[les]

Anthony, Although you bring up some valid points, I as a Bible believing Christian, feel that most of your statement has a decidedly humanistic slant of Jesus, His followers, and the reasons He came to be with us. First off, you state ‘many Christian faiths compell their members to witness’. Matthew states in his book ( 28:19 & 20) that Jesus told his deciples to ‘go into all nations and make new deciples teaching them to observe all he had commanded’. This comes directly from Jesus and is one of the main reasons he came in the first place. After accepting Christ as your personal Savior and loving God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, (see Mark 12:30 & 31)witnessing is the first step in ‘following the ethical philosophy put forth by Jesus of Nazareth’ (to use your words) Secondly, you state that ‘these people’ (I assume you are referring to evangelical Chrintians) have ‘dumbed down the idea of witnessing by viewing it as a …..marketing exercise’. Jesus said, as recorded in the book of John chapter 14 verse 6, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the light no one comes to the Father but through Me’. With this statement Jesus, not ‘these people’, made his plan of salvation simple enough for a child to understand. I believe He made it simple not to be condesending or as a ‘marketing exercise’, but because He loves us. You also say in this paragraph that ‘in truth, (yours,not what I read in the Bible)witnessing should consistof simply living out the principles put forth by Christ’. Again, this flies in the face of the great commission given by Jesus to ‘go into all nations and preach the Gospel’. We as humans will never be able to to live the perfect life that Jesus did while here on earth. Given that, I would never want anyone to base their eternal future on my words or actions. It is impossibe for us as sinners to ‘live out the principles put forth by Christ’, that is why He gave his perfect life as atonement for our imperfect lives. Finally, a ‘true Christian’ can not convert anyone by acts or words. We can share what the Bible says and our own experiences but the Holy Spirit must work on a persons heart. I love you man and if you would like to email me I’m at rgoldenetz@cs.com

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Name : les, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Baptist, Age : 54, City : tallahassee, State : FL, Country : United States, Occupation : retired, Education level : Technical School, Social class : Middle class, 

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