What brought me here?
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I suppose it is about time I gave you my story and the reason I, as a Christian Minister, am on a Muslim forum.
I was born in London, England, so was automatically baptised into the Church of England because my mother was not religious and my father had been brought up in the church. Growing up, I didn't go to church much but felt more spiritual than religious, as a child I was told that Jesus loved children so I naturally loved him back. I had a reasonably good childhood, but grew up to be a bit of a problem, always getting into trouble, not big trouble just stupid things. Then I joined the Royal Navy. That changed my life. A few years after I left the Navy, my father died.
My father was my hero in life and my mentor. When he died I lost direction etc. I started to look for answers, one way was to turn to religion. I had many Jewish friends and a few Muslim friends, but most were Christian. I went to the local Catholic church, then to the Synagogue, then to a Mosque. The Catholics scared me, the Jews did most in Hebrew which I did not understand and the Muslims did most in Arabic which I also don't understand and were not very welcoming. So I tuned back to what I knew - the Church of England.
To cut this long story short. I became ordained as an Anglican Priest but soon fell out with my Bishop over my non belief in the trinity and left the church. I went to University and eventually obtained a PhD in Astrophysics eventually moving to the USA. Some years ago, I was talking religion with some friends and explaining to them my free-thinking ideas and they asked me to start the church that I now have. My beliefs basically are
- There is one God and one God only, the creator and father of all.
- You can call God ?God?, ?Allah?, or whatever you want, He doesn?t mind what you call him ?just as long as you call him?.
- God made us in His spiritual image, not physical image. Why would He need two arms and two legs etc if He is the Supreme Being?
- I believe that God gave us the ability to choose, think, make our own decisions, laugh, cry, make jokes, sing, dance, make music, etc. so any religious restrictions on these are going against God?s gifts to us.
- God is not just the God of love. He is love. God loves us unconditionally and will forgive us almost anything providing we recognize we have done wrong and have the ability to forgive others. God cannot forgive you if you cannot forgive yourself. All God wants is for us to love Him unconditionally back.
- I do not care if Mary was a virgin or not. I do not care if Joseph was the biological father of Jesus or not it makes no difference to the message Jesus gave.
- I believe that Jesus was chosen and given his message by God ? that God considered this message important and wanted us all to listen to it and act accordingly.
- I do not believe in hell. If God is our father, then what father would condemn his children to hell Eternal damnation, etc.?
- If I do not believe in hell, then I cannot justify believing in the devil as anything other than just a being that tests our beliefs.
- I cannot accept the traditional view of the trinity. I do not accept that Jesus was God in flesh. If he was then why would he go off into the desert many times a day to pray to himself?
- The Holy Spirit is God?s influence within us all not a separate being that has a separate job from God.
- I do not care if Jesus died on the cross or whether he survived and left the area with Mary Magdalene to start a new life. I do not care if Jesus was married or not. It makes no difference to the message Jesus gave and it is the message that is so much more important.
- I do not believe in praying to or through anyone or anything. I only believe in praying directly to God.
- I do not believe in saints, patron saints, or any other system that elevates any human to a pseudo or lesser-god. Humans are humans, nothing else.
- I believe that praying to Mary or saying ?Mary mother of God? is a direct contravention of the first commandment.
- I believe that kneeling down in front of a statue of no matter who is a direct contravention of the second commandment.
- God does speak to us! Not necessarily with a voice, but more often with action. Remember that day you couldn?t find your car keys or couldn?t start the car - and later found there had been an accident on your route to work? Or some similar event?
- I believe that God answers every prayer, but not necessarily in the way we want.
- I do not believe that God is on our side in any war anymore than he is on the other side.
- No one ever sought God in vain!
- If you think love; then love will surround you. If you think ill-will; then ill-will will surround you.
- Fear is the biggest evil in the world; it spawns arguments, wars, and every temptation that is traditionally attributed to the devil.
- God guides us and teaches us, we just choose not to listen.
- I believe in God our Father, Saviour, Redeemer, and Friend and in God?s love.
I also believe that all the religions of the world believe basically the same thing, so we should all be together as one under God but thought it would be impossible because of what I had heard about Muslims wanting to kill all Christians because they classed us as non-believers. Most of the Muslims I knew were non-practicing so I believed it all. I decided to buy an English translation of the Quran and found that it doesn't really say that. Then I found this site and discovered most of you believe the same as me.
So here I am.
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Welcome to the forum
Personally, I have come to the understanding that it isn't what group you identify with that matters, but what your core beliefs are, and even more importantly, your interest in trying to understand and make a connection with this God, whatever its nature is.Peace and God bless you on your spiritual journey
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welcome
Good to have you here. There need to be more Christians like you. In fact, one could consider you a Muslim (one who submits to God alone).
Peace
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welcome
Good to have you here. There need to be more Christians like you. In fact, one could consider you a Muslim (one who submits to God alone).
Peace
I suppose, if you look at the true meaning of the words, then I am a Muslim as are most Jews and like minded Christians
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I suppose, if you look at the true meaning of the words, then I am a Muslim as are most Jews and like minded Christians
I guess so D
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I suppose it is about time I gave you my story and the reason I, as a Christian Minister, am on a Muslim forum.
I was born in London, England, so was automatically baptised into the Church of England because my mother was not religious and my father had been brought up in the church. Growing up, I didn't go to church much but felt more spiritual than religious, as a child I was told that Jesus loved children so I naturally loved him back. I had a reasonably good childhood, but grew up to be a bit of a problem, always getting into trouble, not big trouble just stupid things. Then I joined the Royal Navy. That changed my life. A few years after I left the Navy, my father died.
My father was my hero in life and my mentor. When he died I lost direction etc. I started to look for answers, one way was to turn to religion. I had many Jewish friends and a few Muslim friends, but most were Christian. I went to the local Catholic church, then to the Synagogue, then to a Mosque. The Catholics scared me, the Jews did most in Hebrew which I did not understand and the Muslims did most in Arabic which I also don't understand and were not very welcoming. So I tuned back to what I knew - the Church of England.
To cut this long story short. I became ordained as an Anglican Priest but soon fell out with my Bishop over my non belief in the trinity and left the church. I went to University and eventually obtained a PhD in Astrophysics eventually moving to the USA. Some years ago, I was talking religion with some friends and explaining to them my free-thinking ideas and they asked me to start the church that I now have. My beliefs basically are
- There is one God and one God only, the creator and father of all.
- You can call God ?God?, ?Allah?, or whatever you want, He doesn?t mind what you call him ?just as long as you call him?.
- God made us in His spiritual image, not physical image. Why would He need two arms and two legs etc if He is the Supreme Being?
- I believe that God gave us the ability to choose, think, make our own decisions, laugh, cry, make jokes, sing, dance, make music, etc. so any religious restrictions on these are going against God?s gifts to us.
- God is not just the God of love. He is love. God loves us unconditionally and will forgive us almost anything providing we recognize we have done wrong and have the ability to forgive others. God cannot forgive you if you cannot forgive yourself. All God wants is for us to love Him unconditionally back.
- I do not care if Mary was a virgin or not. I do not care if Joseph was the biological father of Jesus or not it makes no difference to the message Jesus gave.
- I believe that Jesus was chosen and given his message by God ? that God considered this message important and wanted us all to listen to it and act accordingly.
- I do not believe in hell. If God is our father, then what father would condemn his children to hell Eternal damnation, etc.?
- If I do not believe in hell, then I cannot justify believing in the devil as anything other than just a being that tests our beliefs.
- I cannot accept the traditional view of the trinity. I do not accept that Jesus was God in flesh. If he was then why would he go off into the desert many times a day to pray to himself?
- The Holy Spirit is God?s influence within us all not a separate being that has a separate job from God.
- I do not care if Jesus died on the cross or whether he survived and left the area with Mary Magdalene to start a new life. I do not care if Jesus was married or not. It makes no difference to the message Jesus gave and it is the message that is so much more important.
- I do not believe in praying to or through anyone or anything. I only believe in praying directly to God.
- I do not believe in saints, patron saints, or any other system that elevates any human to a pseudo or lesser-god. Humans are humans, nothing else.
- I believe that praying to Mary or saying ?Mary mother of God? is a direct contravention of the first commandment.
- I believe that kneeling down in front of a statue of no matter who is a direct contravention of the second commandment.
- God does speak to us! Not necessarily with a voice, but more often with action. Remember that day you couldn?t find your car keys or couldn?t start the car - and later found there had been an accident on your route to work? Or some similar event?
- I believe that God answers every prayer, but not necessarily in the way we want.
- I do not believe that God is on our side in any war anymore than he is on the other side.
- No one ever sought God in vain!
- If you think love; then love will surround you. If you think ill-will; then ill-will will surround you.
- Fear is the biggest evil in the world; it spawns arguments, wars, and every temptation that is traditionally attributed to the devil.
- God guides us and teaches us, we just choose not to listen.
- I believe in God our Father, Saviour, Redeemer, and Friend and in God?s love.
I also believe that all the religions of the world believe basically the same thing, so we should all be together as one under God but thought it would be impossible because of what I had heard about Muslims wanting to kill all Christians because they classed us as non-believers. Most of the Muslims I knew were non-practicing so I believed it all. I decided to buy an English translation of the Quran and found that it doesn't really say that. Then I found this site and discovered most of you believe the same as me.
So here I am.
Wow! you got Phd in astrophysics! hail hail bravo bravo handshake ...My ambition is to become an astrophysicist muscle
peace
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Peace
Firsty, welcome to the forum
I am glad that you decided to introduce yourself and let us learn more about you.
That is quite a story. I'm glad that it lead you here.We need more sites like this
This site is quite a hidden gem. If you know anyone who would be interested in joing this online community, then please spread the word.
God bless
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Why? Lots of Astophysicists, not many jobs.
Because it is very interesting wow
peace
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I started wondering about space when i was about 8 years old and I got introduced to astrophysics when I was 12,...I am 14 this year! angel
peace
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Peace
Firsty, welcome to the forum
I am glad that you decided to introduce yourself and let us learn more about you.
That is quite a story. I'm glad that it lead you here.This site is quite a hidden gem. If you know anyone who would be interested in joing this online community, then please spread the word.
God bless
I'm glad it lead me here too. I have learned that all Muslims are not like the ones we see on TV. I have also come to the conclution that Muslims like you, Christians like me and reformed Jews should be together fighting (well not physically) the bigots and liers in all religions.
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I started wondering about space when i was about 8 years old and I got introduced to astrophysics when I was 12,...I am 14 this year! angel
peace
Well I wish you luck with your sudies, it is hard but very rewarding. I think you will enjoy it once you learn to look past the maths
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Well I wish you luck with your sudies, it is hard but very rewarding. I think you will enjoy it once you learn to look past the maths
I thank you for your kind advice, May god reward you! pr
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A bit late to welcome you, as you are quite established on the forum, but, nevertheless, welcome knowing you and thanks for the introduction about yourself, which is almost axactly what I, and many, relate to. I say "almost" because I may differ on one point. But leave the discussion now and let's just welcome you... handshake
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A bit late to welcome you, as you are quite established on the forum, but, nevertheless, welcome knowing you and thanks for the introduction about yourself, which is almost axactly what I, and many, relate to. I say "almost" because I may differ on one point. But leave the discussion now and let's just welcome you... handshake
I am interested, on what point do you differ? You may be right.
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I am interested, on what point do you differ? You may be right.
I did not want to derail the thread; but it's this point
- I do not believe in hell. If God is our father, then what father would condemn his children to hell Eternal damnation, etc.?
If one believes in paradise, hell is the balance for justice. If all students get an A, isn't this unfair on the hard workers? Don't parents punish their children? Some people turn the lives of others into hell for no reason, why would hell be too much for them? How would it be fair that all go to paradise?
This is also my argument against believing that hell and paradise/punishment and reward do not exist (non belief in the hereafter).