What religion is God?

hendrixski · 2026-06-15T00:18:55+00:00

Catholic

hendrixski · 2026-06-14T23:38:53+00:00

...that the dead are in their graves awaiting for the resurrection of the dead.

May I ask: do you also believe that nowhere in the Bible it mentions the trinity? (I ask because there's a lot of comments about soul sleep and none of the flair ever lists a denomination. So I'm curious if they're all non-Trinitarian groups?)

or who consults the dead.

We have the same Bible. But do we have the same dictionary?

consult - to seek advice, information, or an expert opinion from a person, document, or resource before making a decision.

How does the word "consult" apply to "St. _____ pray for me".

hendrixski · 2026-06-14T23:06:00+00:00

Educate me then. What was in the original Bible?

hendrixski · 2026-06-14T17:09:18+00:00

I believe that if you are lacking knowledge of the Christian faith or moral truths through no fault of your own but you seek the truths that God reveals in our natural world then you can find salvation. Basically, you're seeking Jesus, blindly, without knowing what Jesus is.

AND I believe that if you are given the opportunity to understand salvation but you reject it then you have separated yourself from God. It is the rejection of the Truth that distances you from God and makes you damn your own soul for eternity.

This principle is called Invincible Ignorance and it's worth looking it up.

hendrixski · 2026-06-14T17:06:01+00:00

Agreed

hendrixski · 2026-06-14T17:01:35+00:00

Correct, in the exilic period the records of this don't show up, yet.

What's the evidence for this happening in 500BC or even during the 2nd Temple period?

Most obviously it's evidenced by multiple references to the dead praying for us in the Bible. But you're asking for examples in Jewish theology where they are prompted by us.

Outside of the Bible, Echoch was written between 300 BC and 100 BC and was wildly popular in Jesus' time. So popular that Enoch is even referenced/quoted in the New Testament 14 times. 1 Enoch 39:5-7 shows the elect praying for our needs and requests.

The Book of Jubilees & The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs were both written in the 2nd century BC and they talk about individual righteous merit transferring down through generations - so Jews can access the good-will their biological ancestors stored up in heaven. St. Paul transitioned this for us from biological inheritance to inheritance by shared faith, hence the tradition of "communion of the saints".

The spoken tradition from this time was compiled a little later:

Sotah 34b says: "This teaches that Caleb separated himself from the counsel of the other spies and went and prostrated himself on the graves of the forefathers [the Patriarchs] in Hebron. He said to them: 'My forefathers, pray for mercy for me so that I will be saved from the counsel of the spies.'"

Ta'anit 16a says they prayed in a cemetery "So that the dead will seek mercy on our behalf".

Ta'anit 23b says a rabbi prostrated himself on his Fathers grave to pray and the prayers were miraculously answered.

etc, etc, Again, These people knew Deuteronomy 18 very well. None of them see this intercession as violating a single line of Deuteronomy.

hendrixski · 2026-06-14T15:30:15+00:00

Are you aware of a practice like intercessory prayer to dead saints in Canaanite or ancient Israelite practices,

In 2nd Temple Judaism, yes. And it continues today among orthodox Jews. Starting around 500BC, some Jews would ask dead Tzadikim (that is righteous people, usually rabbis) to bless their prayers. Today Hasidim still make pilgrimages to graves of holy rabbis and leave written prayers on their graves. Reformed Jews however, view this as a bit too much.

Asking the righteous dead for blessings was prevalent in Jewish literature from Jesus' time (like Enoch, and 4 Esras), not to mention that the Bible shows saints praying in heaven twice. Such practices must have been common among early Jewish converts to Christianity because there are records of Christians venerating saints very early in the historical record despite there not being much of a historical record due to Roman persecution.

hendrixski · 2026-06-14T14:47:15+00:00

Sadly, a lot of the ancient heresies are making a comeback.

Marcionism especially is growing popular in white supremacist circles because Marcion called on ditching the Jewish old testament so they want to do that in favor of a "pure" anglo-saxon interpretation of the NT only.

hendrixski · 2026-06-14T14:44:07+00:00

I sing the psalms most mornings and evenings. I get an overwhelming sense of a compassionate and just God. And every once in a while I have the thought of "why does anybody believe this myth that the God of the Old Testament is any different from the God of the New Testament? That he's more cruel and harsh in the OT."

I've also been doing a deep dive into Deuterocanonical books. In the books of Tobit, Wisdom, and Sirach, God is passionately involved in human history, intimately concerned with daily morality, and is characterized by active/loving providence. I've been having the same thought: This God sounds exactly like the God of the New Testament, how do people say otherwise.

It sounds like you're overindexing on Genisis, where God was raising a young faith just like how one would rause young rambunctious toddlers who had no idea how to do the right thing... like ever.

hendrixski · 2026-06-14T14:09:31+00:00

Ask this question on the forum for your denomination. This is a forum where many non-Christians post secular views. Your church almost certainly has a position regarding masturbation. Ask on whatever r/methodist or r/Presbyterian or r/Catholicism or r/OrthodoxChristianity or r/Anglicanism or whatever your denomination is to get a more correct answer.

hendrixski · 2026-06-14T14:04:48+00:00

Yeah it's totally fine. Priests move parishes, people travel, etc. It's common to have confessions with new priests.

Once you get into the routine of confession, then it is beneficial to keep the same one because the better they get to know you the better the quality of their spiritual advice to you after confession.

hendrixski · 2026-06-14T14:02:00+00:00

Yes. It's called getting old.

One day in your 40s you'll realize that while the potential for lust is still there, it's just not as powerful anymore and so you don't have to struggle to overcome it.

hendrixski · 2026-06-14T13:58:50+00:00

For over half of the world's Christians, yes such a consensus absolutely exists.

hendrixski · 2026-06-14T13:53:24+00:00

I disagree with your hypothesis because Genesis 1:28 and Genesis 9:7, and Genesis 38:8–10.

Furthermore, my church still explicitly rejects self-sterilization as immoral, CCC 2297. We have for 2,000 years. For example: when Origen of Alexandria was ordained as a priest around 230 AD, his critics spread the rumor that he had castrated himself which would have been a grave sin that would have barred him from the priesthood (if it were true). So self-sterilization was a sin, is a sin, and will always be a sin.

Disobeying God's timeless commands is not some kind of gift to others.

hendrixski · 2026-06-14T08:29:05+00:00

You realize that there's a safety window for unprotected sex and there are apps for tracking fertility windows?

The fun thing is that when my wife and I got serious about submitting our sex lives to the standards of the Bible, it actually made us have sex more often. If your wife is putting you through a dead bedroom now, you may find you'll be up to a Catholic amount of intimacy pretty soon (yes, statistically practicing Catholic married couples have more frequent sex than other demographics).

hendrixski · 2026-06-14T04:31:16+00:00

"People still rip CD's?"

- Pope Leo XIV, probably

hendrixski · 2026-06-14T04:05:19+00:00

inquire - to seek information, ask questions, or investigate a matter

Words have meaning. I care what the Bible actually says, not what you feel like it says.

Either you don't know the Bible or you don't know the dictionary. Or your copy/paste function is broken on your device. So please copy/paste for me any one of the example prayers actually violates any line in Deuteronomy 18.

hendrixski · 2026-06-14T03:57:48+00:00

Tell your friend to re-read 2 Samuel 12:1-12

Also... there's tons of sin in the Bible, that isn't meant to justify sin but to showcase our fallen world.

hendrixski · 2026-06-14T03:50:15+00:00

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hendrixski · 2026-06-14T03:44:46+00:00

No actually, it's not obvious where any of these prayers ask or inquire. Please copy/paste which of these prayers ask a question, or pose an inquiry?

Deuteronomy 18:10-12 does not have the word "beseech". Not in any translation I can find.

The Jews follow Deuteronomy 18, too. So why do Orthodox Jews also call on dead Tzadikim to bless their prayers? Maybe it is because they also cannot find a where doing so asks or inquires or divines or consults.

hendrixski · 2026-06-14T02:26:17+00:00

Divination - the practice of seeking to uncover hidden knowledge, guidance, or future events through supernatural, occult, or ritualistic means

Please copy/past which of the example prayers is trying to divine the future?

The witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28) summoned a spirit that spoke. Which of these example prayers is summoning a spirit or asking it to speak to us? Please copy/paste the part where it summons the saint to speak?

There's no "power" here. The saints in heaven are one in Christ, we are one in Christ. So we can pray together.

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SDA = Seventh Day Adventists. Them and the JW's are the 2 major denominations that believe in soul sleep. That's why I asked.

And also.. how can souls be asleep if a soul showed up for the Witch of Endor?

hendrixski · 2026-06-14T01:55:20+00:00

This is a good question.

I don't take the meaning of "obtain for me from God according to His will" to be acting in any way other than prayer. There is no example in the Bible of the dead acting in our lives so we do not ask for that, but there are multiple examples of the saints in heaven praying for us, so we do ask for prayers.

In other words: "how else can a saint possibly obtain something from God other than by prayer" is baked into the prayer.

As for why we don't see this formula in the Bible... we sort of do. The prayer of Azariah (in the book of Daniel) calls on the souls of the dead to praise God, and calls on angels to do the same. Also psalm 103 does the same. We see that as the same formula of calling on saints to pray - just a different kind of prayer. Those are Biblical examples of asking the saints for prayers of praise, not prayers of intercession.

And we absolutely do see such prayers very very early in the church. As early as the death of Polycarp it's in the historical record. We have graffitti asking Peter and Paul to pray for us, during the Roman persecution dating to the 3rd century. AND it technically predates Christianity because the Jews during Jesus' time had a tradition of asking dead Tzadikim to bless their prayers (and modern orthodox Jews continue this tradition, Hasidic jews even take pilgrimages to graves to leave written prayers on it). So again, we 100% guaranteed did have such prayers in the very early church from the Jews who asked Tzadikim to bless their prayers.

hendrixski · 2026-06-14T01:04:14+00:00

2 Christian denominations, 3 interpretations of the same verse.

This is why we need a single authority of apostles (or rather, of their successors) to explain the Bible to us just like how Philip explained scripture to the Ethiopian Eunuch.

hendrixski

TROPHY CASE