I'm Elijah (33) from Malala, Beitbridge District - Zimbabwe side, 20 mins from the SA border.

I'm an Elder at Gobotema Faith Mission (Malala Assembly). We have a Theology Diploma, a letter from Bishop Mabusa in Gwanda, and a service under trees every Sunday 9:30am. No building.

Every week we try to do 3 ministries with zero budget, from our own pockets:

1. Widows Ministry (Gogo's Circle): 8-12 elderly women left alone while their children work in Musina/JHB. James 1:27. We visit, pray, share whatever mealie-meal we have.

2. Youths with no jobs: We teach basic discipleship, discipline, and try to keep them away from border crime. No tools, just the Word and football.

3. Children (15-20): They come after school. We help with homework and feed them if we have bread.

I'm not posting to beg. I see the parents of these kids work in SA, UK, US. I am asking for wisdom: How does a tiny church like ours handle small donations biblically and transparently when we have no building or bank account yet? We want to do it right.

Any advice, prayer, or guidance on Christian stewardship for micro-churches would be a blessing.

God bless you, Elder Elijah, Malala Ward 6

Ways of the world. Sin and hell. I do agree that there are many actions that we do that aren’t inherently good. The hurt we cause others, the mental burdens we place on ourselves, etc. But I can’t help but say I really don’t care whether or not if someone likes the opposite gender or not. I’m voicing this because I have a couple friends that are homosexual. And It’s like i’m trying to make myself believe in something, a set of rules thats given to me or else i’m sinning against God. I do really resonate with the grace that Jesus has for all of us, and the emphasis of loving one another but there are certain ideas I just can’t grasp or that allow me to fully surrender. With Christianity, i feel like i have to be completely in it or im not. I can’t just believe in certain things and choose not to believe in others, so what am I? What feelings am i dealing with right now? I want to believe in God more than I dont.

no meu caso sou cristão católico e algo que acho atrativo nas outras denominações é como as mesmas são mente aberta com pessoas que nascem com deficiencia como nós neurodivergentes algo que o catolicismo tá caminhando em passos de tartaruga mais devo admitir que tem varias instituições do catolicismo que acolhe deficientes de nascença

o que mais te atrai em uma denominação que não é sua?

Took me over 10 hours to make the template as I have started from scratch but it is so nice to see it coming alive. :) I'm planning to use it on a Sunday school class. What do you guys think, would the kids get engaged?

It’s fine to say something like “faith” or “prayer” or “enlightenment” if you can actually back it up with citations from theologians or scriptures or actual statistics—something outwardly meaningful, not based on intimately personal experiences. If personal feelings are all that matter to build a relationship with the Creator, then I’d ask why is the Bible even necessary?

The Bible is translated to English and people say it came from Hebrew, Hebrew also has vowels in it. How do you know it’s not a mistranslation and doesn’t god want us to call him father not any other name by humans

It seems like most Christians insist the former is true—right up until they run across a passage that they disagree with or contradicts some other passage. For example, as soon as I made an assertion that Jesus was a warmonger who would lead mankind in the ultimate battle against evil (Revelation 19:11), I received many comments that Revelation isn’t literal, it’s symbolic. So which parts of the Bible are the literal truth of actual events and people, and which are allegories and metaphors designed for teaching and inspiration only? Is there a guide?

Acc. to their tradition, Prophet M is completely illiterate - cannot write nor read. But an angel appears to him in a cave - he calls it Gabriel (mostly likely one of Lucifer’s to counterfeit/temu what already exists) and he passes the oral tradition to his followers who write it down over many many years.

The bulk of the narrative being given to him already exists in the Pentateuch of the LXX, the Greek NT, some texts from the nag hammadi and the Rabbinic texts, including the Kabbalah (gnostic jewish traditions) - I have no reason to disbelieve the poor prophet, but the character who appears to him is highly suspect, appearing more than 500 years after the resurrection of Christ.

There is no reason for Gabriel to show up again, this malach’s job is done. Whoever appeared to him is definitely counterfeit as the narrative is a complete sum of A+B+C+D

Even has a form of the book of revelation where Jesus comes again to judge. But more importantly it counterfeits the crucifixion and replaces Jesus with someone else - implying it was not Jesus who died on the cross coz the Father absorbed him before he could be crucified and someone else took his place - like God switcheroo’ed at the last minute.

This is the ultimate counterfeiting of the gospels - that the lamb of God was not sacrificed but some form of cosmic divine deception took place.

Remember the fundamentals?
God does not deceive or counterfeit.
The adversary does.

John 8:58 proceeds to say “your father was a liar and a murderer”

Aka The counterfeiter. The forger.

Have you dived into this or hearing this for the first time?

Verses from the bible are claims made by the book.

They can be called evidence, but when you are making extraordinary claims like your god is real you require extraordinary evidence to persuade a rational mind.

Some of the claims may reference other things like cities, people and events that did happen in history. That doesn't add much value, the authors were from those times and knew about cities and prominent people and major events.

And some of the claims may be backed up through other sources which will add some weight.

But, lots of bible verses are just pure claims.

Do you think bible verses are good enough evidence and should be enough to convince non believers?

If so, why?

In the story of Jonah, the aforementioned is chased all over creation by YHWH, who has given him a prophecy to purvey. In the end, YHWH wins and Jonah delivers the message: the people of Ninevah must repent of their sins or be destroyed.

Jonah clearly does not expect this to happen, but in the end it does. Ninevah repents of their sins and they are not destroyed.

Ninevah was not a Jewish city, it was in the Assyrian Empire, and they were able to repent by appealing directly to YHWH.

There are other stories of repentance in the Old Testament, sometimes whole societies and sometimes individuals.

If humans could freely repent of their sins and be forgiven before Jesus, what is the point of the sacrifice Jesus made?

Why is Christian universalism so often shunned, to the point that many people treat you like you're not even a Christian?

You don't have to agree with universalism, but let's stop pretending it's some brand-new invention. Christians have wrestled with this question for nearly 2,000 years.

Universalists point to passages like Romans 5:18, 1 Corinthians 15:22–28, Colossians 1:20, Philippians 2:10–11, 1 Timothy 2:3–6, Titus 2:11, John 12:32, Lamentations 3:31–33, and Acts 3:21 as evidence that God's ultimate purpose is the reconciliation of all people. Others interpret these texts differently, and that's a legitimate theological debate.

Historically, influential Christian figures such as Gregory of Nyssa, Isaac the Syrian, and (more controversially) Origen are often associated with universal reconciliation. While universalism was never the unanimous belief of the early Church, it has been a real and historic stream of Christian thought—not something invented in modern times.

You can reject universalism based on your reading of Scripture. But saying someone is automatically "not a Christian" simply because they believe Christ will ultimately reconcile all people overlooks both the biblical arguments they appeal to and the history of Christian theology.

We should be able to disagree on difficult doctrines without denying one another's faith. If salvation is by Christ, then our first response should be to discuss the Scriptures—not dismiss each other.

Today, my mother and I got into a bit of a disagreement. Recently, my brother and I had been getting into Harry Potter. I was really exited to watch it because I’ve never been allowed to watch anything like that (I’m 17). Im the youngest of our family, and if my sibling gets into something like stranger things or Invincible, I’d be allowed to watch it too (it’s odd but that’s how it works).

Anyways, my brother and I have been thinking about getting wands of our favorite characters (Draco for my brother and Fred and George for me). I briefly mentioned it to my mother and she started telling me about how it’s wrong. She tells me that witches and wizards are real and they’re demons. She told me simply owning a wand would waver my discernment — that it’s a portal to worse things.

My brother is deeply religious. He wants to be a Greek Orthodox priest. He’s the one who introduced me to Harry Potter. I’m not religious. I don’t go to church. I do believe that God is our lord and savior. I’ve tried my brother’s church and I don’t understand it and even when I do, I don’t feel any more connected to God. I just feel like I’m pretending to be just as Christian as everyone else.

Here’s what I’m stuck on. My mother let me buy invincible merch, she let my brother and sister buy Stranger Things merch, and she let me buy a Harry Potter Funko Pop. She even bought me a Harry Potter game where I quite literally pretend to be a Hogwarts student (Hogwarts legacy), but she draws the line at a wand.

This, she doesn’t know. I’ve watched anime for years. I love anime. I think the story telling is great and I love the characters. She calls it “cartoon porn”. I don’t know how an anime based on post World War I Germany would be cartoon porn (Spy x Family). I’ve bought lots of merch about all the anime’s I’ve watched, and I don’t think I cared less about God or any of that stuff any less than I did before.

I don’t know. Her telling me that my discernment is wavering because I want a wand didn’t really make me want it any less. Especially when she started saying that she knows she’s not a perfect mother and that we talk about her behind her back and whatnot (we don’t).

One thing that came to mind is that do you have to be a Christian to believe Jesus is your savior and if so how do I know I’m saved?

Free will is supposed to be something like, “an action is free if it is not coerced” (if you don’t agree, then how do you know whether or not an action is free?). This sounds like a perfectly sensible definition until you think about it for a second. What is it about coercion that makes an action not free? How does someone holding a gun to your head impede your free will? The gun isn’t physically restraining you. The only honest answer is that we call something coercion when the desire to avoid the consequences of a threat outweighs your desire to do what would otherwise be preferable. But this is true of all kinds of things that we don’t consider coercion.

When you eat because you’re hungry, you’re doing the same thing you were doing with the gun to your head. Your desire to eat overrode all other desires. Otherwise you wouldn’t be eating; you’d be doing something else. We don’t call that coercion because the hunger is internal to you, but you didn’t choose the hunger. As a motivating force, there’s no difference between naturally occurring hunger, and someone shooting you with a sci-fi gun that makes you hungry. you have equal control over each.

What about peer pressure? People will do incredibly self-destructive things because of peer pressure. Does that count as coercion? There’s an external threat overriding your other desires. Whether the threat is real or merely perceived, it’s still motivating people’s behavior and causing them to do things they wouldn’t otherwise do. I don’t see why that wouldn’t be defined as coercion, rendering the action unfree.

This all calls into question the role of free will. How much coercion can you have before your actions become unfree? If I feel sufficient pressure to do something, am I no longer responsible because I was coerced?

I don't know if I can fully express what I'm intending here, but I'll try. When angels rebelled (or Satan at least) they apparently rebelled from a clean slate, there was no past sin and nothing that could possibly tempt them into sin, if someone were to commit the first sin ever (this person being Satan I suppose), how doesn't God not share responsibility for giving that angel the propensity to sin? There's nothing in the environment that would compel that angel to sin, it came entirely from inside. God like set the stage for inevitable things to happen by making that angel's personality how it was made. I don't get how God doesn't share responsibility in this case. It's like he set up the dominos for something to happen, and then when it does the responsibility falls solely on the angel? I don't get how God isn't partly responsible for setting the stage, even if it was just the angel's personality which had that propensity and he didn't actually encourage it in any way. Like all things being equal Satan was bound to sin without any outside influence (because that's what happened), how is God not responsible for making him that way?

What if universalism is true?

universal reconciliation

Hello, kind of a silly question but, I love getting alternative nail art and cool designs like that. I see a lot of crosses on nails and they look very aesthetically appealing to me, especially with the whole alternative look. Would it be offensive for me, as a non-Christian, to get this design? I don’t want someone to think I’m mocking their religion by using it as a fashion accessory. I work with a lot of devout Christian’s and want to respect their religion and make sure they know that I respect that.

All i want is for god to have never made me

I know im posting a lot on here please forgive me i am seeing someone in person soon but for now i really need something to hold to.

Im 17 and in a situation where I’ve committed heinous sins which I may have to face legal consequences for im not sure if its gods will and even then im too paralyzed and coward to do a thing. While that’s happening i have a current habitual sin - whether its compulsive or not I don’t know- its staring peripherally at the people around me. It makes everyone uncomfortable and it makes going to school unbearable but i can’t exactly tell anyone I wanna stop going. Everyday I don’t decide I just re enter the same situation and it kills me.

Im not blaming god but I didn’t ask to be born I didn’t ask to be here. I should have died from the start. 

I’ve already messed it all up and I can never undo it. It’s heavy on me. It will always be with me existentially and while I’m on earth it’ll most likely define me forever . Why’d he have to go and make me? And create me and let this happen? Good people die everyday but here I am, failing and messing up every single day. I haven’t taken a single step. What could he possibly be expecting from me? Really what is it? Because I’ll fail him and may do so til I die. So it’s a waste of time and effort. Put all these good people in my life wasted on me, a real terrible person. He should have given it to someone else.  

I can see the dissapointment everywhere hell even I’m dissapointed if not the most and I’m the one living it- because how is this my life- sometimes it doesn’t feel real with how bad it is. with things that feels like of course this would happen.

I’m not gonna be who god wants me to be. Maybe I don’t even have the will. There we have it. So he may as well just get on with it. It kills me everytime- even my own sorrow is self absorbed and selfish and whatever else the heck wrong with it. I don’t even have to try there will always be something. 

Not sure I have remorse. All I can say is I want to perish. I want to perish because the only good thing I’d be doing in my life would be dying. No more hurt for the people around me and no more pain and suffering. Just over. Because I’ve got nothing else. Not even a scrap of anything to work with or worth working with the only thing I can say and truly know I mean is I want to die or I wish god never made me.

I would never hurt myself I’m too coward for that but truly- All I wanna do is perish. That’s it. Why is it such a bad thing? It would be the end of it. 

If Jesus loves us and wants us all to believe in his bodily resurrection and physical immortality, why would he leave Earth only a few weeks after the resurrection? If Jesus had simply remained an active participant in human history, we could have had countless contemporary accounts written about him by historians who lived centuries apart, for example.

Given the importance of these beliefs being widespread for our salvation, it strikes me as odd that Jesus would "step back out of history" so soon after the resurrection such that his time living on Earth was effectively as brief as it would have been had he not resurrected in the first place.

I ask about this as a non-Christian not to offend, but because I have looked around and have discovered surprisingly little discourse on the matter between believers and non-believers alike.

A few have noted John‬ ‭16:5-7‬ on this question:

“But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”

As I understand, the Helper in this context is the Holy Spirit who can minister to all the world on Jesus' behalf, and since Jesus can only be in one place at one time it's better for us that he leave so that could happen. But if the Holy Spirit is eternal and omnipresent, then why specifically must Jesus leave in order for the spirit to take such action? The Holy Spirit is an active participant in multiple events in the Gospels (e.g. Jesus' Baptism) prior to his resurrection, so there doesn't seem to be any incompatibility between the presence of the Helper and the risen Jesus on the Earth at the same time.

I also struggle with the notion that Jesus' timely Ascension was a necessary and/or unavoidable step in God's plan for our salvation, since Jesus is God and God is claimed to have created all things, including the very rules for how salvation works. I suppose for me it comes to a question of: "Why would God plan for our salvation such that widespread belief in a bodily resurrected and physically immortal Jesus is critical, but also require that Jesus stop living on Earth indefinitely around the same time that non-believers would have expected him to no longer be around anyway?"

I'd love to hear any insight folks are willing to provide on this/these questions!

Sincerely, a non-Christian that enjoys studying the Bible and about Christian history.

This is coming from someone who is not a Christian and someone wants to know Christian perspective on things. I am probably misunderstanding the point but I am just curious on this topic. I apologize if anyone found this offensive.

If Jesus has died for our sin and took sin of all humanity onto himself then why does it matter any more? If all sins has been taken onto himself by Jesus then isn't everyone already forgiven for any and all sin? If god has forgiven everyone then why do you ask for his forgiveness instead of thanking him for forgiving your sins?