• Flax
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    5 months ago

    The whole point of Christianity isn’t just to “do good”. The foundation is that we aren’t good enough by nature and are flawed by our own fault, but by trusting in and following God, we can be forgiven. Because Jesus literally existed and was executed for our sins.

    • Baahb@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      That feels a lot like your personal interpretation. You do not get to decide how people who call themselves Christian define themselves.

      Fables are worth listening to for the morals they include. Why wouldn’t an ancient holy book be a moralistic guide to show the way to heaven, whatever that is which is not defined in scripture

      • Flax
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        5 months ago

        I’m going to start calling myself “muslim” then, as “muslim” means “one who submits to God”

        • Baahb@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          You go ahead and do that. Worth noting that Islam doesn’t have a protestant reformation thats come in to say “f this the rules are whatever I want them to be personally,” so it’s basically still in its Catholic hegemony phase.

          • Flax
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            5 months ago

            The protestant reformation didn’t do that. In fact, it was the opposite. It was based on the Bible over everything and shedding the idea of a pope who can claim “the rules are whatever I want them to be personally”

            • Baahb@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              But that’s literally the second thing to happen in the protestant reformation. King Henry saw that Martin Luther guy and said “shit if he doesn’t have to listen to the Pope, I don’t either. Let’s strait up rewrite the Bible motherfucker!” So that the parts he didn’t like didn’t apply. Are you gonna say anglicans aren’t Christian?

              • Flax
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                5 months ago

                The reformers did not rewrite the Bible.

                • Baahb@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  Public education in US… Thanks for the correction.

                  Regardless… Mormons, JWs and Seventh Day Adventists get away with being Christian, so yah, I think you can get away with calling yourself a Christian and believing whatever you want.

                  • Flax
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                    5 months ago

                    Mormons and JWs are not Christian. The only ones who call Mormons and JWs Christian are themselves. Mormons and JWs are as Christian as the Chinese Communist Party is Communist. Even the Catholics agree that many Protestants are Christian but just in “imperfect communion” with them.

                    There are some fringe extreme SDAs who reject Christian doctrine, but most are Christian. Although I have sort of seen them grouped into the “borderline heretical” category.

                    JWs have their own “translation” of the Bible to fit their doctrine which basically every scholar rejects. Mormons have their third testament from a prophet- and is actually similar to Islam if you think about the circumstances (Prophet comes along hundreds of years later, claims Christians were doing it wrong and that he has an authoritative revelation, uses it to justify polygamy and political power, etc)

                    Protestant Christians do have varying interpretations of the Bible, but all agree on the Trinity, Biblical canon (which was the same as what the Catholics used before the council of Trent) and the core Gospel message which makes up 95% of things.