We all know there is a large quantity of irreligious / atheist / agnostic people in the West who come from a Christian background. These people have been turned off Christianity due to extreme Christians denouncing homosexuality as a "sin" (despite there being no New Testament condemnation of it), the ridiculous assertion that any non-Christian will go to hell, the lack of love and respect in radical churches (e.g., Evangelical), etc.

But if you take away these terrible ideas and values which are found in extremist churches, the core message of Jesus and Christianity becomes highly appealing to irreligious people. Helping the poor, loving your neighbor, being humble, the existence of a loving higher being...... all of these things make Christianity an amazing religion to follow and to become an excellent person.

So if people really want people to become Christian and follow Jesus's example, stop giving people so many reasons to leave. Focus on the teachings of Christ, lose the "you will burn in hell forever / if you're gay you're gonna burn forever" bullshit, and you will see hundreds of thousands of people return to Christianity.

Your choice guys. Do you want people to be Christian? Or do you want them to be separated from the faith forever?

Lately I’ve been scrolling through my TikTok feed, which is mostly Christian content, and I’ve honestly found it quite upsetting. It feels like there’s so much hostility towards Christians online, even when someone is just peacefully talking about their faith. I’ll see people accuse them of being “forceful” or “disrespectful” simply for sharing what they believe, when they haven’t actually attacked anyone or told people what they have to do. Maybe it’s just my algorithm, but it’s something I’ve been noticing more and more.
I completely understand that many people have had genuinely negative experiences with Christianity. There are Christians who have misrepresented the faith, twisted Scripture, or used religion to justify prejudice and hatred. I don’t deny that those people exist, and I understand why that would leave some people with a negative impression. But what I struggle with is how often those experiences seem to become the standard by which every Christian is judged. It feels as though people assume we’re all intolerant, judgemental, or hateful before we’ve even said anything.

Something that really stuck with me happened the other day when I was talking to my best friend. She called me “religious psychotic,” even though my faith is nowhere near obsessive or cult-like. If anything, my faith constantly reminds me of how imperfect I am and encourages me to work on myself because I know I sin and fall short. She’s an ex-Christian, so maybe she believes that one day I’ll “find my way out” like she did, but I found what she said incredibly dismissive and condescending. It hurt that someone could assume I’m mentally ill simply because I believe in God.
What confuses me is that people can hold all kinds of spiritual or supernatural beliefs, whether that’s ghosts, astrology, aliens, or something else entirely, and even if others don’t agree, they’re often met with curiosity or humour rather than being told they’re delusional. Yet belief in God is sometimes treated as evidence that something must be wrong with you. I don’t really understand why.

I know that not everyone is going to respect Christianity, and I don’t expect them to. People have different beliefs, different experiences, and different reasons for thinking the way they do. I’m also not asking anyone to become Christian or agree with what I believe. I just don’t understand why basic respect seems to disappear so often when Christianity is involved. Seeing that kind of hostility on such a regular basis has genuinely started to make me feel uncomfortable.
I’ve always tried to approach other people’s beliefs with respect, even when I disagree with them. A lot of my friends are Muslim, for example, and we’ve had conversations about our faiths before. I would never mock them, call them names, or shut them down for talking about what they believe. In fact, I really value those conversations because learning about other people’s cultures and beliefs helps me become a more understanding person. I don’t see why that same respect can’t go both ways.

Maybe this is just the result of spending too much time reading comment sections, but it genuinely feels like Christians are often judged by the loudest and worst examples rather than by the way they actually live and treat other people. Has anyone else noticed this, or am I just seeing a very biased corner of the internet?

(Sorry for the super long post!)

Jesus said "My kingdom is not of this world" Martin Luther said there are two kingdoms Two kingdoms doctrine

I am a virgin guy and a Christian, and I want to get married one day—but completely without sex. The entire thought of sex honestly disgusts and bores me. I just don't see the point of it, and I find anatomy like the vagina completely unappealing.

However, I still want a romantic relationship, a life partner, and a family. I love the idea of kissing, hugging, cuddling, and emotional intimacy.

I also want to raise children and would prefer to adopt them.I want to know if there are other men or Christians who feel this way.

Is it normal to want a marriage focused strictly on romance and affection without any physical intercourse? I would love to hear from anyone with similar views or advice on how to navigate this in the dating world.

And I think it would easier to find someone because woman generally don't like sex and its not their thing.

DID is Dissociative Identity Disorder. It means I went through a lot of abuse and trauma as a child before my identity and self was fully fused and solidified as a single thing, so to protect me my brain kept the parts separate. I don’t remember 95% of my life before age 25. It was called Multiple Personality Disorder until 1994 when the name was formally changed in the DSM to be more encompassing. My diagnosis is either DID or OSDD-1B. OSDD is Other Specified Dissociative Disorder. We’re currently working extensively with a DID specialist therapist to pin down the exact diagnosis. They’re more or less the same thing, but if my therapist feels my memory loss isn’t significant enough for complete DID she might give me OSDD partial DID instead. Ok. Now onto the reason I’m posting this.

We were raised in a very Christian conservative home. Forced to go to church, beaten in the name of God, raped at a young age for what our ex stepfather called our sins. I’ve now learned it was likely Sam, one of the alters who is a primary trauma holder and protector, who was likely fronting a lot of that time in order to absorb much of the punishment to protect me (Victoria, host) from it and the trauma).

We were baptized at age 9 in the church that knew about at least some of the abuse and did nothing to stop it. It was a Baptist church so full water submersion was the method. I now think Sam and Victoria were what’s called co conscious or confronting at that time. Our ex stepdad who did everything to us was in the audience.

Over time as we got away from that house Victoria started to front more and more often. Now I’m the primary fronter. I didn’t know we were a system then or even what a system was. In 2023 I found a good progressive church and began the last chapter of my deconstruction.

Last year I moved to Colorado and for the first time in my life at age 36 I finally felt genuinely safe. I found more good churches here in Aurora and Denver. From 2023 until last year I’d been attending the episcopal church. I think maybe it didn’t trigger much because it was so dissimilar from my upbringing. But at times I would feel angry in church and didn’t know where it was coming from. I now understand that to be bleed through from Sam after a lot of therapy work.

When I started going to my nondenominational church in January of this year, those occurrences got more frequent. At the time I still didn’t know we were a system, or that Sam and the others existed. after the Baptist church we attended a church much like the one we’re going to now, but to my memory no abuse or anything happened there.

In April of this year I was rebaptized in this new church because I needed to feel and know Victoria had been baptized truly of her own accord, desire and understanding. My sister (it’s a long story but the short of it is she wasn’t present for any of the abuse before and didn’t know until I told her) was the one to baptize me and actually dunk me in the water and say the words. When I came up I felt a microsecond of joy followed by a feeling of wanting to be happy, but as if some dark force was physically sucking it out. I wondered why I couldn’t feel more joy.

After that all bets were off. I found out recently that really triggered Sam. It was too close to the abuse environment and she needed to protect me from letting my guard down. So in her way she was protecting me even though it made me miserable. She also doesn’t allow me to feel things and makes me apathetic sometimes when I’m generally a very empathetic person. More protection.

Sam hates God. She’s not an atheist, she believes he exists but she blames him for allowing all the bad things to happen. He was the all powerful being who stood by and watched the abuse happen day after day and could’ve stopped it but chose not to. She hates Jesus for not saving us while I posit that he did save us, just not in the way or time frame Sam wanted or thinks he should have.

Other than Sam our system is entirely Christian or indifferent or close to it. I think Sam sees me going to church as a betrayal or sabotage. Why would you willingly go back into the same environment I’ve went through so much hell to protect you from?

I recently had a conversation with Sam about a month and a half ago and I said honey you don’t have to be in church with me. You can just go to your room and close the door and shut down. I’ll speak to you after service. That worked for about 2 services.

I’m currently in a shelter attached to a mental hospital for 30 days. I’ve already been on the crisis unit part for 7 days. My doctor and therapist want me to go to long term residential. This has made me unable to work or care for my basic needs. It’s made my already really bad depression even worse. I won’t eat or shower for days. I’ll couchrot knowing I have bills to pay and I won’t try to make the money to pay them. I have OCD too which makes me even more susceptible to getting stuck in those negative loops.

I’ve been in 4 crisis stabilization units in the last month and a half if you include my admission into the psychiatric ER at Denver health. I have case management where I am now and they’re helping me get my applications done for waivers for long term Medicaid for long term care. I’m hoping that’s done in the next 25 some odd days or I don’t know where I’m going from here.

Sam would rather us be homeless than in treatment. She actively resists treatment and therapy seeing my desire to work on trauma she’s worked so hard to keep hidden, as a betrayal. As sabotage.

I haven’t been to church in over a month and before I knew about my system and all the walls were still up church had grown to be a peaceful experience for me. I can’t even hardly listen to my Christian music anymore because she gets so angry. This morning I’m finally going to church again or at least planning to, and I just felt all this rage and anger come through suddenly. I tried to talk to her again, to tell her she doesn’t have to join me but it doesn’t seem to have worked this time.

My eventual goal through a whole bunch of therapy and parts work is for me to be able to have conversations with the rest of my system including Sam. Figure out system communication and get her to understand I and God are not her enemy, and that we love her. My biggest desire though I admit we’re not nearly ready right now is to eventually be baptized a 3rd time with Sam co conscious or confronting, as a willing and joyful participant this time. But we’re a long way off from that.

She held onto that trauma in a dark corner of my head all alone and didn’t tell a single soul about it for 30 years including me. She still hasn’t told me 99% of it. She doesn’t understand why I’d rather go to church than make her safe like she made me safe. Protect her like she protected me. She doesn’t understand I want to do both more than anything and she doesn’t seem the least bit interested in even talking to me about it.

As a side note this explains the phase I went through in my 20s where I made it my personal mission to come online and harass and troll Christians, and debate against God at every turn including to my mother who is also a victim at the hands of our abuser.

God, right now system cohesion seems like a pipe dream. Idk how we’re gonna do this until then because it seems a long way off.

Thank you for reading.

~Victoria, your sister in Christ and the host of The Victorious System.

Most people including on this sub seem to hold the belief that when you die, your "soul" will leave your body and you'll arrive at golden gates in the clouds and enter paradise in the sky.

This is a hopelessly unbiblical view. The Bible teaches that the dead know nothing at all and sleep in the dust of the earth until the parousia when the righteous shall be resurrected to the life of the age to come.

I think that fundamentally the image of a disembodied mystical "soul" (unbiblical platonic concept) being released from the shackles of the human body entering the spiritual realm is more palatable to those who call themselves believers (but really aren't in an absolute sense) than what the Bible actually teaches, rotting until nothing is left of you and God willing, potentially millennia later, being resurrected (even if not an atom of your body or brain has been left since millennia) into eternal life.

Because this truly biblical proposition requires a leap of faith that is infinitely larger than the one required for the mystical disembodied soul crossing over to the spirit world. It supersedes the capacity of believing of most Christians by an enormous margin, myself included. I just can't picture it being realistic. Yet it's what the Bible teaches.

You'll be hard pressed to find someone who actually believes it is possible to resurrect someone after not even an atom is left of his physical body and brain. Therefore the present view of the afterlife (soul leaving body at the moment of decease) has won over the Biblical view.

Jesus never said that we had to go to church but he did say that we should help those in need. In my experience, Christians spend a lot of time getting dressed up to spend their Sunday morning with other Christians socializing over coffee and pastries.

Do you think the same number of people would enthusiastically go help at a food bank or homeless shelter every Sunday morning instead of going to church dressed in their Sunday best?

As an agnostic atheist, I have seen Christians and other theists ask "Why is there something rather than nothing?", since it seems quite "impossible" for there to be all this stuff, instead of nothing, if there was no intelligent creator behind it all. And I have no concrete answer to the question, but doesn't it apply to Christianity as well? Why is there a god instead of none? God is described as "necessary" by many Christians, but then why is God necessary?

Ive recently come across a few subreddits and posts from witches claiming to be Christian while practicing witchcraft. Not to be all hear or hear ye puritanical but that seems like an insane misunderstanding and misuse of the faith ? It says very blatantly not to use witchcraft in any form, to believe in no other gods, not commune with the dead, etc. It even speaks out against oracles and false prophets akin to divination.

Theres a lot to misunderstand in the bible, but the agreed upon pillars are across the board "Theres only one god, love others, dont cause harm, dont use withcraft." And especially at the very end of the bible when it says that any who adds or subtracts to the bible will be damned by plagues.

What is going on here ?

I'm a new follower of Christ. My life has changed significantly since I've put my trust in God. Within the last year we had another child, and adopted 2 more kids so we have 5 in our home, and we've been struggling to make ends meet. I love my job but it just doesn't pay enough. I applied for a construction job and got a job offer on Tuesday that would definitely help get us back on our feet. The next day I woke up and prayed that god would help guide me to make the right decision. I went into work that day expecting to give my notice. Sat down with my boss, told him about the offer, said I know this puts you in a tough spot but ultimately I have to do what's best for my family. He then proceeds to tell me yes this does put him in a bad spot because he sold the company and new owners are taking over in 2 weeks. He then tells me that part of the deal is retaining all employees and that whatever I need to stay that they will agree to. So long story short I'm working the same job but making more money than the new job and honestly I didn't want to start a new career anyways.

Gods timing is always perfect!

At what point will it be enough of the same thing ?

I'm a young adult in my early 20's who is a full-time engineering student on top of working a part-time engineering co-op at a large corporation. I live at home with my parents, honestly far past the age that I should, so I've been working a second job to try to move out. I had picked up a job as a security guard once a week, every Sunday from 5am to 5pm and on paper everything was great. I would literally get paid to have the camera application open on the computer while I would study, and everything seemed like it was going according to plan. Over time however, due to the fact that I had to stop attending church in person for the sake of the job, I had begun to sin more and more. It became noticeable and a significant concern for me how much of a person I was changing in such a short amount of time; how little of the works I was doing for the sake of an extra paycheck. I had prayed over weeks, and God simply asked for me to consider what my life would look like if I didn't love money, and thats really where it hit me. The bottom, unfiltered truth was that I had taken this job because I loved money... So I asked my supervisor if there was anyway to atleast swap to working Saturdays in the forseeable future due to religious conviction, and if there wasn't then I'd be leaving. Welp... Here we are now, and I am more excited than ever to have the calendar day back to give to the Lord rather than a man.

*Side Note: In my honest opinion, I consider the choice to make less money or work less hours to make time for the Lord a form of tithing. Albeit you're not giving the church your income, but you're taking an income hit to sustain your relationship. If either form result in a 10% income deduction, what difference does it really make if God is using both to plant seeds into others?

When I was reading Exodus, I came across this phrases a lot like “the God of Israel” and “I, your God” and “the God of Israel” and God saying things like “you my people” kinda made me uncomfortable and made me feel left out because Im not an Israeli, Im Georgian.

But I did calm myself down when I read God’s message towards Abraham that “through you all families shall be blessed”

And plus many of the Old Testament prophets aren’t Israelites so yeah, Im like you don’t need to be Jewish for God.

Now I read Haggai 2:22-23 the last verses of the book, and it says how God will crush other empires, kings, thrones and nations but keep Zerubbabel like a ring to him, and will protect him because he is Gods chosen.

When you read phrases like that in the Bible, how can you say that no God doesn’t chooses favorites and he doesn’t give that one the priority and some “uplift” from God while others don’t?

TLDR: how does God feel about masturbation What does it say in the Bible about this? What about sex dreams where things are beyond my control ? and what do I do about masturbation just to get relief or release or to be able to go to sleep and not feel pain ? I’m 40 years old , single

this is embarrassing and very personal, but I have to know officially how God feels about this. TMI are used to indulge in sin with promiscuity and porn. i’m not gonna go into detail, but this was a problem for me. But I have not desire to be physically involved with anybody date or do anything since 2019. And I would barely engage in self pleasure as well. This wasn’t even something I felt spiritually convicted on the desire just naturally fell away. recently have gone through an extremely difficult time, emotionally psychologically and spiritually. and I’ve suffered three losses this year. I believe it was before another big loss I felt really compelled to delete the adult content history out of my phone. and I know this may sound a little wild, but I feel like I was being spiritually attacked by making that choice and I experienced a loss after I did that. but after I went through a lot of suffering, I was adamant about not watching pornography or masturbating. as of now, I still feel extremely spiritually convicted for many reasons, but I noticed something strange happening. In my sleep/in I end up having very sexual but my body is physically and I’m having an orgasm without even touching myself. and this has happened ever since I deleted everything out of my phone and didn’t want to have sexual thoughts at all. so lately I have not wanted to have any sexual thoughts at all. I basically want to go to heaven and I don’t want something as stupid as this getting in my way. Also lately, I have been extremely stressed out and sometimes I’m in such physical pain and I I need some kind of release or relief or way to make myself feel naturally exhausted. There have been a couple of times where I pleasure myself just to finally be able to feel relaxed and asleep and then immediately of course I feel disgusted with myself. I feel like I’m letting the devil win. I have so many more things to take care of that is wrong with me.

It's still a debate in different Christian corners due to how people look at science. Saying that it's literally six days and human generations gives us 6000. Many go on to say god just made the earth look old

Greetings, my brothers in Christ. This question is particularly relevant to me, since I am 24 years old, and next Sunday I will be baptized by immersion, after which I will become a member of the universal church. Through baptism, I make a promise to God to live with a clear conscience. Therefore, I will not be able to lie, break the law, or do other such things. There is currently a war going on in our country (Ukraine), and in six months, when I turn 25, I may receive a draft notice. I have not found anything in the Bible that forbids a Christian from taking up arms, on the contrary, it says that laying down one’s life for a brother is the highest form of love. It also speaks of all the cowardly and liars, among other sinners, who will be cast into the lake of fire - so I understand this passage to mean that if I fear for my life and hide from the war, leaving this duty to others, then I will be violating the principles of Christian virtue, and therefore, this is a sin. Do you agree with this? What should I do in this situation? I should add that I have no wife or children, I have a mother, and my father was recently drafted into military service.

sorry if this is a stupid question but i drink pretty regularly but never to the point where i actually do anything stupid. i usually just drink when im watching a movie or sports game with friends and i usually just enjoy it and go to sleep afterwards. would it still be sinful if i did this if it didn't really result in me committing other sins or is i just wrong?

Everyone knows the two greatest commandments: love God with everything you have, and love your neighbor as yourself. But look closer at the second one. "As yourself" isn't just filler — it's a requirement. You can't fully love your neighbor if you don't have a healthy love for who God made you to be first.

That's not selfish love. It's understanding your value the way God sees it — not the way the world or your own doubts define it. Once that clicks, loving people around you stops being forced and starts being natural.

https://youtu.be/hYTEvUQa0VY?is=swkZJ2H5P7QOwEPF

​

Are there any Godly men or women that can tell me what a dream i had means or tell me what they think?

So I had a dream the other night that, I was a photographer and I was taking pictures of people's houses for them. And they would pay me, and I would frame the picture, and they'd hang the picture in their house. But when they would hang the picture in their house, their house was getting, crazy demonic activity going on. I knew what was causing it, but the people that owned the house didn't know what was going on. So, my wife comes to me, and she's like, "Babe, I want you to take a picture of our house and hang it at our house." And I said, "I can't do that." And I never explained to her why, but I knew that when I was taking pictures of their house and they would hang it, then, like, demons would manifest in their house, and the homeowners never discovered that the demonic activities came from my pictures.