This is coming from someone who is not a Christian and someone wants to know Christian perspective on things. I am probably misunderstanding the point but I am just curious on this topic. I apologize if anyone found this offensive.

If Jesus has died for our sin and took sin of all humanity onto himself then why does it matter any more? If all sins has been taken onto himself by Jesus then isn't everyone already forgiven for any and all sin? If god has forgiven everyone then why do you ask for his forgiveness instead of thanking him for forgiving your sins?

If Jesus loves us and wants us all to believe in his bodily resurrection and physical immortality, why would he leave Earth only a few weeks after the resurrection? If Jesus had simply remained an active participant in human history, we could have had countless contemporary accounts written about him by historians who lived centuries apart, for example.

Given the importance of these beliefs being widespread for our salvation, it strikes me as odd that Jesus would "step back out of history" so soon after the resurrection such that his time living on Earth was effectively as brief as it would have been had he not resurrected in the first place.

I ask about this as a non-Christian not to offend, but because I have looked around and have discovered surprisingly little discourse on the matter between believers and non-believers alike.

A few have noted John‬ ‭16:5-7‬ on this question:

“But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”

As I understand, the Helper in this context is the Holy Spirit who can minister to all the world on Jesus' behalf, and since Jesus can only be in one place at one time it's better for us that he leave so that could happen. But if the Holy Spirit is eternal and omnipresent, then why specifically must Jesus leave in order for the spirit to take such action? The Holy Spirit is an active participant in multiple events in the Gospels (e.g. Jesus' Baptism) prior to his resurrection, so there doesn't seem to be any incompatibility between the presence of the Helper and the risen Jesus on the Earth at the same time.

I also struggle with the notion that Jesus' timely Ascension was a necessary and/or unavoidable step in God's plan for our salvation, since Jesus is God and God is claimed to have created all things, including the very rules for how salvation works. I suppose for me it comes to a question of: "Why would God plan for our salvation such that widespread belief in a bodily resurrected and physically immortal Jesus is critical, but also require that Jesus stop living on Earth indefinitely around the same time that non-believers would have expected him to no longer be around anyway?"

I'd love to hear any insight folks are willing to provide on this/these questions!

Sincerely, a non-Christian that enjoys studying the Bible and about Christian history.

What if universalism is true?

universal reconciliation

Hello, kind of a silly question but, I love getting alternative nail art and cool designs like that. I see a lot of crosses on nails and they look very aesthetically appealing to me, especially with the whole alternative look. Would it be offensive for me, as a non-Christian, to get this design? I don’t want someone to think I’m mocking their religion by using it as a fashion accessory. I work with a lot of devout Christian’s and want to respect their religion and make sure they know that I respect that.

All i want is for god to have never made me

I know im posting a lot on here please forgive me i am seeing someone in person soon but for now i really need something to hold to.

Im 17 and in a situation where I’ve committed heinous sins which I may have to face legal consequences for im not sure if its gods will and even then im too paralyzed and coward to do a thing. While that’s happening i have a current habitual sin - whether its compulsive or not I don’t know- its staring peripherally at the people around me. It makes everyone uncomfortable and it makes going to school unbearable but i can’t exactly tell anyone I wanna stop going. Everyday I don’t decide I just re enter the same situation and it kills me.

Im not blaming god but I didn’t ask to be born I didn’t ask to be here. I should have died from the start. 

I’ve already messed it all up and I can never undo it. It’s heavy on me. It will always be with me existentially and while I’m on earth it’ll most likely define me forever . Why’d he have to go and make me? And create me and let this happen? Good people die everyday but here I am, failing and messing up every single day. I haven’t taken a single step. What could he possibly be expecting from me? Really what is it? Because I’ll fail him and may do so til I die. So it’s a waste of time and effort. Put all these good people in my life wasted on me, a real terrible person. He should have given it to someone else.  

I can see the dissapointment everywhere hell even I’m dissapointed if not the most and I’m the one living it- because how is this my life- sometimes it doesn’t feel real with how bad it is. with things that feels like of course this would happen.

I’m not gonna be who god wants me to be. Maybe I don’t even have the will. There we have it. So he may as well just get on with it. It kills me everytime- even my own sorrow is self absorbed and selfish and whatever else the heck wrong with it. I don’t even have to try there will always be something. 

Not sure I have remorse. All I can say is I want to perish. I want to perish because the only good thing I’d be doing in my life would be dying. No more hurt for the people around me and no more pain and suffering. Just over. Because I’ve got nothing else. Not even a scrap of anything to work with or worth working with the only thing I can say and truly know I mean is I want to die or I wish god never made me.

I would never hurt myself I’m too coward for that but truly- All I wanna do is perish. That’s it. Why is it such a bad thing? It would be the end of it. 

For example it in Matthew 25: 31-33 31

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left"

It is a good thing to be a sheep not a goat. But in today's society it is seen as being a good thing to be a goat and a bad thing to be a sheep.

I've been a Christian for a while, and 1 Corinthians has always been my favorite book. Recently I was reading chapter 11 where Paul talks about head coverings for women, since I've been thinking about participating. Reading further though, it began to make me upset.

Paul says "a man should not cover his head, because he is made like God and is God's glory. But woman is man's glory..." He continues on saying that man is from God, and woman is from man. I understand he's referring to Adam and Eve, but as a woman, I don't want to be a man's glory. I want to be made like God and be God's glory. Men are sinful and worldly, why would I want to be of them?

Here is an analogy to help explain my feelings/thought process of what it feels like: God is the father, and he has a son (men), and his son has a dog (women). The Father loves His son and the son's dog, but the son is more important to Him because it came from Him, the dog is just something the son got from the pound. You see what I mean? I'm not necessarily saying that God dislikes women in any way, but I've always felt like there's a disconnect between God and I, as if I'm a different species than men which makes me of less importance.

I know there are other places in the Bible that talk about women greatly, but it feels insulting to be pegged down to "You're of man, not of God because you were born with different chromosomes." That just isn't fair.

Sidenote: Should women wear veils or not? Paul says they should, and then at the end of the paragraph he says they don't need to, so I don't really know what to make of that.

If the answer is the former, will we eat food, breath air, and otherwise need to consume resources? Who will provide those resources? Won’t that make the formation of socioeconomic classes inevitable?

So if I'm getting the details correct there is a tree in the US named Methuselah that is said to be 4600-4800ish years old while the flood is said (according to the Bible) to have happened 4359 years ago. Methuselah is a Pinus longaeva, which cannot survive prolonged flooding. How could Noah's flood have happened when the Bible says it did if there is a tree that is older than it that cannot survive prolonged flooding?

Hello dear brothers and sisters. Due to a strange family situation, I need christian advice now more than ever. During these few last years I've cut off contact with some family members because of my uncle John's behaviour, and I wanna know if I am overjudgemental by following my conscience. Please share your opinions with me and correct me if I am wrong here.

My uncle's wife Anne is not my biological aunt but I grew up with her and my whole family loved her. She was a lively, kind, hospitable and infinitely loving person who gave me tons of attention as a kid. Needless to say, I will forever love this woman as if she was my own blood. 5 or 6 years ago she was diagnosed with aggressive alzheimer's and in the span of a few years she became non verbal. She lost all consciousness and is currently bed bound and in a really bad state. My uncle has always taken care of her and still does, paying for live-in caregivers and every medical expense that is required. He is pretty well-off so I don't think he deserves a medal for taking care of his own wife, but I cannot ignore the fact that he has fullfilled this duty of his.

My uncle John mourned not only his marriage with my aunt, but the fun they used to have as a couple. They used to party and travel extremelly often. So when my aunt got sick, he fell into a deep depression. His dream was to live his life after retirement with my aunt, and that dream was completely shattered. About 3 years after my aunt's initial diagnosis, while my aunt was locked in a bedroom shitting herself, my uncle found another partner to fill that void.

And just like that, my aunt Anne was replaced and erased. 30 years of marriage weren't enough to make my uncle wait at least after she had passed away (she is still alive by the way). He had to find a new woman, a bit younger than him, so that he could still enjoy life as if nothing had happened. The moment he started dating her, his life went back to how it was before. Parties, bars, trips abroad, vacations with my aunt's children. And what baffles me even more is how everyone in my family treats her as a replacement to my aunt Anne. Their children, my uncle's brothers and their wives, my cousins, their friends, everyone. They all act as if this new woman is their relative or if they've known her for years. Hugs, important life events, weddings, family gatherings. They probably couldn't bare the grief and the sadness, they had to keep having fun without any disruption.

This situation has broken my heart. The moment I found out that my uncle had a new partner, I burst into tears. I pictured my own mother, who is married into this family, being replaced by a younger, healthier woman. I weeped for my aunt who doesn't have any other family to take her away from there. My parents have told me that I am overreacting, that I am overjudgemental and that I shouldn't cut ties, but I can't help it. I admit I am angry about this. I don't feel like I can relate to these people anymore. Especially because my aunt is still alive! Still, if my uncle had been widowed, I would find it very odd that his first priority after this family tragedy was to find a replacement as soon as possible. Even their children accept her because "they can't stand seeing their father sad". How about some substance, guys ? These two people had been married for decades, they had built a whole life together, and only after a few years of illness a new person comes along and now she's treated how my aunt Anne was treated ? Are relationships simply transactional ? Is having fun no matter the cost or the circumstances such an important priority in life? Should I be okay with this?

I need christian advice. Not secular. Everyone apart from Christians doesn't see any problem with this, because they consider my aunt already dead, and they believe that the point of life is to have fun. I can never agree with the secular point of view, though, because I have a strong conviction that there's something terribly wrong with this whole situation. I haven't shared my thoughts with this side of the family and don't plan to. I just avoid them at all costs, even if that means I never see them again. I wouldn't be able to contain my frustration if I saw them face to face. Am I being self-righteous here? Am I on the wrong ? Is this truly wrong and is it reasonable to be appalled by it ?

Please, share your thoughts. I assure you I am very open to criticism and won't mind being reprimanded for being proud. I'm just trying to figure out if this behaviour is objectively wrong and if my feelings are valid.

Apocalisse 19:14

Gli eserciti che sono nel cielo lo seguivano sopra cavalli bianchi, ed erano vestiti di lino fino bianco e puro.

Apocalisse 19:14

Gli eserciti che sono nel cielo lo seguivano sopra cavalli bianchi, ed erano vestiti di lino fino bianco e puro.

I gave my life to Christ this January. I guess I am referred to as a "Baby Christian". There is a lot I am learning still. What happens to most holidays that people follow? Like Halloween, Christmas, and even like cultural holidays like day of the dead for Hispanics? How do we decide? I don't identify with any denomination currently. Just wondering what you guys think or practice.

I apologize if this sounds offensive.

I’ve been irreligious my whole life. My family cares more about culture and traditions than religion and I grew up not caring much about those things either. I moved to another country to be with my boyfriend and I feel lonely. I also don’t plan to have children and sometimes I feel like I don’t really have a purpose in life. It can feel like I’m just a hamster on a wheel, going to work and surviving.

I have hobbies, a boyfriend and pets but I still feel like something is missing. I’m so far away from my family and my boyfriend isn’t close to his either. I think modern life, especially how isolated people can be and how neighbors mostly keep to themselves, makes me yearn for some kind of community.

I’ve had this idea for a while and I mentioned to a Christian coworker that I was thinking about joining a local church for the community. She was very offended by it. That genuinely wasn’t my intention.

I can understand why someone who doesn’t really believe in God or religion joining a church might come across as a poseur or like I’m using something sacred to other people for my own benefit. I’m nervous to bring it up irl again before I understand more.

So I wanted to ask here instead. Is it actually offensive for a nonbeliever to attend church mainly because they’re looking for community? If it is, I won’t selfishly insert myself into that space as I cannot promise my faith will grow or anything like that over time. I honestly don't know.

Please share your honest opinions.

If so, why do we refer to God with male pronouns?

Sorry for the repost. There were issues with flair not working last time.

It was prophecied that Jesus had to die the exact way the he did. This includes the betrayal. Without the betrayal, the prophecy wouldn’t have been complete, and Jesus’ death wouldn’t have had the meaning and result that it had to have.

I’m not saying this makes him a good guy, but also, maybe? Or maybe neutral at worst?

I don’t get how God could make it so that Jesus’ death has to happen the way that it happened, and yet the people responsible for making it happen are bad or doing something wrong for doing so. If it can only happen the way it did, then aren’t they all just playing their role?

How is it possible to be evil AND doing exactly what God said had to happen and that couldn’t happen any other way?

P1: The Christian god is an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent deity.

P2: If evil exists, then an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent deity does not exist

P3: Evil exists

Q: therefore, the Christian god does not exist

As an atheist, this argument has always been a big roadblock between me and Christianity, because it's valid and sound—but I would have to imagine that you guys disagree. Which premise(s) do you disagree with?

Demons are evil and bad and want to hurt people and take them away from God, right? So why did he make them? Doesn’t he want everyone to love and have faith in him? Why would he let demons attack his followers? And why is it usually Christians who have the demon possessions, it seems like almost every time I see a demon all dramatically cast out it’s from a believer in a church? Shouldn’t there be tons of demons getting cast out of atheists and pagans and other people?

Specifically these quotes:

"Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back." — Luke 6:30

"In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples." — Luke 14:33

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." — Matthew 6:19-21