[split] Discussion of Christian denominations

[clovvy]

But... I was gonna propose...
tbh walking into a Pentecostal church the week after walking into a Presbyterian one was the best moments of my life.Yep! Almost like someone wrote a book that's been translated and re-translated to oblivion and everyone disagrees. But why would anyone think that??

Denominations make some sense, but also none at all.

With or without the faith I never liked the pentecostal movements because I disagree with their teachings and the weird stuff that happens within...  So to me it will never work out..

[S200]

This is gonna cop some flack...

We have often been accused of being a cult...

EDIT - No flack, all Cult-buddies...

[heids]

I just find that whole idea of being that restrictive stupid. In my view we should love everyone as equal regardless of Gender, Sexuality, Beliefs or anything else. And that includes not taking control of other peoples lives deciding what they can and can't do in the end it is their lives and we can't be the judge only god is, I have no right to be able to make judgements based off of peoples decisions.

What a horrible idea! Wouldn't it be more loving to choose from a select dating pool of cis straight virgin male baptised central fellowship christadelphians?  Young people and their ideas these days.

edit

According to Wikipedia's estimate, there are 0.06m christadelphians worldwide, vs. 1.3 billion Catholics (though of course that's split a million times).  Take out all females, all already-coupled males, and anyone way out of my age range and my official dating pool is absolutely gigantic (I highly doubt I will abide by this. I guess no parents at the wedding!)

[heids]

This is gonna cop some flack...

We have often been accused of being a cult...

Why would being a part of the brethren cop flack?  I feel like we're fellow small-obscure-cult buddies

[S200]

Why would being a part of the brethren cop flack?  I feel like we're fellow small-obscure-cult buddies

Well, yes, but from the inside looking out, it's as if the whole world is friends with Michael Bachelard...

But I guess that the Christadelphians are equally unique in their beliefs.

[turinturambar]

It is fascinating the many debates that can and have been had over the true meaning of a collection of texts written 2,000+ years ago.  And most people are sincere, and can point to chapter and verse why they believe the way they do (obligatory cartoon included below).  "Cult" often just means "a small group that we don't agree with and don't want to lose members to" (you wouldn't go near a cult, would you?)  At least nowadays disputes between different groups are generally not settled with the sword, as they were from the time of Augustine on.

Once a group is founded principally on seeking truth rather than love I suspect division becomes almost inevitable.  With great sincerity different parts of the group come to different conclusions on minor beliefs, and neither side can back down since they alone have the truth.  So they metaphorically (or literally) consign the other side to hell and become two even smaller and more insular group.  I think the exclusivity talked about is actually needed to maintain the fiction mentally that they alone have the truth and all the other sincere seekers are wrong.

As for the Trinity, it's weird: I literally heard it said recently that all the Trinity analogies (three leaf clover, for example) are heresies and should only be used to teach you what the Trinity isn't.  Basically, that it is a spiritual truth which is so great that it cannot be represented by any human analogy.  But important parts of it can and have been demonstrated from scripture and it is the position mainstream churches have upheld for most of the history of the church.  Whether or not they can be called cults, groups that reject it can reasonably be called unorthodox.