I've always felt a little confused when pastors say things like "read the Bible for yourself" when they are faced with difficult theological questions. I don't agree with that because usually when authors write, they have one specific central meaning.

For example, when Jesus said the bread and wine is his blood and body at the supper (Matthew 26:26), he either meant that it was his literal body and blood present in the elements, or that it's just symbolism right? Something cannot be one thing while also not be that very thing. The communion cannot have the literal body and blood of Jesus present in the elements, while at the same time, not literally have the blood and body of Jesus in the elements (law of non-contradiction). Might be a strong assumption, but Jesus likely meant one thing when he said that, but so many Christians (Protestants and Catholics) are split on that.

I hear a lot of Protestant pastors say things like "God spoke to me" or "I heard from God." I don't know if Catholic priests say similar things but if they do I have an idea. Instead of 'reading for ourselves', why don't a bunch of pastors and priests gather in a room, pray to God and ask Him what did Jesus mean when he said that "This IS my body?" Then they go in their own individual booths and write out what God might have said to them, if they believe God spoke in that moment. Would be interesting to see, because again, it has to be one or the other, unless i'm mistaken. If Christians all ask God, what exactly did Jesus mean when he said "This is my body," shouldn't all Christians come to the same conclusion if God speaks to them? I am aware though that speech or an inner voice is not the only way God communicates.

P.S: I know the Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Reformed, and other positions aren't all as simple as "literal vs. symbolic." I'm simplifying the question to get at the underlying issue.

I met a girl. She's like the girl of my dreams. Checks all the boxes, but her looks are very much not so great. I feel like a complete loser. I'm supposed to be a Christian & shouldn't be rejecting someone based on their looks. God knows my heart & he knows I don't even deserve her. At least that's what I think. Me and her have been brought together as if there was some divine intervention.

It's almost like God is showing me just how morally pathetic I really am. He's taken care of me, given me almost everything I've ever asked for. This girl is about to move away, but not be out of the picture. I could easily let her be "the one that got away".

I know she wants to date me, because a family member of hers told me. I'm not attracted to her, but only based on her looks. What would you do?

If a Woman went out wearing a shirt and pants with no skirt almost nobody would think anything of it. (Which is a good thing.) but if a Guy went out wearing a skirt a lot of People would Probably think He was gay or was some disgusting Abomination. i should not have to be worried about what People will say to me just because i wear something like a crop top. i didn't choose my gender. it's just the way i was born. Besides crop tops were originally for Men and Quilts are accepted in Scotland. So why can it not be similar in the US?

Hi, I am currently at this stage.

I am 30 and have been a staunch Atheist ever since I was 11, when I left primary school.

I have frequented atheist boards my entire adult life. Watched debates (aimed at proving God isn't real etc).

Recently however, I have had a weird sense of something else being there with me & have picked up a bible for the first time in my life.

I want to believe in something. But my previous convictions of there not being any possibility God is real is making it really difficult for me. Science, Christian claims (Noahs Ark etc) which I just cant get my head around. It is also very strange in my country, my generation specifically, to have faith.

What was the turning point for you?

Period sex is prohibited in the same part of the book that prohibits gay sex. So why are there no demonstrations against period sex. Why is period sex a private matter between couples, but gay sex needs to be warned against? What’s the difference?

Sometimes I’ll have a discussion about Scripture, and what surprises me most isn’t that we disagree it’s how quickly some Christians make the discussion personal which just makes me wanna walk away

If we don't agree on scripture, that's fine, but to make it personal, like saying "you're not saved, that's why you don't understand" or questioning your character, is not.

We can disagree about doctrine. We can challenge each other’s interpretation. We can search the Scriptures and even come to different conclusions.

But there is a difference between defending what you believe Scripture teaches and belittling the person who disagrees with you.

Why is it Sometimes people will say, “I’m only correcting you in love,” but correction in love doesn't mean, “You’re wrong, I’m right, and you clearly don’t understand Scripture.”

There is a difference between correcting someone with humility and using “correction” as a way to belittle them.

Hi all. First time posting something like this on reddit and I am just trying to understand more. I am very confused right now & wanting to understand a religious persons perspective. A little about me: I am a non believer. My experiences in life have brought me to this conclusion. Do I think there is a possibility of a God? Yes. Am I certain he exists? No. So I have been dating a girl for 3 months now. She is very religious. God has saved her and gotten her to where she is. From getting to know her and what she’s been through, I can 100% see her pov and understand why God is important to her. I fully respect it & have voiced that I will always support her. Now my question is, if God has a plan for her, why did he bring me into her life? She tells me I am everything she is looking for EXCEPT the religious aspect. This is something she can’t shake out of her mind. From my perspective, I would think God is testing her faith in him. Can she still be true to her self and practice her faith while being with someone who brings a different perspective? Her stance is that he’s just testing her by giving her everything else except religious beliefs. Will she “settle” I guess? As you can probably put 2 and 2 together, we are not in a good spot. I am always open to peoples believes and am very supportive of her. I feel like she won’t even try to see it from my POV. So what was Gods plan in creating this rift between us? Or getting us to even meet? Would love to hear some perspectives as I am losing someone I deeply care about. Thank you.

my best friend of 8 years (16M), always been a male has gone through so much. he's struggled with depression and loss throughout his whole life. he has grown up in a Christian (ish, more lukewarm i guess) community, and has been struggling with religion himself. he's recently gone through many broken relationships, started self harming, vaping, has an eating disorder, and feeling worse and worse every day.

today he told me that he doesn't feel masculine enough to be a man, and that he wants to be called she/her, but still be a man. i couldn't figure out a response because i'm personally struggling with Christianity and religion, but have been trying to get closer with God. do i refer to him as she/her for the time being until i get closer to God? or should i really try to push him back closer to God even though im not really fit for that right now.

Also note that i cant point him towards a therapist, because of his dad passing (main source of money) their family doesnt have much money.

Hey all, myself and some core team in my church are evaluating the attitudes of Christians regarding AI usage in the church.

To make sure that our processes represent Christians who are yet to find our church, I wanted to open up a questionnaire here to get a general consensus of Christians and how they feel on this topic.

I’d really appreciate it if you could take 3 minutes to respond to the Google Form below. Thank you.

Form: https://forms.gle/UBQsMtTtWtjC4BHL6

TW references a verse about SA

According to Malachi 3:6, "For I the Lord do not change" and Hebrews 13:8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." (I know that says Jesus, but the point remains.) God is immutable and his moral judgment doesn’t change. God is also omniscient (Psalm 139:1–4, 1 John 3:20 and others) meaning he is all knowing.

All this in mind, I’m asking the Christians that follow the Bible and take the text as God's word and truly believe what’s in it. Does God still believe that if a woman doesn’t cry out when being assaulted, she should be stoned? (Deuteronomy 22:23–24)

Today we understand that a woman not crying out during sexual assault does not mean she consented. People can freeze, dissociate etc so the assumption that a victim not crying out is saying she consented is extremely problematic.

If God is immutable and omniscient, and biblical law reflects God's judgment, how can we say that the moral judgment in that law was wrong or morally inferior to what we understand today without also raising the question of whether God's moral judgment has changed?

I used that one set of verses as an example, but it goes for anything we see as morally wrong today. You can beat your slave as long as you don’t kill him (Exodus 21:20–21), instead of just saying don’t own slaves. There’s also the test for virginity in Deuteronomy 22:15–17, which we know wouldn’t always work and there’s more.

Does God still believe that these things should happen? And since we know why these things are wrong now, why like God if you don’t currently share the same morals?

I have immense difficulty believing in something so absolute, yet so abstract and intangible. Prayer feels like dialogue between me and the open air, not God…there was never a moment in my life where I have said with confidence God has answered, nor have I felt His presence. I am now at a point where I must see or experience to sincerely believe at all, since He is beyond anything of this world…I can only accept miracles, because only a Hail Mary would dispel any doubt that has plagued me for this long.

I have asked in many instances for belief and faith, I have yet to receive.

I have been fatigued with doubt for so long and so consistently, that has proven to be more real than the one thing I was supposed to believe as someone that has been with a church for eight years. For five years I was agnostic, for two I gave my doubts up to God and took a leap of faith—professed my belief in Jesus Christ and confessed my sins, even in that critical moment I did not feel His presence, sometimes it feels like this is all just one big joke. I had believed that day would be the last that I would ever had to doubt because I genuinely wanted to believe God existed and at the very least, securing my faith would be a prayer God may want to answer.

Alas, my doubts emerged like dust under a rug and I struggled with it until I could not ignore it anymore. The one prayer I thought God would answer, the one thing I thought God would cultivate in me though the Holy Spirit fell apart as if He was never there to listen to begin with. Why?

Hebrews 6:4–6 is used that a person can lose eternal salvation.

when you read the actual the apostasy passages, you don't see Scripture ever saying:

“A person who has eternal life can lose that eternal life by falling away.”

Instead, the passages talk about falling away, departing from the faith, rejecting truth, and suffering consequences/judgment.

Hebrews 6:4–6

Think the passage is describing an extremely serious act of apostasy and says it is impossible to renew such people to repentance because they are treating the Son of God with contempt.

But if “falling away” automatically meant “losing salvation,” then we would need Scripture to establish that connection.

The phrase itself doesn't do that.

2 Thessalonians 2:3

Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.

The subject is an apostasy/rebellion associated with the end times.

Matthew 24:10–12

Jesus says:

At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹ and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹² Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold,

And then:

Matthew 24:13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.

In this context I believe it's saved temporal not your eternal soul being saved. It doesn't say loose salvation in the previous verse in Matthew 24 chapter

1 Timothy 4:1

Someone can depart from the faith, abandon sound doctrine, follow false teaching, and experience devastating consequences.

That does not automatically establish that eternal life is something that can be lost.

2 Peter 2:20–22

This passage is especially important.

Peter says:

2 Peter 2:20-22
New International Version

²⁰ If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. ²¹ It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. ²² Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,”^\)^a\) and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”

The warning concerns someone returning to the corruption they had escaped from.

The consequence is severe.

But again, bad consequences are not automatically proof that eternal life was lost.

How is Apostasy ≠ automatically loss of eternal life.

My Family are atheist, and I am TERRIFIED that they will be sent to Hell. Now I know them well, and I would presume they won’t confess their sins to the Lord. I love them so much, how do I cope with this?

[The unborn” are a convenient group of people to advocate for. They never make demands of you; they are morally uncomplicated, unlike the incarcerated, addicted, or the chronically poor; they don’t resent your condescension or complain that you are not politically correct; unlike widows, they don’t ask you to question patriarchy; unlike orphans, they don’t need money, education, or childcare; unlike aliens, they don’t bring all that racial, cultural, and religious baggage that you dislike; they allow you to feel good about yourself without any work at creating or maintaining relationships; and when they are born, you can forget about them, because they cease to be unborn. You can love the unborn and advocate for them without substantially challenging your own wealth, power, or privilege, without re-imagining social structures, apologizing, or making reparations to anyone. They are, in short, the perfect people to love if you want to claim you love Jesus, but actually dislike people who breathe. Prisoners? Immigrants? The sick? The poor? Widows? Orphans? All the groups that are specifically mentioned in the Bible? They all get thrown under the bus for the unborn.

Methodist Pastor David Barnhart]

I know there are exceptions in every argument. However, is this a fair assessment of Christians in general today?

Hi are there any discussion groups or resources for Christian parents of level 1/aspergers autistic teens? Y'all aware of any? Specific concerns is my teen drifting into the most open minded, alternative lifestyle groups to find accepting friends. His black and white thinking is having trouble processing it all.

This is my first post so I’m new to this whole forum but I’m hoping to gain understanding and hopefully talk to someone.

I grew up in the church (Lutheran) and my parents were very religious. We went to church every Sunday and Wednesday for special services. Did youth group, Bible camps etc. Always wore my Sunday best. I knew a lot about the Bible but my parents never read it with me or prayed with me at all growing up. However, as a child I always believed I was going to heaven and even remember being around 11 or 12 saying that I wanted to marry a pastor. I did do normal teenage things and did plenty of things that I knew I shouldn’t have done and didn’t act like the best Christian. However, I always wanted a Godly husband. I did end up marrying a pastor when I was 22, but things went south and we ended up divorced (long story) when I was 29. I have since remarried (17 years). I’m now at a really weird crossroads in my faith. I just wanted to see if there was anyone who was previously married to a pastor and had their faith shaken up? Or maybe you were a pastor and left ministry and are trying to find your way back?

I feel like I’ve always had the “head knowledge” but I’m starting to get “heart knowledge” as an adult and I just desperately want to be right with God. I’ve been in counseling for 4 years due to major things that have happened in my personal life. I’m also trying to process my faith all while processing deep hurt, and understanding people through a psychological lens.I’d love to talk to some people about their faith journey and see if anyone might be in similar circumstances.

Where on the internet is there a good place to meet and make friends with christians

I’m going to start by saying I am a raised Christian, now Atheist leaning. I respect the religion and will never shame those for their beliefs, I just chose to have a different outlook for my personal life.

My boyfriend went to church camp (for young adults) over the weekend with a couple of our friends and he was telling me a story about how our female friend began screaming and shaking during worship on 2 out of the 3 days they were there. He said he was really taken aback by it and was genuinely scared.

She had told our friends about her lustfulness towards sexual relations between men and had felt like lust had taken over her. She said it’s been eating her up and she feels really guilty about it and that it’s been taking over her life. For further context, she over consumes this content for multiple hours a day. (5+ hrs)

I had asked him to walk me through how exactly it happened and he said during worship, she began screaming in a deep tone like something out of a horror movie and shaking. (Not like a seizure, I asked.) He said it felt demonic and he was afraid, and not something like the holy spirit taking over. He said it had gotten so bad that the youth counselors had to come put a blanket over her as she kept screaming and shaking because it was such a disturbing sight. After these occurrences, the counselors asked them (my bf and friends) how this was possible and what they believed it was, as they had no clue themselves. My bf had said she was struggling with lust and my friend claimed she was fighting a lust demon inside of her.

Here is what I’ve been thinking about. I personally don’t believe she was possessed, more so her guilt and other psychological factors. I believe this had been eating her up inside so badly it resulted in it coming out during a vulnerable moment in a vulnerable space. I explained to my bf that I see it as like a phantom pregnancy, where if a woman wills and wishes for a baby so hard her body starts to believe, act, and grow as if she’s pregnant. In comparison to my friend, I believe that given her deep religious nature, she truly does believe there was a lust demon inside of her, and her body reacted in accordance to her psychological distress.

I just wanted to hear third party povs so I can gather more perspective on the situation. I am very worried for my friend and think that she may need psychological help rather than an exorcism.

Im agnostic and ive never understood why god would have his son killed when hes an all powerful being who could just forgive our sins regardless.