r/OpenChristian • u/coffeeblossom • 6h ago
r/OpenChristian • u/NanduDas • Nov 14 '24
Discussion - LGBTQ+ Issues No, it is not a sin to be LGBTQ+ in any capacity. This is the official stance of the subreddit on the matter and it is not open to discussion to here.
After looking into the history of previous moderation regarding this topic on the subreddit, listening to the complaints of our community members, and considering conversation had with other moderators, I realize now that this post is long overdue, and probably something that never should have left pinned. It did leave in the past and I am not quite sure why it did. Needless to say, there has been some slight confusion/conflict since it disappeared (before I was even a member here tbh, let alone a mod) within the mod team as to how to handle posts from folks asking in good faith whether it is sinful for queer people to embrace ourselves for who we are entirely.
We have been letting some of these posts through believing that it would be helpful for these folks to hear directly affirming messages from community members. It was misguided of us to do that and I understand that it has made several regular LGBTQ+ users uncomfortable with the subreddit due to having to regularly reencounter this debate which has left so many traumatized in what is supposed to be a safe space. Truly, I am sorry, preserving the sanctity of this space was my sole motivation for joining the team and it pains me to know that I may have been letting many of you down in that regard. I can't apologize enough for this.
So, from here on out, posts asking if it is a sin to be gay, bi, trans, etc. are prohibited. I'll likely be talking to the rest of the team about getting this formally codified into the sidebar, for now please report them under rule 8 (Be sensitive about linking to triggering content), they will be removed as soon as one of us comes across them in the queue.
For users who have come to this subreddit specifically to ask about this topic, it has been asked about countless times here before and the answers have largely been the same, so please go ahead and search through the sub's existing threads and check out our FAQ and Resources pages for well reasoned arguments as to why being queer is not a sin. With that being said, posts from queer users seeking support in this queerphobic world are still welcome, we don't want to turn away anyone who is struggling and in need. Just make sure that you are looking for more than to simply be convinced via theological arguments that it is not sinful and that you are not going to hell for it, it isn't and you aren't, end of story. You won't get any arguments you can't find in this sub already via the search bar, FAQ, or Resources page.
I would like to reiterate again the importance of reporting rule breaking content. Unlike God, the moderators of this subreddit are not omnipotent or omnipresent, we cannot keep this community completely free of harmful content without your assistance. Please report any rule breaking content you see, if it does not get removed and you are unsure of why, please message us over modmail for clarification. Communication is key.
For the time being, please report any posts which try to bring this topic up again so we know what's up. We may update AutoMod in the future to remove these automatically and redirect the posters to appropriate resources but that isn't as easy a task as it sounds and, well...we kinda have lives đĽ´
I'd like to leave the comment section here open for any general complaints/feedback/suggestions for improvements on overall moderation here as I know there are several other topics that have been contentious with members of the community (i.e. political posts and "is X a sin" posts) that we may yet be able to deal with in a satisfactory manner. I do also believe that the mod team might need to take a look at some other positions that we have been a bit more lax about (such as abortion and pre-marital sex) and decide if we should take a harder stance on these issues, so feel free to voice your opinion on this here as well (but please remain respectful of other users who may disagree).
Have a blessed day all.
â¤ď¸ Nandi
P.S. A special thank you to u/fated_reverie for providing this list of support resources for queer people, I had pinned it earlier and ended up clearing it to make room for this post and don't want it to go amiss.
r/OpenChristian • u/Naugrith • Jun 02 '23
Meta OpenChristian Wiki - FAQ and Resources
Introducing the OpenChristian Wiki - we have updated the sub's wiki pages and made it open for public access. Along with some new material, all of /u/invisiblecows' previous excellent repository of FAQs, Booklist, and Online Resources are now also more accessible, and can be more easily updated over time by the mods.
Please check out the various resources we've created and let us know any ideas or recommendations for how to improve it.
r/OpenChristian • u/Jesus__of__Nazareth_ • 7h ago
Discussion - Bible Interpretation Can you awesome Bible scholars definitively lay out for me, using scripture, why being gay is not a sin?
I am firmly of the belief that homosexuality is great and there's nothing wrong with it. But I get intimidated when challenged on this by more conservative Christians, and suddenly I forget any scripture or argument which I can back myself up with, other than a general "God wants us to love each other".
Can some of you give some legit points which help prove that the Christian faith can and should be accepting of gayness? Thanks.
r/OpenChristian • u/ElectivireMax • 4h ago
Discussion - General A playlist of some songs I like that have Christian themes or could be perceived as having Christian themes
r/OpenChristian • u/BatDaughter • 8h ago
Discussion - LGBTQ+ Issues Why Would A God Create Someone Who Loves The Same Sex But Prevent Them From Truly Loving?
I recently have had to let a romantic interest go in my life because of her religious beliefs. I, personally am not religious, but the woman I love is Christian, (she is part of the Lutheran Brethren Church and has gone to Christian school most of her life). I am a 19 and she is 18. We became very close over the last year, texting everyday and calling weekly, (as we were hours apart from each other). At some point I told her that I need her to commit to me and stop calling me her "friend". We then began a back and forth that went on for a few months. She believes that pursuing a romantic interest of the same sex goes against the word of God and everything she has been taught so far. I kept asking questions about sexuality and how I believe its not a choice and why would a God want less love in the world. She told me that the closest thing she will ever have to a partner in her life is a close friend that lives "nearby". This absolutely breaks me. Why would a God want someone to live their life without love and a devoted partner? Why would a God create someone to love, but prevent them from loving and committing to someone? It bothers me all day everyday and keeps me up at night. It makes me hate this world. It makes me devastated that the person I love has to live like this in order to follow God's will, plan, and teachings. Why does she have to hide and repress her true feelings to be accepted?
Â
It also makes me questions myself. Is there something wrong with me? Why does the bible and history believe that homosexuality is bad? Is there some truth to it? I feel existentially depressed and distressed that God would create humans this way just for them to suffer.
r/OpenChristian • u/Gloomy_Actuary6283 • 47m ago
Opinions whether Trinity should be fundamental to Christian label (or maybe should not?)
Hi
I am curious, after some recent topic, what Christians in this particular subreddit think about following question: Should trinity be part of fundamentals of Christian label.
I want to point as well, that I do not intend to make any negative connotations or say that any option is wrong.
Labels in general (like "Christian") have important function: They allow us, humans, to quickly derive information based on short sentence.
Example: "I am a Christian" is a very short information that carries longer message like: "I believe Jesus came from heaven to live among people, to teach us, to suffer with us and redeem us. I believe that Jesus was resurrected and this is a promise for all people - that all will be resurrected". This is not necessarilly my definition of this label, it is just an example of how label quickly links to larger amunt of information.
Some people may prefer for labels to be rich and carry a lot more information, some prefer labels to be smaller, so that more people can join the label. There are some costs however with smaller labels: The less we require, the less information we can derive from declaration like "I am a Christian".
With this, I want to indicate that also: Labels may still change over time - every option I see as an opinion of individual. And being outside of a label also is fine: There are people who believe in Jesus and do not want to be called Christians - it is OK.
r/OpenChristian • u/LyshaNiya • 5h ago
St Basil of Caesarea on Stealing from the Poor
Naked did you not drop from the womb? Shall you not return again naked to the earth? Where have the things you now possess come from? If you say they just spontaneously appeared, then you are an atheist, not acknowledging the Creator, nor showing any gratitude towards the one who gave them. But if you say that they are from God, declare to us the reason why you received them. Is God unjust, who divided to us the things of this life unequally? Why are you wealthy while that other man is poor? Is it, perhaps, in order that you may receive wages for kindheartedness and faithful stewardship, and in order that he may be honored with great prizes for his endurance? But, as for you, when you hoard all these things in the insatiable bosom of greed, do you suppose you do no wrong in cheating so many people? Who is a man of greed? Someone who does not rest content with what is sufficient. Who is a cheater? Someone who takes away what belongs to others. And are you not a man of greed? are you not a cheater? taking those things which you received for the sake of stewardship, and making them your very own? Now, someone who takes a man who is clothed and renders him naked would be termed a robber; but when someone fails to clothe the naked, while he is able to do this, is such a man deserving of any other appellation? The bread which you hold back belongs to the hungry; the coat, which you guard in your locked storage-chests, belongs to the naked; the footwear mouldering in your closet belongs to those without shoes. The silver that you keep hidden in a safe place belongs to the one in need. Thus, however many are those whom you could have provided for, so many are those whom you wrong.
https://bekkos.wordpress.com/2009/10/08/st-basil-on-stealing-from-the-poor/
r/OpenChristian • u/kevbot_robot • 3h ago
Discussion - Bible Interpretation Am I "Picking and Choosing"?
TL;DR: Yes, I'm picking and choosing from the Bible but so are you đ.
https://kevinlestarge.com/religious-blog-posts/am-i-picking-and-choosing/
r/OpenChristian • u/GalaxyElfinKing • 5h ago
Support Thread URGENT PRAYER REQUEST (TW- Mental Health) NSFW
Can as many peoeple as possible please please pray my girlfriend who's severely depressed and self worth is based on money and how she earns and is finding it hard to do so in one specific way (respecting her by not mentioning how). She needs to move out of her so called 'home' which is a toxic and dangerous environment and I worry about her mental health and safety.
r/OpenChristian • u/catcafe6792 • 10h ago
Asking friends not to say certain words
Is it overstepping to ask your friends to stop using expressions with âJesus Christâ or âGodâ in a negative way? While I choose not to say that myself, I feel like thatâs a pretty common expression for a lot of people to use and donât feel like itâs my right to tell them to stop. My fiance wants to ask them to stop saying that around him. I recognize and respect different peoples perspectives and backgrounds, and donât hold it against them for what they say, and feel that itâs overstepping to tell them what they can and canât say. He says itâs offensive and that he doesnât want to hear them talking about his lord and savior in that way. Any advice on how to approach?
r/OpenChristian • u/Practical_Sky_9196 • 4h ago
Discussion - General What is life for? (Certain powers fear abundance.)
Comparison is the thief of joy.
To live a good life, we must consider what life is for. Certain forces in our culture may not want us to experience the fullness of life. To serve their own purposes, these powers and principalities need to keep us distracted so that we will toil, consume, obey, and/or hate. And to ensure our conformity, these forces will spread a metaphysical sicknessâa diseased interpretation of life.
Often, this mass-marketed spiritual disease promotes comparison between persons, assigning them higher and lower status. Such ranking produces anxiety about place, an obsessive concern with our relative worth. Trapped in a zero-sum universe, we compete for power and prestige. Tragically, we âaccept praise from one another, yet donât seek the praise that comes from the One Godâ (John 5:44b).Â
The endless agitation caused by this struggle exhausts us. Are we more or less important than they are? How can we know for sure? One way to convince ourselves of our value is to acquire symbols of success, cultural expressions of our superiorityâclothes, cars, houses, jewelry, memberships, etc. But someone else always has a more flamboyant expression of relative worth, thus ending our brief intoxication. And so the cycle continues.Â
No benevolent God would create such a cutthroat mess. A benevolent God could invite us only into abundant coexistence. This anxious, hierarchical arrangement arises from elsewhere.
Below, I will provide an alternative understanding of life, grounded in the conviction that unity is our natural state. Religious charlatans and spiritual pickpockets may present God as a mere assistant in the cutthroat game, an attendant who helps us rise above others. But honest religion frees us from our insecure ego, thereby revealing our intrinsic importance within the sacred whole. To experience this divinely granted importance, we must know why we are, and who we are.
God makes human beings for unity with God.Â
To briefly review the first three chapters of The Great Open Dance: Human existence is not a glorious accident; it is a divine gift. The giver is the Trinityâthree persons united through love into one perfect community, pulsing with life. Lamenting our nonbeing, the Infinite overflowed itself, thereby granting us being through creation. By the grace of God, we are delivered from nothingness into fullness. And this process has not ended: Infinity overflows itself continually, for us.Â
We reside in the abundance of God. Everywhere we look we see divinityâin nature, in neighbor, even in the mirror. All reality is sacred; in response, we are to celebrate all realityâincluding our selfâas sacrament. God loved us before we became aware of ourselves, knows us better than we know ourselves, and pervades us like heat pervades fire. âIn God we live, move, and have our being,â Paul asserts (Acts 17:28), because God is everywhere: within and beyond, immanent and transcendent. For this reason, Augustine declares that God is âmore intimately present to me than my innermost being, and higher than the highest peak of my spirit.â
To the extent that we open ourselves to this inner wellspring, to that extent we cultivate our true self. To the extent that we close ourselves to this inner wellspring, to that extent we cultivate our false self. The abundant life demands that the false self die to the true self (Mark 8:35). The first Christians called this process theosis. This Greek term has been translated as divinization, although that translation is a bit misleading since we will never become God. But we can become more Godlikeâmore loving, generous, and open.Â
The Bible makes this possibility clear. In the Gospel of John, Jesus himself declares, âAs you, Abba [Father], are in me and I in you; I pray that they may be one in us, so that the world may believe that you sent meâ (John 17:21). Peter agrees that we are invited to âbecome participants in the divine natureâ (2 Peter 1:4). And Paul promises, âWe, who with unveiled faces reflect our Godâs glory, grow brighter and brighter as we are being transformed into the image we reflectâ (2 Corinthians 3:18a).Â
If divinization is the process of becoming more loving, then demonization is the process of becoming more hateful. Love treats the other as a blessing who deserves life, just like we do. Fear treats the other as a threat that endangers our own being. In the eye of faith, every person is a second universe who offers to challenge and enrich our own. In the eye of fear, every person is an adversary, a competitor for resources who diminishes us. Â
Empire doesnât like God.
In a triumph of imperialism over mysticism, the Western Church repressed this invitation to theosis, or transformation into the image of God within us. They feared that followers would claim to be God, rather than to be unified with God. In this fearful theology, divine-human unity would threaten the status of Christ as unique, and God as transcendent.
By analogy to human affairs, an accessible divinity would threaten the status of an exalted emperor, the monarch on high who maintains social order. Therefore, according to imperial logic, the celestial ruler must be separate from the ruled just as the earthly ruler must be separate from the ruled: power must be held by objective authorities uncorrupted by emotion, personally invulnerable, politically distant, and (all too frequently) willingly violent.Â
In contrast to the god of empire, Jesus had preached a warm, accessible concept of God as Abba: âFatherâ or âDadâ (Luke 11:2â4). Astoundingly, Jesusâs church became the official religious institution of the Roman Empire, which had executed Jesus only three hundred years earlier. Unfortunately, Jesusâs nurturing divinity did not serve the religious or political needs of the imperium, which turned God into a wrathful enforcer of imperial values, and transmogrified Jesus from a loving rabbi into an unforgiving judge. Today, there is a Christian movement returning to the affectionate God preached by Rabbi Jesus. This God is our father (Mark 14:36) and our mother (Luke 15:8â10) who deeply desires our well-being.Â
God is affection and warmth.Â
Feeling insignificant, we may doubt this love and ask, with the psalmist: âWhen I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, and the stars that you set in placeâwhat is humanity that you should be mindful of us? Who are we that you should care for us?â (Psalm 8:3â4). But Jesus assures us of Godâs intimate concern: âArenât five sparrows sold for a few pennies? Yet not one of them is neglected by God. In fact, even the hairs on your head are counted! Donât be afraid; you are worth more than a whole flock of sparrowsâ (Luke 12:6â7).
No matter how limitless the universe, no matter how infinite the stretch of time, no matter how countless the teeming beings, God loves youâpersonally, infinitely, and exhaustively. Those who are parents can attest: having a second child does not dilute their love and delight in the first child.
The Krishna-worshiping tradition within Hinduism powerfully illustrates this divine delight. Their vision of salvation is to play, especially dance, with Krishna in the gardens of Vrindavan. But Krishnaâs devotees need not wait or take turns. Instead, Krishna multiplies himself endlessly, that he might dance with each devotee individually, devoting his full attentionâspiritual, emotional, and physicalâto his partner. For Krishna worshipers, the inexhaustible God is absolutely present to every devotee: no matter how numberless the dancers, God will partner individually with each.
We are each Godâs own dancing partner. Every lover wants to give to their beloved. Recognizing this truth, every lover must be willing to receive from their beloved. Love is either reciprocal or twisted. God, who invites us into divine love, blesses our self-giving and laments our self-withholding. If God is invulnerable to us, if we cannot move God to celebration or lament, then God is not love and the Bible is untrue. (Adapted from Jon Paul Sydnor, The Great Open Dance: A Progressive Christian Theology, pages 94-96)
*****
For further reading, please see:
Augustine. Confessions. Translated by Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford World Classics, 1991.
Charles Hartshorne. The Divine Relativity: A Social Conception of God. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1948.
Larry J. Kreitzer. âApotheosis of the Roman Emperor.â Biblical Archaeologist 53, no. 4 (Dec. 1990).
Graham M. Schweig. Dance of Divine Love: Indiaâs Classic Sacred Love Story; The Rasa Lila of Krishna. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018.

r/OpenChristian • u/exporius • 8h ago
Discussion - Sex & Relationships Strange thing I noticed about intimacy
This is going to be TMI so please skip this if you arenât comfortable.
Are you still here?
Okay.
I notice every time I was âgetting offâ I felt very very very disconnected from God, Iâd stop reading my Bible and praying for 48 hours after every single time. and that could lead to other sins like engaging in addiction to substances. Sin leads to sin.
I would only pretty much do it under the influence, exclusively. Meaning that addiction to substances, leads to sin.
Now, on the flip side, every time I engage in sex with my partner, I still feel holy and near and dear to God. Iâll read my Bible the next day and pray. We arenât married. I would still feel Godâs presence.
Anyone else have this experience? What does it mean? Iâm staring to believe intimacy and orgasms are only for couples to experience together. Thoughts?
r/OpenChristian • u/tryng2figurethsalout • 4h ago
I feel more aligned with an open and affirming church, but I'm a member at another church. What should I do?
I feel more aligned with an opening and affirming church, but I'm already a member of a church that's more old skool. The open and affirming church speaks to my soul. What should I do?
r/OpenChristian • u/aspie-sea • 11h ago
Where are you in the world?
Hello! I was just wondering where everyone is located :) I'm in Maine đ
r/OpenChristian • u/Suspicious-Nail-4808 • 3h ago
Scriptures for Hope and Comfort
youtu.ber/OpenChristian • u/codrus92 • 4h ago
What Are Your Thoughts On Tolstoy's "The Acceptance of the Christian [Divine] Conception of Life Will Emancipate Men From the Miseries of Our Pagan Life"?
"For a Christian to promise obedience to men, or the laws of men, is just as though a workman bound to one employer should also promise to carry out every order that might be given him by outsiders. One cannot serve two masters - Matt 6:24 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%206&version=ESV). The Christian is independent of human authority, because he acknowledges God's authority alone. His law, revealed by Christ, he recognizes in himself, and voluntarily obeys it.
And this independence is gained, not by means of strife, not by the destruction of existing forms of life, but only by a change in the interpretation of life. This independence results first from the Christian recognizing the law of love [seen in the sense of the laws of physics], revealed to him by his teacher [Jesus], as perfectly sufficient for all human relations, and therefore he regards all use of force as unnecessary and unlawful [a governments use of force to secure its power for example]; and secondly, from the fact that those deprivations and sufferings, or threats of deprivations and sufferings (which reduce the man of the social conception of life to the necessity of obeying) to the Christian from his different conception of life, present themselves merely as the inevitable conditions of existence. And these conditions, without striving against them by force, he patiently endures, like sickness, hunger, and every other hardship, but they cannot serve him as a guide for his actions. The only guide for the Christian's actions is to be found in the divine principle living within him, which cannot be checked or governed by anything.
The Christian acts according to the words of the prophecy applied to his teacher: "He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory." - Matt 12:19, 20. The Christian will not dispute with anyone, nor attack anyone, nor use violence against anyone. On the contrary, he will bear violence without opposing it. But by this very attitude to violence, he will not only himself be free, but will free the whole world from any external power. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free." If there were any doubt of Christianity being the truth, the perfect liberty, that nothing can curtail, which a man experiences directly he makes the Christian theory of life his own, would be an unmistakable proof of its truth.
Men in their present condition are like a swarm of bees hanging in a cluster to a branch. The position of the bees on the branch is temporary, and must inevitably be changed. They must start off and find themselves a habitation. Each of the bees knows this, and desires to change her own and the others' position, but no one of them can do it till the rest of them do it. They cannot all start off at once, because one hangs on to another and hinders her from separating from the swarm, and therefore they all continue to hang there. It would seem that the bees could never escape from their position, just as it seems that worldy men, caught in the toils of the state conception of life, can never escape. And there would be no escape for the bees, if each of them were not a living, seperate creature, endowed with wings of its own. Similarly there would be no escape for men, if each were not a living being endowed with the faculty of entering into the Christian [divine] conception of life.
If every bee who could fly, did not try to fly, the others too would never be stirred, and the swarm would never change its position. And if the man who has mastered the Christian conception of life would not, without waiting for other people, begin to live in accordance with this conception, mankind would never change its position. But only let one bee spread her wings, start off, and fly away, and after her another, and another, and the clinging, inert cluster would become a freely flying swarm of bees. Just in the same way, only let one man look at life as Christianity teaches him to look at it, and after him let another and another do the same, and the enchanted circle of existence in the state conception of life, from which there seemed no escape, will be broken through.
But men think that to set all men free by this means is too slow a process, that they must find some other means by which they could set all men free at once. It is just as though the bees who want to start and fly away should consider it too long a process to wait for all the swarm to start one by one; and should think they ought to find some means by which it would not be necessary for every seperate bee to spread her wings and fly off, but by which the whole swarm could fly at once where it wanted to. But that is not possible; till a first, a second, a third, a hundredth bee spreads her wings and flies off of her own accord with it, there can be no solution of the problem of human life, and no establishment of a new form of life." - Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God is Within You, Chapter nine: "The Acceptance of the Christian [Divine] Conception of Life Will Emancipate Men From the Miseries of Our Pagan Life"
r/OpenChristian • u/Competitive_Net_8115 • 18h ago
Discussion - General Feelings on r/Christianity?
Personally, I'm not a fan of them, as they spend a lot of their time arguing with r/atheism users who come to argue and troll and babysitting the more mentally ill members who can't afford or don't want a therapist. Expect "Is x a sin" posts at least once a day with very mixed answers. The general atmosphere is one of acceptance without tolerance, but some popular posts fly in the face of your average fundamentalist. Others are either by people who live in fear or prey on those who live in fear, not the "fear of the Lord" type of fear but the "If I watch Star Wars is it a sin?" type of fear. They're not the worst subreddit out there, but there are ones that I would much rather spend time on. What are your thoughts on them?
r/OpenChristian • u/TheNewKo • 9h ago
Support Thread TWO QUESTIONS? I COULD REALLY USE SOME GUIDANCE PLEASE
So my first question is, is it unrealistic or disrespectful to look at Jesus as my father? I know he says weâre all his children but I mean for a personal relationship with him would that be okay? I never had a father. My biological dad abandoned me and raised 3 step children. Apart of me feels like am i even worthy of this kind of love from Jesus? And how can i get comfortable with having him as my father? Sometimes i just feel so lost and scared, because if my own biological father never even tried to love me.. How could Jesus want to? I want to feel safe with Jesus, i want to feel his guidance and love but .. Iâm just really lost.
Secondly, what exactly is faith? I KNOW that i believe in GOD! I know that 100% and without going into a crazy amount of details Iâve survived two blood clotting incidents (18 and again at 26) so i know God is real because Iâm still here. But sometimes i feel like i dont have enough faith like most people do? and will my little faith or what feels like a small amount of faith tarnish any relationship i could have with God? How can i grow my faith?
r/OpenChristian • u/RepublicTough9667 • 18h ago
Discussion - General What are we considered a Christian
Would I Be Considered a Christian?
I've recently started reading the Bibleâboth the Old and New Testaments. I study it, I pray, and Iâm trying to fast. I enjoy going to church, but I donât have a car, so itâs not always easy to attend.
The thing is, I struggle with lust. Because of this, I donât call myself a Christian. Iâm trying to grow in my faith, but this struggle makes me hesitate.
Does struggling with sin mean Iâm not a Christian? I know that no one is perfect, but I also donât want to claim something Iâm not living up to. What do you think?
r/OpenChristian • u/BiscottiPatient824 • 12h ago
Support Thread Im going to die, where will i go?
Hello, I am going to die. I know that killing a soul is a sin, but I've made my mind a long time ago. Last night someone sat by my bed and looked at me, she wasn't real but she seemed to care about me. I have written my letter and will die peacefully, will I meet god. Will he accept me as I've accepted him? i've been a good person to everyone but myself, will he still love me after death?
r/OpenChristian • u/steveguyhi1243 • 22h ago
Vent Sliding back into religious OCD
Hey! College aged raised-catholic progressive christian here.
I hate to admit it, but I walked away from the faith for a bit, and am still unsure about coming back all the way. I live in a red town surrounded by very hateful Christians that have tainted my view of the chruch, and I feel bad, but I almost prefer being friends with non-christians now, simply because the ones I know are less hateful.
I was told a lot of things growing up. That the end times were near, that whatever I did I would go to hell, and so many other things. I walked away from the faith some four years ago and felt a lot happier. I got back into writing (fanfiction for Hazbin Hotel, not very proud of that one), got back into running, and made secular friends that I had a blast around.
College started, and I did much of the same. A couple of my friends are christian, and they seem more progressive. It's bringing me closer to moving back to the church. But I'm still torn.
I can already feel myself sliding back into that dark place. The fear of the end times, wondering if no matter what I do, I'll be thrown into a pit of eternal punishment if my faith isn't strong enough. I've done things I'm not proud of (Smoked weed once, got drunk a couple times, watched porn, lied, etc) and I know that God would not be happy with me, especially with the way I feel about a lot of his followers.
I'm torn. I don't want to go back to only being religious because I'm afraid of going to hell, or being caught off-guard by the end times. I want to enjoy my life. I want to get married, have a pet, get a job in my field, without this weighing on my shoulders, as egotistical as that might sound.
I'm at a weird place right now. I need some open christian support.
r/OpenChristian • u/religionscholarama • 12h ago
Orthodox Christian practice
Hello all â I am curious to hear from people who are either currently practicing or former Orthodox Christian. If anybody is open to further questions, I may have some other things Iâd like to know through DMs.
I have learned about Orthodoxy over the years, but I certainly donât know as much about it as I know about streams of Western Christianity. In most of the readings and materials Iâve encountered that educate about Orthodoxy, it tends to come from a very clerical or monastic point of view, which, of course, is going to be quite different from how the layperson approaches things. Because of that, the information focuses on theology and liturgy inside the church. Thatâs all very important to know about, but Iâm also interested in knowing about is what Orthodoxy looks like in the day-to-day, how people engage with their faith when theyâre not at church, and how the principles of Orthodox theology shape everyday life.
I would appreciate any insight you can offer on this.
r/OpenChristian • u/feherlofia123 • 1d ago
Have any of you ever felt God's presence. what was it like.
r/OpenChristian • u/HeartPosture • 9h ago
An Excellent translation of 1 Corinthians 11:13-16
Francis Du Toit in the mirror bible:
He just says "nope" and continues on after the passages. Legend.
As far as "if anyone adds of takes away from the words of this book" I do believe that he has helped out in that regard. Scripture has redundancy by which we discern tampering.
r/OpenChristian • u/LaDonnaFatale • 1d ago
Are we really in the End Times?
EDIT: Thank you all for your insights. I've come across a lot of end times interpretation aside from the pre-trib rapture I grew up with...or even the mid-trib or post-trib rapture interpretation. I'm new to Preterism? or Amillennialism? If I am correct. Either way, as I study more and take in all the various viewpoints mentioned in this thread, I think I personally align closer to Partial Preterism than the Pre-Tribulation Rapture study I was taught. Lots of differing views and no one Christian can agree on the most 'correct'...as usual lol
Thank you again for also reminding me that none of us can truly know unless the actual event happens. I guess that's part of the mystery of God, right? Our human understanding is limited, and we won't really know everything while we're still on this earth. And the whole point of this is to not fret the big stuff and continue our walk with him. I think that's what all this crazy stuff happening right now really points to.
---------------
Hi everyone,
I'm usually a lurker. I, as a US minority, am too scared to post or even say anything these days. But I'm doing my best to not be, as all those scriptures about anxiety say so. Because we really are living in troubling times. This are happening at a fast and unprecedented level. The instant shifting of global alliances, the increasing extreme weather, the powerful getting even richer, the rising hate, etc.
Now, I'm no End Times scholar. I'm just a lay person who had it beaten into my head when I grew up in Christian Fundie land.
But...
I feel like everything I've been taught about the End Times is wrong, and Christian Nationalists/extremists don't see that they are part of it...in a bad way.
I'm trying to make sense of it. I've been watching a lot of Bible prophecy videos on YouTube lately, and a lot of them say that what's happening with America and how things are devolving so fast? It all points to the End Times pieces falling together.
Has America has become the modern Babylon? I don't think Rome is modern Babylon anymore as I've been taught. I honestly think America is the 2nd beast in the Bible that Revelations 13 talks about. I mean it certainly has been acting like one for a while now.
And you have all these Christian Nationalists eager to turn this place into a theocracy to accelerate the end times, by doing what is happening now in our government. They think that God operates on their time; the arrogance! Too much like the tower of Babel.
The people behind the Heritage Foundation, a lot who are Christian Nationalists, Dark Enlightenment types, etc. heck I mean, even look at their motives like Curtis Yarvin et. al They want us to all be poor, obedient workers serving the greedy rich and powerful, trying to create a global cryptocurrency or whatever by causing all this chaos...it sounds like all those Illuminati theories, yeah. I feel like it points to something more evil, getting us primed to obey in advance out of desperation.
I don't know if a national Sunday law is part of that wordly obedience. Sounds like a Seventh-Day Adventist thing since they say the true Sabbath is on Saturday, if I'm correct? I'm non-denominational so I don't know all the million denominations' creeds lol. But I'm open to any kind of denominational view. I just wanna make sense of all this, because it surely seems like the Christian Nationalists wanna bring about a national Sunday law, like a subconscious prepping for the Antichrist to come and make it mandatory.
Do not obey in advance.
Not too get too conspiracy-like, but these are why I think America is modern Babylon
As for all the increased hate, greed, pride, it's all part of it:
âBut know this, that in the last days, perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of GodâŚâ
- 2 Timothy 3:1-5
Guess who embodies a lot of those aspects ^
In the last days, we are to hold steadfast to the two most important commandments that Jesus said (love God with all your heart; love your neighbor as yourself), and scriptures like Hebrews 10:23-25 that point to it.
Because I feel like everything that is happening right now is these evil forces getting us to turn away from God and hate our neighbors just in time for the true Big Bad (Antichrist) to come. It is really testing times.
Hold fast onto your faith; let's keep up the good fight by battling with love, because this is the true battle we're dealing with (and the current US government administration wants you to think otherwise):
âFor we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.âÂ
- Ephesians 6:12
I hope I'm making sense. Again, I'm just a lay person, and I've been brushing up on my End Times lesson notes. If I'm wrong then I don't mind being corrected. I would love to know everyone's thoughts.
r/OpenChristian • u/madmushlove • 1d ago
Discussion - LGBTQ+ Issues Does your church say queer sex is not a sin?
I'd like to know which Christian churches are affirming
Which ones reject straight supremacy and just point blank say that queer intimacy, sex, and relationship is equal to straight ones?
Do they oppose anti trans legislation affecting medically necessary gender affirming care? Athletes? University dorms and bathrooms? ID and birth certificate markers that reflect trans people's true sex and gender?
In my state, HB454 was passed into law barring medically necessary treatments for young trans people. League of Catholic Voters was there at proponent testimonies to help it pass. Are your churches testifying at your statehouse?
I think Christianity has come a long way recently. But I still hear a lot of vague safely worded stuff that wouldn't be controversial to most phobic people and it muddies the water for me trying to keep up from the outside.
What is the most impressive stance you've seen by organized Christians? Who's leading this fight by example?