Is Christianity Fact or Fiction

I like to provoke thought that is why I am asking this question Is Christianity Fact or Fiction.
The main reason that we would say that it is fact is when we read the bible it tells of the historical side to Judaism and Christianity, when we read the new testament which teaches that Jesus Christ the son of God came and died on the cross for our sins. Is this a good enough reason to believe? We are told that Adam and Eve were confronted by Satan in the garden of Eden and they ate from the forbidden tree in the garden and therefore sin entered the world, after all we see a very fallen world around us today.
On the other hand The main reason that we would say fiction is could the bible be just a book that someone has written to get us to conform and to discipline our lives. Maybe there is no God or Jesus, no Heaven or Hell.
I would like to hear what folks have to say on the subject, I have a belief if anyone wishes to guess which belief I have feel free to say.

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SW-User

The parables are fiction, we could say, and the bible is quite different than the regular believer supposes, the making up of the components seems pretty human. I also find the rampant dislike of Christianity suspect, besides the things like bad priests and money centered fellas and gals, it seems there is a special bias against or for it. A neutral mind would be better at disarming the effect it has for good and ill. The lukewarm (neutral) being perhaps what many a churchgoer is, whom evidently from one of the letters in Revelation makes Jesus wanna hurl.

JSul3 · 70-79

@SW-User The teachings of Jesus Christ are paramount to the humanity of mankind.

Questions begin when we are expected to accept that the bible is to be taken literally, from page 1, and never questioned. I have questions that can not be answered. I suppose that those questions will be answered upon my death, if I have any awareness at that point.

SW-User

@SW-User I can’t quite follow your arguments. Though I think I get the gist of what you are saying.

The parables attempt to explain the Kingdom of God and it’s urgency. They are not literal facts.

I think the Genesis myths do the same with the concept of original sin. An idea I do not fully understand. For example how can a twenty two month old foetus/baby born prematurely and fighting for her life be capable of sin!
Oddly the Genesis myths get no mention in the old Testament, except one verse in Chronicles.

As for your reference to Laodicea, I think a lot of people have been challenged by Rev3.20.

I can’t speak for people who go to church. Though Christianity relies on the saving work of Christ on the Cross, not on good works or how much faith you have.

And yes, I’ve found the hostility towards Christianity quite alarming. It did not seem to be there on EP.

I admire those who evangelise. A gift I do not have.

As I said to someone else earlier tonight this forum is not for me.

SW-User

@SW-User It's cuz i have no argument :)

JSul3 · 70-79

@SW-User I am not trying to be argumentative. Everyone is free to believe what they so choose and that includes their religious beliefs.

As I said....so Adam and Eve were the first human beings...Eve eats an apple and now sin has entered Eden. So we are all inbred, of they are THE only humans on earth. God strikes people dead....turns a woman into a pillar of salt. Later God decides to flood the earth and kill every living thing including innocent men, women, and children, except for Noah and his family, and a few animals. Again incest repopulates the world. Then evidently God decides to retire, when Jesus comes and the New Testament begins.
Jesus teaches love and empathy and compassion and is killed for it. God remains retired and sits back and watches the evils of the world take place, murders and rapes and world wars, and genocides and never lifts a finger to stop it or save the innocent...or in a few instances, does selectively save some (ask anyone who has their neighborhood leveled by a severe weather event and they live through it, but others next door or nearby, are killed...or in the midst of a war, some survive a bombing and others do not).
After all this, we are told we will live after death, in another plane of existence....if we simply believe.

I will say this: I have no answers, only questions that can not be answered. I sincerely hope that there is a heaven because there are millions of innocent women and children who have died under horrific circumstances, and every woman and child deserve to be reunited together for eternity. If there is no heaven, then what a scam that has been played on these innocents.

SW-User

@SW-User "A gift I do not have"

Oh, you do. True faith, like the spirit, blows where it will. We need not even know ourselves when we "evangelise". Some seem to want to create mirror images of themselves so as to eventually live in an echo chamber. Which they think will be heaven.

SW-User

@JSul3 Christianity is essentially about our relationship with the Living God and with each other.
We cannot have a relationship with God without believing that Jesus died on the cross for us.

It has nothing to do with a fundamentalist belief in the Bible.
Though for some that helps.

How we develop our Christian faith is quite personal.
There are several strands.

Prayer.

Reading and meditating on the Bible. Certain verses will jump out to you.

Meeting and worshipping with other Christians.

SW-User

@SW-User The Living God goes far beyond all.our concepts, beliefs and theologies. We can set no parameters.

Reality, history, shows us that the fruits of the spirit ( as spoken of in Galations ) are to be found in people of all Faiths and even people of none.

There is the crucifixion of time and space and there is Lamb who was "slain before the foundation of the World."

There is a need to realise the realitiesof Grace. Grace, the nature of God, the Love of God, is the causal basis of salvation. Not our beliefs or decisions of time and space.

The spirit blows where it will.

JSul3 · 70-79

@SW-User I would say to simply ask any Jew if they believe and have a relationship with God....ask any Muslim if they have a relationship with Allah...etc.
Their faith in a God is likely as strong as yours, if not more so.

SW-User

@JSul3 Yes, you are right. I was once at a funeral service conducted in a strict Baptist Chapel. The guy up front took his chance to preach the "gospel" (I say "gospel" but that means "good news", which is the complete opposite to the stuff these guys preach!) Anyway, whatever, during his spiel he said explicitly that those who did not share his theology "could not call God their Father."

Just how sickening can it get?

(But we all had the last laugh. As he drew his waffle to a close by saying "I must end now" someone whispered along the pews:- " Thank God for that!")

😀