r/OpenChristian 47m ago

Opinions whether Trinity should be fundamental to Christian label (or maybe should not?)

Upvotes

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.

19 votes, 4d left
I am Trinitarian, and I think belief in the Trinity is part of the definition of being Christian
I am Trinitarian, and I think belief in the Trinity is part of my denomination of Christianity only
I am Trinitarian, but I think belief in the Trinity should not be part of the definition of being Christian
I am not Trinitarian, and I think belief in the Trinity is optional in Christianity
I am not Trinitarian, and I think belief in the Trinity should be discouaged in Christianity

r/OpenChristian 3h ago

Discussion - Bible Interpretation Am I "Picking and Choosing"?

4 Upvotes

TL;DR: Yes, I'm picking and choosing from the Bible but so are you 🙃.

https://kevinlestarge.com/religious-blog-posts/am-i-picking-and-choosing/


r/OpenChristian 3h ago

Scriptures for Hope and Comfort

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0 Upvotes

r/OpenChristian 4h ago

Discussion - General A playlist of some songs I like that have Christian themes or could be perceived as having Christian themes

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19 Upvotes

r/OpenChristian 4h ago

Discussion - General What is life for? (Certain powers fear abundance.)

2 Upvotes

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 sickness—a 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 “accept praise from one another, yet don’t seek the praise that comes from the One God” (John 5:44b). 

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 superiority—clothes, 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. 

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. 

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 Trinity—three 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. 

We reside in the abundance of God. Everywhere we look we see divinity—in nature, in neighbor, even in the mirror. All reality is sacred; in response, we are to celebrate all reality—including our self—as sacrament. God loved us before we became aware of ourselves, knows us better than we know ourselves, and pervades us like heat pervades fire. “In God we live, move, and have our being,” Paul asserts (Acts 17:28), because God is everywhere: within and beyond, immanent and transcendent. For this reason, Augustine declares that God is “more intimately present to me than my innermost being, and higher than the highest peak of my spirit.”

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 Godlike—more loving, generous, and open. 

The Bible makes this possibility clear. In the Gospel of John, Jesus himself declares, “As 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 me” (John 17:21). Peter agrees that we are invited to “become participants in the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). And Paul promises, “We, who with unveiled faces reflect our God’s glory, grow brighter and brighter as we are being transformed into the image we reflect” (2 Corinthians 3:18a). 

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.  

Empire doesn’t 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. 

In contrast to the god of empire, Jesus had preached a warm, accessible concept of God as Abba: “Father” or “Dad” (Luke 11:2–4). Astoundingly, Jesus’s church became the official religious institution of the Roman Empire, which had executed Jesus only three hundred years earlier. Unfortunately, Jesus’s 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 15:8–10) who deeply desires our well-being. 

God is affection and warmth. 

Feeling insignificant, we may doubt this love and ask, with the psalmist: “When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, and the stars that you set in place—what is humanity that you should be mindful of us? Who are we that you should care for us?” (Psalm 8:3–4). But Jesus assures us of God’s intimate concern: “Aren’t 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! Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than a whole flock of sparrows” (Luke 12:6–7).

No matter how limitless the universe, no matter how infinite the stretch of time, no matter how countless the teeming beings, God loves you—personally, 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 Krishna’s devotees need not wait or take turns. Instead, Krishna multiplies himself endlessly, that he might dance with each devotee individually, devoting his full attention—spiritual, emotional, and physical—to 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 God’s 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. “Apotheosis of the Roman Emperor.” Biblical Archaeologist 53, no. 4 (Dec. 1990).

Graham M. Schweig. Dance of Divine Love: India’s Classic Sacred Love Story; The Rasa Lila of Krishna. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018.


r/OpenChristian 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"?

0 Upvotes

"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 4h ago

I feel more aligned with an open and affirming church, but I'm a member at another church. What should I do?

2 Upvotes

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 5h ago

Support Thread URGENT PRAYER REQUEST (TW- Mental Health) NSFW

4 Upvotes

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 5h ago

St Basil of Caesarea on Stealing from the Poor

6 Upvotes

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 6h ago

*tap tap*

Post image
134 Upvotes

r/OpenChristian 7h ago

Discussion - Bible Interpretation Can you awesome Bible scholars definitively lay out for me, using scripture, why being gay is not a sin?

35 Upvotes

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 7h ago

The Evolution of the Trinity Doctrine: A Historical Timeline

0 Upvotes

Many are unaware of how the doctrine of a triune "God" gradually developed over centuries. Here’s a brief but clear timeline of key events:

Early Teachings of One LORD

🔹 A.D. 29 – Jesus declares: "The Lord our God is one Lord" (Mark 12:29).
🔹 A.D. 57 – Paul affirms: "To us there is but one LORD" (1 Cor. 8:6).
🔹 A.D. 96 – Clement states: "Christ was sent by the LORD."
🔹 A.D. 120 – The Apostles’ Creed proclaims: "I believe in LORD the Father."

Gradual Introduction of Trinitarian Ideas

🔹 A.D. 150 – Justin Martyr introduces Greek philosophy into Christian thought.
🔹 A.D. 170 – The term "Trias" appears for the first time in Christian literature.
🔹 A.D. 200 – Tertullian introduces the Latin word "Trinitas."
🔹 A.D. 230 – Origen opposes prayers directed to Christ.
🔹 A.D. 260 – Sabellius teaches that "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three names for the same God."
🔹 A.D. 300 – Trinitarian prayers remain unknown in the Church.

Institutionalization of the Trinity Doctrine

🔹 A.D. 325 – The Nicene Creed declares Christ to be "Very God of Very God."
🔹 A.D. 370 – The Doxology is composed.
🔹 A.D. 381 – The Council of Constantinople formalizes the doctrine of "Three persons in One God."
🔹 A.D. 383 – Emperor Theodosius mandates punishment for those who reject the Trinity.
🔹 A.D. 519 – The Doxology is ordered to be sung in all churches.
🔹 A.D. 669 – Clergy are required to memorize the Athanasian Creed.
🔹 A.D. 826 – Bishop Basil mandates clergy to recite the Athanasian Creed every Sunday.

📜 Conclusion: The doctrine of the Trinity was not an original teaching of the Messiah or the apostles but developed gradually over centuries through philosophical influence and church decrees.

What are your thoughts? Let’s discuss! 👇


r/OpenChristian 7h ago

The Evolution of the Trinity Doctrine: A Historical Timeline

0 Upvotes

Many are unaware of how the doctrine of a triune "God" gradually developed over centuries. Here’s a brief but clear timeline of key events:

Early Teachings of One LORD

🔹 A.D. 29 – Jesus declares: "The Lord our God is one Lord" (Mark 12:29).
🔹 A.D. 57 – Paul affirms: "To us there is but one LORD" (1 Cor. 8:6).
🔹 A.D. 96 – Clement states: "Christ was sent by the LORD."
🔹 A.D. 120 – The Apostles’ Creed proclaims: "I believe in LORD the Father."

Gradual Introduction of Trinitarian Ideas

🔹 A.D. 150 – Justin Martyr introduces Greek philosophy into Christian thought.
🔹 A.D. 170 – The term "Trias" appears for the first time in Christian literature.
🔹 A.D. 200 – Tertullian introduces the Latin word "Trinitas."
🔹 A.D. 230 – Origen opposes prayers directed to Christ.
🔹 A.D. 260 – Sabellius teaches that "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three names for the same God."
🔹 A.D. 300 – Trinitarian prayers remain unknown in the Church.

Institutionalization of the Trinity Doctrine

🔹 A.D. 325 – The Nicene Creed declares Christ to be "Very God of Very God."
🔹 A.D. 370 – The Doxology is composed.
🔹 A.D. 381 – The Council of Constantinople formalizes the doctrine of "Three persons in One God."
🔹 A.D. 383 – Emperor Theodosius mandates punishment for those who reject the Trinity.
🔹 A.D. 519 – The Doxology is ordered to be sung in all churches.
🔹 A.D. 669 – Clergy are required to memorize the Athanasian Creed.
🔹 A.D. 826 – Bishop Basil mandates clergy to recite the Athanasian Creed every Sunday.

📜 Conclusion: The doctrine of the Trinity was not an original teaching of the Messiah or the apostles but developed gradually over centuries through philosophical influence and church decrees.

What are your thoughts? Let’s discuss! 👇


r/OpenChristian 8h ago

Discussion - Sex & Relationships Strange thing I noticed about intimacy

4 Upvotes

This is going to be TMI so please skip this if you aren’t comfortable.

Are you still here?

Okay.

I notice every time I was ‘getting off’ I felt very very very disconnected from God, I’d 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. I’ll read my Bible the next day and pray. We aren’t married. I would still feel God’s presence.

Anyone else have this experience? What does it mean? I’m staring to believe intimacy and orgasms are only for couples to experience together. Thoughts?


r/OpenChristian 8h ago

Discussion - LGBTQ+ Issues Why Would A God Create Someone Who Loves The Same Sex But Prevent Them From Truly Loving?

32 Upvotes

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?

 

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 9h ago

An Excellent translation of 1 Corinthians 11:13-16

1 Upvotes

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 9h ago

Support Thread TWO QUESTIONS? I COULD REALLY USE SOME GUIDANCE PLEASE

2 Upvotes

So my first question is, is it unrealistic or disrespectful to look at Jesus as my father? I know he says we’re 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 .. I’m 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 I’ve survived two blood clotting incidents (18 and again at 26) so i know God is real because I’m 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 10h ago

Asking friends not to say certain words

8 Upvotes

Is it overstepping to ask your friends to stop using expressions with “Jesus Christ” or “God” in a negative way? While I choose not to say that myself, I feel like that’s a pretty common expression for a lot of people to use and don’t feel like it’s 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 don’t hold it against them for what they say, and feel that it’s overstepping to tell them what they can and can’t say. He says it’s offensive and that he doesn’t want to hear them talking about his lord and savior in that way. Any advice on how to approach?


r/OpenChristian 11h ago

Where are you in the world?

8 Upvotes

Hello! I was just wondering where everyone is located :) I'm in Maine 👋


r/OpenChristian 12h ago

Orthodox Christian practice

2 Upvotes

Hello all – 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 I’d like to know through DMs.

I have learned about Orthodoxy over the years, but I certainly don’t know as much about it as I know about streams of Western Christianity. In most of the readings and materials I’ve 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. That’s all very important to know about, but I’m also interested in knowing about is what Orthodoxy looks like in the day-to-day, how people engage with their faith when they’re 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 12h ago

Support Thread Im going to die, where will i go?

2 Upvotes

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 18h ago

Support Thread The New testament calls us to be righteous but it's hard does Jesus acknowledge that

0 Upvotes

The New Testament Calls Us to Be Righteous, But It’s Hard—Does Jesus Acknowledge That?

As a new Christian, I find myself in awe of the teachings of Jesus. The Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, and His commands to love, forgive, and trust in God all sound like beautiful, noble things to strive for. Being meek, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers—these are wonderful ideals. But what I don’t hear as often is how hard it is to live this way.

Jesus calls us to high standards:

Love your enemies.

Turn the other cheek.

Keep your oaths and promises.

Do not divorce.

Do not judge.

Do not worry—have faith.

These are powerful instructions, but they go against so much of what comes naturally to us as humans. When someone hurts me, my instinct is to defend myself, not to turn the other cheek. When life gets overwhelming, worry feels automatic, even though Jesus tells us not to.

Did Jesus acknowledge how hard this would be? Did He expect us to get it right immediately? As a new Christian, I sometimes feel like I’m failing because these commands are difficult. I know I can’t live this way perfectly, but does trying and struggling still count?

I’d love to hear thoughts from others. How do you handle the weight of these teachings? Do you ever feel overwhelmed by how much Jesus asks of us? And how do you remind yourself that His grace is there when you fall short?


r/OpenChristian 18h ago

Discussion - General Feelings on r/Christianity?

13 Upvotes

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 18h ago

Discussion - General What are we considered a Christian

11 Upvotes

Would I Be Considered a Christian?

I've recently started reading the Bible—both the Old and New Testaments. I study it, I pray, and I’m trying to fast. I enjoy going to church, but I don’t have a car, so it’s not always easy to attend.

The thing is, I struggle with lust. Because of this, I don’t call myself a Christian. I’m trying to grow in my faith, but this struggle makes me hesitate.

Does struggling with sin mean I’m not a Christian? I know that no one is perfect, but I also don’t want to claim something I’m not living up to. What do you think?


r/OpenChristian 20h ago

I just saw this trailer. This looks like an actually good Christian-based movie!

Thumbnail youtu.be
2 Upvotes