Talk:Developing A Universal Religion/Present Day Religions/Christianity

Please note that the text has been modified. (See History page for details.) One of the details removed included the following:

"Almost all of the information we have about Jesus and his life was written by proselytizing followers several decades after his death, and the veracity of the text is considered suspect."

This has been repeated here because it refers to an Endnote.

(Please email me if you would like to be sent a .pdf copy of the original text.)

David Hockey 16:59, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

Denominations
I think three branches is really stretching things thin. There are certainly types of Christians who do not fit any of those three categories.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_denominations

List_of_Christian_denominations

Also, there are Christian Denominations that do not believe in the relatively new theological construct of Sin, for instance.

Prometheuspan 03:49, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

The goal of Christianity goes beyond personal transformation
Christianity is different. Christians claim that their leader is alive -- in fact, God. So we do seek personal transformation, but as a byproduct of God's presence. Many Christians content themselves with "being a good person and going to a good place when I die", but misunderstand God's intention.

Although being a "better" person is good, trying to be so based on rules of behavior has failed spectacularly. In fact that is the very core of what is popularly called Phariseeism. Jesus came to put an end to humankind's independence from God. We can't be virtuous apart from ongoing fellowship with God, even if we have an exhaustive (and exhausting) set of rules. The reason is because our inmost being when in rebellion against God's moment-by-moment leadership lacks the power and purity to choose well. Selfishness always reemerges.

The Bible, Christianity's authoritative statement, says that we began in close relationship and ongoing communication with God, acknowledging God's lordship, or mastery. We rejected God's direction and disobeyed, forsaking the place we were designed by God to occupy, and Jesus came to restore us to that place of tremendous priviledge.

Jesus came with the intention not to make us good, but to make us His. Once His, He will personally lead us and then our choices will be transformed. Jesus said, "apart from Me you can do nothing," and "Come to Me . . . take my yoke upon you and learn from Me . . ." indicating a personal partnership with God is essential to God's plan for us.

I've written a small book called The Big Picture that I'm considering submitting that lays out my response as a Christian to the "big" questions. It deals with this more thoroughly.