Good to know, Mike. Considering that there's theoretically only one God and actually a bazillion different religions, then theoretically God instituted all the religions for the specific purpose of warring with each other claiming to be the one true religion while all others are false. Some God, that.
And thus the generalization is apt. Any other characterization is not accurate.
I understand your confusion, Clara. I even (kind of) understand your use of "bazillion". It represents frustration and definite LACK OF UNDERSTANDING of Christianity in general. There are a very small number of "mainstay" items that define Christianity. They include the Virgin Birth of Jesus, the Resurrection, and the appearance of Jesus to his followers after the Resurrection. The New Testament is words, strung together by men. Thus certain passages can be interpreted slightly differently. An example is the Sabbath. Seventh-Day Adventists interpret that to mean Saturday, and they're quite emphatic and insistent about it. I don't happen to subscribe to that, but I still accept Adventists as my brothers and sisters in the faith. So much for differences, Clara. Even Jews are totally acceptable to me as men and women who worship the same God. Are there "faiths" that I don't recognize? Sure there are. Islam is a fine example. There are others as well...Shintoism ...Buddhism...all seeking to recognize/discover a connection of mankind to a higher plane of existence. If you do believe that humans just accidentally came into existence ...pond scum...itsy bitsy atoms bumping into one another...that's your privilege. I don't happen to believe that. Which "religion" is right? We'll each have to live with our own convictions on that one, won't we?
Peace, Clara.
mike, this is off-topic but I'm curious. Why do you believe the sabbath is the first day of the week rather than the seventh?
Not really off-topic...well, sort of, but Clara changed the subject in a flash...
I understand the problem of the "Sabbath". I chose conventional Protestantism when I became a Christian, thus I chose to use Sunday as the day that I attended church and worshiped. Nothing more complex than that. I've attended Seventh-Day Adventist services (because my wife and I were specifically invited by a student) and they get really exercised about what day is the Sabbath. I don't. I've also attended services at Temple De Hirsch Sinai in Seattle because we were invited by a very old friend, Herb Bridge whose son was one of the Rabbis there. Incidentally, you might be interested in following a link or two about Admiral Herb Bridge. We have a quite interesting (at least to me) history together going back a couple of generations. Another interesting (again, perhaps only to me) connection is our family's shared connection to Rabbi Daniel Lapin (he's easy to google, too) who my youngest daughter works for as his office manager on Mercer Island in Washington. He spoke at her wedding (a Christian function) a couple of years ago, and brought the house down with his humor involving Christianity v Judaism
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