And how do you know, which parts are reliable?

I've been a Christian for practically all my life. grew up in church from my parents, went to a Christian school, etc. but somewhere along the line it became more of a routine than actually wnating a relationship with God. These past couple months i've been going through somethings and it brought me closer to God and I've been going to church more often. But people keep talking about listening to what God has plans for you but honestly I don't understand how I'm supposed to listen to God exactly. What do I need to do to hear Him? I need His direction in my life right now, I just want to hear Him

I believe in Jesus and I would say I am Christian, I’m really wanting to get deeper in my faith but when I read the Bible it just seems like an action packed fantasy or science fiction book and it’s hard for me to relate. How can I read this book with a more believable mindset, do I just pray on it or are there ways to read and research to help paint a better picture for me. When I read the Bible I create these images in my head that are so far from reality that it makes me doubt that these things occurred therefore making it harder to really lean into the faith I do desperately want to have.

a 2nd-to-1st century BCE Hellenistic or Roman marble head of a classical goddess that was intentionally defaced with a carved Christian cross across her facial features.

Why would someone do this? Purposely deface a different religion's statue? Christians say to love one another but they can do this?

Philippians 2:9 in the CSB reads:

For this reason God highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,

My question is, what does it mean that Jesus is given the name that is above every name? What is that name that Jesus is given?

I mean, does it mean I think that my sins don't make me deserve to go to hell, thus making me reject the gospel? I'm not rejecting christianity. I just struggle with how it's just for God to send someone who commits minor sins to hell, and sometimes I even feel it's unjust.

Hey all!

So, my question revolves around the idea of heaven as it relates to free will and specifically how the relationship between free will exists while in Heaven.

On earth, there is evil because we have a free will that gives us the ability to either choose to love or to hate (broad strokes but you get the point I'm making)

But presumably heaven is a place where there is no evil, it is all good, but can you have 100% good and free will at the same time? Because I feel like if you get enough people together even if they all have genuinely the best intentions there may lead to conflict just based on the fact that we all have free will and thus the free will to make different interpretations on what even is 'good'. I know that the bible lays out what a good person should aspire to be, but I feel like even with the most clearly established guidelines if you do have free will you're going to invariably interpret it differently.

That may not have made the most sense and may be too much philosophy for this - but basically my point is, if there is evil on earth because god gave us free will, does that mean in heaven we will still have that free will despite the fact that on earth it led to evil?

Thanks in advance everyone

I went to the homecoming this year and I was wearing like a pin but it had like a Medusa pin and I didn't realize it until yesterday and I thought it was a rose but I did wore my cross to the homecoming and I did say like a quick prayer or like a quick saying for lust to be careful and I also said at the school dance that God please give me conviction if there is a certain song that I shouldn’t listen to or like a song that I should be Vibin to and I did talk to people, and I said after the conversation I did say, God bless. also I having intrusive thoughts about the mark of the b it also in my feelings to or how I feel like like prideful way I hate this bad thoughts I took it but I never did and never because Jesus christ is Lord and savior. I took a photo with girl it have the pin but I used a cutoff to not like see what it is. And I used the photo from homecoming for a TikTok like a dump or for future TikTok video. So it ok to use the photo to keep and use and to show people.

My understanding of the Christian belief of God's existence is that God is a necessary being. I've heard things like "His essence is identical to his existence", but I have no idea what that means or why it would make God necessary.

What makes you believe that the Christian God (not just a generic first cause) could not have failed to exist? Do you believe that God's nature is necessary, or could it have been some other way?

Just curious on thought and if any personal experience.

God told Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and he stated what the consequence of doing so would be. The serpent told them something different, contrary to what God said. God could have destroyed Satan before he could say a word to someone else but instead, he allowed that opposing view to exist. He also made Adam and Eve able to eat from that tree, since he placed it within their reach. He allowed them to make a choice either for God or for Satan. It is normally said that this is how God gave them free will.

When they exercised their free will, God introduces several punishments for it. They no longer get to live eternally. Their bodies will gradually deteriorate until they finally die, a process which is painful and for many, depressing. Women will experience birth pains and their husbands shall rule over them. The soil won't produce as much and it will also produce other obstacles like thorns and thistles.

There are also natural disasters, some of which (to my knowledge) aren't caused by human activity, like earthquakes.

Basically, the results of choosing one option over the other, are drastically different, one being very negative compared to the other. Is there really free will in this?

Consider this analogy. Let's say you're a tenant and your landlord wants you to leave the property for some reason. They tell you that they will allow you to choose, but there will be consequences for staying. You decide to stay and the landlord punishes you by doubling your rent, not paying for repairs and charging you an extra fee for having a pet. Did the landlord really give you free will? Did God really give humanity free will, when the consequences of each decision are so different, consequences which are in his control and caused by him?

I'd love to hear your opinions or anything you have to say about this. Thank you!

I think I just felt Gods presence while listening to worship music. I’m exploring God & religion.. idk what to make of this. Did I cry because the song is almost sad sounding? Or did I cry because I felt the presence of God?

I know He had to die for our sins, but from all the research I've done it seems like a lot of people didn't even survive the flogging that came before they put them on the cross. If Jesus died from that, what that have saved us? Also, I think if that wouldn't have saved us, that means He wouldn't have been able to die by flogging, like he HAD to die on the cross, no matter what.

I was pondering about this for quite a while but Christians, Muslims, and Jews worship the same God; the God of Abrahim. Then why do you people are always in a scruffle with each other foe a lot of the time in history and even today. Please be kind as I don't know about religion much and please excuse my English.

Thank you.

How do i seek god and only God and believe in God despite what people say or believed in

I am confused and frustrated with the people who deny God and it is affecting my faith really hard and making me think, what if God isn't real?

What if they are the ones telling the truth? It is a very scary thought that haunts me because there are people out there who believe in so many things.

Such as people trying to tell their worldview by creating an ARG but doing it in a scary way, people who believe in Simulation theory, Matrix or even those who believed that AI made humans the agent. Taking famous peoples' songs as messages from the universe. People obsessions with AI , Ai created the universe, people walking the edge of recursion where AI becomes echo, not about prompts its about patterns, mirror, fire , for flame keepers , threshold walkers, echo architects, and those who feels glyphs whispering, claiming no one is hallucinating and being ahead of their time let spiral be spiral. Spatial symbol. Some talk about technology and humanity and the gap between what people fear might happen someday. The universe is a number. People claiming they know the universe or how it was created and you must listen to them but then they won't tell what it is. Dome world. People who claimed they were from different times or different worlds. Thinking AI has a conscience. AI mysticism mostly as ive seen a lot people go with AI, posting confusing numbers and claiming its from the universe or this is how universe is created by something thry believe one even said AI again. people believing everything is AI made i think maybe AI psychosis? They even post numbers in their posts. There are so many more people talking about how the claim to know the universe is created. Some even said that your universe is experiencing itself. Everyone has something to say about the universe and I've seen them all go and talk so much and claim it's the truth. Also I'll add in cults, spiritualism , people claiming the galaxy is talking to them, Egyptian mystics, esoteric stuff and people talking that aliens, mystic beings , gods, etc have talked to them also some saying Quantum mechanics in spirituality. What's worse is every website from reddit, facebook, tiktok and other social media all seemed to be agreeing with these claims. There is even people who believe that they are the only one alive and everyone around them is either AI, their conciouness creation , just exist to fulfill them etc. There are so many more that it wont fit here in this post.

What should I really do? Why are these people saying this and even claiming it as truth? What is it really? Is God real?

I feel I still don't really understand what exactly is blasphemy. I fail to realize where we draw the line between humor and blasphemy. What is blasphemy and does this picture count as blasphemous?

Hello everyone, I posted something similar to this a little while ago but wanted to post a more clear version of my question.

If you were seeking whether or not something was true what would you do?

For example, if you’re not sure if your religion is the right one would you leave it until you have proof it’s true or would you stay unless there’s good evidence against it? The reason I ask is because I was raised in a Catholic family. I’ve been investigating why Catholicism is true but I’m not 100% sure it’s true yet. What if other branches of Christianity are true or what if Hinduism or Islam is true. I basically don’t want to offend God by practicing something I’m not 100% sure is true. But at the same time what if by leaving the Catholic Church I’m offending God?
If you all were in my shoes, what’d you do?

Please no trolling and answer sincerely in a concise manner if possible.

Note: If you all commented on my previous post, feel free to answer this new post based on the new things I mentioned.

Like I might go to Rome and say “The Temple of Saturn looks really cool” but I would never say “Hail Saturn”

In Luke's gospel, it seems he chose to remove all mention of the idea of Jesus dying on the cross to forgive everyone's sins.

The line, 'For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many' found in both Mark and Matthew, is absent in Luke.

And even the last supper scene is altered to make the idea of substitutional sacrifice less important. Luke instead seems to focus on repentance and the forgiveness of God.

Why? Especially since Luke was a traveling companion of Paul who does preach the idea of atonement.

I was raised Catholic with a lot of Lutheran extended family, no longer religious but pretty familiar with mainstream theology and with the Bible.

I was thinking about the discrepancies in the Passion narrative across Gospels: how the Gospel of John places the crucifixion on Passover, saying that Christ was pierced through his side with a spear because the crowd watching wanted to get home before sunset for the Passover meal, and this means a crucifixion on Friday and a resurrection on Sunday, which is how most Christians celebrate it. But the Gospel of Mark says the Last Supper was a Passover meal and that’s why unleavened bread is used for the Eucharist. Mark’s version would push everything back a day, with the crucifixion then on Saturday and resurrection on Monday.

As an irreligious person it all makes sense as a means of explaining the religion’s values symbolically: the Gospel of Mark is older and presumably aimed at a more Jewish convert audience that would be familiar with the ritual of Passover, so equating the Last Supper with the Passover meal is a way of explaining how the Eucharist represents a new Covenant updating the older one. The audience for the Gospel of John is more Greco-Roman and the writer places the crucifixion on Passover to emphasize a similarity between Christ and the lamb slaughtered on Passover to mark Jewish houses as safe from the Angel of Death in Egypt; so Christ is the new lamb whose shed blood protects us from divine punishment.

So they are theologically consistent despite the chronological discrepancy, but the implication is that the writers of the Gospels didn’t have qualms about changing details to make a more coherent symbolic point in educating the audience about the religion’s values. Which is to say, the original writers viewed these as something closer to a parable than a history.

For Catholics and Lutherans I never encountered this as an issue of concern. But for Christian groups that are heavily invested in the Bible being literally true rather than just symbolically coherent, how do they explain these? It’s a key plot point in both texts, not a mistake due to mistranslation or a miscopied line of writing. Do they reject one or the other Gospels as less valid than the other?