Any christians (Besides my friend and I) on here?

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I never said I ignored church doctrine, but I don't like all the divisions over things unrelated to salvation. Mike Warnke once put it like this: "...instead of fighting with the world to prove Jesus is the only way, we keep fighting with each other over how to get wet right."

If you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus, no outward practice will make a difference.

"wet right" ? You lost me.

Different denominations have feuded over the specifics of water baptism, which is what Warnke was referring to in that statement. He later suggested making bapistries about 30 feet long, eight feet wide, and six inches deep. Then, folks could roll through there one at a time. He suggested lining up Catholics, Methodists, and Presbyterians along the edge, so they'd get sprinkled, and we'd all be doing something together.

Right, I see now. I think the best baptismal process would be to dunk Christians below the waterline for at least five minutes before letting them back up again. ... I'm only joking. Maybe.

I am a Christian, I don't go to church as much as I did earlier this year but I do read the bible more now.

Agnostic. There are too many easily disprovable things in the Bible to believe it. The flood, ect, using geology, physics, and chemistry. I tend to believe in things that can be proven.

As far as a creator or higher power goes, it's possible.

How about a dunking booth for Christians,the money could go to unwed mothers.They get baptized and help out.Or maybe a car wash,they drive thru,get baptized and their car washed.A Priest can wave his hands as you drive by.This only applies only to "sprinklers"not "dunkers".

You got Snake handlers in the deep south who believe holding snakes bring them closer to god.

They might, if they handle them wrong.

I am born again Christian

The truth is out there to discover if you look in the right places. It's just been hidden beneath lies and misinformation.

Check out this video
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUclc9Vzswc[/youtube]

I think the baptismal dunk tank is a grand idea. Or a wet t-shirt baptizing contest. They can raise a lot of money that way too.

I'm the same way. I thinks it's quite possible that a higher power like God does exist, but I think Christians might have the wrong idea. Or at least the Bible does. It always bothered me at church when my former teachers said that the Bible was 'The Truth' and 'our life manual'. Well, Mrs. ____, the Bible basically tells us that women should shut up and leave the teaching to the men, so if it's your 'life manual', I don't know what you're doing here.

Christian here.

I happen to attend and work in a Southern Baptist Convention church, but I'm somewhat open to other possibilities in the future. I've been a musician for a long time, LOVE praise and worship music, and am attracted to Pentecostal churches for that. Pretty much any church that prefers a literal interpretation of the Bible, teaches the death/burial/resurrection of Jesus as required for salvation, and has an evangelical focus gets my vote. I've just found myself most comfortable in Baptist churches.

The two main strikes I have against most pentecostal churches is the emphasis on speaking in tongues as evidence of the Holy Spirit (as though something is wrong with you if you don't do it--and not all speaking-in-tongues churches teach that) and the prevalence of Prosperity Gospel (i.e. blab-it-and-grab-it). Yes, I believe the Bible has great advice for maintaining health and acquiring wealth. I don't think God has anything against someone becoming wealthy. It's just when health and wealth become the main focus rather than adoration of God the Father that I get lost. Yes, use the Bible for practical life teaching. DON'T live your life as though the practical aspects are all that matter. If you miss salvation, if you miss loving God with all your being, if you miss loving all other people as fellow image-bearers of God, the rest of the good stuff in the Bible is meaningless.

I interpret the bible symbolically cover to cover. I dont simply make things up I have an internally consistent system. For me as a sacred text the bible has the most complete unfolding of the Divine nature AND concurrently human nature. I feel that the bible isnt just about revealing God's nature but it is a revelation of human nature itself. I dont go to any churches because noone shares my beliefs and most Christians would probably call me a non Christian. I also believe that other religions point towards the same truths just in different symbolic systems.

I believe that God is a postulation which cannot be formally verified but at the same time I see the world as formless chaos which we parse into ordered reality (See Leonard Susskind on Holographic Principle and Michio Kaku on string theory) the nature of the universe on the particle scale fills me with a sense of the numinous as does thenatural world at the macro scale. To me the idea of a highly intelligent being responsible for it all follows quite naturally.

I am not quite comfortable with the idea that God is omnipresent prescient and potent. I think that we think of these in humnistic terms anyway. I think that mind is itself an unknown in the universe. The actions of conscious agents are predictable only insofar as they are guided by biological drives. I imagine humanity to be a great confluence of charged consciousness in a sea of disorder. God represents mind on a higher level beyond our understanding. Humanity is I believe the divine offspring but we are divorced from him. Some might say that the resurrection story is a model for the reunion of humanity with God through suffering death and ultimately transfiguration

I have unanswered questions certainly but my faith is primarily intellectual and academic so I can grapple with it by reading everything from Buddhist to Zoroastrian sacred texts. All is sacred as they say.

I interpret the bible symbolically cover to cover. I dont simply make things up I have an internally consistent system. For me as a sacred text the bible has the most complete unfolding of the Divine nature AND concurrently human nature. I feel that the bible isnt just about revealing God's nature but it is a revelation of human nature itself. I dont go to any churches because noone shares my beliefs and most Christians would probably call me a non Christian. I also believe that other religions point towards the same truths just in different symbolic systems. My preference for Christianity is what I see as a unique universality

I believe that God is a postulation which cannot be formally verified but at the same time I see the world as formless chaos which we parse into ordered reality (See Leonard Susskind on Holographic Principle and Michio Kaku on string theory) the nature of the universe on the particle scale fills me with a sense of the numinous as does thenatural world at the macro scale. To me the idea of a highly intelligent being responsible for it all follows quite naturally.

I am not quite comfortable with the idea that God is omnipresent prescient and potent. I think that we think of these in humnistic terms anyway. I think that mind is itself an unknown in the universe. The actions of conscious agents are predictable only insofar as they are guided by biological drives. I imagine humanity to be a great confluence of charged consciousness in a sea of disorder. God represents mind on a higher level beyond our understanding. Humanity is I believe the divine offspring but we are divorced from him. Some might say that the resurrection story is a model for the reunion of humanity with God through suffering death and ultimately transfiguration

I have unanswered questions certainly but my faith is primarily intellectual and academic so I can grapple with it by reading everything from Buddhist to Zoroastrian sacred texts. All is sacred as they say.

I'm a bible-believing Catholic myself. Have been for as long as I can remember. And I'm not planning on changing that ever!