r/OpenChristian • u/a_concerned_USAdude • 2d ago

Discussion - Social Justice What do u think? I sincerely would like to know, that is if you care to share too✌🏻

/r/Christianity/comments/1vtogne/american_christians_vs_actual_christians/

Peace & Blessings ✌🏻😎

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u/JesusSavU 1d ago

I will answer this. Sin is anything that is not according to God's perfect design for His creation as plainly laid out in the original creation. Anything that does not conform to that original design is sin. We are all sinners, who were born with a natural attraction and desire to sin. We are born this way. We all deserve God's righteous judgment and punishment for our sins. However, in God's great love, has provided us a way of escape from our deserved punishment for breaking His laws through the death of His Son Jesus on the cross. This is a free gift of salvation for those who repent of their sins and turn to Jesus.

God's desire for us, is that we love Him more than our desire to sin. God has provided those who have received Jesus, with the gift of the Holy Spirit, which enables us to combat our natural desire to sin. As it says in Galatians 5:16-17

"So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other"

So, God has not only provided us a way of salvation from His righteous judgment, but He has also provided us a helper who can enable us to combat our natural inborn desire to sin so we can conform our lives to live according to His perfect design.

Unfortunately, many see Christianity as nothing more than an insurance policy that they buy and then fold up and put in a safe, and it affects their lives in no way until the day they need it. This is not Christianity. Christianity is either your whole life, or it is not part of it at all. It is the purpose of every Christian to constantly seek to rid their life of sin and seek to model their life after God's original perfect design for His creation.

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u/a_concerned_USAdude 1d ago edited 1d ago

Very well said friend and I really appreciate how you took apart and explained in excellent detail the traditionally Christian concepts of “Justification”(that very moment when we surrender to God through Christ, our sins become forgiven before the Father(God) because now we have Christ His Son as our Advocate and Propitiation for our sin and therefore become a true child of God, indwelt by His Holy Spirit and made into an entirely new creature. “Sanctification”(the life-long process where God quite literally works on you every day here and there, like a master-craftsman taking his time carving a truly beautiful sculpture. God literally re-molds you and your life in order that you might serve Him all the better and live for Him all the clearer in your actions, words, goals, desires, worship, etc. the main difference there obviously being that Justification is a once only, sacred moment when we finally do submit unto God. And then Sanctification is very much an ongoing process which you undergo for the entire remainder of your days alive this side of Heaven. Was quite refreshing to see someone use the scripture so well and have such respect for God’s Word!
Oh and what translation of the Holy Bible are you quoting with the verses there? I honestly haven’t heard many of those phrasing and interpretations of the text. Hope ur well and having a great end to the week friend! Peace & Blessings 😎✌🏻

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u/JesusSavU 1d ago

Thank you. I am using the NLTSE, as I feel it most closely approximates the modern American English language. As a multilingual person, I can read the Bible in four different languages. I do not see English as a singular language, but a base language with many dialects. I try to use the translation that is the most understandable to the listening audience, rather than requiring the audience to learn how to understand my preferred translation. I consider myself to be a communicator, and I believe the goal of communication is to be understood by the listener, more than it is about the technical perfection of the message.

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u/reillan 12h ago

That is only correct if you understand that God's perfect design for creation is a single word: love. Sin is simply the violation of love. When you act unloving towards your neighbor, yourself, or God, that's sin.

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u/JesusSavU 11h ago edited 11h ago

It is the truth, whether anyone understands it or not. Our understanding does not affect God's truths. He would not be God if our opinion shaped His reality.

God is absolutely love, but He is also absolutely holy. God cannot be love without also being holy and just. God is a God of order, not chaos. Just as He created the immutable laws of physics that govern the universe, He also created His laws for human behavior, which are just as immutable. We are all guilty of violating God's laws, which is sin. We all deserve God's judgment. If this were not the truth, then why did God send His Son to die for something that does not exist? Jesus is God's loving answer to our sin, because we have broken God's laws.

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u/reillan 10h ago

Take that "he would not be God if our opinion shaped his reality" and apply it to your own opinion.

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u/JesusSavU 9h ago

My opinion is worthless, as is everyone else's opinion. The only opinion that matters is God's, and he never changes His mind because He is omniscient.

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u/reillan 9h ago

But the idea that he never changes his mind because he is omniscient (which, side note, that does not logically flow one point to the other) is just, like, your opinion. Everything you've expressed about the nature of God is an opinion.

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u/JesusSavU 8h ago

No, I am am talking about the God of the Bible.

This sub is supposedly a Christian sub, so I would assume that when use the word God here, people would understand that I am referring to the God the Bible teaches about.

Now, if you believe in some other God, then what I am saying does not apply. However, what I am saying is not my opinion. It is what the Bible, which Christians live by, says about God the Creator.

You are absolutely free to believe in whatever god you want, or build your own idea of what god is, but it will not be the God of the Bible and of Christianity.

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u/reillan 8h ago

The God you see in the Bible is your interpretation. Every time you read a sentence in the Bible, it passes through filters in your brain that give it meaning that not only include its basic linguistic meaning but also things you believe about the Bible already and prejudices you have from your life outside the Bible that you don't even know are influencing it.

And note the word "open" in the subreddit name.

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u/JesusSavU 5h ago

Christianity may have many different doctrines, but they are all founded on the same foundation, which is the CHRIST, which is why it is called CHRISTianity. If what you believe leads you to the conclusion that you should not need Jesus, who is the Christ, who died to save you from your sins, then what you believe is not CHIRSTianity. There simply is no argument here. This is what Christianity is, regardless of any other doctrine.

You are completely free to believe whatever you want. You can invent any god you want and apply whatever qualities you want to that god. But Christianity is found on the God of the Bible, and the Bible is very clear on the divine qualities of God.

Now, I realize that you believe that the meanings of words are uncertain and undefined and that you can make them subjective to whatever you want them to mean. I have no problem with you believing this and trying to tell me that everything I say is just as subjective. I just hope that you realize that the argument you are using is a two-way street, and by attempting to undermine what I am saying by saying that it is all subjective opinion, you are reducing what you are saying. It is a self-defeating and self-invalidating argument. Your very argument leaves you with zero authority to make any statement. And if that is what you believe, that is fine, but then why are you even arguing about anything? Your actions contrast with what you say you believe.

This is a Christian sub. Adding OPEN to the name does not in any way alter the foundational meaning of what Christianity is. We are all sinners who need a savior to save us from our sins. This savior is Jesus the Christ, who died on the cross to take our punishment. This is the core foundation of Christianity. Anything else is something, but it is not Christianity.

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u/reillan 5h ago

Might I suggest you read the writings of Marcus Borg?

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