/lit/ - Literature

>>14050312
You can't follow the Christian moral without God strength he give to those believing in him. Faith is not facultative to be Christian, following Christ means following him in the Sky.
Why is that really that hard to believe in God op ?

>>14050340
I think it's a question of how I was raised. Every Christian I know was raised that way, but I have spent my entire childhood and adult life being an agnostic. There are definitely things I believe were created by God, but it is just very hard for me to believe that when I die, I'll go up to the pearly gates and meet St. Peter instead of just turning into compost. It may seem easy for you to believe in but this would be changing a fundamental way in which I view the world. I think the thing I am most afraid of is being insincere in my belief in God, but I would like to know how I can believe in him since you say following Christ's teaching isn't enough.

This made me think of the readings and particularly the words of the holy father from 9/14. I don't know the passage he is referring to about Paul being angry.

READING OF THE DAY
Numbers 21:4B-9

With their patience worn out by the journey,
the people complained against God and Moses,
"Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert,
where there is no food or water?
We are disgusted with this wretched food!"

In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents,
which bit the people so that many of them died.
Then the people came to Moses and said,
"We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you.
Pray the LORD to take the serpents from us."
So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses,
"Make a saraph and mount it on a pole,
and if any who have been bitten look at it, they will live."
Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole,
and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent
looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

GOSPEL OF THE DAY
John 3:13-17

Jesus said to Nicodemus:
"No one has gone up to heaven
except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.

WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
A Christ without a cross is not the Lord: he is a teacher, nothing else. This is perhaps what Nicodemus, without realizing it, was seeking. It is one of the temptations. Yes, Jesus: 'What a good teacher’, but... without the cross, [only] Jesus. Who bewitched you with this image? Paul is angry. Jesus Christ is presented but not as crucified. The other temptation is a cross without Christ, that is, the anguish of remaining down, depressed by the weight of sin and without hope. This is a type of spiritual masochism: only the cross, without hope and without Christ. (Santa Marta, 14 September 2017)

>>14050312
oh look another religitard thread
why don't you all go and meet your maker

>>14050399
>Think the thing I am most afraid of is being insincere in my belief in God
Nice. But at the same time if you want to believe in him, you will be able to find Faith. Like, not only praying, asking God for Faith and his help, but seeking sainthood where it can be, seeking testimonies of the Orthodox Christian Faith,... So if you real seek Faith you will find it. There is indeed a part of fatality in everyone's life, but now that is you who choose what you make out of it.
Faith is simple, don't preoccupy on a lot of questions about details like the example you gave, theologians and saints answered that, but you won't be able to find and understand answers on everything (unless you have a real charisma), that's why the devil puts questions about everything. It's also a simple natural reflex, fear puts doubts instead of an explorator mindset. So if you want Faith that is really up to you to answer the call.

>>14050312
You can try, there's always room for more, pal.

>>14050312
>He with a capital H
Nice LARP, christcuck

>>14050713
if i'm talking about Muhammad to Muslims I would say PBUH. if i am asking a question about becoming Christian, why would I not use their language?

>>14050312
No, become Muslim.

>>14050713
This
Christians, boomers and trannies are the biggest spammers on the net

>>14050312
Can you really accept God as Creator without also accepting Him as Preserver? If He so arranged the laws and circumstances of the physical world from chaos, must creation not revert to this primordial chaos save for His preserving action? Can you really accept God as Creator, directly or indirectly, of the human race, yet reject Him as the Sustainer of the race? Is it reasonable to accept that He made the souls of men in the beginning and granted them breath, yet they now respire and move in their own beings independent of their vital Source? Can He whose mind is manifest in history be divorced from that history itself?
I answer, Nay; for in Him we live, and move, and have our being.

>>14050312
I was struggling with something like that for a while. Then I started to read some theology and differences beteween denominations. During that, I found a blog written by an anglican bishop/pastor in my country talking about negative (apophatic) theology, then everything started to make sense.

The thing goes like that: beeing god the creator, there's nothing we can say about him. He is what "eyes has not seen, nor ear heard". Everthing we try to say about god is somehow limitating him, as we have limitations in language and comprehension. We can't say he exist, but we can say that he "is".

The goal is to find him, to be one with him. We can only do that through mediators. The best, maybe the only one, is Jesus Christ and his two commandments: love god with all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself. He asks us to try and be new creatures, to be like god himself.

We know that today because there was a community of people who knew and saw Jesus during his lifetime. That community of people produced some registry about his teachings - the gospels - and tried to preserve it throughout history.

The continuity of this community is found at the church, and like every community, it have some kind of "spirit". The "spirit" of your colleagues at work when they are together isn't the same "spirit" they have when they are with their respective families, for example. Communities have those kind of "spirits".

The difference is, being Christ god's word incarnate, and promising "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matthew 18:20), this "spirit" is different, and it brings you closer to god, because that community is the same that god created, the one that he is part of. The "holy spirit".

So, answering your question:
>can I truly become a Christian if I am mostly just following the moral principles of the faith and less so believing in God?

Maybe. These moral principles of faith are part of what makes you holy. The other part, being part of god's community, i.e., being in communion with him, seeing him present on creation, expressing your faith through your acts of love to your neighbor, is the other part. And that probably comes with time, I guess. Don't know if it makes sens.

You can and with practice faith will come, it may be harder to follow the law without faith, but as your heart clears you will find God. Say your prayers fast a little bit and say away from sin, talk to a priest go to church and all will come.