Are you a Christian?

By definition, Christians are those who claim to be part of Christianity as a religion, much like a muslim is someone who claim to be part of Islam as a religion. On the other hand, there are 3 kinds of Christians. We’re not talking about “Christian” as a sect here. We’re talking about all of Christianity including Catholics, Protestants, Born agains, etc. etc. See if you can identify yourself to either one of these:

1. Cultural Christians — these are people who are born of Christian parents, or in a Christian country, or educated in a Christian school. They call themselves a Christian because they grew up knowing it, seeing it, singing it. You will know if a person is a cultural Christian if you ask them why they are a Christian, their answer is “My parents are Christians, that’s why”, or “Don’t you ask me why I am a Christian, I got 8 years of Christian education” :-D

2. Religious Christians – these are people who call themselves Christians because they are part of a Christian group or church. They are those who go to church regularly and by doing that, adopts the name of that church they go to. For example, if you ask them why they are a Christian, they will answer, “I’m a Christian because I go to a Catholic church every Sunday”, or “… or to a born again church”, and so on.

3. Spiritual Christians — these people may be both cultural Christians and religious Christian. But what set them apart from these groups is the fact that they had what we normally call a “conversion” experience. What is a conversion experience? It is a fact that all of us are born “separated from God”. By that, I mean that we’re all, by natural tendencies, against God. You may be born of a Christian parent or part of a Christian denomination, but you are against God. No one is born worshipping God, but all are born worshipping self. The conversion experience is a realization that you cannot live all your life worshipping yourself and be the boss of your life. Conversion is turning to God and making him the boss of your life because he has all the reasons to be in the driver’s seat. You can be a Catholic or a Protestant or whatever, but have not really come into this part of your life. In the same way, you can be a Catholic or a Protestant or whatever, and become a Spiritual Christian if this realization has come and did the 180 degrees turn by turning over the CEO position of your life from you to God.

Both Cultural and Religious Christianity can end anytime soon, but only Spiritual Christianity lasts forever.

(This was my answer to a question posted in a mailing list I’m subscribed to)

Links updates

Here’re some new forums that is worth visiting and participating:

NewPhilippines.org – a new forum was installed on top of the news blog, this site is an online movement for Filipinos who desire a better Philippines. Discuss about anything from Politics to Entertainment — anything that may help in *dream* dissemination.

Pinoy Debate – a place for organized and formal exchange of ideas. Filipinos are fond of discussing ideas, may it be religion or politics. In contrast with the bunch of other discussion forums, Pinoy Debate is not a free-for-all discussion. There will always be one featured topic for discussion and there will be two sides with two or more participants representing each side. This method makes the flow of thought easy to read for everyone who visits. Everyone can also discuss freely on the “Peanut Gallery” section.

Click the links and join in the discussions, now!

New insights regarding the Sabbath issue

As I mentioned in my previous post, there is an on-going online debate on the age-old issue on the Sabbath. Participants are ROBIDOS, an Adventist-friend of mine whom I also engaged in an online debate a few years back, and SOLAGRATIA, a Baptist from Cebu.

SOLAGRATIA is an acquaintance through several online Christian forums. We met months ago here in Manila. What’s so special about the two of us is our connection with the Adventist church. I, being a 3rd generation Adventist and him, having married to an Adventist. For the past month, he has been researching about the Sabbath. So, since it’s also a personal interest of mine, I’ve been helping him since with my previous archives of materials and reading documents.

Going back to the debate, in his first negative, he opted to what his counter-part, ROBIDOS, call the “argument of silence”. He said, since the New Testament is silent about the Sabbath, therefore, the Sabbath wasn’t really taught by the apostles to be a valid command for Christians. I should say, from an spectator’s point of view, he was beaten black-and-blue by ROBIDOS in his 1st rebuttal because of that. I wasn’t sure if he can really recover from that — until he posted his own 1st rebuttal.

In this post, he defended his “argument of silence” approach. This is how he puts it:
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Why the “Nation Sunday Law” theory is a hoax

What is “National Sunday Law”?

For those of you who are not familiar with the term, National Sunday Law is the long awaited time by Seventh-day Adventists. It is suppose to be a time when the great United States of America will spear-head a passage of the law (bowing down the whims of the “beast” — the Papacy) which will require everyone to observe Sunday as Sabbath instead of Saturday.

According to the theory, rather, “prophecy”, US will pass a law making Sunday as the national day of rest. Everyone should observe it, otherwise, will be persecuted. Since the faithful Sabbathkeepers, namely, the Adventists will not obey the National Sunday Law, they will be persecuted and will run to the caves and wait for the 7 last plauges, the closing of probation, latter rain, blah, blah, blah…

There has been false alarms over time. I can vividly remember when I was a kid when a beloved Adventist missionary warned us over and over again for the “coming Sunday Law”. He would show a calendar where Monday is the first day and Sunday is the seventh. He said, it’s an indication that the “prophecy” is coming. Lo and behold, the great guy died, I graduated from college, got married then had a son, and there were no “National Sunday Law” in sight. In 1998, quite a few Adventists were shaken when the Pope issued a call for Catholics to “guard” their Sabbath day, Sunday and obey it faithfully. They said, it’s “the start”. The false alarm eventually fizzled out.

Lately, I’ve been receiving emails from Adventist friends, reading articles from Adventist websites and discussing in forums. I notice this trend again. The National Sunday Law buzz is all over their community once more! It was confirmed by my mom when she visited us over the weekend. She said, our local country Adventist congregation has been yeilding to this hype these days, discussing it Sabbath after Sabbath. I tried to explain to her why this cannot happen. The result is this article.

Why is this a hoax?

Let me give three (3) reasons why this is not going to happen.
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“The Pope is NOT 666″ – SDA professor

There’s a growing popular view among Adventist scholars that disowns the traditional Seventh-day Adventist interpretation of the Roman Catholic Pope being the 666 described in Revelation 13. One of them is Samuele Bacchiocchi, Ph. D., Retired Professor of Theology and Church History, Andrews University.

(Of course, as expected, the “new interpretation” did not depart from the Sabbath being the center of the “Great Controversy”. Note to my readers: I do not support even this “new interpretation”)

So, for the sake of those who still thinks and holds to the traditional “Vicarius Filli Dei” interpretation of 666, listen to your own. Here’s Dr. Bac’s 20 points why the Adventist traditional interpretation of 666 is incorrect as originally printed in his newsletter.
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