Is it just me??

What are you guys into. (religiously speaking) I'm pentacostal(and i still dont know how to spell it) What's the difference between all these religions??? What's so special about yours??

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Well, you asked, let's see if I can avoid boring you. I bet you don't get to the end of this without falling asleep, Skittles!

Religion covers several sets of beliefs, none of which are very compatible with each other. They all describe the same world, but they interpret the cause of what happens differently.

There are nature religions, such as the native Americans practiced. Wicca is quite like that. Anything that talks of the Earth-Mother. They see an inter-connectedness between all things, they feel your mind shares thoughts with other minds, that all things have a level at which they are conscious. Mystical stuff. Shamen understand and interpret to the rest of the community.

There are magic religions, quite common in Africa. If you know the principles of cause and effect, you can do something that changes the life of the person you're acting on. There's no good or bad, just power and influence.

There are religions with many aspects of God being seen as different powers - the Gods. Norse, Greek, Roman, Hindu. You get tales of the Creator, the Sustainer and the Destroyer as the great Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, with their uncounted minor manifestations like Agni, God of Fire, or Ganesh, Lord of success and destroyer of evils and obstacles. I think of these as primarily story-religions though I have no doubt that their worshippers are as fervent as anyone else's.

There are religions with no God at all, like Buddhism, which explores the real world with just as complex and rich an understanding as religions with a God or Gods.

Lastly, there's what you've been brought up near to, the Abrahamic faiths, and each of this group of religions is very compatible with each other. These are Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Mormonism, and they all have a single God - the same God - who chose a people - different people, eventually - as His own. The Jews and Christians take the first five Books of the Old Testament as a description of God doing the choosing, and telling the people how to behave. The Koran tells Muslims what happened after that. The New Testament tells Christians a different history, in which the words God, only Son, sacrifice, remission of sins, New Deal and grace figure prominently. The angelic revelation to an American, Joseph Smith, informed Mormonism and gave the USA an Abrahamic religion all of its own.

For the first thousand years, all Christians were prepared to share their central religious observance, the Mass or Communion. Anyone who tried to change the core belief of the community - by saying, for example, that people weren't inherently sinful, or that a person could become holy by his own efforts - was called a Heretic and persuaded otherwise or expelled from the religion. The appearance of Islam after the first six hundred years did a lot to tie Christianity together in that way.

Eventually, a heresy happened that wasn't one small group against a big group, it was half and half. Nobody could settle the truth. It was so minimal a quarrel that neither you nor I would even understand why they argued, but they ended up refusing to share each other's core service of worship. They're still split. One's called Orthodox Christianity and the other is called Western Christianity.

Five hundred years ago, Western Christianity split half-and-half again, into Roman Catholic Christianity and Protestant Christianity.

Every year since then, some congregation of Protestant Christians has given themselves a new label like Baptist, or Anglican, or Pentecostal, or Methodist, but (now, at least) they share communion, they're splinters of Protestantism but they're not totally separated from each other. Some of them, like the Anglicans, refuse to even call themselves Protestant, they say they're all that remains of Catholic Christianity and that Roman Catholics are Heretics. Hair still rises on the necks of a lot of these people when they enter the same room.

Do you see a pattern in all this?

All of the Christian churches, without exception, are trying hard to find a way to get back to sharing their communion with all of the other Christian churches. Don't hold your breath, though. Nobody is even started on bringing all of the Abrahamic faiths to a point where they can share a core belief without arguing.

Wow. How much i didnt know.

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Originally Posted by skittles2004

Wow. How much i didnt know.

You said a while back that you can't get to any other church to see what it's like. Why not ask your Minister whether he is doing anything Ecumenical - that means bringing the Christian churches closer together and more co-operative - and that you'd like to help do that locally. It should make for an interesting half hour, and you might end up being sent around the other churches to discuss it.

Hmm, i don't know what he'd say about that! It's pretty far out stuff!

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Originally Posted by skittles2004

Hmm, i don't know what he'd say about that! It's pretty far out stuff!

I'm not so sure. Maybe you just don't get to hear about what your church is doing?

“Through a new openness to ecumenism, the dynamism and energy of Pentecostalism can significantly enrich the search for unity among Christian churches,” said Kobia after meeting with a group of bishops and pastors representing Chilean Pentecostal churches.

That's an example, from http://news.spirithit.com/index/sout...ical_movement/ - the Pentecostal Church is right there in the heart of bringing the Christian Churches back into a single family again.

I'm going to guess - I think what your church believes is shown on http://www.upci.org/doctrine/

Some of those ideas aren't emphasised in other Christian churches. That's why a Church with Pentecostal values can add to the excitement of other local churches, give them a new idealism, help them to go out into the community and bring back the ignorant and the confused into the ways of God.

You don't think your Minister would go for that sort of notion? It might get you out to see how other churches behave, if he did. How could any church say no to a member who asks to be allowed to discuss ecumenism with the surrounding churches?

I've never even hear of that till now! what makes you think he has??/

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Originally Posted by skittles2004

I've never even hear of that till now! what makes you think he has??/

He had to pass EXAMS to be a Minister, Skittles! I bet he even gets a Pentecostal Magazine once a month!

Besides, if you've read up on it and you know enough to hold a serious ecumenical conversation, think how surprised you'd make him. The Lord moves in mysterious ways, he was taught that at college.

All right. I'll research it, study it use the whole minester thing against him. i'm sure he would at least let me state something about it!

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Originally Posted by skittles2004

All right. I'll research it, study it use the whole minester thing against him. i'm sure he would at least let me state something about it!

He might even give you his pulpit for ten minutes one Sunday, if you get interested. Then you can tell the whole congregation.

Anything you need to know while you're researching, this is a good place to ask.