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WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE??

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frogger
 
Joined in 2005
January 8, 2009, 12:52

im just wondering whether people still have the same christian beliefs or not since coming out?


And also, just interested to see what people believe??


I share mine when I get a chance


Simplified-

I believe in God

I believe in the story of Jesus.

I believe you reach God through any religion.

I believe in miracles

I believe in spiritual warfare. Although, up until three weeks ago, i doubted it.

I believe in an interactive God

I believe in a impacting God.


In a nutshell

Myfanwe
 
Joined in 2007
January 8, 2009, 13:20

My beliefs agree with yours in most aspects, Jannah.


Recently I’ve been looking into the Spirtualist Religion and I find much in their seven principals that resonates with me:


1. The Fatherhood of God.

2. The Brotherhood of Man.

3. The Communion of Spirits and the Ministry of Angels.

4. The continuous existence of the Human soul.

5. Personal responsibility.

6. Compensation and retribution hereafter for all good and evil deeds done on earth.

7. Eternal progress open to every Human soul.


Number 6 for me, does not equate to a belief in heaven/hell per se, but more to a system of reward for good or making up for the not so good things we did. (100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd kind of thing?)

magsdee
Disabled
Joined in 2006
January 8, 2009, 15:03

What do I believe?


1) In the onesness of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, seperate yet one and ministering in absolute power above all things.


2) In the name of Jesus being able to put all bad spirits in their place (this thru experience not just belief) That we also having ministering angels who do a certain work.


3) Their is one true God above other gods and he is approachable and very relational..


4) Not every religion points to the same God, since many follow many gods that do different things.


5) That God did make the earth and all things seen or unseen.


6) That believing in Jesus will save you eternally and that being led by the Holy Spirit is available to all believers and he is the one that brings us to a place where we choose to follow Jesus or not.


7) That God loves us wth a love and mercy that surpasses all judgement and human full interpretation and that there is no one person who can represent God on earth apart from the way Jesus represented God as he is and the way he treated all people and he is our example of the patience, grace, forgiveness and love we should all treat each other.


8. That we are born once, die once and all go to God the Father and Jesus shows us the way to get there eternally.


This is the model I try and base my life on, with many failings 🙄 😆 but I just keep trying.


In saying this I judge no-one in their beliefs nor heatedly argue any points. 😉

Myfanwe
 
Joined in 2007
January 8, 2009, 16:26

Mags,


Looking back, I can see times in my life when I believed those things you do, and I have no tremendous disagreement with them now. I just see things differently now, but I also know that what I believe changes now and again leaning more one way or another and that’s okay, too.


Right now, I am happy where I am and comfortable with it.


I think there is truth in all religions, even if they don’t all point to the same God/gods.


One thing I forgot in my last post, was that I really like the Christian Spiritualists pledge: I will at all times endeavour to be guided in my thoughts, words and deeds by the teaching and example of Jesus Christ.


I think if we all worked at doing just that, there would be far less judgment, debate and strife in the world. 🙂

magsdee
Disabled
Joined in 2006
January 8, 2009, 19:11

Oh yeh, there are some great points to living your life in many different religions, such as peace, kindness and stuff and some things in common with Christianity.


One thing I forgot in my last post, was that I really like the Christian Spiritualists pledge: I will at all times endeavour to be guided in my thoughts, words and deeds by the teaching and example of Jesus Christ.


I think if we all worked at doing just that, there would be far less judgment, debate and strife in the world.


Ain’t that the truth 😉

gettingthere
 
Joined in 2008
January 8, 2009, 19:58

My faith has been challenged and I’ve had many periods of questioning. In fact, sometimes, even though I know I’m a Christian, I feel kind of like a seeker in some odd sense. By now, some points of doctrine have been changed, but the foundational principles have been unchanged since I came out. I think that as GLBT people become more and more accepted across the board and coming out becomes less of a spiritual crisis, we’ll be seeing an increase in the number of openly gay Christians with traditional doctrine. As it stands now, it seems that Christians from traditional backgrounds become more liberal theologically after coming out as they seek to distance themselves from the non-accepting people of their past. Again, I do not intend to judge anyone for their beliefs as I believe that as Christians, we should not judge other people. However, it’s like I told my Bible teacher once, I have to believe something and if I believe one thing that means that I must also believe everything contrary to that thing is false; if I do not believe that things contrary to what I believe to be true are false, then I do not truly believe what I claim to believe. If I believe I have two hands and someone says “No, you have three,” and I say, “Well, that’s also true, we’re both correct.” then I’m obviously very, very confused. I hope that makes sense and again, I’m not trying to judge those who I don’t agree with.


I don’t know if I can list out everything, but I’ll do my best to try to explain my doctrinal beliefs.


1) I believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – the Trinity.

2) I believe that salvation comes only through Jesus Christ and his sacrifice.

3) I believe in a literal heaven and a literal hell, as well as literal angels and demons (although I’m not sure how much of what happens on the Earth is the work of angels/demons and how much is just people doing stuff. I tend to avoid spiritualizing things.).

4) I believe the Bible to be the infallible Word of God.

5) I believe that God loves all people. However, God’s holiness and perfectly just nature requires him to punish men for their sins. The ultimate punishment for these sins is eternity in hell. For those who come to salvation through Jesus Christ, the punishment has been paid and they will instead go on to an eternity united with God.


It’s kind of hard to write my beliefs out as statements. I have way more beliefs than just this, obviously, but those are the main ones I think. It’s much easier to do paragraphs so I can explain everything.

Myfanwe
 
Joined in 2007
January 8, 2009, 21:14

I think what really strikes me as terrific about this forum is how we all have some beliefs in common, and others we may disagree on, yet we don’t have to fight about it.


It’s very refreshing to me.

magsdee
Disabled
Joined in 2006
January 8, 2009, 21:37

I agree gettingthere, I think my list could go on for pages 😆 so I kept it brief as well and not very elaborated.


Yeh true Magz so cool we can just state our beliefs yet all walk in love, awesome 😀

iplantolive
 
Joined in 2008
January 8, 2009, 21:38

Oh yeh, there are some great points to living your life in many different religions, such as peace, kindness and stuff and some things in common with Christianity.


I’ve mentioned some of my core beliefs eg peace elsewhere in other posts, but I’d like to share my particular thoughts on healing, as they have certainly changed from when I first became involved in pentecostalism. I was always taught by the church I went to that God has already healed me, which in a sense is partly true if you believe in the restoration from sin and baptism doctrines. Even though I have had a chronic illness most of my life, there were many times I cried out to God and prayed that he would “heal” me 8) It wasn’t until I underwent an operation to relieve that, did I realise (with some input from a person who shall remain anonymous 😀 ) that healing could come in many different shapes and sizes eg a skilled surgeon 😆 In my narrow thinking, I had limited myself to a supernatural healing (which has occurred for others) instead of opening up to the possibility of other avenues that would be just as effective 😉

Myfanwe
 
Joined in 2007
January 8, 2009, 21:39

As it stands now, it seems that Christians from traditional backgrounds become more liberal theologically after coming out as they seek to distance themselves from the non-accepting people of their past.


For me, it has not been a matter of distancing myself from non-acceptance. I feel it is more about finding my authentic self. People not accepting me is not my stuff. It’s their stuff.


In working out my stuff, I have found that the traditional belief system doesn’t really work for me anymore–if it ever did. I don’t know, really, why it doesn’t perhaps I am not able to find a way to fit myself into it?


I think I am really just turning back to my original ‘roots’ and upbringing and I feel very comfortable with that. 🙂
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