I think we can all logically agree that the past does not exist, except as memory, and the future is just a bunch of probabilities. A "prophesy" is someone's prediction or envisioned future probability. There is no guarantee that any prophesy or prediction will happen.

The only place you can do anything, think anything, be anything is in this present moment. The present moment (NOW) is all that exists.

So why not talk about NOW instead of 2000 year old stories?

What is salvation?

Definition: sal�va�tion
noun THEOLOGY
1. deliverance from sin and its consequences, believed by Christians to be brought about by faith in Christ.

The term Christ is a title, equivalent of the Old Testament term messiah and means anointed one. The anointed one delivers the elect from their sin. The Christ has three offices: Prophet, Priest, and King. As Prophet He is the mouthpiece of God (Matt. 5:27-28) and represents God to man. As Priest He represents man to God and restores fellowship between them by offering Himself as the sacrifice that removed the sin of those saved.

What is sin:
1. an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law.
synonyms: immoral act, wrong, wrongdoing, act of evil/wickedness, transgression, crime, offense, misdeed, misdemeanor;

What is faith?noun":
1. complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
"this restores one's faith in politicians"
synonyms:trust, belief, confidence, conviction; More
antonyms: mistrust

2. strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.


What is messiah?

mes�si�ah -noun
1. the promised deliverer of the Jewish nation prophesied in the Hebrew Bible.
2. a leader or savior of a particular group or cause.


So simplified by these definitions, without worrying about what name you want to call the messiah or savior, I come to a conclusion that I have a question about.

Why would you believe that a blood sacrifice removes sin and What is the logic in that?

Before the Christ sacrifice, pagans killed animals. Some still do. What does that represent? Food for the beast? Who is the beast?

Then there are mythical stories of dragons to whom virgins were sacrificed. What symbolic meaning does that have?

In ancient mid evil times, what kind of monster god or devil required a blood sacrifice to forgive the 'sins' of the people?

Where did that symbolic myth come from? Or was it real? Were human and animal sacrifices given to some monster god or did the people just imagine there was a god who required blood sacrifice?

Asking that question is unchristianlike behavior....Something many Christians overlook...

Oh I don't know, it doesn't seem so bad. =) Christ cussed out pharisees and threw over tables in a rage after all. =p

I will say our friend's final line here does smack of intellectual exhaustion/desperation in what appears to be a lost debate. Certainly not Christlike there, since Christ seemed to have had an endless talent for sound argument.

I didn't say Christlike, I said unchristian like...

Christ gave us a way to avoid eternal death

universally, for Christians, Christ is the savior

the simplest explanation I can think of,,,

who invented the term "evil"? perhaps defining "evil" might help... is the devil evil? from my understanding, lucifer lost a power stuggle with god... does that make it evil?

the winners always wright the history...

Isn't our continued attempts to be Christlike the crux of Christianity? The core of what you're all about? (being mormon, I honestly could't say. Our respective cultures have long been estranged)

If being Christian-like means something else like adopting the habits of the mainstreamists then I certainly don't want to be that. Besides, I like swearing. It doeth my soul good like a medicine. xD

To answer your first question, I truly don't know Mark...Christlike, to me, means living the commandments…I think of unchristian like behavior as the behavior of one who believes or thinks he believes, but does not live accordingly either knowingly or unknowingly...Just my take on the whole religious mess....

Heyyy, that's exactly what we believe! =)

In our faith it doesn't particularly matter, from a certain point of view, what your faith is if you are true to yourself and what you are convinced is the right thing to do. It doesn't seem logical to me that a perfectly just being would condemn everyone for failing to live according to one set of standards they've known nothing of. So I believe you're spot on.

And you are Mormon? It sounds similar to Judaism.

'Tis, although we've also had our fair share of marriages to catholic ideals and others.

Strangely, I am not very surprised by that information.

If you are wrong you have wasted the life that you know you have the one that is for certain no faith needed for a dream that isn't true. You have alienated others and tried to interpret life events according to bad data if you are wrong you are a fool.

He's wrong.

I second that!
He Hijacked that Jewish Sect and made a global Religion out of it!Strange that Paul is quoted more than Peter who after all was supposed to be The Rock,the head of Jesus' Community!

I think people are supposed to be impressed with a "reformed" and "born again" murdering psycho. Instead, I think a person who has always lead a good and decent life and not gone around killing people would impress people more. After all, like they always say, your record speaks for itself.

and a leopard does not change its spots so easily.

good any hindu wana chat

I believe that what is being said by we are all evil is really that the nature of man is to be self centred not Christ centred. So in this respect we are all naturally evil (self centred) and it is therefore easier for us to carry on being this way just my opinion

Paul was a Chosen Vessel. He had so much zeal. Paul never changed anything he was one who was so Physical in the Law he could not see the Spiritual. his blinding for 3 day ( a symbol of death and coming back to life) was taken to the desert and taught. After Judas hanged himself they chose Mathias as the New apostle yet we do not hear of him again. Paul was chosen to be a light to the Gentiles and peter was to the Jews. Pauls knowledge gave him great insight into the Spiritual meaning of the law. he was hard to be understood then as he is now. His life is also an example Yahshua chose for the Gentiles (US)

a really good example Paul gave us is he did not preach for money . He worked as a tent maker for his income. Preachers should learn this example

He asked what is REAL Xianity, not a concept developed sometime in the 400s CE; prior to that most Xians were of the Arian thought and did not believe Christ was a g_d.

There are two basic themes in the Bible: 1. Fear G_d and Enjoy Life; 2. Love One Another. Difficult isn't it? That is why I don't judge Xianity by the Xians I meet.