Lily Philips - can she be a 'true' Christian?

[mids2019]

https://www.premierchristianity.com/opinion/lily-phillips-has-been-baptised-i-pray-its-accompanied-by-change/20772.article

This article made me think about what it means to be Christian especially about the concepts of sin, judgment and redemption.

In my view Lily of course is a Christian being baptised but to not give up a lucrative adult film career possibly does cause angst amongst more traditional Christians.

We are taught not to judge 'Let those without sin cast the first stone' and to accept the universal unconditionally of forgiveness. (We pray every day about the forgiveness of sin) so it is difficult thologically to condemn others.

However does any fellow Christian need to remind Lily she makes money from a profession where many women with less choice are coerced and manipulated for thr gratification of men? Wr have moved away from a less judgmental Christianity but how do you view participation in Christian life with such a job?

So you don't want Jesus to do what you think he will do.

So tell me, does anyone in your Church pray for the Rapture to come? For Jesus to come back ?

That could be awkward, if the other people want it to happen, and pray for it to happen, but you don't.

I have written that I want what is the Bible to take place, but God knows the time and I am not willing for it to be sooner than what God wants. i am not praying for it to come now like some Christians may do may be in America. I go to an Anglican church as a non denominational and they don't pray for the end times to come now and rapture. When the rapture comes it will come and if I am a alive it will be a sight to behold.

@mids2019

This lies at the crux of a problem with modern religion

How is this a problem with modern pagan religions (Wicca, Druidry, Hellenic Paganism, Norse Paganism, Celtic Paganism, Egyptian Paganism, etc, etc) which do not have rules regarding sexual practice?

So you do want the Rapture to happen.

Quote " When the rapture comes it will come and if I am a alive it will be a sight to behold."

A sight to behold ? So you want to see billions of people tossed into a fire pit ?

Do you think it is wrong to pray for the Rapture ?

@RedTagAlan

In my view it should be illegal. Risk of genetic issues etc.

There's only a genetic issue if the couple procreates. Marriage (and sex) doesn't = procreation.

My personal view is that consenting adults should be free to have non-procreative sex with whomever they like. If that's family members having sex with each other, so be it. It's literally a victimless crime - no one is harmed by it.

That’s what I grew up being taught - very devout parents, very devout society, educational settings etc. I still grew out of it when I was old enough to see the incredible mental gymnastics of which you needed to be capable to convince yourself that an apparently omniscient, omnipotent, benevolent god never intervened in his creation.

The Bible tells us to watch and wait and it seems to suggest not pray for these things to happen, although some Christians may do but I don't.
I have said it will be sad the end of times, but I was speaking about the rapture when I said it will a sight to behold. I guess it may be terrifying at the same time..

(Matthew 24:42)
"Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come".

Any end times or rapture (I don’t for one minute think it will happen as there is no evidence) would only impact believers. Fact.

Well, unless they actually try to weaponise the moment a huge comet crashes into the earth or similar. One can entirely imagine a certain type of Christian shouting ‘We told you so! The Rapture!’ as we’re waiting for impact.

Avoiding the question again. I am confused.

"I'm not willing it to come before the time that God has noted."

" When the rapture comes it will come and if I am a alive it will be a sight to behold."

So you DO want the Rapture to happen.

What do you think would be a sight to behold?

Birth control is not 100%.

Consent is a complex issue. Power dynamics in place.

Teachers and students for example. Boss and staff.

Because I believe in the Christian faith I want their word to come pass when God wants it to. Now that doesn’t mean that I am willing for it to come now and neither for it to come either before God’s time. I don’t pray about it for it to come. I pray at times for peace still and so does my church. I wrote when the end times happens it will be sad. The rapture may be be a sight to see visually and also terrifying perhaps and a note may be for the end times whenever it comes. I think that is quite clear. I don’t know if it will happen in my lifetime.

(1 Thessalonians 4:16)
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

@RedTagAlan

In the case of boss and staff, though, it's not illegal for a boss to have consensual sex with an employee. The organisation they work for might consider it inappropriate and could potentially implement consequences, but if both parties were clear that it was consensual sex, no crime would have taken place, so the police would not get involved.

I'm not sure about the situation with teachers and students (where both have reached the age of consent and it's consensual.) At the university I attended, one of the lecturers was in a relationship with one of the PhD students (she also lectured part time.) She (the PhD student) was around 26, he was five or six years older. They were openly a couple, were very happy, got married a couple of years later and are still together as far as I know. Perfectly healthy relationship.

Perhaps it’s happening tonight under the guise of the solar eclipse!

Wont affect me then. No eclipse here.

MN will likely go down though.

I have seen too much of the result of relations having kids. For me, cousin marriage is a no.

@RedTagAlan

What if the relatives in question are of the same sex? So the cousins are both men? Or both women?

If your opposition is based upon the possibility of procreation, then surely sex that has no chance of procreation would be okay with you? So it would be perfectly fine for two sisters to have sex and get married, or for two brothers to have sex and get married? And sex for which there's no chance of reproduction (such as oral or anal) would be okay between family members of different sexes?

I don't think people are in the wrong for being opposed to it - I think incest between consenting adults is a subject in which it's okay to be both for and against, whereas if someone was pro-rape, that would be reprehensible.

My own feelings are that consensual adult incest is another example of "my body, my choice." If society is going to hold that individuals should have autonomy over their bodies, and that they can choose to do with them what they will, then that should surely cover everyone? But adults who want to engage in consensual non-procreative incestuous sex are excluded from that.

TBH, it's not something I have put much thought into. To me, from an evolutionary point of view, incest is wrong. And from my moral view also, because of power dynamics.

Beyond that, I have never wondered about two brothers getting married.

It’s one way of resolving over population - believers will disappear and leave earth for us atheists!

I think that is what is supposed to happen. The good go up and the bad stay. There are so many variations though that I can't be sure what one applies.

Worth searching the web for "After Rapture Pet Care". But they don't appear to employ atheists. Agnostics preferred.

"Our founding team of agnostics understand the weight of the rapture upon Jesus’ most faithful followers."

About — Lifelong Liberty Pet Care

I just hope they don't take all the beer with them.

And no, I am not mocking. These are serious discussions that take place.

Whether there will be beer in heaven? | Dominicana Journal

Thank you from the heart for this link! I haven’t had such an expected giggle in years! I especially liked the bit about how their crack team of agnostics will safely transport Fido to your non-Christian relatives within 24 hours ‘of a confirmed Rapture’, 😃 and that you need to specify three separate individuals ‘due to the possibility of unexpected conversion’!😃😃😃😂😂😂

Did you see the bit about the option to put the pets to sleep ? Quote from link-

"For some, the fear of what’s to come in the end times and throughout the Tribulation feels too burdensome to put on our pets. In these cases, humane euthanasia after the owner’s rapture may be the best alternative. We offer owners the option to secure extraction and humane euthanasia for pets either as a primary or secondary course of action in the case of the rapture occurring."

This is something that gets me about the rapture. Is that somehow the "good" people are the ones taken, and that they will be full of joy while their loved ones are left behind to suffer before the fire pit.

That is why, when I was a Christian, I rejected the idea of me ever going to heaven. Because I would be full of forgiveness for others.

Just imagine an AIBU thread here on MN. " Jesus called and I am going to heaven, but I have to leave all my loved ones behind to be tortured for eternity. Should I go ?"

The fact that someone would even consider going and leaving loved ones behind totally negates whatever qualifications one has to be taken. That was my take.

But the Christians ridicule me for that. Say I was never a "real Christian" (see my post earlier in this thread).

When one really thinks about it, what would be worse ? Eternity in heaven knowing one had left loved ones to suffer, or an eternity in hell holding DDs hand to try sooth her pain and suffering at the hands of this loving god in his eternal fire ?

And the Christians say atheists are the nasty people for even just daring to criticizing their beliefs.

Christians pray for this to happen.

I assume you’re supposed to convert your loved ones or something. No, never makes a lot of sense to me either, but I admit I find all those end of times cults, when not actually bent on slaughter, mildly amusing.

Yes, I did see the ‘put your pet to sleep because it cannot join you in the Kingdom of Heaven’ option. All admiration to the business plan. If people are really gullible enough to think that the crack team of agnostics are going to transport your pet to your non-Raptured relatives when you’re safely dead and can’t do anything about it, then I suppose someone’s always going to try to make a buck from it.

@Parker231

Christian believers might disappear, but that won't leave just atheists in the world. Polytheists like myself would still be here.