What do you wish non-Christians understood about your religion?

[Machine_Washable]

What are things you believe non-Christians often misunderstand about Christianity?

[Dennis Tate]

5 minutes ago, Machine_Washable said:

What are things you believe non-Christians often misunderstand about Christianity?

From around 1966 or '67 I was an Atheist....

By 1972 or 1973 I became involved with a church that taught Soul Sleep in a very dogmatic manner..... ( and we were also guilty of exaggerated accusations against Roman Catholics.... I plead guilty myself, The Worldwide Church of God was my church back then ), ....  when I began to read near death experience accounts in 1990 I immediately began to compare these accounts with the Roman Catholic idea of Purgatory......

I am now at the place where i feel that Roman Catholics happen to have one of the most accurate doctrines about what happens to each of us after we die and I believe that Jesus in his immortal and resurrected form wants me to admit to what I did wrong toward other Christians so that the level of love and Shalom can be increased......

 

I noticed that you are Muslim and therefore I think that it is appropriate that I believe that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), may have had a near death experience in which he met his great, great, great grandfather Abraham who said to him ..... "good son and good prophet" ......  This is exactly what the Prophet Abraham would say to the Prophet Muhammad after he did his Life Review with Messiah Yeshua - Jesus and anybody else who Jesus wanted him to meet during his Life Review......

Non-Christians have noticed that we Christians are in a continual war over various doctrines and if we will begin to give each other some credit across denominational lines the level of peace on earth will be increased.... The near death experience account of little Colton Burpo has the power to unite Christians of all denominations as well as with Muslims and Jews.... who are studying these near death experience accounts that i believe fit perfectly with 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 ....

"I know a man in Christ above fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I know not, or out of the body, I know not; God knoweth), such a one caught up to the third heaven. [3] And I know such a man (whether in the body, or out of the body, I know not: God knoweth), [4] That he was caught up into paradise, and heard secret words, which it is not granted to man to utter"

Many Muslims also meet Messiah Issa / Jesus / Yeshua when they have a near death experience and the doctrines that Muslims teach about Issa / Jesus prepare them to accept Him as Messiah and once they do Muslims tend to become fearless like Paul was!

 

 

[chrysostom]

17 hours ago, Machine_Washable said:

What are things you believe non-Christians often misunderstand about Christianity?

I wish there were less contempt and lack of good will floating around. It's all too easy to make conversation with your peers complaining about those other people when they aren't in front of you. Sometimes Christians are those other people that are cool to hate on, and Christianity the boogeyman of the secular progressive professional partying class in my city. (I've seen this kind of thing amongst Christians, too, obviously, and also in myself. Doesn't cost anything to be uplifting and to look for the best in people, but it's somehow always easier to complain.)

It's fine not to like people, but to treat them as a bag full of beliefs or political positions you hate - that we could stand to do less of.

I know that really didn't answer your question, so I'll try again:

I think any non-Christian could do with taking a few minutes, or a few hours, to read a brief summary of the main points of doctrine as we ourselves understand it. Before I was Catholic I "debated" some Catholic people online a long time ago. I never really read the sources they sent me, I just learned what I knew of Catholic teaching from hostile sources. That's a silly way to learn, factually, what we believe.

[Machine_Washable]

4 hours ago, chrysostom said:

I wish there were less contempt and lack of good will floating around. It's all too easy to make conversation with your peers complaining about those other people when they aren't in front of you. Sometimes Christians are those other people that are cool to hate on, and Christianity the boogeyman of the secular progressive professional partying class in my city. (I've seen this kind of thing amongst Christians, too, obviously, and also in myself. Doesn't cost anything to be uplifting and to look for the best in people, but it's somehow always easier to complain.)

It's fine not to like people, but to treat them as a bag full of beliefs or political positions you hate - that we could stand to do less of.

I know that really didn't answer your question, so I'll try again:

I think any non-Christian could do with taking a few minutes, or a few hours, to read a brief summary of the main points of doctrine as we ourselves understand it. Before I was Catholic I "debated" some Catholic people online a long time ago. I never really read the sources they sent me, I just learned what I knew of Catholic teaching from hostile sources. That's a silly way to learn, factually, what we believe.

Thank you for your answer. Why do you think there is this lack of good will and is there a summary that you would recommend?

[Machine_Washable]

23 hours ago, Dennis Tate said:

From around 1966 or '67 I was an Atheist....

By 1972 or 1973 I became involved with a church that taught Soul Sleep in a very dogmatic manner..... ( and we were also guilty of exaggerated accusations against Roman Catholics.... I plead guilty myself, The Worldwide Church of God was my church back then ), ....  when I began to read near death experience accounts in 1990 I immediately began to compare these accounts with the Roman Catholic idea of Purgatory......

I am now at the place where i feel that Roman Catholics happen to have one of the most accurate doctrines about what happens to each of us after we die and I believe that Jesus in his immortal and resurrected form wants me to admit to what I did wrong toward other Christians so that the level of love and Shalom can be increased......

 

I noticed that you are Muslim and therefore I think that it is appropriate that I believe that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), may have had a near death experience in which he met his great, great, great grandfather Abraham who said to him ..... "good son and good prophet" ......  This is exactly what the Prophet Abraham would say to the Prophet Muhammad after he did his Life Review with Messiah Yeshua - Jesus and anybody else who Jesus wanted him to meet during his Life Review......

Non-Christians have noticed that we Christians are in a continual war over various doctrines and if we will begin to give each other some credit across denominational lines the level of peace on earth will be increased.... The near death experience account of little Colton Burpo has the power to unite Christians of all denominations as well as with Muslims and Jews.... who are studying these near death experience accounts that i believe fit perfectly with 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 ....

"I know a man in Christ above fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I know not, or out of the body, I know not; God knoweth), such a one caught up to the third heaven. [3] And I know such a man (whether in the body, or out of the body, I know not: God knoweth), [4] That he was caught up into paradise, and heard secret words, which it is not granted to man to utter"

Many Muslims also meet Messiah Issa / Jesus / Yeshua when they have a near death experience and the doctrines that Muslims teach about Issa / Jesus prepare them to accept Him as Messiah and once they do Muslims tend to become fearless like Paul was!

 

 

Thank you for your answer. Just for the record, Prophet Muhammad (SWT) did not have a near death experience when he was commanded to recite. Sira literature is not revelation. So there is a lot we do not know. Some accounts did say that he was sleeping. But most say he was just in a spiritual retreat.

This idea of a near death experience seems very important to you. Is there a reason for that?

 

[Peace]

On 11/15/2021 at 5:48 AM, Machine_Washable said:

What are things you believe non-Christians often misunderstand about Christianity?

No idea but there does seem to be this perception out there among many Protestants that Catholics are a bunch of people scrupulously trying to earn our way into heaven by reciting the rosary and other things.

[dominicansoul]

That our beliefs aren't negotiable.  They demand we change with the current status quo...

[MIKolbe]

They also demand we change ourselves....

[rachael]

6 hours ago, MIKolbe said:

They also demand we change ourselves....

you're smarter than you look

[Anomaly]

I wish people would just learn their religion. 
I was just harangued (yeti again) by a “Catholic” about my anti-abortion and freedom of religion opinion.  
In my unique venn diagram  of people I interact with, it is the Catholics that most fiercely defend abortion and are okay with government oversight of churches.   

Come on, be a pagan or a Universalist or something more accurate to what you believe.

And whatever you are, does it ‘really’ want you to be a jerk about it?

[Dennis Tate]

On 11/16/2021 at 6:23 AM, Machine_Washable said:

Thank you for your answer. Just for the record, Prophet Muhammad (SWT) did not have a near death experience when he was commanded to recite. Sira literature is not revelation. So there is a lot we do not know. Some accounts did say that he was sleeping. But most say he was just in a spiritual retreat.

This idea of a near death experience seems very important to you. Is there a reason for that?

 

Yes... there is an exceptionally well written article asserting that the out of the body experience of the Prophet Muhammad, (peace be upon him) sure does sound a lot like a near death experience account in many ways.

This article has a lot of potential to assist Muslims and Christians to understand each other better and cooperate more. 

 

https://near-death.com/islam/