I’m an agnostic atheist that is going insane over the possibility of hell. I don’t understand why non-belief means I have to get tortured for eternity (I know there are differing beliefs)?

If the Christian god is real, I want to know. I want a relationship with god, and honestly, I won’t lie and say hell isn’t a big factor. Is it wrong for salvation to be a driver in wanting to know god?

Many times I’ve cried out for god to give me an undeniable sign, but I never had one. Many people talk about their experiences with god, vivid visual experiences, but why not me? Are they lying?

It just doesn’t seem fair, why do some people get experiences but I don’t? Some people say you should just look at existence, consciousness, the stars, etc. and that should suffice. That does nothing for me personally, and doesn’t even prove which god if any.

I know I’m in no position to demand anything, but it seems so messed up that I can genuinely not come to the truth, while actively searching in good faith, and end up in hell.

Every response I get is something circular where they say “you just want to live in sin”, “you are being close minded”, “you are rejecting god”, etc. Where if I say I’m not doing that, I’m just lying.

There is nothing more I want, than to know god 🙁

I live in a Democrat-leaning suburb on the East Coast. Most of the Protestant churches in my area have Progress Pride flags flying prominently in front of them. The Lutheran and Episcopal churches are two that come to mind. Why is this? Specifically, I am wondering if it is a) that existing "mainline" Protestants somehow developed very strong feelings about LGBT issues (even though, as with most groups, most mainline Protestants are straight), or rather, b) that Christianity in progressive areas declined with the rise of secularism/atheism, leaving empty buildings that are now used primarily for other causes, such as LGBT?

It could be neither of these things, of course, though I can't immediately think of a third option. Any insight would be appreciated.

I want to ask—can I have a relationship with someone who is Christian but also strongly embraces hippie culture? He enjoys smoking weed and likes being around people who smoke, jam, and live that kind of lifestyle. I’m wondering how compatible Christianity and this kind of hippie lifestyle can be, especially in a serious relationship with the goal of marriage and having kids?

I’m personally not at all into the hippie culture.

I love God. just want that to be known.

i’ve struggled with depression for most of my life, including thoughts of suicide. and yes, some attempts.

but if the devil wants me dead so bad and i’m losing that battle then why won’t God save me?

This post was written with some emotion behind so please forgive me it seems attacking but I truly am frustrated

I was born and raised christian I recently realized that my country has been westernized, and that we only have our language left. I wanted to understand our history pre-colonisation, and what I read disturbed me. They came into the land and labeled our traditions as pagan and our ancestors as evil gods. This thought was so deep ingrained within us we lost the practices we used to mourn the dead, we adopted modern marriage. Almost all culture except the instrumental tools we used have been lost. They made us hate the people who even try to mantain it by labeling them "witches" in our language.

It not even that the practices were bloody or harmful they were just different and therefore labeled as demonic. No typical "evil" goat symbols, no snake worship.

I’m really going through it now. I’ve got accepted into university but I’m having issues with student finance at the moment. I fully financially support myself. I’m in uni every single day of the week which only leaves the weekend for me to work and I’m going to struggle a lot financially to take care of myself. I’m going to study mechanical engineering which is already a really hard degree as it is and I don’t know how I’m gonna work around it with the financial burden that’s been placed upon me. And on top of that because I’m having issues with student finance I might have to pay for university myself. I’m already going to have to live off my savings for three months. I’ve already spent all day crying. I don’t know what to do and my anxiety is so bad right now. On top of that if I live off by savings, I won’t have any money to pay for one term of university. I’m honestly so stuck right now and I’ve always wanted to be an engineer if I can’t be one, I dont see the point of me living. Sorry for being so dramatic. I’m not asking for any financial help advice. I just wanna know what Bible verse or what book I should read to help me through this chapter of my life because I’m tired it always feels like there’s always one problem after the other in my life from experiencing all types of abuse to having something traumatic happen to me every single year, I haven’t had peace since I was 6,I’m slowly losing it. I have no family to rely on from all myself and being an engineer was one thing I’ve been holding onto. I just wanna know what to do. Because I really wanna live, but I don’t think I could hold on any longer. I’m really trusting in God, but the pain is still there.

This of course doesn’t apply to all, but it’s a pretty common pattern I have noticed. I’ll kinda break this down into three examples and come back together at the end:

1: Modern Epistemology

The Bible extols the virtues of faith, and much of the Christian belief system is grounded in faith, tradition, and texts. Despite this, many Christians seem obsessed with “proving” the God of the Bible and the Bible itself. There is also this obsession with the Bible being absolute literal fact.

To me this seems very modern. The modern doctrine of inerrancy didn’t come about until the last few centuries. And modern attitudes around factual truth and journalistic and historical factuality weren’t really issues for the church fathers. They seemed much more comfortable with faith and mystery, which the Bible itself also seems to extol.

2: Modern Morals

Many conservative Christians and apologists attack more progressive Christians for “twisting scripture” to allow them to be affirming. They pronounce their morals as being wholly biblical, untainted and not defined by the modern morals of society, but only by God.

Despite this, apologists will bend over backwards finding ways write things modern society finds immoral out of the text. Slavery, for example, is clearly and plainly permitted by the Bible, and it has been interpreted as such for 1500 years, only changing recently. I’ve also noticed a handful of folks trying to re-age Mary to fit modern ideas around ages of consent, rather than those of her own time. And there are of course the rather common, but not universal, justifications for accruing wealth, such as explaining away Jesus’s words to the rich man as directly to him alone.

3: Modern Methods

Modern apologists will extol the failures of science. They will tell anyone who challenges them with scientific arguments and science with accusations of spiritual blindness and say that science cannot reveal metaphysical truths.

At the same time, they preach “scientific” proofs of God and the Bible. They build and fund whole organizations around hunting down scientific evidence of the Bible. They dig up Dino bones and build arks and make their own journals.

Conclusion

It just seems to me like a lot of apologetics talk out of both sides of their mouths. They extol a belief system based in faith, a moral system free of modern popular morality, and a condemn the scientific method as a way of arriving at truth. At the same time they demand journalistic factuality of the Bible, they don’t go against established majority social morals—just those in conflict or minority, and they seek scientific validation of their faith.

Why is this? Why, if they truly believe the former, would anyone do the latter? Why attack those who bend the text when they do themselves?

And why are they often so loath to actually follow the values they extoll? I can count one hand the number of argumentative apologists who have argued that their system is wholly faith based and held to it. I have seen few who will say that slavery is considered moral by the Bible, even if we chose not to do it today for whatever reason.

Christians, how do you navigate all of these apparent tensions in your worldview, and how do you think your siblings in Christ do?

I think this is mostly an issue I see with conservative or rationalist apologetics, but those of a more liberal persuasion are welcome to reply as well.

For example, St. Paul's in London recently signed up for a contract with a music company and will now be hosting regular music festivals until atleast 2030. This was extremely controversial, especially since the site is a known burial ground. Any thoughts?

I apologize if this is insensitive or stupid, I’m just very curious

I struggle with this also because many times I’ll hear people say you must be willing to go to any length to follow Christ and while I believe and love Christ I feel bad for not being able to say honestly that there is nothing I wouldn’t do to follow Christ. For me many things come to mind like taking a life or violence or even things like cutting out my family that are all things that fall under this category of things I wouldn’t be willing to do to follow Christ.

So my question is to what lengths are you willing to go to follow Christ? Do you earnestly believe there is nothing God could ask you to do that you wouldn’t obey? If so how did you arrive to that point?

Genuinely curious and as always God bless

I can’t pick just one so here’s ten that I love:

1. The Master’s Call - Marty Robbins
   
2. Doubt - 21Pilots
   
3. Plowshare Prayer - Spencer LaJoye
   
4. Power in the Blood - Dolly Parton
   
5. God Help the Outcasts - Hunchback of Notre Dame
   
6. The Exodus Song - Andy Williams
   
7. Way of Triune God - Tyler Childers
   
8. 500 Miles - Peter, Paul, and Mary
   

9. Don’t Cry - Kirk Franklin, Richard Smallwood

10. Faithful is our God - Hezekiah Walker

Let me know what are some of yours trying to build a playlist!

So after some deep reflecting, I have no doubt that there is a God, I just question whether he is the God of the bible, whether God is Jesus Christ? So I am curious, how/why are you confindent that God is the God of the bible and not of Islam, Sikhism etc? Do you ever consider that God just is, that he is not defined by a single faith. What are your thoughts?

I’m curious to hear what different Christians believe about spiritual gifts today. Do you believe that all spiritual gifts mentioned in the New Testament ceased after the time of the apostles, or do you believe some/all are still active today?
I’m especially interested in gifts like prophecy, tongues, healing, miracles, words of knowledge and discernment.
If you believe the gifts have ceased, what biblical passages led you to that conclusion? And if you believe they continue, how do you understand the passages that seem to suggest certain gifts were specifically connected to the apostles and the early Church?

I’m also curious about prophecy specifically. Do you believe that biblical prophecy is still possible today, or do you believe that the prophetic gifts have ceased? And would you consider Jesus’ second coming/return to be the final prophecy still awaiting fulfillment, or do you understand prophecy differently?

I’d also love to hear about your personal experiences if you believe you’ve experienced or witnessed a spiritual gift, what happened and how did you understand it?
Would love to hear perspectives from both cessationists and continuationists, preferably with Scripture behind your views.

So for some context I hold a universalist position on salvation that we will all be saved eventually and be reunited with our creator. I believe that Christ is my savior but I don’t necessarily hold that everyone else needs to believe in the same Christ or even God that I do to be saved. But I know the traditional view is that there is one true God and unless you believe in him specifically you will go to hell.

My question is do you believe earnestly that anyone who does not believe in Christ will go to hell and if so then how do you reconcile with the idea that many will never accept Christ and still try to be good regardless?

This is a difficult concept for me to grasp because I have family and friends who are not Christian’s and if this view is true upon their death if I believe in Christ and they do not then we will go to different places and be separated. This is a vision of the afterlife that is too hard to bear for me.

Along with the problems of people who never have the opportunity to accept Christ like people who grow up in secluded tribes, but that’s more of a practical issue than anything else. Anyway I want to hear your thoughts do you agree with me disagree either way why? I like to keep an open mind and have prayed to be receptive to hear different answers. As always God bless

My boyfriend Levi (mid 20s) put us on a break one week ago.
He said he needs freedom in the relationship and clarity.
We’ve been at each other’s throats for the past couple months - every conversation becomes a fight. We are both stubborn and we both desire to be leaders in the relationship.

At the beginning of the relationship, I myself had a hard time walking away from the attachments I had created before the relationship. I didn’t meet up with them or anything, but I didn’t hesitate to answer their text messages. My therapist said that I was used to creating an escape plan.
He confronted me about this, and I was totally ashamed. He chose to forgive me and we worked on our relationship, I have never made that mistake again and honestly, it has healed me to feel safe after that- that was 10 months ago.

He also became very dismissive of me and our plans these past few months. Would cancel on events and dates last minute. He admitted that he felt immature.

He admits that he has not been treating me nicely and it seems like we’re always fighting to get our relationship to how it used to be - from what I’ve researched this might be a good resetting point… I hope.

This all leads to last week him telling me that he needs a one month break to feel freedom and clarity from the emotional roller coaster and frequent event events (I admit I am a very busy person and was always excited about him going and we get disappointed if he couldn’t -something I am growing in). He told me that he would not be contacting me and we would not be seeing each other but if I called, he would pick up and if he could not pick up, he would let me know why he can’t.
He told me he knew this would be hard for me, but believes this is what we need for our future.

I asked him if we would get back together after the break and it was more of a yes than a no, but ultimately unsure.

He has answered a few calls. I’ve made after the first couple days and now I am trying to give him the space he’s asked for.

I want this relationship to work and I feel like we have both grown and learned things from each other and have more to learn. I feel lost and confused. I wanna cry every day, but I can’t let him know that.

I’m going to therapy now and they are helping me, but I just want to let him know that if I could start over I would and how much I wish I was a healed person when we had met.

I’m trying to heal now to come back stronger and better - prayers would be much appreciated

( I’ve made post on here before and people usually assume it’s bad intentions, or insult me or straight up tell me to become atheist, so if your gonna do that, don’t. I’m looking for an opinion on this topic not what you think of me)

Anyways I’m someone who fell in love with God, seen his forgiveness In OT, seen how all signs pointed to Jesus even in the garden. You seen how he wanted to be the one to provide.

For example when Eve covered herself with leaves, God gave her something NEW to cover herself with. ( this in my eyes resembles how we try to clean ourselves up, but we need something from God to cover us. ( like how we are covered In Jesus blood, and that’s how we are covered and saved)

The story of Moses, after the Israelites worshipped that Golden calf, God gave them a place to meet with him, so they could learn and become closer to him. ( this also reminds me of God giving us Jesus, and frankly how he wants to help us get closer to him, and he is usually the one that reveals himself to us) he also provided everything they needed to grow close to him.

God also CONSTANTLY forgave people in OT.

God constantly provided in OT.

I understand not being under the old law, but doesn’t Jesus say he is the LAW? ( and I’m assuming this has more to do with the commandments, and at one point the law was more of a “Watcher” to keep us on track. ( it’s something to look at to see how you are behaving I suppose)
Similar to how Jesus keeps us on the path when we follow him.

Some things I’ve heard people say-

“OT doesn’t apply to us”
“ God has changed how he deals with sin, because times were different”

And maybe im misunderstanding what they mean by that, but it seems odd to discredit half the Bible by saying it doesn’t apply to us currently.

Does every soul have an equal chance to get into heaven. if they dont have an equal chance, how is that fair. im wondering because i cant find it on google or other places, please tell me! im trying to get everyones vision on it

I work as a family mediator. Put simply, this means that I help separated or divorced parents resolve the conflict between them regarding the exercise of their parental rights and responsibilities (child support, custody arrangements, communication issues, etc.).

The parents systematically say that they are acting in the best interests of their child. But in reality, the issue is often deeper: it is between the two parents themselves. It can be found in the way they communicate, in differences in their parenting values, in unresolved arguments from the past, in things that have not been forgiven, and so on.

I pray about these families and ask God to give me the wisdom to offer advice and make observations that will help ease the conflict, so that the parents can restore a cordial relationship and, ideally, forgive one another and make a fresh start.

However, I'm still a beginner. And I sometimes feel limited in what I can say or rather, in how I can say it.

For example, since I am required by professional ethics to remain neutral, independent, and impartial, how can I encourage people to consider forgiving one another and explain the benefits of forgiveness without being too directive?

How can I encourage them, rather than focusing exclusively on the other person's shortcomings, to acknowledge and recognize their own share of responsibility in the problem, without making them feel that I am taking the other parent's side?

How can I encourage them to accept that things do not necessarily have to be done in the way they had originally envisioned?

Thank you in advance for your answers. Also, if you have any books, videos, or links on the subject of parental conflict, and/or on how to persuade and guide people without offending them, in a way that encourages them to reflect and willingly embrace a different perspective, I would be more than happy to hear your recommendations!

The above quote is found in Chesterton's, "What's Wrong With The World."

I’m a non-Christian who wants to read the Bible, but the more I research, the more confused I get. 100 people seem to have 100 different opinions on the reading order.

I believe in the 80/20 principle, so I want to start with the books that are absolutely necessary for understanding the Bible, rather than committing to all 66/73 books right away.

What books should I read, in what order, and why that order?

I just asked this in AskReddit and it was removed with a little thing that suggested I posted here instead. Why???