Hot answers tagged belief
13
Like Narnian commented, per the definition given by this site, nothing. However, historically most denominations have agreed upon several things.
The first thing that comes to mind is the existence of both God and Jesus. Also, many agree Jesus is God.
Historically, the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed have been generally accepted lists of agreed upon ...
13
Safe answer: John 20 is the only passage of scripture that discusses this event, so the short answer is - we can't say for sure. In general, we need to be cautious about "reasoning from an absence of scripture."
My guess: Thomas made a statement to the effect of "I refuse to believe that Jesus rose from the dead, and the only thing that could change my ...
12
Its a different story. Jewish people are a part of a nation. One can still be a Jew by birth and do not take their religion as factual. However, with Christians, its a different story. You do NOT become Christian by birth. You cannot be a Christian and don't take their (or our) religion as factual. You are either a Christian or you are not.
11
Yes, it's called "cultural Christianity." It merely means that you live in a culture that has Christian habits, such as celebrating Easter and Christmas.
If you moved to India, you might - without converting to Hinduism - get into the habit of celebrating Holi or Onam or Diwali with your friends and neighbors.
If you do not believe in the tenants of the ...
11
It is possible to envision the idea of God by looking to creation as you've said. It is written:
24How many are your works, LORD!
In wisdom you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
25There is the sea, vast and spacious,
teeming with creatures beyond number—
living things both large and small.
26There ...
10
Well you have two questions here and there are opposite answers for each.
Can you know about God without the Bible or other believer? Yes according to the Bible you can.
Romans 1:20
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that ...
10
While it's not always the most reliable source for knowledge, a quick trip to Wikipedia's article on Transcendental Meditation gets us a bit of well-referenced history on the whole Transcendental Meditation movement. Included in the article is this:
In the 1950s, the Transcendental Meditation movement was presented as
a religious organization. The ...
9
Occam's Razor states that the simplest solution is likely to be the correct one, and such commonalities are generally explained by Christians by appealing to the simplest solution: when two separate entities share several common traits, it's generally because they derive from a shared origin.
The Old Testament gives a few tantalizing glimpses of things that ...
9
It's not like it's a video game and He needs "faith power-ups". The idea of God being dependent on us is a a ridiculous heresy.
From http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue3.htm
Some claim that Jesus at least temporarily lost His deity. This cannot
be true if Jesus is "I AM" as He claimed repeatedly in the Gospel of
John, and if He is "the same ...
7
As for "how other Christians view this", the answer is "it depends on the Christian in question."
Some Christians, as you pointed out, believe these are signs of the devil, others don't. Just like some Christians see Harry Potter as Satan's way of luring kids into witchcraft, while others think it's a good read and good movies. Some Christians see Satanic ...
6
I am asking if someone can call themselves Christian and not believe the claims
Yes, of course, who's going to stop them?
I believe this applies to a large percentage of western Europeans, due to the fact that most still are members of the former state churches, pay their dues and go to church on christmas and easter, marry in the church etc.
6
Christianity is not, "just a belief system", nor is it "also a system for organizing and governing society".
It is simply the way for imperfect people to get into an eternal relationship with a perfect God, not by our good works but by the gift of Jesus. John puts it better than I can:
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and ...
5
In our tradition, the hymnography states unequivocally that Thomas does touch his side. The words:
"The apostle touched thy flesh and was not burned..."
So this essentially affirms two theological points about the resurrected Christ:
He was physical, as in, solid
His resurrected body was not physical in a normal way, and would have harmed an ordinary ...
5
Dismissing other religions is a bit harsh, I believe.
First, there are common beliefs, which makes sense if there was an event that actually happened, for example, if you look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_of_Eden and read about Sumer you will see that there is another story with parallels to the Garden of Eden. If you look at ...
5
You seem to be missing a fundamental part of the premise of Christianity: it's not a discovered or invented religion, but a revealed religion. The precepts and doctrines exist because God actively taught them to people. And should the knowledge of the truth be lost, hypothetically speaking, he would reveal the truth to new people whose hearts were open to ...
4
There certainly are. In fact, some Christian traditions make it far too easy to claim to be a Christian without actually caring about Gospel principles, due to an overly-literal and badly out of context interpretation of a few specific passages of scripture, such as Romans 10: 9
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe ...
4
Good question, but it's not about how do we justify our being right and everyone else being wrong. It all comes down to absolute truth. There may be common threads between various religions but they cannot all be true. For example:
Is there one God or many? Christians, Jews and Muslims all say 1, Hindus say many. Both parties cannot be right - either ...
4
I think we need to be careful with our terms here.
It is good to believe the truth, including a belief in God, and a belief in His ability to miraculously impact the physical realm.
It is not good to believe lies. You were not made for the purpose of believing lies, and it can actually be destructive to you physically (mentally). I think what ...
3
The only way this question can be answered is to agree on a definition of Christianity itself that people have to agree to in order to be a part of that set. People who don't subscribe aren't Christian and therefore their deviance doesn't count. With all of the different religions claiming to be Christian, obviously that does not exist. There are even folks ...
3
About meditation in general, I can recommend you Ascent to Mount Carmel by saint John of the Cross, a famous 16th century mystic. It's not an easy reading, but it's a good guidebook of Christian mysticism. Along with few things that are good to do, author warns against many dangers in spiritual life, which may seem marginal in the beginning but may lead you ...
3
Christianity is not a single group, it is a diverse set of beliefs. Even though it originated with the teachings of Jesus back 2000 years ago, difference sects/denominations have their own sets of rules and "official" teachings and many individuals determine the rules for themselves. There is no global trademark owner of "Christian" so you can call ...
3
The "I love you" sign, or Horns, as they're known in the Heavy Metal scene of wherever Heavy Metal is played are attributed to the late Ronnie James Dio of the group Dio (and for a time Black Sabbath).
He got the sign... From his grandmother.
However, it is not wise to trivialize the occult, just saying something has no meaning or no power ignores ...
3
I will try to answer this question from within Bible.
As I see it from Bible, some places it is not specifically mentioned that people who were healed had proclaimed their faith in Christ. This is at Mathew: 4:23, Mathew: 12:15, 14.14, Luke: 7:18.
Whereas some places even when there is no faith amongst the audience or the healed person, the healings ...
3
Short Answer: No
Complete Answer: The thing we must first understand is that Jesus never used his power on earth, instead he worked in conjunction with God the Father for each and every miracle. We see this time and time again where those healed by him are actually extensions of that person's faith.
Luke 7
New International Version (NIV)
7 When Jesus ...
2
There are two answers to this question. One is the general type of "Cultural Christianity" to which other answers alude. A person can be non-religious, but still operate in a largely Christian context, clebrating some Christian-flavoured festivals (notably Christmas), and thinking of "God" in a Christian context, even without necessarily believing in that ...
2
If we were perfect, our every thought would have it's foundation in God. What I mean is, if you "dive deep" into your thoughts, or even try to "empty" yourself, God becomes everything.
Not that I have ever been able to do that very well, but the deeper you go, the more you as a Christian will find God.
So to answer your question, go for it, but your aim ...
2
Your question makes the assumption that some good things occur as the result of divine interference, and that others occur by way of chance. This is a faulty assumption.
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. - James 1:17 NIV
So in answer to your ...
2
Daniel 3:17-18
17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
1 John 5:14-15
14 This is the confidence we have in ...
2
According to Hebrews 11:1,
Faith is the evidence of things hoped for, the conviction (one could use the word rebuke here) of things not seen.
It is not that one is called to believe a lie, but rather that a Christian is called to see "through and not with the eye". There is far more to this world than what can be seen. Faith is merely having the ...
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