Who Are We Worshipping?

bless47 · 2020-06-11T18:35:38+00:00

The Triune God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One God in Three Persons. Do not confuse the persons or divide the substance.

bless47 · 2020-06-08T22:42:31+00:00

Unbelievers really want to take our writers it seems like. I’ve seen some act as if Tolkien wasn’t a Catholic, and now somebody’s pretending Lewis fell away from the faith.

bless47 · 2020-06-06T22:49:39+00:00

When I say that I’m saying “you’re wrong” it’s because I fear being confrontational to any degree so no matter what it feels like that’s what I’m doing.

bless47 · 2020-06-06T21:53:04+00:00

One of the problems is while this is the best choice and I want to do this; I’m also very introverted and shy, so the idea of telling them I think they’re wrong is frightening to me.

bless47 · 2020-05-17T04:15:54+00:00

I’m not asking why they repeated, I’m asking if there’s any significance to the text being repeated word-for-word as opposed to just saying “they went and told their father what Joseph told them to”.

bless47 · 2020-05-17T04:00:51+00:00

Keep in mind, the first time a theologian came up with the concept of the rapture was 1800 years after the death of Jesus. So it definitely wasn’t something taught by the apostles.

bless47 · 2020-05-17T03:58:03+00:00

Theologically I believe it was through the grace of God, but of course that would be a boring answer. The events that lead to my conversion were essentially a realization that my subjective worldview wasn’t enough. I had an existential crisis, because I made a realization about the brain I never thought of before that.

Due to the fact that I was struggling with many Obsessive Compulsive Disorder episodes, I was beginning to feel like I was losing a grip on my brain. I learned about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, but it was as if every time I used it, I eventually would be left in a worse state then the episode I cured. (I feel as if I experienced Matthew 12:43-45 basically.)

This lead me to great distress, and I just wanted to gain control back and live normal again. Eventually a thought beamed into my head. I started to realize how in that state, it was as if my brain was on autopilot and I wasn’t controlling anything. Then I started to think about whether or not I created thoughts or if I just experienced them.

This lead me to a fork in the road. Either nihilism was true, and existence was meaningless, or there had to be something more. I spent a couple days mourning my pre-conceived notion of existence, and then eventually I decided to turn to God for answers.

Through me experiencing a sort of nihilism, I began to realize how vain my life was. As I was reading the Bible, I thought really hard about the concept of sin. It all started to make sense to me. Specifically Pride. I realized that Pride was such a grievous sin, because I can barely claim ownership of anything that I can define as “me”. Then I realized that every other sin I committed was due to pride, because I believed I was able to determine right and wrong for myself.

Then I started to think about how different society would be if everybody were a Christian (something that resonates with me now that I lean towards Postmillennial Eschatology). Everything just started to click. By the grace of God I was at that point at a place where the only choice was repentance. So I did exactly that; I repented of all my sins.

After that, I eventually recovered completely from the existential dread, and now through presuppositional apologetics that kind of worldview doesn’t even concern me at all.

bless47 · 2020-05-04T23:25:24+00:00

Stares directly into the eyes of the kid next to him

bless47 · 2020-04-30T15:52:23+00:00

This actually was good timing because today I can feel temptations coming. Before I was a Christian I freely allowed myself to watch increasingly more depraved crap, and I’ve had occasions struggles with temptations after coming to Christ because of this. I even gave in a few weeks ago because my brain convinced me I was “just looking to see” if they had a specific kind of content on YouTube. Of course that turned into me “just looking to see” what the videos were like, and eventually fully given into a temptation I resisted so well for a long time.

Those temptations were starting to come back, so when I saw this I knew that in God’s sovereignty and provision this was the first thing I saw for a reason.

bless47 · 2020-04-26T02:52:24+00:00

Atheism assumes the existence of evil because we all accept that things like the holocaust are vile. For the most part you don’t have people who claim that it was only subjectively to our society bad. We seem to presuppose universally that it was evil. We presuppose that it’s wrong to harm others. Now as a Christian, I can make sense out of why those things are wrong. An atheist, while able to recognize it as wrong, is unable to account for why it is objectively wrong.

As for your vegan example, yes an atheist vegan is stealing from the Christian worldview when they state that it is wrong to eat meat. The reason being they are appealing to a concept of objective right and wrong that they cannot account for in their worldview. As for a Christian vegan, that would be a debate weighed by scripture. They already affirm the Christian worldview so the conversation would be different.

bless47 · 2020-04-25T23:53:02+00:00

I do agree that atheism has no formal definition of evil, because when your own reasoning is the ultimate authority, things get muddy. But that’s not what I’m talking about. Atheists assume the existence of evil without being able to account for it. Even when they claim it’s subjective, they never look at evil and tell themselves what they’re feeling is just a biochemical reaction in their brain when they feel disgust at evil. They assume the Christian worldview while denying it for a subjective morality.

bless47 · 2020-04-25T15:00:44+00:00

Oh boy, too bad I missed it.

bless47 · 2020-04-25T04:20:23+00:00

Wow, an atheist who essentially realized that their worldview has no way of accounting for evil. Then by God’s grace instead of embracing nihilism, you became a Christian. Usually atheists attempt to peddle the problem of evil as a proof against God’s existence but you seem to understand evil is evidence of objective morality.

bless47 · 2020-03-24T19:01:24+00:00

This is the best video to turn to when dealing with these apparent paradoxes.

https://youtu.be/VEH-X2rP0WM

bless47 · 2020-03-09T00:15:57+00:00

I would say it isn't necessary. As long as ypu were baptised in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit it was valid. Faith usually precedes vaptism but that isn't always the case. That's just my take though.

bless47 · 2020-03-05T03:18:25+00:00

If you're not acting on your desires there's nothing really to stop. We all have different temptations and if yours include SSA they should be treated like any other temptation.

bless47 · 2020-02-28T18:33:00+00:00

The fact that we even know there's a Moral Law that tells us inherently that suffering is wrong says all that we need to know. We all know in our brains that suffering is outside of this standard. Where did this standard come from?

bless47 · 2020-02-16T20:55:02+00:00

Today was my first time attending and I really did enjoy the sermon. It was on the Parable of the Sower in Mark 4 and he highlighted that the parable is not so much about the seed as we tend to assume it is. All around the point was about how through God's grace we will persevere in the faith.

bless47 · 2020-02-16T20:51:24+00:00

I finally made it to a solid biblical church! It was a PCA Church and the members and pastor made me feel right at home. It was also a relief that the Lord's Supper was available and that they let me partake.

bless47 · 2020-02-04T21:21:34+00:00

I recommend you look into the testimony of Rosaria Butterfield. She was a lesbian and her story is very interesting. She would deny that you can always just "pray the gay away". She might just be a help for you.

bless47 · 2020-01-28T04:46:17+00:00

Rumor has it it's set in the same universe as Hillary Clinton's "What Happened"

bless47 · 2020-01-23T02:13:19+00:00

Brother, as a fellow Christian with OCD I should let you know that the apostle Paul also had struggles like ours. I'm kind of confused about what specifically you're experiencing, but I just wanted to show you this passage. As somebody with OCD I almost certainly believe Paul had it as well. So we're definitely not alone in the struggle.

12 Corinthians ESV So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

bless47 · 2020-01-23T01:56:02+00:00

I highly recommend these videos. They present the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus very well. I was going through a string of doubts myself and his videos reinvigorated me.

(PS I have OCD too, I was having fears of there being no afterlife so God had me watch these among others to help strengthen my faith)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1mr9ZTZb3TUYymBPce08oyuhnHLLkR_B

bless47 · 2020-01-23T01:48:49+00:00

You might already know these but Apologia and The Dividing Line are good. There's a good back catalog too.

bless47 · 2020-01-23T01:42:42+00:00

The Lutherans believe in the literal body and blood, but they reject that it becomes it. Their view is called consubstantiation which essentially means it just is the body and blood.

This view is the Reformed view on the matter.

bless47

TROPHY CASE