doomed? Fair question
Very quick search (I haven't read this article before, but the first paragraph or so seems like it is addressing it): http://carm.org/what-happens-those-who-have-never-heard-gospel
centerpin fan
Senior Member
You're reading way too much into whatever verse you're referring to.
Not really. I had the discussion with my grandmother once... she's the one that clued me into it to start with. She firmly believed that those who had never heard the Gospel before went to "a good place, but not Heaven". This was when I asked her what happened to all the people like deep in the rain forests who never had even seen a missionary... did they just go to Hades... didn't seem very fair... their only "crime" was to be born to parents in a remote part of the world. She was Southern Baptist, btw.
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