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 A young Christian at an purity rally spreads the word.
September 27th, 2011
08:39 AM ET
Why young Christians aren't waiting anymoreBy John Blake, CNN (CNN) –True love doesn’t wait after all. That’s the implication in the upcoming October issue of an evangelical magazine that claims that young, unmarried Christians are having premarital sex almost as much as their non-Christian peers. The article in Relevant magazine, entitled “(Almost) Everyone’s Doing It,” cited several studies examining the sexual activity of single Christians. One of the biggest surprises was a December 2009 study, conducted by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, which included information on sexual activity. While the study’s primary report did not explore religion, some additional analysis focusing on sexual activity and religious identification yielded this result: 80 percent of unmarried evangelical young adults (18 to 29) said that they have had sex - slightly less than 88 percent of unmarried adults, according to the teen pregnancy prevention organization. The article highlights what challenges abstinence movements face. Movements such as “True Love Waits,” encourage teens to wear purity rings, sign virginity pledges and pledge chastity during public ceremonies. Yet many of these Christian youths eventually abandon their purity pledges, Relevant’s Tyler Charles concludes in the article. Tyler talked to people like “Maria,” an evangelical woman who said she wanted to wait until marriage to have sex. CNN's Belief Blog – all the faith angles to the day's top stories But she said she started having sex with her college boyfriend when she turned 20 because nearly everyone, even most of her Christian friends, were having sex. Maria:
Relevant theorizes about why it’s so hard for so many young Christians to wait, including the saturation of sex in popular culture, the prevalence of pornography and a popular “do what feels good philosophy.” Yet the article also asks a question that rarely comes up in discussions about abstinence movement. Relevant notes that in biblical times, people married earlier. The average age for marriage has been increasing in the U.S for the last 40 years. Today, it’s not unusual to meet a Christian who is single at 30 - or 40 or 50, for that matter. So what do you tell them? Keep waiting? Scot McKnight, author of “The Jesus Creed,” and "One.Faith: Jesus Calls, We Follow," acknowledges that young, single Christians face temptations that their counterparts in the biblical age didn’t face. He tells Relevant:
So what should a Christian parent or youth pastor do? How do they convince more young Christians to wait until marriage, or should they stop even trying? soundoff (5,760 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 Next »Post a comment
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The writer is showing they have no clue. True christians would try to wait. Period. That is what is wrong with America today.
"True christians would try to wait. Period. That is what is wrong with America today."
True christians "tring to wait" is what is wrong with America today?
Yes of course. Abstaining till marriage is obviously the society killer. I guess, famine, poverty, slavery, child soldiers, ect, ect, are way less important than whether people wait till they are married to have se.x.
Of course abstaining is difficult. But so is everything else in the Bible. Does that mean we should stop trying and stop teaching everything that's difficult to do? The Bible also teaches us not to lie, not to be selfish, and to love other people. These things are just as if not more difficult than abstaining from se-x before marriage.
In fact, that is the point of the Bible's teaching. Go-d holds each person to a far higher standard than what we can possibly hope to attain by simply trying on our own. We've all failed the test. You can point your finger and say "I'm basically good. And I'm not as bad as THAT guy".. but fact remains everyone has fallen short of Go-d's perfect standard.
This is why Jes-us died – That anyone who asks Go-d for 4giveness will be 4given. They will not receive the penalty from what they've done – whether it was done intentionally or out of ignorance – He took the penalty instead. The genuineness of our acceptance of this is evidenced by the new willingness in our life to do things by Go-d's standard.
The second part of the good news is that Go-d doesn't expect us to "really try to be good". As seen by the staggering numbers of premarital se-x, or by the person who gives you a rude look when you accidentally hit their cart at the supermarket – It is impossible to live the way Go-d wants us to live without his help!! Sure, we can be "good moral people", but if we are honest with ourselves, there are still some att-itudes and behaviors in our lives that won't move and change no matter how hard we try. So he gives us this help when we ask him to help us to live up to this standard. No one will ever be perfect in this life, but if we ask for Go-d's help every day in living up to this standard, we will get better at it every day.
My husband and just celebrated our 4 year anniversary. We were married when we were 26 and 27 years old. Neither of us had se-x before we got married. This does not make us better than anyone else by any means, but it is an example that Go-d helped each of us as we asked for his help every day. We couldn't have done it without Him.
Why do you look to ancient religious mythology to determine what is right and wrong? Do the likes and dislike of those who existed 20 centuries ago even apply? Are they relevant after all that time? Do you see things as your grandmother did? That is only 2 generations. Imagine 100 generations. What do the stories of sheepherders have anything to do with life in the 21st Century
arrrgh... I keep trying to reply... but my reply keeps getting blocked... anyone got that list handy of all those words CNN likes to block? =)
Rick, I would agree with you if the Bible were just another book written merely by people who had some good ideas, or some crazy visions after eating some bad thai food. But the Bible was written by people who were inspired by the God that was God then and is still God today. The Bible is the word of God, written down by humans who listened to him. Now, I understand this sounds like crazy talk. I would think so too, if 1) I did not do study on this history of the Bible and how unique and amazing it is, and 2) I hadn't experienced the intense reality of God in my life and in people around me. Undoubtedly, lots of other religions claim that their holy book was written by God. Islam does, Mormons do, lots of others.
There are many things, though, that set the Bible far apart from any of those other religious text. 1) It is historically sound. Unlike any other text, it traces historical events over hundreds of years and every day and is found to be archaeologically and historically correct, in the things that we are able to uncover up until now. 2) There are so many prophesies written in the old testament that ca -me true decades, centuries, and millenniums later. And we're not talking va gue Nostradamus type stuff. Specific things predicted. This is a signature of divinity in the text showing that these writings are more than merely human. 3) Unlike other religious texts, the Bible was written over a time of thousands of years by dozens of writers. There is a cohesiveness in the writing from Genesis to Revelation. Though the culture around them changes, the principals of the God who lived then and lives today was relevant in thousands of years B.C. to when the last book of the Bible was written, around 60 A.D. or so.
Secondly, apart from the reliability of the text, what convinces me even more is how I've seen God work in my life and in other's lives who reach out to God in sincerity of wanting to know him for who he is. Through prayer and through seeking what his will is (by reading the Bible) he's transformed me. I'm not perfect, but he's changed my heart so much, taking away so much anger and jealousy and other things. Looking from the outside, you can reason away that my experience is subjective and I've fooled myself into thinking that there's a God who did this, when really it was just self-will. However if seeing this internal change in myself and in other people wasn't enough, I've also seen God do incredible things on the external. I used to have knots and pains in my neck and spine from sitting at a computer desk all day. One day I was at church and the preacher says... Someone here has a lump in their neck! I thought to myself... hmmm I do. I reached back and the lump in the back of my neck (muscle knots) and all over my back and up my spine were gone and all pain was instantly gone, when it had just been there an hour ago and had bothered me for years. I've had strangers in my church come up to me and tell me very specifically about something very specific I've been praying about and told no one, they'd tell me what I was praying about, and what God says about it. I've also seen lots of other people physically healed when doing medical trips in the dominican republic.. I'm talking kidney sto.nes disappear and blind people suddenly see. Sounds crazy but it's no joke! God is real, the Bible is reliable, and He'll show you if you open your heart to him – whie using your brain at the same time to review the reliability of the Bible.
Human beings ought to have self control over their urges, that is what differentiates them from animals.
S E X outside marriage is not healthy for the mind/body or soul.
Anyone that advocates otherwise is clearly a LIAR.
Well, thanks for straightening THAT out, Danny Boy
I have control over my urges. If you do not without the help of your bronze age comic book, danny boy, you are one sad sack
Ricky , by just screaming out I can control urges proves nothing. The question is have you been controlling urges in real life? If you have been why repeatedly come on this article to scream urge control? Now only you know the truthful answer to that question.
Cosine: i control my urges in real life just fine. i am in a monogomous long term relationship with a woman i love very much
I somehow don't get the
'Why buy the cow when the milk is free' thingy.
Funny thing is, I don't think of her as something to be bought.
I do actually agree that some urges people should have control of. Urges that we would consider unnatural. The urge to murder, abuse, steal, and so on. But saying that controlling our ugres is the only thing that separates us from animals? Wow. Please don't start out your argument with a completely uneducated thought. How about, the ability to reason, communicate in various ways, to create and to discover through intelligence? Those are just the first few thoughts that come to mind when thinking about how we differ from animals. Premarital se.x does not harm your mind. The shame that certain religions inflict on the idea of not waiting, hurts the mind. And you can protect your body if you are educated and do it safely. Christians want to scare their followers into going against their very biology and human nature of expressing themselves se.xu.ally by telling them they can't do it safely and in a controlled environment that is not harmful nor toxic. But unfortunately certain groups don't want to follow that. If you choose to wait, then good for you, I chose not to and neither did my wife. And we have a wonderful marriage and I love her because I respect her and her beliefs just as she did mine. Just don't teach people lies about se.x that just are absolutely not true.
nonbeliever: it seems that fear is the major weapon much religion (including christianity) has at their disposal. i"believe this, or god is going to get you." i fear for those who fall for that tripe
@Rick that is exactly the point, something of of value and is treasured when you have sacrificed something for gaining it. If that something came with no worth attached, then it has no value.
@Cosine-
And that right there is why religion is so flawed. It is built around the psychological ideas that man is at the core, selfish. If you were to ask a majority of christians, I believe if there was no promise of eternal life in heaven, as opposed to eternal life in he.ll, most 'believers' would not follow christianity. That to me shows that it isn't because they are following the creator, but because they have a desire for peace at the end of this life.
'The counterfeit love others seek will leave them empty but you see fruits of your decision." – mark
you have no authority to say whose love is counterfeit.
I'm sure this left wing news group loves to report this. the article is not completely true, partly yes.
Nothing like making it political.
Guys (and gals) with all your comments .....going on and on....isn't it just easier to sum this up as...
Leave it up the individual couple to decide..... I mean its up to them after all its their relationship....
seems that is the way it should be.
This is one young, single Christian woman who is waiting and plans to keep waiting. i defy the statistics.
Enjoy your cats
Also, you are part of the statistics
And waiting and waiting and waiting.......
You will get your reward for being faithful and blessed for taking the stand. You will find the right person to share your life with focused on your growth in the Lord together. The counterfeit love others seek will leave them empty but you see fruits of your decision. Stay strong in the faith.
All I see is intolerance from both religious and non. One telling the other he/she is wrong and to stop forcing their view on others... Teens of devout "religious" Christians are not waiting because they see hypocrisy in thier parents "religion". Pastors teach moralism, and not the Gospel. Jesus did claim to be God and He said that He was the good news, that's why He was killed. But it is not my job to "force" Jesus on anyone but to tell others what He has done in my life. At the same time I can respect the views of others and disagree...
Youth pastors need to be equipping teen parishioners to walk with God and to listen to his voice.
what gives the youth pastors (or any pastors) any credibility to guide anyone regarding god?
Might be a good idea to educate their youth on how to be safe if they choose not to wait. Might help curve the rise of tenn pregnancy and STD's. Just a thought.
The comments are way better than the article!!! LMAO
Churches are better than singles bars for picking up lonely chick.
You find some lonely gal going to church with her family and you she will be giving it up in a few days. All you have to do is act all proper and churchy and she thinks she found herself a husband. Then it's as easy as "Hit it, and Quit it"
lol
I hardly think that's funny, schmuck. Philo's a jerk.
Me and my spouse both waited to our wedding day and would not change it for the world. We were both raised in households that taught Biblical/Christian values and we are teaching our children the same. Will they follow, who knows? But they will have a great example of saving yourself for marriage right in their home and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Forgive me while I preach....
So much for Relevant Magazine!!! So we are to give up? We are to conform to the culture? How is that working out for you? What is the divorce rate in America? STDs? Are people happier and better off if they just do it? ...NO!!!!
God has appointed marriage for a reason. The reason is to protect families and societies from destroying themselves. Look around at those who have done it in their teens and did not wait till marriage 20 years down the road. They have 'more than likely' been divorced at least once, have STDs, broken families, child support, kids they never see, kids that rebel, wives who distrust them, stress, other addictions and financial burdens.
For people like this, only God can put back the broken pieces. Don't throw your life away. Save yourself and if your with anyone who says they will die without you... let them. Marriage was designed to protect YOU, not keep you from anything. Ask anyone who waited... all of us will tell you to WAIT. I know my wife will never leave me. I have no reason to doubt that she will and she has no reason to doubt that I will leave her. We both waited and it is working how God designed. My parents waited, and I grew up in the kind of home that God intended. It was a beautiful thing... but I had friends who grew up in homes that were ugly... who's parents did not wait.
Follow the few and you will see that what God intends always works out to your benefit. You may never get married, but its better to not marry than to get married or just do it and live a life of regret. Find your fulfillment in your relationship with God. It is the only place it can be found. You get one life, one chance... don't screw it up.
If you have screwed up, God can change any heart. You may have all the problems above, but if your still living, God has a purpose and task for you.
Ya wanna know why they aren't waiting? Cause they found out that after marriage, and particularly after children 90% of women loose 100% of their labido.
Well my wife and I didn't wait and I've been married 20 years and counting...oh ya and we will not be telling our children we didn't wait either. Your logic is totally flawed. God or not it is certainly not a bad idea to wait. MATURITY is a better guage to make this decision than marriage. People constantly think that marriage will make things more stable...this is unfortunantly not usually the case.....that human nature.
waytogoanswerman amen brother
@waytogoanswerman
Forgive me while I debunk you...
Creating a direct correlation between pre-marital se.x and the divorce rate and the general happiness of people is a laughable thought. The so called 'studies' that I have read are based more on opinion than any real fact. I could say that breathing has just as much to do with divore as they do pre-marital se.x. I would say that the fact that christians rely on god to solve their problems instead of going to work with a therapist in marriage counseling has more to do with divorce. Or the fact that some people just aren't compatible in the grand scheme of life. The pure act of se.x before marriage is not the cause of STD's. The lack of education to the youth on ways other than abstinence (which is obviously not working) like how to protect yourself and have se.x safely is what causes higher numbers. And to say that people generally are not happy if they don't wait? You might as well start telling people the world is flat again. This is the problem with christian propaganda. You scare people into beliving that their lives are going to be miserable if they don't wait because you have no other means to keep them from being and following what their biology has created them to do. It's quite sad and truly pathetic.
My parents didn't wait, they have been married for nearly 40 years. My wife and I didn't wait. We've been married for over 10. I love her and trust her not because of anything to do with who we had se.x with before we were married, but because I love her for who she is. We will be together because we communicate and we are patient and understanding. Not because of any god.
You are the worst kind of christian when it comes to this topic because you want to scare followers, not educate them. You want them to believe lies that cannot be backed by any true evidence, so that they follow a silly commandment. If you want to make a true difference in the lives of fellow christians, then educate them on how to sustain a romantic relationship, the work that it takes to do that. Educate them on how to, if for SOME reason they chose not to abstain, to be safe about it. Then you wouldn't have young teens being shamed into a marriage they didn't want to be in, in the first place because they got pregnant since they didn't know how to use a con.dom or BC. They wouldn't be getting divorced, because they would understand how a relationship works. And telling people god will fix them? I know so many christians who are waiting for god to 'fix' them. I tell them to go see a counselor. Go get help.
It's like the parable of the man stranded in the boat, who prayed to god to save him. And after god sent him all the different people his way to help and he denied them, he died because he was still waiting for god. If you believe in god, don't wait for him to help you. Use the people he has created that work in those fields to receive help.
If people want to wait until marriage, that's fine, it's their choice. But don't spread false information and facts to scare people or shame them into following you. It's the lowest form of persuasion.
Waiting may make the partners to committ and marry earlier and not wait for the average marriage age of 40 !! Couples dont need to commit and marry till they are 40 yr because they get it on demand early. And have to endure all the problems that come with it.
Ya hey mike the opposite is true as well.."lets get married now so its ok to do it" and that leaves for lots of trouble.
The world would be a better place for all, if we could eradicate all religions.
And thus evoke a world where there is no right and wrong. Why would you ever want a world like that?
There would still be right and wrong. Just not the brand of "right and wrong" that includes, say, a prescription for stoning people to death for adultery.
Don't fool yourself. You live in a country and western world that is so influenced by Christianity that your very thoughts of right and wrong were determined by that believe. A more natural right and wrong and was and is the case today in many places is the thought that "might makes right". The strongest one makes the rule and determines what is right. This was the world of Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan or many times in history. You live in world that was built on Christian Morality. If you slowly dismantle the moral fabric of a culture, who then decides what is right or wrong?
Unfortunate – are you blind or just retarded? Religion is the base root of misunderstanding and hatred between people. Why do you think we're at war.. people could live by morals (we all have a feeling of what right and wrong is) and be far better off than they are trying to convince others that their religion is the right one. I would like to slap people like you.
Some wait. Some don't. No difference now from any other time in history.
I wonder why people who aren't christians even bothered to read this article. Nothing better to do? It seems to me like it would have been a waste of their time, yet here they are, they read the aritcle and even took the time to comment on it. I'm not saying that this article is only for christians, but I just would think that athiests would probably just overlook it.
i do it to read the clever repartee
The bible teaches you not to judge, why are you judging people.
I'm confused. When did CNN come to stand for Christians-only News Network?
Because we are open-minded enough to want to know what those who believe differently than we do have to say.
@nonbeliever-
See you did it also! In the past our Creator only had one group of peoples as He has today. If you were to study that one group of people instead of only basing your opinion of them from what you hear about them you may have a different outlook of them and true Christianity. They will go to ANY lengths to follow the Bible as Gods word without putting man-made doctrines into it. Man-made doctrines or the great apostasy is exactly why you and people like you feel the way you rightfully do. All you ever have heard was lies that an intelligent questioning mind as yours can see through. But just because all you have ever seen is counterfeit money doesn't mean real money doesn't exist.
I see yours and PleaseUseLogic’s point very well and it’s very sad that false religion has done this to so many, Satan wins again by developing and then turning yet another group of people away from the only true God Jehovah. Which by the way, the Tetragrammaton occurs 6,828 times in the Hebrew text printed in Biblia Hebraica and Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. The very frequency of the appearance of the name attests to its importance to the Bible’s Author, whose name it is. Try to answer this one, why if so many times God put His personal name in His instructions to us, ALL religions have taken it out of His book? What man-made reason is there that supercedes Gods? In one word, apostasy.
The same goes with removing the words Sheol hades and Gehenna then replacing them with the word hell. This opens the apostasy door teaching that God is a mean, cruel and unjust God which can’t be any farther from the truth about Him.
True Christians adhere to Bible standards and teachings unchangingly. That is putting up the fine fight of true Christian faith. Nonbeliever, why don’t you open your door and listen to what the truth is, what the Bible really teaches! I’m very sure you will see my point, Jehovah’s morals and standards do not change! But Satan’s does.
wow..some ones cuckoo!
@Kevin-
If you go down to the bottom of the page, I replied to this on a different comment, but most of the ideas in full.
Just get married at an earlier age! What's wrong about that?
Those that marry earlier get divorced at a higher rate.
Yeah, isn't that what they did way back in the day? They'd arrange marriages for people that would now be considered "teenagers". Back then, a girl became a woman when her cycle started, which was mid to late "teens". Could increased amounts of hormones in animal products have anything to do with an earlier menarche??? Think about it... A boy became a man, well, whenever he did what other men did (e.g. Work, support themselves). But nowadays, "teen" boys don't really do anything except go to high school so they can pass standardized tests. Some, probably most "teen" boys do not have a job, and still get an allowance from their parents. What does this mean for the females? The males are obviously not psychologically able to support a wife and kids, but the females are obviously physically able to have kids. Keep in mind that all this time, the males' hormones are going through the rough at this phase (once again, think animal hormones). So it basically boils down to the fact that they are BIOLOGICALLY ready, but are not ready psychologically. Ladies and gents, the reason why "teens" aren't waiting is because there is a huge difference between when the human body says we're ready and when our 21st century, western society says we should be. Either something's wrong with their bodies, or something's wrong with our society, choose your pick.
From a male 18 year old sophmore in college.
Yes, Luds has it perfectly right. We are trying to move the age of marriage and sensible reproduction back so far to accommodate ever longer schooling and two income couples that we have come up against a number of walls, like female fertility dropping in the thirties, and the incredible difficulty of pursuing abstinence possibly into the late 20's/early 30's also.
The real question is, Who Gives a Sh!t?
I definitely don't.
There are professed Christians and there are true Christians. Man has morality issues that are on the constant change. God does not change.
Yes, God does not change in his or her context. However, God's morals depends on the prevailing God of the time for the particular religion, the prevailing religious leaders and teachings, the prevailing religion of the time period in a specific location, and which manifestation of God for that particular place, time, and people. Ever since God was invented, he or she has been reborn, remolded, and rebranded in thousands of contexts, each one of them unchanging.
PleaseUseLogic, You have made my point very clear. All the variables you mention are man-made not God-made. Like I said and God said, His morals do not change, even a little. This is why I say there are professed Christians and there are true Christians. There can be only one true God and all the man-made logic in the world can not change that, thank God.
@Kevin-
I think you are missing the point that PleaseUseLogic is trying to make. You say that God never changes, his morals do not change, even a little. In the retrospect of major religions, christianity is a baby, and it's ideals and God have changed over and over and over again. You say God cannot change, perhaps this is true, but every five to ten years christians profess a new idea and a new way of 'christian living.' The followers of anything dictate the interpretation. And with 30 different denominations (not even counting the differing versions of 'non-denominational) coupled with the numerous different variations or translations of scripture, how can anyone who follows christianity profess to know what the 'real' christianity is? To me, the christian god does not exist, therefor he changes, all the time, based on what followers decide they want him to look like.
@ nonbeliever , u r also missing the point.. what you are talking about is moral evolution of mankind independent of God's standards.. God never changes His ways but man tries to architect new ways to relate to God in other to satisfy our conscience.. but we dnt set rules to relate to God but God sets rules for us to relate to Him.. and they do not change. If your are a christian and can't wait then spiritually you are weak. thank you
Oops my bad. You can see my reply for nonbeliever @ the "November 29, 2011 at 6:30 am" post. Sorry.
From the use of texting shortcuts, I suspect Mofkok is about 15 years old. Stay in school dear, and by all means wait. I don't think you're mature enough to use correct birth control and you're certainly not mature enough to take care of an unwanted child.
mofkok: the god of the old testament is very different than the god of the new testament.
Rick: "God" in the old testament is one of many, and very angry. Jesus, the "god" in the new testament said that he is not God, so the comparison is irrelevant. "God" is just a cranky old man who kills everyone at whim.
Here is a great article about God I hope you will enjoy. It will answer questions like; Does God really care about you? What is God like? Does he have a name? Is it possible to get close to God? Please see what the Bible really teaches about God. http://www.watchtower.org/e/bh/article_01.htm
so did God create dinosaurs? or were they just put here to test our faith?
Hades, of course God create dinosaurs, He created all things. We may not know His purpose now but you can bet He had a very good reason. For one, IF dinosaurs were around when man came on the scene, at that time man had all dominants over all animals, they all feared man as their dominant. For two, it is speculated a good reason might have been for the new ground compaction process to be sped up. But Hades, who are we to second guess the greatest mind of all, the designer of all we see that the scientist more and more often say they really know very little about?
Kevin: It's awfully presumptuous claiming to know what god thinks.
@Rick it's not presumptuous at all, he wants us to not only know Him but He also wants us to have a close relationship with Him. The only way we can grow close to Him is through reading His letter to us, then and only then can we really draw close to him by learning what He thinks thus being able to make Him happy by doing His will. (James 4:8) 8 Draw close to God, and he will draw close to you. . . .
Jehovah actually asks us to make Him rejoice by telling us what is going on in the spirit realm, something very sinister Satan is doing, knowing full well his time is very near finished. (Proverbs 27:11) 11 Be wise, my son, and make my heart rejoice, that I may make a reply to him that is taunting me.
God wants us to have a very accurate knowledge of what He is thinking for both ours and His benefits! (1 Timothy 2:3-4) 3 This is fine and acceptable in the sight of our Savior, God, 4 whose will is that all sorts of men should be saved and come to an accurate knowledge of truth. (John 17:3) 3 This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.
Rick, God wants us to know everything about Him, that is the truth. Apostasy will have you believe many things about God are a mystery, not true.
@Mofkok-
It took me way too long to piece together your broken and completely ridiculous response, for it to signify more time than for me to say, false.
@Kevin-
Here is the main issue that passionate, evangelical christians, like yourself, run into when they are putting together their argument with atheist and agnostics, like myself. Being someone who has studied, for many years, christianity in its whole and history, I am grounded in my belief that the bible is nothing more than a misrepresented piece of fictional literature clothed in realism. In other words, if one does not believe christianity to be true, then they most likely will believe the bible to be false, which in turn means that quoting scripture is the absolute worst route you can take to proving your point. I could explain to you the fallacy of the bible built by an imperfect and self centered man...But, for sake of debate, I will humor you.
Starting with your idea of god doesn't change, that man changes their idea of god or the way they interact with him (I believe this is what you meant). So here is my question to you: If god does not change, never changes, that man changes, then do you believe that it is wrong for women to teach and have authority over men (1 Tim 2:12)? Do you believe that you should cut off your right hand if it makes you 'stumble' (Mat 5:30)? Have you sold all your possesions and given them to the poor in order to follow god (Luke 12:33)? I could go on, but I think I've proven my point. Christians don't want to follow the bible and gods 'clear' explanation for their life, they simply want to pick and choose what suits them best. And you say, with so precise confidence that you know exactly what god meant and what he means, but I can tell you exactly why other people, who call themselves TRUE followers and definite knowledge of the bible are right. That in lies, the problem with your argument. You claim YOU are right, as do millions of others. And those millions of others interpret scripture different than you. I can give you scriptural reference that backs their ideas and debunks yours. THAT is the problem with christianity. Man has been involved with it the entire time and man is fallible. Man is greedy. Man makes mistakes and self serves. The reason that god 'changes' is because man makes him change to fit his need. If that weren't the case you wouldn't see 30 different denominations and 30 different translations of scripture to suit different feelings of man and their need.
@nonbeliever-
Please look at this article and see if your mind might just maybe change. Thank you nonbeliever for the stimulating conversation. http://www.watchtower.org/e/19990208/article_01.htm