Greetings --- my beliefs

[agricola]

Oh was that a 'please discuss' question? I thought it was an introduction statement.

Sorry.

[ena]

1. The Israelites brought Satan home with them from dualistic Babylon.
2. There is no Trinity. The Spirit of Holiness is not a "person."
3. No "eternal existence" for those who "die in their sins." Only annihilation.

1. No society is monolithic. There were probably some keeping the old ways. I have seen offerings in Hawaii. There are some signs old practitioners are still alive. Samaritans practice a form of Judaism that they claim to have had before the Babylonian captivity. The Jews in Jesus's day did not consider them quite right. Probably still true today. I saw a documentary on this. There are still spooky people in New Orleans. Even the CoC is more varied many members think. I have seen it first hand. Every society has its underground. My son has worked as a PI. There are places on the underbelly of San Francisco you would not believe.
2. Not every Christian believes in the Trinity. I question whether the COC does. I have heard talk about the nature of god very much the same. You can look at man as such: Body, soul and spirit. The Nicean creed comes very close but it does not use the word trinity. I don't presume to tell the holy spirit what it is and is not when it just is. Much like God. I don't know that we are even capable of understanding.
3. We will know or not when we get there. Dante did a real disservice to the church. His concept of Hell is different from what you will find in the Bible. He did write his Divine Comedy. Some took him seriously. God works even with sinners. Even those that attempt perfection fall short. The key is attitude. For those that reject him it is hard to say what will happen. The Bible is full of allegories. Somethings are spiritual in nature. A perfect example is baptism. It's a physical reality for a spiritual work. Many in Church of Christ remain concrete in their thinking. I used to be one of them. God has no need to endless torture of anyone. He doesn't have a sick ego need. The unbeliever is yesterday's garbage. That is God's problem. He can haul the garbage or recycle. No matter what I think it's his choice.

[DAC]

You may have to wait more than 2 hours for someone to respond before declaring this a "dying board."

And yeah, I imagine you might've thought you dropped a bombshell on us, but the truth of the matter is that there are all kinds of us exers. Some of us just decided we were OK with musical instruments and went to the next best fundamentalist church. Some of us are Preterists. Some of us are Catholic. Some of us are gay. Some of us are Republicans. Some of us are atheists. Some of us are Muslim. Some of us are just like you. Some of us are nothing like you.

So yeah, you'd have to drop a pretty big bombshell to get the shock and debate that I suspect you were looking for.

Welcome.

Wasn't looking for "shock and awe." But--no different than most CofC'ers--you look for the worst in people.

[DAC]

To go to the discussion board (between coc members and past/non-members):
Start at the portal to the main site:

h**p://www.ex-churchofchrist.com/index.htm


then click through to the 'dialog' page:

h**p://www.ex-churchofchrist.com/Bulletin.htm

and THEN - there are two links to discussion board, link a leads to this board (the support board) and link b leads to the dialog board between coc members and former members - assuming it works -

- I was having trouble with it yesterday -


Hmmm -

teresa: the link to the discussion board from the main portal appears to be broken.

But you can go directly to it HERE:

h**p://members.usafreeforum.com/

Just replace all those ** with tt.

I go to that link--this is what I get:

"The specified username is currently inactive. If you have problems activating your account, please contact a board administrator."

[agricola]

You have to 'join' separately (that is, a username/password on the support board won't necessarily get you into the discussion board).

But if you get a message like that, it is possible that someone else has used that name in the past - I'll bump your quandary up to an administrator and see what happens.

That board is not nearly as active as this one, by the way - and has a fondness for discussions about the precise nano-second at which one is 'saved' during baptism by immersion and there is currently a pretty good thread going - discussing the Book of Romans. What did Paul REALLY mean?

[DAC]

Thanks.

[agricola]

word from the admin -

DAC

should click on the link that was sent (email) to activate her account. She needs to check her trash in case the link went directly to her trash.

That would be the email account used to create your account - and a return email might have been shunted to your junk folder.

[KLP]

I am reminded of the songs "Throw Out The Life Line" and "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning".

[Ivy]

"Let the Lower Lights Be Burning".

....send a gleam across the way.....

some poor fainting, struggling seaman
you may rescue, you may save.