Homestar Runner Wiki Forum

Oh. Carry on.

Well. My thoughts on the subject is that I have no idea what the subject is. Can I have a tl;dr summary?

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Folks like Dids think that Christianity should be fancy, and folks like y_o_c think that Christianity should be prancy.

Understand?

Hmm. Well, I have to say, I enjoy Didymus' religous views, considering he's one of the few people here who actually know what the heck they're talking about. So I'll side with Dids on this.

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Thanks, Duece.

Basically, what we're talking about is the tendency among some Christians to think that we ought to simplify our faith and proclamation as much as possible to make it accessible to more people. Which, on one hand, would seem like a good idea. The problem comes in, however, when they also start to neglect, ignore, and at times even repudiate the teachings and practices of the faith outlined in the Bible. What starts out as an attempt to simplify the faith ends up eliminating key elements of that faith.

It's like taking Occam's Razor and using it to cut your head off.

But the fact is, there are elements of our faith that need to be taught and confessed, as well as practices of our faith that must be maintained. Otherwise, it is no longer the Christian faith in any real sense. And what you are left with is a happy-go-lucky Christianity with little or no commitment to living as Christ's disciples. While that philosophy might get a few college students to nominally maintain their ties with the church during their college years, in the end, it turns them into weak - even phony - Christians with no real faith.

The article I posted on the previous page demonstrates this to be the case. After decades of practicing this kind of gospel reductionism, the gurus of the church growth movement are beginning to realize that this is what they are doing: creating a whole generation of phony Christians.

So the question is presented before us: do we wish to be followers of Christ? If so, then we have an obligation to confess the faith as he has taught us, and to learn his teachings and put them into practice. One cannot be a follower of Christ unless he is a student of his Word.

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So basically, you don't want people just saying "I BELIEVE IN GOD AND LOVE JESUS SO I CAN GO TO HEAVEN WITHOUT GOING TO CHURCH RITE??!!!"

Makes enough sense. Even though I don't believe in this religion, here's what I have to say to these people: Believing in God maybe the biggest concept that Christianity has to teach, but you also have to follow the little things, too, if you want to be a true Christian.

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Christianity is not about simply "believing in God"; it's about following Jesus. And that entails living by God's word.

PWN'D!
(red face)

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My guess would be that a lot of people just stick to deism so they can be part of the religion, without having to deal with questions they might get if they said they believe the "entire thing". And mabye they're just lazy or too occupied I guess.