What (Really) Is Christianity?

[Aka_me]

IF... it turned out that Christianity is MOSTLY (but not entirely) made up by humans for the noble intentions of getting more converts...

what would that do to the LDS religion?

watch this video, and post your thoughts

that which was created as "FAITH" in Christ

was quickly manipulated by humans and changed into "RELIGION"

it was never designed to be RELIGION... that which separates Baptists from Evangelicals from Protestants from Catholics from LDS.

if there was NOTHING but the underlying "unity in FAITH"

there would be no separation by RELIGION.

and Christianity never was about baptism of the dead, or sealings, or temple performances. which is more dogma and ritual created by humans.

[KevinG]

dup

Edited January 20, 2012 by DaddyG

[KevinG]

What if God created a church to organize His people and see that His sheep were fed and sheltered?

That would look an awful lot like the LDS Church as far as I'm concerned.

Organizations (my professional specialty) are not inherantly evil or good. They are simply a way of organizing human endeavors and leveraging power, resources and information. They can be used for good or evil, but they themselves do not have conscience.

our ordinances and doctrines are for turning the hearts and minds of man toward Christ. The forms may change over dispensations but their utility is consistent.

Edited January 20, 2012 by DaddyG

[Nominee]

I think the speaker is close-minded and terrified of everything outside of a physical understanding. I hear him taking his own fears of what the past and the future tells us and projecting them onto those who listen to what they have to say. Maybe he doesn't like where the past takes him in the future? idk but I think it weak for him to misrepresent those who don't suffer his phobias.

As for what Christianity really is ~ The Church of Jesus Christ, of course!

[Ron Beron]

IF... it turned out that Christianity is MOSTLY (but not entirely) made up by humans for the noble intentions of getting more converts...

what would that do to the LDS religion?

watch this video, and post your thoughts

that which was created as "FAITH" in Christ

was quickly manipulated by humans and changed into "RELIGION"

it was never designed to be RELIGION... that which separates Baptists from Evangelicals from Protestants from Catholics from LDS.

if there was NOTHING but the underlying "unity in FAITH"

there would be no separation by RELIGION.

and Christianity never was about baptism of the dead, or sealings, or temple performances. which is more dogma and ritual created by humans.

Jesus created the philosophy and it was up to his followers to create the earthly vessal to make sure those philosophic ideals were kept. Somewhere along the line they were completely abrogated. The LDS simply have tried to return to the primitive beliefs of the early church: Take care of the poor and hungry, spread the gospel in every means possible, and secure their eternal glory. If we fall along the way then it is our fault not Jesus' philosophy.

[The Nehor]

IF... it turned out that Christianity is MOSTLY (but not entirely) made up by humans for the noble intentions of getting more converts...

what would that do to the LDS religion?

You'd have to explain what "turned out" means. If you mean definitively proven then it would hopefully destroy the whole thing. If you mean "found out" like......

watch this video, and post your thoughts

.....this clip shows it is false then I will laugh in your face as kindly as possible.

that which was created as "FAITH" in Christ

was quickly manipulated by humans and changed into "RELIGION"

it was never designed to be RELIGION... that which separates Baptists from Evangelicals from Protestants from Catholics from LDS.

If I understand you (questionable because your thoughts don't logically follow each other) then I would say that the idea that the Church is a late development is a modern conceit unsupported by evidence. Add that the Evangelical and Baptist ideas of salvation by faith are even more recent and you are being even more silly.

if there was NOTHING but the underlying "unity in FAITH"

there would be no separation by RELIGION.

and Christianity never was about baptism of the dead, or sealings, or temple performances. which is more dogma and ritual created by humans.

Ahhh, the modern love of oversimplification in religion.....it's so cute and inane at the same time. Of course that is not what the gospel is primarily about. It is about God becoming Man and offering salvation to the world. The rest of the gospel is in support of this or ordinances about this or teachings about how to use what Jesus did.

People saying that since Jesus is the important thing everything else is irrelevant is like someone arguing that puclic education is primarily about learning and arguing that therefore teachers, school buildings, books, school sports, school bands, and all the rest are superfluous and should be discarded.

[thesometimesaint]

Aka_me:

If there is a God, and if he/she/it cares for human beings, and if that God did institute a religion. I see no reason to exclude the LDS concept of that God.

Trying to be my most Agnostic self.

[Robert F. Smith]

IF... it turned out that Christianity is MOSTLY (but not entirely) made up by humans for the noble intentions of getting more converts... what would that do to the LDS religion? watch this video, and post your thoughts that which was created as "FAITH" in Christ was quickly manipulated by humans and changed into "RELIGION" it was never designed to be RELIGION... that which separates Baptists from Evangelicals from Protestants from Catholics from LDS. if there was NOTHING but the underlying "unity in FAITH" there would be no separation by RELIGION. and Christianity never was about baptism of the dead, or sealings, or temple performances. which is more dogma and ritual created by humans.

I cannot understand what you are saying here, but I did bother to spend (waste) a couple of hours watching Peter Joseph's 2007 "Zeitgeist," which I found to be utterly unredeeming and bereft of historical-critical content. From the quotations of the Tibetan tulku Chogyam Trungpa to the words of Baba Ram Dass (Dr. Richard Alpert), and everything in between, I found myself wondering how anyone who is so anxious to point out the mythological nature of religion could be so equally facile and blind in acceptance of modern conspiratorial myths on par with absurd stories about extraterrestrials found at Roswell, New Mexico.

It would be worthwhile I think to see whether any of those carelessly quoted by Peter Joseph actually agree with any of the theses of his film -- including BYU physicist Steven Jones. I myself was able to discern dozens of fundamental errors of fact in the film, leaving serious questions about the veracity of anything else included in that diatribe. Mr. Joseph might better have approached his subject matter in manageable, separate chunks -- based on the type of dependable research and reportage one finds employed by the consortium used by the PBS-TV series "Frontline."

[KevinG]

One of the conclusions I came away from Rough Stone Rolling with was the genious of Joseph Smith to bridge some of the positive aspects of spiritualism with the Strenth of traditional Christianity (Catholic/Protestant) tradition without veering into the excesses of either movement.

I think it is God inspired, but even on the face of it an organization resilient enough to grow and accomodate uniform doctrines while also encouraging individual revelation and communication with God is a masterful plan.

[zerinus]

IF... it turned out that Christianity is MOSTLY (but not entirely) made up by humans for the noble intentions of getting more converts...

What if it wasn't?