If believing Jesus was supernatural makes you a Christian

yep, for all we know, we're living a virtual reality and this is just a program we signed up for - life may be really boring in the real world

 

The Matrix has us.

 

Very well said.

I have very little negative to say about Erasmus. He raised criticisms of the church very much the same as those that led to the Protestant Reformatiom. I do believe in justification/salvation by faith alone which is the core belief in my Methodist denomination. Our disagreement in the early years of Methodisim was, and still is, over predestination.

 

In your denomination, what would be acts by a believer that could cause God's rejection of that individual?

 

I look at it from the same perspective of a surname. I'm a "Smith" because I was born in the Smith family. My behavior has nothing to do with being able to call myself a Smith. But my behavior can give my family a bad reputation. I wouldn't want to smear my family name and so I try my best to be a good Smith.

 

Any sin can be removed by salvation, but it is conditional security (an Arminian doctrine.)

 

I can respect that and I doubt you'll be surprised to hear that I was raised a Catholic, and I must admit that my views have probably been shaped more by the "libertarian" Franciscan theologian (and logician) William of Ockham than Erasmus.

That aside, I frequently find that the two camps have more in common than they think and there's a lot of quibbling over chickens and eggs and semantics. I think each side recognizes the importance of faith and works and neither denies the necessity of both. Furthermore, I've never seen either side contend that God's grace is not God's to give, and that any contention of the sort involves either a misunderstanding or twisting of the other's beliefs.

 

OK, but some of these questions aren't clear to me, so I may not understand the answers.

Yes, any sin can be removed by salvation, a process Methodists have well defined.

However, once saved are there acts that would cause god to reject one who was once saved?

Or, does it not actually matter what one does after being saved?

 

Yes, a person saved can fall from grace and lose his salvation. "Once saved always saved" is not Methodist doctrine.

 

If believing Jesus was supernatural makes you a Christian
SUBTOPIC: Qualities of the Supernatural
⁜→ FreshAir, et al,

These are all very good lines of inquiry.

(COMMENT)

◈ When asking the question about the form and characteristics of any true deity, the use of probability (what is more likely) to address such a set of interrogatives is a temporary approach, but not one of any substance. Humanity can be fooled. Today, aircraft flight, hovercraft, video transmissions, cellphone technology, computers, tanks and artillery, rockets, miniguns, and many other commonplace advancements taken for granted today, would look like miracles to any human observer in the era pre-First Crusade (before proto-scientific protocols emerged). As the concepts of "deities" were first developed under the limited knowledge of the flat-world and geo-centric models - much of what remains today in the various faith-based systems has its roots in that period of time. Even many Christian Sects (Abrahamic Religions) today still believe in magic (supernatural) and alchemy (medieval chemistry and transmutation).

◈ Humanity has a limited understanding of "energy." Albert Einstein gave us the ability to equate energy and matter. The summation of all energy forms considered (mechanical, thermal, electromagnetic, etc.) in any system in the universe (as we understand it today), is taught to be a constant. And that is probably true if the original source (First Cause) is not creating more as the universe expands.
​

◈ Today, we still teach that an "electron" as a negatively charged subatomic particle (β−) which is normally found in an orbital shell around a nucleus of an element. But that is not anywhere near an adequate description.

◈ The "existence principle" {which is the philosophy of reality} is just one aspect of the many concepts in metaphysics. Anything that just "popped into existence" (whether it be a deity or energy) has an equivalent in terms of matter. One of humanity's many problems with understanding a deity and the infinite nature that is often associated with a deity is that it is assumed a deity can be a source of cause and consequence in the universe. And under the limited knowledge humanity hold on the application of the Three God Powers [Omnipotence • Omniscience • Omnipresence], the deity must give of itself in order to cause change (assuming the principle of conservation has validity).


Most Respectfully,
R

 

Good points.

It does seem like some of this is about what we teach at the high school level, thus what is believed by all who don't address these issues in college.

Also, as I understand it our universe is expanding, yet the energy density of space is not diminishing - thus total energy is increasing. Maybe someone would argue that "God did that".