ALRIGHT, here's how it is.

Christianity works like any other religion basically, we believe in Jesus Christ our lord and saviour and God. We go to church and pray to God and such. That's the simplicity of it, but you can google the rest i'm sure. I'm trying to be concise as possible here so it's not much of a long read.

The Bible is a collection of 'books', though the two sections of course are The Old and New Testament, the 'books' would be like Matthew, Mark, Luke, Numbers, Genesis, etc.. within the two sections.

The Old Testament is how God created the earth, and led his chosen people and primarily focuses on God's covenant with the Jewish people to obey and never to underestimate God's power as such. The passage the OC is referring to is from Deuteronomy, which is obviously from the Old Testament as it deal's with obeying with god's word

The New Testament is more so focused on the stories of Jesus taking place MANY years after the Old Testament, and basically God's new covenant with the people of forgiving people if they had made mistakes, which with the Old Testament, they would have been dealt with. Now we all know Jesus was crucified and during the time he was he had followers, apostles and disciples. The Apostles were originally Jesus' followers as there were 12 of them, and helped spread the word of the lord. The term 'disciple' though refers to any student to Jesus, and basically has the same purpose of an apostle, to learn and follow Jesus' actions. Jesus basically went around helping the poor and taught many lessons, and the New Testament continues with the Apostles writing letters and such.

Now, the person holding up the poster of the Deuteronomy quote is kind of arrogant, just like any other member on here acting 'smart' as you would say, and is stating that "yeah, we can quote the bible too", and is kind of making a mockery to the whole preaching quotes idea of it through posters and stuff.

I understand your beliefs. They are not my own. But I will keep my own beliefs or lack there of to myself and not try to force them on other people......

But I will admit that both Atheists and Christians(Not all of them but some) do tend to force their beliefs on others. Those are the ones that make either side look bad.

And I don't intend for the pic to be offensive if it is the my apologies. It's just a summary of my beliefs.

*Adding joke to your picture*

God said to Moses, 'Come forth!"
But Moses tripped and came fifth.

I think we both stand there on a common ground, i'll totally be realistic and say that YES, there is some Christians and Athiests out there that absolutely preach their religion, but it's not their fault for doing what they truly have faith in. It doesn't necessarily mean making the other side bad, it's just that the one side gets the wrong impression of the other religion through the media, Internet, and such.

And none taken :)

I know they're two different things, but are Christians still inclined to practice and preach the Old Testament?

For me Christianity is this: Praise Jesus for his gift, try my hardest to be a good person, ask Jesus for forgiveness when I screw up, the end. I don't go to church because of what it's turned into. It has suddenly become way more important to go to church than it is to be an actual Christian. I read the bible on occasion, but I don't look so much into it, considering the only "proof" I have is that the bible says the bible is real. I believe that God is a kind hearted man who loves all of his children regardless of color, gender, sexual preference etc...I also will NEVER tell someone they're going to Hell. That sure is not my place to do that. Sorry for the long post, just hoping someone knows that not all "Christians" are the same.

Are Christians 'suppose' to follow the old testament? Or is it the common to follow the New Testament?

Many Christians believe different things. Unfortunately, as the OC points out, most Christians prefer to pick and choose which parts of the Bible they like to preach and use it to try and limit the rights of others. They did it with blacks during the Civil Rights movement, they did it with women during the Sufferage movement, and now they're doing the same with same sex couples. Now before Christians start jumping down my throat, one, this is historical fact, two, I'm a Christian too, and any real Christian knows that our participation in every single one of these historical events is shameful and hypocritical.

Anyway, that's why Christianity may seem so strange to you, a lot of us like to pick and choose what we want to preach and believe in rather than the whole truth. I had one argument with a fellow Christian right here on funnyjunk once. He was a gay rights opponent (big shock). He used old testament scriptures to support his point of view. I ask him if he believes all sin is equal in the eyes of the Lord (new testament scripture, I forget the exact passage). He said of course he did. So I asked him if he had ever eaten pork or shellfish (forbidden in the old testament). He new immediately where I was going with this and pointed out that Jesus' sacrifice obviates the need to follow old testament law, thus contradicting his entire stance. Yeah, that conversation stopped right there.

So there you have it. Hypocrisy and hate. Two of the biggest mainstays of Christians today. Again, let me reiterate for "Christians" like the guy I mentioned. I am a Christian too, I just happen to do my best to live my life free of hypocrisy and hate. Anyway, good luck to you and try not to let it bother you.

It's not pick and choose for me. In the New Testament is says do not be sexually immoral, Romans 1:24-27 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Last question I swear, If you follow the bible faithfully and one day you decide to commit sin. What happens? Is that the end of going to heaven, I know you can repent and all but does that completely nullify the fact you sinned in the first place?

I apologize, that was to the guy above you. But I love you too haha xD

love you too <3

Let me just tell you, fellow Christian that I love you. Thank you for being the type of person that I would be more than proud to associate with. Thank you, for not being a close minded bigot, who has nothing better to do then to correct others.

A lot of people have different opinions. They way I see it is this, if you sincerely confess and wish to change your life, that is when you become a true Christian. Some people just talk the talk and then do whatever they want thinking they have a 'get out of hell free' card. However, I think that if you just try to live a good life, do what you can to help and love and tolerate others, and even better, to understand them, then that is exactly the kind of person God wants us all to be. To be honest, I don't know. I've never met God, I've never asked these questions to him personally. I read the Bible, do my best to live by its teachings, and try to find my own path. I'll find out for sure when I die, we all will.

Don't say tolerate because it means you just allow it's existence even if you don't like it.
(Don't check online, check a printed one)

I don't like cats, but I tolerate them around me if my roomates want one or something. I know exactly what the word tolerate means.

The reason why Christians use the old testament still is due to the fact that we use it for two things, to teach lessons on how to lead a righteous life, and to understand just how abominable sin is to God. The way I see the old testament is that it's good reference, but overall, because of Jesus, we are spared of the exact things from the old testament, hope I could help. mrsoup explained it pretty well btw.

Christians are supposed to follow the New Testament, it's not really a supposed to it's just that we direct our focus towards the covenant and scripture towards the New Testament.

Welcome to our reality.

Just imagine now if you were gay and trying to marry your loved one and someone says to you, "no it says in the bible the love in your heart is evil."

Then you get hurt. Then you get angry. Then you post this line, which you found alongside the line they used to demonise your heart, in a website like this. And then everyone shoots you down for "taking this shit seriously." And a lot of reasonable Christians post reasonable, non hateful posts saying, "why can't we all get along? Let's stop hating on each other! I don't hate you, and I wish you didn't hate me."

Everyone says you're the bad guy for feeling hurt. That you're inciting hate and conflict and you should feel ashamed.

So you go home, look at your same sex partner with hurt and anger and pain swirling around your heart with a momentum that has been building your entire life, and you try not to hate....

I wish those nice, reasonable Christians, whom I don't hate at all, didn't forget why these protestors took to the streets in the first place. They were forced there because they were told they couldn't be themselves.

If I told you (christians) your very spirit and essence of self were evil... would you not take to the streets with some defiant argument of defence?

Of course I would. I've been treated poorly because of being a Christian, actually. It made me angry, which in turn made my behavior very inappropriate. I believe in gay rights, honestly. It says in the bible that I am not to judge how others live, and to remove the plank from my eye before pointing out the speck in yours. It also says that sin is sin, and that God hates the sin NOT the sinner. Man may have been made for woman, but that does not mean that man cannot love another man. Or that two women cannot love each other. Your heart doesn't know gender, your heart only knows love and happiness, and no one should be denied that. My heart tells me to love everyone, regardless, and I believe that's how God wants us to be too.

Then I have no quarrel with you, good sir/madam.

Nor I with you. And I am sorry for your bad experiences with "Christians." And thank you for not bundling us all together :)

So there is two different versions of the bible? (sorry I'm ignorant when it comes to religion)

As far as I can tell...
Old Testament: before Jesus (Judaism)
New Testament: After Jesus (Christianity)

The New Testament (rejected by the Jews I believe) basically nullifies a lot of/all of the Old Testament. It's kind of a new set of rules to follow. Some Christians follow the old rules anyways, though, even though the rules are null according to their own religion.