My (same) response applies to each question posed. Rather than repeat my response to each question, I'll post it here...

People have picked apart Christian religious texts looking to either prove or disprove stories and/or statements since they were written.

Even the various Christian religions argue about what the meaning of certain passages are. Those disagreements are what led to the large number of different Christian religions. A non-denominational Chrisian speaker I once heard said it best; "the greatest threat to Christianity is religion".

All of your questions boil down to but one word, and that one word is "faith". Christanity, as well as all other religions, is faith based. Faith is believing without the need or desire to disect and "prove" what one believes. Faith is accepting ones beliefs without reservation or question.

I have difficulty understanding why so many, who have not experienced faith, refuse to accept that there are those who do have faith.

Non-Christians and non-Jews constantly attack the Bible and Torah in attempts to prove the writings as nothing more than fairy tales. What these people don't understand is that for the faithful, proof of what happened is not needed at all. Christians, Jews, etc. all have faith in what they have read.

My questions is: When will people understand the meaning of the word "faith"? When everyone understands that word, people in the world will all get along much, much better.

Thank you for your input. It is greatly appreciated.

Could one believe in faith without following a religous organization. In other words believe that something great is out there without having to be a christian, muslim, buddhist, etc.?

Yes! Definitely!

Well, I personally believe in God and Christ but I have always felt that its possible human beings have gotten all the stories or teachings wrong. I mean for example as a child I remember playing "telephone" you know the game where you tell someone a sentence and it gets whispered to another person and continues down the line until it gets to the last person. The person just about 10 out of 10 times got it wrong and everyone laughed at him. So I guess what I'm saying is although I believe in the fundamental basics of christianity I really don't follow 1 organization. Make sense?

agreed

Could one believe in faith without "believing" in any of the "books" that have been written thousands of years ago?

For example a man who believes that something is out there but not how prophets or any religous leaders describe in their written works.

It makes complete sense to me! Often what and who to believe is so confusing!

I think that when it comes to a belief in something and having faith in it can happen at any time and from any source. It could be as old as the ancient texts from thousands of years ago or it could be a new as what the Scientologists believe. What a person believes, or has faith in, is what that person is/feels comfortable with.

I think everyone does understand the meaning of the word "faith" - We all have faith in thing's that are not even concern's of religion's. Fact's can not prove anyone's faith in religious matter's.
Fact's, in and of themselves are mainly temporary at best. As knowledge continue's to increase, all the now known "fact's" will continue to be redefined. Fact's are never all inclusive to the thing's there being attached to whether science, religious belief's; or other. The natural truth's are about as close as we will get to having non changing fact's, such as gravity, and such.

To argue about religious belief's is but a waste of time and will only lead to blow's as history sorrowfully show's. Yet there is something within man that lead's him to think that his take on what lies beyond his senses is of import. I donot believe that while in this flesh we can escape from individual thinking of our faith in that which we care to believe to whatever degree, is more correct than differing belief's of other's.

We all hold to some kind of faith that what we personally believe or are swayed by is more correct than all other choices once we have settled in our heart's that this is "truth" for us. For another who in their heart feels differently when approached by one of differing faith with their heartfelt idelologies and espouses them to a differing heart faith, is when discussion, debate, arguement, and possibly blow's comes into play.

What I see is just a continuation of history repeating itself. Mankind's folly so to say. for centuries the religious belief that the world was flat and that the earth was the center of the universe was held as judeo/christian fact as well as by other's.
Their is nothing that is know for sure, and nothing that can be know for sure by faith alone, nor by what are considered to be fact's of the moment. The answer to one's faith lay's beyond this temporal life as do any true lasting fact's. Then, and only then, may we possibly know who if any is or was more correct.

"seek and ye shall find?" only more question's answered by those who have no core truth's, no core faith past what they choose to put their trusting faith in.

If man put anywhere near the time he put's into faith and searching for thing's unknown, into learning who he really is at his core - then mankind will be able to finally evolve past what his entire existance on this earth has been so far.For mankind is all we can really know for sure, we are man, we have inside information on man and that is the only inside information we do have on anything that exist.

Yet we fail to look for the truth's about ourselves?? Man is truly ignorant and the longer he stay's ignorant of himself, the longer he will suffer the same history that he fails to look at and see there core meaning's that they have failed to learn. With man it remain's business as usual, may what ever lies beyond help us to help see ourselves first! So that we may truly be more than we have been since the beginning.

I don't believe in any religion.

I just believe in god. <--- lowercase "g" on purpose.

God wouldn't want it any other way.

What one chooses to believe is not a matter of concern for me, until or unless that belief becomes harmful to others.

The extent to which one takes their beliefs can and must only be subjective.

It must be that way because an objective faith would be one that is taught and not felt.

To share faith can only be to share joy and love and all the good attributes of humanity and the physical, seen and unseen.

To share other than that, is to pass on a wish to engraciate others to believe as you do.

That takes belief out of the realm of the personal and into the realm of orgization where faith is taught by the rules of dogmatic objective beliefs.

Once there, it quicly becomes uncontrollable and is no longer a personal subjective experience.

Therefore, it seems, those affiliated or taught by any organizational means - churches, scripture, creeds and such have been lied to and they do not share a faith, they only share the structure that tells them what and how to believe.

Like Bobby mentioned ...the key word here is FAITH.

One can have faith to believe in just about anything today.
One can even have faith to believe in God, too.

But there is a difference between having faith to believe in just about anything ,
including God......versus having Faith to Believe in Jesus as Lord and Saviour.

When one puts his faith in anything , including God, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING happens in that man's spirit.
NOTHING.
Life goes on as usual.....

BUT...putting Faith in Jesus as Lord and Saviour, is an entirely different matter.

When man puts his Faith in Jesus to Believe .......something HAPPENS in THAT MAN'S SPIRIT!!!!!
That man's spirit INSTANTLY BECOMES ALIVE in him!!!
Why ?
Because GOD'S HOLY SPIRIT now comes to DWELL in him!!!!

That is why JESUS is Called the Way, the Truth, and the LIFE...cause Jesus IS the ONLY way to God....and when one Believes by Faith in JESUS, and Calls Upon His Name, man's Spirit becomes BORN AGAIN.

Anybody getting this yet?

And that is HOW a christian KNOWS that his FAITH in JESUS is REAL... because there is PROOF provided him, by the Holy Spirit coming to dwell in him.


But this Faith to Beleive in Jesus as Lord ,cannot be forced on man....man must make that decision ON HIS OWN , to come to Jesus.

BUT Faith in JESUS can NOT come ,unless a man HEAR about the Lord Jesus.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.....til one day, man is finally ready to beleive....and recieve Jesus ( the Wonderful Free Gift of Grace Given), into his heart.

And Oh...what a Glorious Day Indeed.... when that Day does finally Come.

I formed a prayer group once several years ago and we tried to get involved with helping the community. We were not part of a church and at the time I was not a reverend with credentials of ministry. We were labeled a cult by the local newspaper and our activities were monitored by local police (like drug dealers). The town did everything they could to shut us down. This is what happens if you form a group outside of the established authority structure. Pretty weird huh ??

You can believe in faith but if you arnt part of an organization a lot of weird stuff can happen. See my previous post for more information

I hope I dont freak anybody out telling about that

This is what I believe in. It is called Liberation Theology.


Liberation theology, belief that the Christian Gospel demands a preferential option for the poor, and that the church should be involved in the struggle for economic and political justice in the contemporary world—particularly in the Third World. Dating to the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) and the Second Latin American Bishops Conference, held in Medellin, Colombia (1968), the movement brought poor people together in comunidades de base, or Christian-based communities, to study the Bible and to fight for social justice. Since the 1980s, the church hierarchy has criticized liberation theology and its advocates, accusing them of wrongly supporting violent revolution and Marxist class struggle.

The Social Gospel rejected the conservative individualistic social ethic, instead developing a distinctively optimistic rationale as a result of "the theological liberalism that emerged out of attempts to reconcile the Christian faith with evolutionary thought, historical-critical analysis of the Bible, philosophical idealism, and the study of other world religions."

Mirror...no.. you are not freaking anybody out by telling us that.

Mirror...the same thing happened to my friends from new york, many years ago .
They had a church in new york, and had moved to a new area, and started having a full gospel bible study in this new area....and were inviting people from every denomination to their bible study group.
And many people were coming.
And it enraged some of the denominations in that town, and they tried to chaswe this couple out of town.

That is religiousity for you ,Mirror..NOT Christianity.

I know that sweetheart I was just explaining what happens when you try to form a group on your own.

Well not to worry...now is coming the time that God is pouring out His spirit & people are going back to where they live & sharing the good news with others. This fire is so real...it can't help but catch on.

Just make sure that whatever you do, it agrees with God's word.

That's what we have ALL been saying... but thanks for repeating it.