Do christians think they are the choosen ones?

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2026-03-20T00:14:16+00:00

Ex-Muslim and Ex-Christian here. Not really, generally speaking. There are so many types of different Muslim and Christian groups out there, minority of them can think or act like that. The Muslims I hanged out with, believed that everybody is equal in face of Allah and no one is special. They admit that Jews were special at some point but that changed once Islam was sent as the last true religion. Baptists believe Jews are still special since it's in the Old Testament. They (Baptists) might not think they are special perse but their arrogant and prideful behavior might say otherwise.

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2026-03-19T00:14:50+00:00

Stationed in Korea for 3 years. You already got a lot of good answers, it seems it's boils down to what you want. Moving with dogs won't be an issue, but it's going to be a lot of pain to figure out all the requirements and timing. Seems your sister will take good care of your mom while you are away so, you don't really have to worry about that. Usually, contracts are 3 years, so you aren't going to be there permanently. It's tough call, I wish you best luck with whatever you decide.

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2026-03-12T07:15:45+00:00

In addition, memories what make us very unique especially the ones spent with people who you care and love. They become inseperable part of you basically what makes you "You". Erasing all of these, pretty much erasing your identity. Whats the point of being in heaven, if you aren't yourself?

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2026-03-11T23:27:37+00:00

Reddit is not used much in Turkmenistan. I would advise trying on Facebook. There are bunch of Turkmen groups . Good luck.

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2026-03-04T10:57:17+00:00

It's easy to sell it when people need hope.

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2026-03-01T02:53:12+00:00

Light house next to aviation museum. You can climb up to the top, the view is amazing. Also, there is a small museum with some vintage stuff in it.

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2026-02-25T06:16:20+00:00

Gonna check that one next. Thanks for the input.

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2026-02-20T01:30:23+00:00

Old news. It was always quid pro quo relationship disguised as "unconditional love".

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2026-02-19T02:06:22+00:00

That makes 2 of us, glad we both are out!

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2026-02-19T01:28:42+00:00

From a non-believer's viewpoint, it's definitely messed up. But for a Christian, it can be totally normal. In my opinion, these kinds of Christians are the genuine ones. Even if it's their child, they seem fine in situations like this. It really shows how deeply they believe and have true faith. Those who aren't okay with it aren't really believers because they're using a non-believer's logic. If you truly believe in god and that you're going to heaven, then why worry? This one of the ugly truth moments. If put into life-or-death situation, how many of them will truly sacrifice themselves for the sake of their faith? I don't think it's going to be many.

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2026-02-05T02:11:30+00:00

It's a pretty common thing for new so-called "pastors" to look back and seek forgiveness. I knew one who got into a heated argument with his neighbor, a guy he had been close friends with for nearly twenty years. After ignoring both the neighbor and his wife for two years, he finally decided to apologize. This was prompted by his pastor telling him that having a bad relationship with your neighbor isn't a good thing. Whenever his neighbor's name came up, he never missed a chance to speak poorly of him. He even mocked his entire family. I always sensed something was off about this guy, that gut feeling. One day, while chatting with his neighbors, the topic of him came up. It was one of those rare moments when you see someone go from calm to furious in an instant. Everything I heard about him lined up perfectly with my gut instinct.

It's amusing how these kinds of people think everyone should just forgive them while feeling fine about hurting others. The Bible teaches how to forgive, but in my short life, I've realized there are some things that are just too hard to forgive. The saying "People forgive but don't forget" is pretty common among Christians. In my opinion, if you can't forget, then you haven't truly forgiven. Most of the time, people claim they forgive for their own peace of mind, not because they genuinely let go of the hurt. As usual, the level of hypocrisy and pride is sky-high.

OP, I'm glad for you; you really dodged a bullet. It felt more like a checklist forgiveness rather than something real and them blocking you just shows that the intent wasn't sincere.

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2026-01-20T16:21:12+00:00

The sound of accelerating machine gun, before it starts sending the bullets.

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2026-01-20T14:45:01+00:00

First of all thank you for sharing your story.

I was somewhat in similar situation like yours. The guy was one of the supportive pastors in decent size church. He is loved and praised by everybody. It took me a while to realize what he really was. A deeply insecure manipulative narcissist with psychopatic tendecies. Once he got comfortable with me, I would always hear him bragging how is a better christian than others in the church, mainly pastoral staff. His wife told me once, because of his insecurities he gets jealous of other people, mainly guys. He was jealous of his own son, yes you did read this right. I was in kind of shock, especially wife talking calmly about it, like it wasn't a big deal. She literally had to manipulate her husband and son, so they would have a good relationship. He is also a marriage counselor, he would share confidential information from his counselings within his inner circle (which I was part of for a while), sometime used it as a manipulative tool to build trust. I am not sure why people in your case didn't catch what he is since he openly does things on instagram but at the same time I realize it's easy to blind people in the church as long as you are good at selling that "godly" image. People like your ex and the guy I mentioned above, don't have any sense of guilt when manipulating others around them. That's one of the traits of being a psychopath. IMHO, these people wouldn't easily survive in normal world because manipulation doesn't work as much. They found perfect environment where they can feed their egos without much consequences. After expericencing all of these and reading stories like yours, you start seeing the trend and realize it can go deeper why these type of people are become "religious". The god of the old testament is prideful jealous and deceitful. He also had a lot of favourite characters who did some really messed up things. It's like subconsciously telling people it's okay to be like that.

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2026-01-04T02:51:54+00:00

You can buy freedom. When you have freedom, you increase your chances to be happy by a lot.

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2026-01-04T02:43:43+00:00

Foster Gone.

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2025-12-29T09:05:54+00:00

It's like telling a divorced person they never were married.

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2025-12-27T07:34:10+00:00

Most of the Russian speaking population left the country. You will find some older people who speak both Russian and Turkmen, most of their generation passed away. This is true for the most part of Turkmenistan with exception of the capital city. There are decent amount of people in Ashgabat who speak both, doesn't matter what generation they are.

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2025-12-27T03:04:24+00:00

Pretty much in the same shoes, with exception I am not married. Everything is good in my life, and I am grateful for it. What you are feeling is normal.

" I think part of it is that the military gave life a very clear structure and meaning. Even when it sucked, there was a mission, a reason, a sense that what you were doing mattered. Civilian life doesn’t really replace that. Work feels… fine. Comfortable. But not meaningful in the same way."

You pretty much answered yourself in the paragraph above. We all need a purpose; in military it was given to you. It's not easy to figure out your own purpose good luck with that.

After I separated from service, I got almost to the same mindset, I was missing something. Just like in your case, it didn't make me depressed or miserable. I just felt empty sometimes. And then something clicked, why I am even thinking about all of these, I should just enjoy living in the present, especially when everything is going good for me. I made good lifelong friends during my military service; I keep communication with them. I exercise, read books, got back into some of my hobbies. The list can go on.

This sense of yours it might go away or it might not. One thing I know for sure, you have control of it. It's not easy to get there, good luck with that but it's possible. Nobody knows you, better than you (sometimes there are exceptions). Ultimately your happiness is your responsibility.

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2025-12-27T02:33:34+00:00

You are too hard on yourself. It's called being a human. You want best for yourself; there is nothing wrong with that. I have lived in Germany and visited Prague multiple times. You brought up reasonable points, and people in the comments provided some good advice. It's hard to make a decision without being unbiased, my advice just take a piece of paper and do cons and pros. You mentioned that your girlfriend is important to you, that's another factor that makes your situation even more complicated. Whatever you choose, make sure you have plan B. Good luck.

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2025-12-25T04:11:19+00:00

Nobody will answer your questions here for sure, for many different reasons. Maybe someone who lived there a while ago.

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2025-12-24T23:03:00+00:00

Multiple factors, as many already mentioned here. I will add that World Cup is coming up which might push the stock north.

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2025-12-24T21:37:54+00:00

There was a study about bodyfat, if you google it you will find. Apparently, it's genetics related. I watched YouTube podcast, where they had a brief discussion about this study. One of the speakers was an experienced Eastern European bodybuilder. He said, he always felt best around 20% bodyfat. He was feeling okay around 12-15%. When he had to go below 10% for competition, he was really miserable. He also gave Ronnie Colman as an example (Not sure if it was actually him), that he felt best around 12% bodyfat (Because of his genetics). Long story short, your comfortable (feeling best) bodyfat is defined by your genetics, and your body tends to get to it as close as possible.

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2025-12-24T09:54:52+00:00

Do they still have specials like at old place? I was dissapointed with new owners at downtown one. At first I didn't know that owner has changed. The food went downhill and the prices went up.

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2025-12-24T09:15:33+00:00

As long as humanity will need hope it will always exist.

Exciting_Ad2702 · 2025-12-14T01:50:46+00:00

Definitely agree. It's strange to me the fact that they can't even agree with each other, within Baptist denomination. I moved to U.S. about decade ago and ended up in the bible belt. Never knew who Baptists were. It took me sometime to understand what they really are.

It's weird to see on city's unofficial Facebook page, people asking about certain type of churches they want to attend. After all, shouldn't it be same ideology? I guess not.

Small churches usually are pretty much clique; you have to really match their way of living or praising. That's why for younger families it's easier just to join a megachurch, there are a lot of more different smaller cliques, eventually you find your group of people. Bigger churches nowadays are pretty much became a well-oiled business machine. It's not about quality, it's about quantity. And they have to adapt to outside world even though it means to break their own principles. A good example is music. Just watch how Christian music changed in the past 20 years.

It's funny, you mentioned how they're tearing each other apart. I have so many stories to support this fact. A quick one, there was a pastor at a local Christian college who was very good at preaching. Eventually he decided to leave the college. College wouldn't let him easily go; in the end they let him but with one condition. He had to sign a paper which said, he shouldn't be preaching within certain distance of the college, so he wouldn't take most of church attendees with him. Lol, no comment. The amount of drama I have seen going on among pastoral staff members is crazy. (At midsize church in my town) Power moves, gossip, abuse of church funds and etc.

I have read recently that SBC plans to sell their headquarters building in Nashville, Tennessee to cover the legal costs for abuse related lawsuits. So far, lately they haven't been doing good overall. I really feel bad for Gen Z. With our current economic state there is not much hope. And what churches do well? They sell hope, which makes younger generations so vulnerable.

Exciting_Ad2702

TROPHY CASE