>>34426389
Or you could just.... Read the fucking bible and not obsess over having a social group / cult to follow along with?... You know... The very reason the world is falling apart at the seams? People worshiping a fucking book and endlessly arguing and killing each other over the minute details instead of Just. Living. Peacefully.

>tl;dr Just start your own cult/sect if you can' find one you agree with (which is what started your very problem in the first place)

>>34426389
>denominations
Imagine Jesus Christ coming for the second time and seeing thousands of denominations preaching their own stuff. Just read the Bible. IF you're born again, you don't need these vain philosophies. Jesus asks us to have child like faith for a reason.

>>34426451
>>34426442
>just do gnosticism but gayer bro
>>34426389
Do what you feel like

>>34426442
>>34426451
I do read the Bible. It's also important to find other likeminded people to grow in faith with for one, and for two, I can also recognize that I am not, nor will I likely ever be an expert on the faith. There are people out there who are much more educated and wise than I am, and who will be able to explain to me concepts that I otherwise may have misunderstood. Many of these people are also Catholic/Orthodox priests and evangelical pastors, which I can recognize as well.

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>>34426489
Reading the works of the desert saints, and things like Kempis's Imitation of Christ and Erasmus's Handbook for the Christian Knight can help a lot, especially if you can't find a trustworthy spiritual teacher. It's good to look for guidance, but as always the most important relationship is the one you have with God. You're as close to God as you are to goodness, to continually practicing humility, compassion, love and mercy is always going to be the best way to deepen your faith.

>>34426389
>disliked it due it generally being much less ecumenical than other denominations
That's part and parcel of still taking its own teachings seriously.

there was a thread exactly like this which just ended, i think
this may be spam

mods could easily tell from the IP's post history but i doubt they ever check
it's a good idea though

>>34426659
4chan is entirely propaganda and psyop posting, anon. we might be the only 2 real unpaid users on this board at the moment. everyone else here is pushing an agenda

>>34426389
Go church-shopping. Attend a different church each week until you find one whose doctrine and - more importantly - atmosphere you respond to

>>34426389
I'm Catholic so obv I'm biased, but unironically the only other sects i take seriously is Orthobros and sedevacantism. Everything else is a bad larp at minimum, or at worst flat out heresey...
many non dom/prot churches are nothing more than a glorified clown show with how they run things for mass
1. Read the nicene creed 2. Study the bible to the best of ability as you go through life, and avoid the "LORDY LORDY LOOOORD!!" types of mass.

>>34427284
You prefer sedes over lutherans? Thats an odd take, their theology is arguably equally rough and sedes are way more obnoxious

>>34426389
You're the kind of person who would love being a Jehovah's Witness.

>>34427288
>their theology is arguably equally rough
Not rly, seds are essentially just catholics who reject the current pope in rome, the doctrine and beliefs are identical otherwise. Lutherans reject the authority of the Papalcy/Rome COMPLETELY and emphasize justification by faith alone (aka no church going needed) which i find extremely retarded, as faith alone isn't enough and this is a very recent view in the last few hundred years has been pushed harder and harder to divide christians and basically make people who follow this idea weak/apathetic/lazy
>sedes are way more obnoxious
Considering they think the seat of Rome is basically ran by a "morraly corrupt hedonistic clown" as one told me before, I don't blame them for their generally sour attitude even if it can be off putting. However I wouldn't dismiss ever them as many I've debatted with have an exceptional level of understanding on Christianity/the bible, and have greatly expanded my own understanding of the good book thanks to their autistic levels of knowledge lmao

>>34427314
I never went to seminary or any shit like that but sede arguments struck me as way more baffling and cope-fueled when you compare leo and francis to, say, the borgia or medici popes

>>34426472
>just do gnosticism but gayer bro
You're a cultist. Nothing that I said here is gnostic >>34426451

>>34426489
>Many of these people are also Catholic/Orthodox priests and evangelical pastors, which I can recognize as well.
Everyone that is accepted into the family of God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ are priests and priestess. There's only one pastor and one flock. And Jesus told to not call anyone father or rabbi.

>>34427605
Feels important to point out that Christ's sacrifice isn't what gets you into the flock, it's your own sacrifice. You aren't a follower of Christ until you take up your own cross and discover the same all abiding and self sacrificial love for others that Christ has for us. Anyone who isn't meek still worships himself, no matter what his lips say.

>>34426389
Anglicanism can be good. I'm fond of the book of common prayer. The churches often have a good community feel to them. I've been to some with very good vicars with theologically sound teaching.
Unfortunately this kind of protestant church is going the way of the dodo so your choice seems to be either happy clappy mega church, or something smaller but similarly super informal and modern. Where I am at least.
As far as Anglican churches go they can often be very liberal, too. Seems to depend on the area. I've heard they can be very liberal in America but idk if they're all like that.

I get the impression Presbyterian churches are usually pretty solid and reasonably healthy. They seem to be a good mix of theological conservativism and reasonably traditional. Not sure what they're like in the US though.

>>34427610
>Christ's sacrifice isn't what gets you into the flock, it's your own sacrifice
You're from Satan, your father.

>>34427678
nah he's right. if you think Christ dying for your sins makes it okay for you to sin then you're a satanist. Christ died to show you the way. you still have to walk the path. he didn't walk it for you. you still have to be a good man. evil men don't get into heaven, no matter how much they profess to love Christ, their evil behavior makes it obvious that they do not. Christ himself said that only people who follow his teachings truly love him.

>>34427678
What are you on about? There has never been a denomination or sect of Christianity that said it was okay to sin. If anything in this thread is Satanic, it's what you just posted.

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>>34427678

>>34427681
>if you think Christ dying for your sins makes it okay for you to sin then you're a satanist
When did I ever said this? Picking up your cross is a result of your salvation, not what saved you. You guys are Satanists, you think you can save yourself, thus you deny Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. Pharisees, placing burdens on others that you yourself do not carry.

1/2

>>34427718
>picrelated
The key question is this: is that the cause of salvation, or the consequence of it? Your statement flips the order of things. You're saying:

>You become part of Christ by imitating His sacrifice.
When in the Bible says:
>You are brought into Christ first, and then your life begins to resemble His.
If you make your own sacrifice the entrance requirement, you run into a serious problem. No one can actually match Christ’s kind of self giving love on their own. It becomes a ladder no one can climb. In Luke 9:23, Christ is not explaining how to earn salvation, but what following Him looks like once you belong to Him. "Take up your cross" in that world meant something very concrete. A man carrying a cross was already condemned. He was not negotiating his fate. He was walking toward death. So the image is about surrender, not achievement. It is about saying:
>My life is no longer my own.
That kind of posture flows naturally after someone has been transformed. It does not create the transformation.

Faith precedes works. The tree is made good before it bears good fruit. The root comes before the branch stretches toward the sun.

>Ephesians 2:8-10
>For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing it is the gift of God not a result of works so that no one may boast.
>For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Notice the order, almost like footsteps in wet earth.

>Saved first.
>Then shaped.
>Then walking in good works.

The tree must be made good first
>Matthew 12:33
>Either make the tree good and its fruit good or make the tree bad and its fruit bad for the tree is known by its fruit.
The fruit does not heal the tree. The tree determines the fruit. Change the root, and the branches follow as naturally as spring follows winter.

>>34427727
>everyone else on earth, plus the Bible, plus Jesus, plus the saints, plus God are all wrong
>only I'm right
Do some soul searching and praying, please.

>>34427743
>>everyone else on earth, plus the Bible, plus Jesus, plus the saints, plus God are all wrong
>>only I'm right
That's exactly how you're acting right now, pharisee. You are white washed tombs, which outwardly appears beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. You think you can hide it, but God sees through you.

2/2
>>34427718
>John 15:4-5
>Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine neither can you unless you abide in me.
>I am the vine you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing.
The root feeds the branch, the fruit only grows when life is already flowing from the vine into the branch.

>James 2:17
>So also faith by itself if it does not have works is dead.
Real faith refuses to remain alone. Like fire that must give off heat, or a living heart that must beat. Faith produces works, it does not replace them

>Romans 5:1
>Therefore since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Justified first.
Peace established.
The relationship secured.

You do not carry the cross to become His. You carry it because, somehow, mysteriously, you already are. Notice how everything is tied together and does not contradict itself.

>>34427748
no, it's not. you're the only one putting words in people's mouths and slinging arrogant accusations.

>>34427727
>you deny Jesus' sacrifice on the cross
That's not what "take up your own cross and deny yourself" means. Christ's sacrifice showed us how to live. By living rightly, we ensure that Christ's sacrifice was not in vain. Salvation isn't transactional. Christ didn't die for our sins in the way that a jew transfers his sin to a chicken and murders it. Christ died for our sins to show us how not to sin, to show us what Love truly is. Please pray and meditate on this, and stop acting the way you're acting now.

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>>34427727

>>34427727
That's not what anyone is saying. They're saying to 'Drink water from your own pitchers and from the spring of your own wells' (Prov. 5 : 15)

>>34427727
Anon...
"He that taketh not his cross and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me."

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>>34427727
>>34427748

>>34426389
OP here, after some deliberation, I think I'm going to try out a traditional service at a Lutheran Church (LCMS). Thanks for all the responses everyone

>>34428035
Good luck, anon. I hope everyone you meet there enriches your life, and that you enrich theirs.

>>34427780
>That's not what "take up your own cross and deny yourself" means. Christ's sacrifice showed us how to live. By living rightly, we ensure that Christ's sacrifice was not in vain. Salvation isn't transactional. Christ didn't die for our sins in the way that a jew transfers his sin to a chicken and murders it. Christ died for our sins to show us how not to sin, to show us what Love truly is. Please pray and meditate on this, and stop acting the way you're acting now.
Getting tired of you retards and your endless goalpost moving, yet being unable to ever actually concisely explain a single fucking thing about your own religion that isn't up for debate or another goalpost moving 5-10 years later by yet another asshole who reinterprets the same fucking book yet another way.

All you worthless fucks ever do is spread god's shit around the world while gaslighting people into thinking it doesn't stink.

>>34428499
Oh, so you were just an upset atheist trying to start a useless argument. That explains your earlier behavior. Anyway, Christianity had never needed to move any goalposts and every one of its lessons is absolutely simple. Just do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Or, in other words, learn how to think objectively and cease from selfishness. If you want a more detailed breakdown just read The Imitation of Christ.

>>34428499
>atheist
Nope
>That explains your earlier behavior.
NTA
>Just do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
And if that *doesn't* involve all of Jesus's cryptic hidden interpret-able bullshit? IE >>34426442 and being an old man shaking his fist at a cloud instead of intruding on other people's lives like I'm some kind of know it all saint because I read and memorized some fucking scripture in a book and mastered the art of using it to poke and manipulate people like >>34427742
>>34427755 saying a ton of words yet saying absolutely NOTHING of real tangible value, just a bunch of deep sounding flowery crap that's just as obtuse and up for interpretation as the original scripture being used as example.

If people's souls are so fucking important, then spreading god's word by being an interpreter is something NOBODY should feel comfortable taking responsibility for, and a task that shouldn't even exist in the first place, the meaning should be apparent and not up for endless re-interpretation by everybody while retarded assholes say
>Notice how everything is tied together and does not contradict itself.
While doing so.

>Christianity had never needed to move any goalposts and every one of its lessons is absolutely simple.
L O FUCKING L

>>34428741
Fuck, meant to quote >>34428572

Honestly dude you're probably non-denominational. It's a humbling experience just accepting your faith and sharing it with other. I think you are severely over-complicating being a Christian it's so easy to have a relationship with Christ. Maybe look into getting a degree in theology or whatever if you think this much about the inner workings of your religion.

>>34428746
it was still a beautiful quote and reinforces where i sit today, alone and waiting for the end of times or an internal rebirth of myself.

>>34428572
>Oh, so you were just an upset atheist trying to start a useless argument.
That's not me, you know that, yet you clearly stated this purposefully. You're of the devil as I said before, your father is Satan.

>>34427780
>That's not what "take up your own cross and deny yourself" means
I never said it is. Read the text, instead of telling lies. I already explained what taking up your cross means, if you're going to use a strawmen, go ahead, but just know it that you will be held accountable for each word professed by your mouth in the judgment day.

>>34427853
>"He that taketh not his cross and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me."
Anon, I never said that taking up your cross was bad or that you didn't need to do it. If you're going to lie like the devil that you are, go ahead and keep doing it. Just drop the facade of pretending to follow Christ, it's ridiculous.

>>34427599
"Just figure it out on your own lol" is the core of gnosticism as a process, and it isn't functionally different than any other new age/religious "none" slop people engage in these days just because you're using scripture as the substrate for your slapdash religious framework. If you don't understand this you are <110IQ unironically

>>34429065
You don't even know how to write and build a coherent sentence and you want to talk about IQ. It's frankly pathetic.

>Gnosticism is figuring things by yourself
You also don't know the definition of Gnosticism, and you want to talk about it. By your definition even learning how to play the guitar by yourself is considered Gnostic, lol

>>34426451
>Just read the Bible and follow MY interpretation.

Christ left a church, not a book.

>>34428801
>>34428806
Stop pretending to be a Christian, please. Your larp is pathetic.