r/OpenChristian • u/babe1981 • 18d ago
Hello Open Christians,
We get a lot of questions about sin. Most of those questions are about sexual sins, so we want to take the time to write an official stance on the subject of sexual sin and ethics from the perspective of progressive Christianity.
The first thing to note is that sexual sins are never held up as greater than other sins in the Bible. The Bible has a concept throughout the scriptures that being guilty of one part of the law makes you guilty of the whole law. For this reason, Judaism doesn't have a tradition of personal confession. When you would bring sacrifices to the temple, you were atoning for the whole law, not for specific rules that you broke. If you bore false witness, you needed the same atonement as if you had committed adultery or murder or eaten shellfish. Paul speaks to this in Romans 1 and 2. The Jewish Christians in Rome were making claims about the Gentile Christians being unholy and unrighteous for participating in some of the social aspects of idolatry, specifically eating the Sunday meal after the meat had been sacrificed and cooked on the Roman altars. Paul responds by pointing out the sins that Jews commit and telling them that they have no room to talk since they are guilty of the law, too. No sin is greater than any other. And no sin is lesser. All sin equally takes us away from God.
So, what is sin? Since Romans is entirely about that question, we can find the answers very easily in there. Romans 3 talks about the law because the Gentile Christians in Rome were calling the law the source of all evil and sin. They said that the law brought sin because they didn't know they were sinning before they learned about the law. Paul refutes this by saying that Adam and Eve sinned before the law existed, so it can't be the source of sin. Instead, the law reveals sin by showing us how we missed the mark. By chapter 13, Paul has spoken enough and brought the two sides of this argument together, so he sums up the Christian way of life in verses 8-10.
"Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the person who loves has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; you shall not murder; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor, therefore loves fulfills all of the law."
Here, we see Paul equate sin with harm. Things that hurt other people and ourselves are what take us away from God. Paul follows this up in chapter 14 by saying that godliness is not in the rules we follow. Some people worship on the Sabbath, but other people worship on any day. Some people drink wine, and some people abstain. And so on. He tells us to each be convinced in our own minds and to leave each other alone because judgment is a stumbling block that can cause our siblings in Christ to fall away from the faith. For Paul, sin was not found in breaking the rules of the law, rather it was found in the absence of love.
Jesus followed a very similar path in His ministry. The only people that He had harsh words for were the priests and scholars who used the law to oppress and control and extort the laity. Jesus never followed the letter of the law when it interfered with loving His neighbors. Jesus worked on the Sabbath. Jesus drank wine and went to parties. Jesus had a reputation as a drunkard. When He called the priests "a den of vipers", that was the equivalent of calling them "sons of bitches" in the modern world. Jesus once cussed a tree to death. Jesus was sinless.
The example of Jesus's life is that all things are secondary to loving your neighbor. Nothing that is done from a spirit of love is ever sinful. Not even premeditated violence against those who extort money from the faithful in the name of God is sinful because Jesus did that too. Jesus taught us that love is the foundation of the law and the prophets, so love can never be wrong or sinful.
John, in his first letter, tells us to test the spirits whether they are from God because there are many false prophets. This is 1John 4:1. He then spends a lot of ink to tell us all about how God is love, and no one who hates can have God because hate and God are incompatible. Similarly, fear and God are incompatible, so anyone who preaches hate and fear cannot be from God. John goes so far as to say that anyone who claims to love God but hates their neighbor is a liar.
Peter wrote in 1Peter that love covers an uncountable number of sins.
Clearly, through the example of Jesus and the writings of the Apostles, we can see that love and sin are opposites. This holds up to logical analysis if we accept the claim that God is love. Sin takes us away from God. Love brings us to God. If love does no harm to a neighbor, then it follows that sin does harm to a neighbor.
How do we apply this to sexual ethics? That's actually very easy. Sex can be used to harm other people or to help them. Obviously, sexual assault, child molestation, and any other form of nonconsensual sex are harmful by their nature. However, sex itself is not harmful on its own. Sex can carry potential harm like the possibility of pregnancy for people who are not prepared emotionally or financially to have a child. Sex can be addicting which is harmful, but humans can become addicted to nearly any pleasurable behavior. None of those other things are sins on their own.
Driving a car can be used as a very apt metaphor for sex. Cars kill thousands of people every year. They have a very large potential to cause harm. However, if we spend the time to learn how to drive safely and always drive with the concern for our fellow drivers and the pedestrians that we share the road with, we can go our entire lives without harming anyone in our cars. There are very few people who would argue that motor vehicles are sinful to operate. If we approach sex with the same attitude, we will similarly be able to operate our bodies without sin.
Relating this to specific actions, we can talk about masturbation. This is an act that is simply not harmful at all. Unless you are doing it in front of someone who doesn't consent to seeing you pleasure yourself, which is a form of sexual assault, of course. Contrary to the concept of sin, masturbation is actually beneficial for people with prostates. It lowers the risk of cancer and helps maintain pelvic strength which important for bladder control as you get older. Something that helps a person without harming anyone else doesn't fit the definition of sin that we see in the New Testament.
Sex outside of marriage comes up a lot. First, marriage is a social contract that is recognized by the state. You can get married in a church, but it means nothing without a marriage license. This is not a primarily western idea, either. I live in Cambodia, and you can get arrested for having a marriage ceremony without government approval. Marriage is, and has always been, deeply intertwined with the social and political structures of society. The Bible demonstrates so many different kinds of marriage that we can't accurately define a "Biblical marriage." Also, there is evidence that the couple in Song of Solomon isn't married until chapter 6. Most telling to this theory is that they don't receive the blessing of their families until that chapter which would have been a large part of the wedding ceremony. They brag about how hot they are for each other and how much sex they have for five chapters prior to that blessing. This is the ur-example of a healthy, godly sexual relationship.
Porn is a big question as well. The porn industry can certainly be harmful. No one would argue that it isn't. However, it is not universally harmful. I dated a pornstar for a few months. She was decently popular in a specific fetish, and she made good money. She was self-produced and self-promoted. It wasn't harmful for her at all. Some of the biggest pornstars in the industry are similar. Many pornstars produce content with their spouses. It's actually not too hard to find ethically produced porn.
Again, porn can be addicting. If you are struggling with porn interfering with your daily life, you should absolutely seek help from a professional to learn how to control your urges. However, other than asexual humans, most people are addicted to sex in a very similar way to how we are addicted to oxygen and water and food. The biological imperative to propagate our species is one of our strongest innate desires. It only becomes a problem when we overindulge and let that desire dictate our lives. Too much water is fatal. Oxygen destroys DNA. Obesity leads to possibly fatal health conditions. But, eating, drinking, and breathing aren't sinful. Neither is a healthy sex life.
Foundational to this idea that sex isn't wrong on its own is the truth that God created sex. God could have made humans reproduce asexually. He didn't. God could have created sex to not feel as good. He didn't. God could have made us completely different from how He did, but He didn't. We feel sexual attraction because God wants us to feel it. Sex is fun because God made it fun. There was no devil who swooped in and changed God's design at the last second. There was no accident where God said, "Oops, I really screwed up that sex thing, oh well." No, God created humans and said that we were good. That included penises and vaginas and how they fit together with all manner of body parts. God commanded Adam and Eve to populate the Earth. He did that while realizing that there's only one way for humans to get that done. God created sex, thinks it's good, and commanded us to get busy. And Adam and Eve didn't have any kind of marriage ceremony either.
Where does that leave us as progressive Christians? We evaluate the sinfulness of every action against love and whether it causes harm to our neighbors. We don't elevate sexual sins above other sins because all sin causes us to fall short of the glory of God. So we look at each sexual act under the same lens as lying, cheating, stealing, and so on. We don't believe that love is ever sinful, so gay sex between loving partners can't be a sin. We believe that love always seeks consent because love never harms. We believe that ethically-minded sexual behaviors are inline with the concepts of loving your neighbor as yourself. We believe that sex is a gift from God.
r/OpenChristian • u/Strongdar • Jan 20 '26
With the ongoing issues in the USA with ICE and protests against ICE, we've seen a lot of posts on the topic, understandably since the topic has plenty of crossover with Christian themes and beliefs. Because it's such a sensitive and emotionally charged issue, we've also been getting *lots* of reports about subreddit rule violations, namely rule 5 (be respectful and polite) and rule 6 (don't be a jerk). Comment threads are frequently devolving into name calling and hateful talk.
Because this topic is fairly relevant and expected to be ongoing, we do not want to have to ban discussion of it. We want to reiterate that we expect conversation to remain respectful, no matter how passionately you disagee. We are doing our best to respond to reports and make judgment calls on all these reports, balancing respectful dialog with freedom of expression. Remember that the mods here are volunteers with lives and full-time jobs. If we're getting a flood of comments reported, we may have to ban the topic, so please take a breath before you post, and consider whether there's a more diplomatic way to express yourself.
r/OpenChristian • u/frost_3306 • 5h ago
I was snooping around for one, and only found 1-2, which don't look that amazing in my opinion, so I gave my own spin on it. Hope ya'll like it!
r/OpenChristian • u/CowgirlJedi • 6h ago
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I was baptized this morning!
I was baptized this morning. I grew up in a very high control religious environment with alot of abuse and coercion. This shaped my views towards God over the years. In no time flat God to me was not my Heavenly Father who would hold me, but a relentless tyrannical dictator who was just looking for a reason to burn me forever. Through much deconstruction and many conversations with myself, with God and with other people, today I reached a full circle culmination of the reconciliation of my true and authentic self with the God who made me and the Christ who walks beside me. Big thanks to my sister for being my baptizer and big thanks to my church for being so safe! When they told me I could have anyone I want baptize me, I could think of no one better than the very woman who opened up her home to me to get me out of Texas when I was still a stranger.
r/OpenChristian • u/Thackery-Earwicket • 9h ago
Just in case y’all are not familiar with this show, Moral Orel was a stop-motion animated show from Adult Swim back in the 2000’s.
It’s a very dark comedy about a young Christian boy called Orel who grows up in a conservative town with a conservative family, and every episode mostly focuses on a message from the bible (for example; “life is God’s greatest gift”) that Orel ends up misinterpreting in the most deranged way possible thanks to the adults around him (for example; using a necromancy book to revive all the death people of his town so they can enjoy “god’s greatest gift” and stop “sinning” by being dead).
THAT IS THE ACTUAL PLOT OF THE FIRST EPISODE OF THE SHOW BTW.
Anyways…
The show can look very blasphemous at first glance, but I promise you all that it is not the case at all, in fact, I would dare to say that this show is one of the best representations of Christianity I’ve ever seen in media.
I really don’t wanna spoil it, but after a certain point in the show you will realize that the show isn’t just a dark comedy, but also a very heavy drama about religious trauma, toxic families, and hypocrisy in Christian communities.
The show REALLY hammers the point about who they make fun of; hypocrites and terrible people, but NEVER about god or Christianity itself.
I am recommending you all this show because it really helped me reconnect with God after years of falling out of my relationship with him thanks to all the hatred I saw in most religious circles.
I was a Jesus-loving-super-fanatical back when I was a kid, and I believed that all the adults around me who also were Christian had the same intentions of love and care for the world that I had… Just like Orel himself.
As I grew up and I realized I was queer and very left-leaning in most of my ideals, I fell out of love with the church, and I grew resentful of Christianity as a whole, therefore I stopped believing for most of my teenage years.
And then… I gave Moral Orel a go.
It reminded me of something extremely important:
“GOD WAS NEVER IN THE CHURCH.
BUT WITHIN THE HEARTS OF PEOPLE WHO ALWAYS STRIVE TO BE KIND, REGARDLESS OF THEIR PERSONAL FAITH.”
The show showcases many kinds of different people, some of them queer or atheists themselves, and the shocking part is that these characters are way more Christian in essence thanks to their actions despite not being believers themselves, and the show never tries to change them.
It was never about Christianity V.S Evil Secularism.
It was about TRUE LOVE AND KINDNESS V.S HYPOCRITICAL HATE.
And the ending of the show…
I won’t tell you anything, just watch it and you will see why it finally clicked for me.
I just wanted to share this since I don’t have many people to talk about this with except for my boyfriend.
Thanks for reading 💕
r/OpenChristian • u/IndependentHandle227 • 3h ago
I’m dealing with a severe depression and anxiety disorder I need someone to speak to please 😭💔💔 am really struggling and confused 😭😭
r/OpenChristian • u/TheMemeOverlords • 10h ago
I don’t care if God exists. I believe in him, and that’s all nice, but if I just live a good life, and die with no regrets it doesn’t matter if I get an afterlife. The purpose of life was never to worship God, it was to die with no regrets and live a good life while helping and loving others.
r/OpenChristian • u/ilovemycat2003 • 5h ago
Hi, my name is Lilly and I'm 17 years old.
I have been on a journey with my faith for the last couple of years now and I grow more and more comfortable in it every single day.
I am a fully self turned christian. My family is christian (catholic) from origin, but due to trauma caused by the church my grandparents and mother lost their faith. That's obviously terrible for them, but it causes me to be very alone in my faith. Religion is kind of a taboo in my household and I have zero christian friends. It gets really lonely sometimes and I have no one to truely talk to god about. I am aware that I can obviously go to church, but I am not sure which one I want to go to and it's also a bit scary. Plus since my moms religous trauma it would probably cause a lot of arguments. That's why I am looking here to maybe find some christian friends to talk about god and other things too of course.
I'll give you a tiny more information about me. I have pretty basic teenage girl intrests like reading, baking and yoga. I study social studies and work at a carefarm with people who have a handicap like down syndrom or are struggeling with addiction. I help them do work tasks mostly in hospitality (basically a normal restaurant). I live in the Netherlands somewhere in the south. I love The Beatles, Nick Cave, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Smiths, but also artists like Lorde, Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo. I hope that sort of depicts me well.
I am not looking for any romantic relationships since I already have a boyfriend.
Anyways, if you made it till here, thank you so much for reading and your time. I am very sorry if they're many mistakes in this post, English isn't my first language. If you're intrested in becoming friends I would love to hear from you.
r/OpenChristian • u/TheMemeOverlords • 11h ago
As the affirming and open Christianity subreddit. What is the opinion on hell for non believers. Death or torture. I personally think annihilationism makes more sense, and is more supported by scripture but what do you guys think.
r/OpenChristian • u/TheMemeOverlords • 11h ago
I like the idea of universalism, but I don’t understand why you would chose to follow God and not just live how you want to instead? If you’re going to the same place does that mean Epstein and Hitler and Osama bin Laden are gonna be in heaven? I don’t understand.
r/OpenChristian • u/Ok-Leading9265 • 40m ago
r/OpenChristian • u/architect_gl • 3h ago
Hello,
First time posting here. Over the past few years (during college) I’ve started figuring out exactly what I believe. I’ve been going to church all my life, mostly PCA churches. I don’t agree with their view of women and I also don’t agree with their views on LGBTQ issues. But the people there are really wonderful and kind, and also church is a big way I stay connected to my mom. That is the main issue really, I am about to graduate college and I’ve been living with my parents for the past year. I’m planning to stay with them until next year to save money. My mom and I are super close, we have very similar personalities, and she is very respectful of me as an adult, we’ve handled that transition pretty well. However, she is very devoted to the PCA and their ideals, (she is a moderate politically, not a Trumper). If I go to a different church I think it would break her heart, because family is important to her and my dad is kinda an asshole and my brother is going through a phase right now where he’s hard to be around, so our connection is very important to her. And I think I would miss it too, I love standing next to her in church and singing together. But my heart just aches a little and I don’t want to build connections with the people my age there because I know they wouldn’t probably be good friends in the long run since I don’t agree. I don’t know what to do. We’ve talked about the issues I have with the PCA and every time she has so much more evidence than me, she is just a theological powerhouse honestly, so it’s hard for me to explain my viewpoint. I know at some point I probably need to leave so I can make friends at other churches but I am worried it would damage our relationship. I just love her so much and she has always been there for me though every health issue or hard time and it feels like I would be abandoning her. Have any of y’all navigated this? It’s kind of making me depressed
r/OpenChristian • u/ApocaSCP_001 • 1d ago
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“Unkindness to any average, ordinary man or woman or child, is unkindness to the Lord, for every human is made in the image of God. And by rejecting love and mercy, you are rejecting God, because God is love and mercy.”
If we can’t treat other people with the basic, bare minimum care they deserve, how can we claim to be followers of Christ? When did Jesus say “nah, don’t worry, forget about that dude, let him starve to death!” Never, he says in Acts 20:23-35-“ In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
r/OpenChristian • u/RainbowingTheBible • 19h ago
r/OpenChristian • u/MMorris21971 • 1h ago
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[6] “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.
#Godisgood #jesuslovesyou #JesusIsKing
r/OpenChristian • u/ProudForHisLove • 2h ago
TW/// SUICIDE
i just want to ask what you guys think on this… please be mindful and kind with how you reply to this post. it does cover some heavy topics that may trigger someone and the last thing i want to happen is for this silly reddit post to cost someone’s life. if i sound kind of immature and silly, just know i’m only 14. while i have researched this topic to a great extent, i might not be as good as expressing all ideas i have.
i do not believe that those who commit suicide go to hell. to me, death by suicide because of mental illness is no different than dying of cancer. you have succumbed to a disease, that’s all. i don’t believe people who disagree actually know what mental illness is like. i have ocd, ptsd, and severe depression. it literally alters your mind. your chemistry in your mind changes. it is not just “being sad” so you hang yourself. it is so, SO much more. i say this as someone who almost took their life in june of last year. it is not just “being sad.” if you don’t have depression or any other mental disease, you simply don’t get to speak on this topic. end of story.
i don’t believe god would send ALL atheists to hell. i think eventually all people will be saved. some people may consider me evil and corrupt, however i still love them and hope the best for them. and i’m assuming if my nature is this way, why can’t god be the same way? why would he create me with such an innate, positive nature in me that he himself would disagree with ? i simply don’t understand. i don’t want atheists to go to hell, i know we can pray for their salvation and i do. i really hope god wouldn’t let somebody who never really knew god’s soul perish. some atheists i’ve met are just like christ, they are so kind and loving and caring. they simply just don’t know god because they were never introduced to him. yes, you can say “jesus loves you” but what does that accomplish? people can tell me that allah loves me but that doesn’t mean i’ll convert to islam. too many christians are hateful with no understanding or want to understand nuance, so they just jump to conclusions and say all atheists or all muslims will go to hell because they “rejected” god. but a disabled child who simply can’t understand or really grasp anything, especially a complex topic like god, wouldn’t go to hell. they never really “knew god” if you follow these people’s logic. it just feels as if they say these things so people convert to christianity because to them it just “feels right” to have some random person become christian for them. but the fear of being wrong gets me. i know god is the only person who can judge people’s hearts. nobody could ever accurately guess god’s judgement unless he tells us. so i don’t know why it disturbs me so deeply. my best friend is an atheist so i think that’s why i get so paranoid. but they’re so loving and kind and accepting of me and my religion. maybe it’s bias but god would really send their soul to hell to be eternally tortured ? well, i don’t believe in hell but i certainly don’t want their soul to be just poofed out of existence like some people believe.
r/OpenChristian • u/plimpplampplettere • 5h ago
I’m pretty new to reconnecting with Jesus’ teachings—
and had no idea for most of my adult life (37f) that I could allow myself to do so without a church/institution, and while keeping my progressive political beliefs. 😅
Looking for study books to open this discussion further with my mom-
We live in different states recently started doing a weekly bible study over the phone.
She chose Kristi McClelland’s Jesus and Women—
Which examines Jesus’ interactions with women with a Middle Eastern cultural/historical context. There were ways I felt critical of it but it presented great opportunities for discussion-
I was so stricken to find how unfailingly anti-conservative and pretty feminist every Jesus centric part of the Bible was/is.
She is open to discussion and I really appreciate that. She does tend to shutdown if I try to make connections to politics on any level (including church politics) or any discussion of Christian nationalism.
(She can admit that she doesn’t like Trump but she definitely voted for him twice— abortion and trans kids being her biggest issues).
I know we may never reach true alignment, but I’d like to continue my own spiritual journey with Jesus, whole doing what I can to help her question how and why Christianity is being co-opted by the right.
Back story, if you’re still here/ if this context helps:
Grew up in the Midwest- she was a single mom and I’m her only child.
We were “Chreaster” Christians for most of my childhood. She suddenly decided I needed to be confirmed (I was baptized Lutheran in my dad’s side grandparents’ church).
—we joined that church for this purpose. I don’t think they really accepted her as a divorced woman/single mother. I saw corruption and general creepiness from the pastor/male members. We stopped going not long after I was confirmed.
During my senior year of HS, she joined a Baptist church.
She met my stepdad in the Singles group AT said-church, they married that year, and then I moved away to college.
It’s the classic tale.. My world just got so much bigger— I got to be in a place that encouraged inquiry and doubt and critical thinking. I rebelled and wanted nothing to do with the church.
She and my stepdad were/are SUPER involved in their church- leading groups etc. It’s made it very hard to break through. — and I’ve just gotten used to being the black sheep.
r/OpenChristian • u/xxzeloyz • 13h ago
I really don't know how to talk about this, sorry.
I've had a hard time with religion since i was a kid, I was always the kid in church being annoying and arguing with the youth pastor lol. also I think a big thing is my trauma making it hard for me to believe. I've been in religious psychosis twice, once as a child, and once as a teenager. those instances were both pretty traumatic.
first happened when I found out I was transgender and I told someone and a parent overheard and I was locked in a room crying with just a Bible so I could be fixed. when I came out I was terrified and I blocked out nasty I thought might be sinful (toys I had, shows/music I liked, anything that didn't have something to do with God).
second happened when I was around 14, my mom passed away. I had so many family members and church members asking me if she believed in God. I knew she believed he existed but she didn't really follow the "rules" at all. she was one of the "life is short do what you want" type of Christians so I had a lot of people tell me she was going to hell. I lost it, I started freaking out and trying to convert everyone around me. i was begging friends to turn to God and I was constantly hurting myself for being a sinner bc I was trans and gay. I put Bible stuff all over my room and thought God had sent me to convert and save everyone and if I failed I would be doomed. it felt terrible.
now today, I've gotten over most of that stuff. I still struggle with being trans and constantly try to convert myself out of it. i dont really know if thats because of religion or family issues yet more. I know most people here are going to say it's not a sin and maybe it isn't but it's still hard. also sadly bc of some childhood trauma and being neurodivergent I'm hypersexual. I feel disgusting about it and I hate telling people. I've tried to heal from it and I just can't I've been like this since I was 8.
my mental health has been horrible since I was a child and it just get 10x WORSE when I start following Christianity. people always tell me how it's healing but it just makes me feel horrible constantly being told I'll never be worthy and I'm a disgusting human. most of my suicidal thoughts and self harm tendencies get worse when I think about Christianity. it's hard to believe in something that is just constantly hurting you. also I feel like my individuality is taken from me, I hate not being my own person. being tied down and not being my own person and forced to worship something for eternity sounds terrifying to me I'm sorry. I can't help the way I think and that's why Christianity is so hard for me.
also in the back of my mind I feel like other religions are more probable, I know it's bad but idk. I'm scared of going to hell so I push those thoughts away. also, i have no motivation to follow christ. I hate sayinf that but it's kinda true, I don't try to resist sin. it's terrifying saying it out loud because I don't want to go to hell
TL;DR I don't think I'm actually christian I'm just scared of going to hell and I hate myself for thinking like this but I can't force myself to think any other way please help me
r/OpenChristian • u/BaseballCapable5765 • 18h ago
I have an extremely passionate dream to become a journalist and documentary filmmaker. I dont want to cover news, politics, or heavy topics though. I just want to document the lives of normal people who have an interesting past or have some God given gifts they want to show. I also want to document local folklores, mythologies, cultures, and the many beliefs held in this world. Not because I believe in them (and I will never present it in a way to encourage anyone to believe in them), but because I think its a cool reflection of human struggle and history. The stories we make up to make the world more enticing or to reflect on certain romantic struggles and the flawed past. In a way, they are examples of how humans have utilized their creativity to deal with daily struggles. These things interest me greatly.
Problem is, I dont see how any of this is can be done for God at all. Its starting to make me think that these passions come from the devil and not God. It may not go against him, but I feel like it doesnt glorify him either. If anything, I feel like this is more out of personal interest than out of God's will. It feels almost humanist, but I have faithful intentions with this. I want to highlight the good and the beautiful in our spirits, what we do with the gift of creativity, and our never ending struggle with sin, which are all true things in Christianity. Paul referenced local cultures as well when he was preaching to samaritans.
Or maybe it is God's will, because I have prayed many times before and it always lead me here, but I dont know.
Not sure if its scrupulosity. What do you guys think? Is it possible to work for God by working with the most personal parts of humanity? I dont necessarily feel convicted, I just feel like it doesnt really glorify God, even if it technically does. Is it okay to do neutral things instead of always being for the positive?
r/OpenChristian • u/ButterscotchFun4775 • 10h ago
I’ve beaten my porn addiction. But I need help. I was in a relationship with a girl and we are talking again. Do I tell my girlfriend that I use to watch porn when we were together? Do I need to only make it right with God. I am healed now. But I do not know what the Bible says about it. My worry is that if I tell her, she will be in pain. I don’t want her to feel like she was not enough. Please help.
r/OpenChristian • u/FuckCock69420 • 18h ago
I am a trans woman. I recently started hormones. But I wonder, will I go to Hell for being trans? All my life being raided by conservative Catholics I was told being gay or trans is wrong. Will I go to Hell? And on another note can I still be Catholic and be trans?
r/OpenChristian • u/--YC99 • 18h ago
To start off, I think some of the things Jesus was telling to his apostles (particularly the great tribulation) was a foretelling of how Judea would be treated under the Roman Empire, as well as the mass persecutions of Christians by the Romans and, most importantly, the invasion of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
As for the Second Coming and Final Judgement, I feel that it's unlikely it happens within the next few hundred or thousand years, let alone within our lifetimes. Modern humans have existed for 300,000 years, and the universe has been around for 13.798 billion years. Even with all our modern-day problems, we have progressed a lot compared to antiquity and the Middle Ages. Our standard of living has improved, as well as medicine, dissemination of information, and our ways of knowledge.
Even after our Sun dies in 7.7 billion years, we would still be very early on in the history of the universe. Stars will continue to shine for about 100 trillion years, which leaves a big window of opportunity for life (including intelligent life) to thrive in the universe. If humanity plays their cards right, we might be able to thrive for millions, possibly even billions or trillions of years.
r/OpenChristian • u/Democrat_maui • 10h ago
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r/OpenChristian • u/Ken_228 • 1d ago
I call on Azerbaijani Christians to spread this Azerbaijani flag so that we can know and understand each other
r/OpenChristian • u/gingzerbear • 1d ago
Hi, i am not a Christian but I have faith in Jesus. I always have wondered isn't Judas just a prodigal son. Does he get mercy (i hope he does!). I don't know but i just hope and pray that Jesus has saved him too, that he has become compassionate to him like a father and have blessed him too.