r/AskAChristian

I've been recently going into a deep dive on Christianity and how it is displayed through the media, and have always wondered why there are parts of the Bible that are just not talked about in church. I didn't know that King Solomon was the first to do demonic rituals, and who is Lilith? Adam's first wife? What about how some people believe that Jesus had a brother? What about the Nephilim? Where did they go?

I just have a lot of questions, and it's confusing that I think these tiny quirks of the Bible are the most interesting, but yet in church, it feels as if I hear the same passage over and over again. Anyone recommend places to deep dive or bestow their knowledge upon me?

I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 1 Corinthians 14:18

Paul approves and endorses speaking in tongues. The gospels don’t include this habit (except demonically, if memory serves). If Paul is earlier than the gospels and this seems to be an established practice for Christians - where did it come from and how did Christians adopt it? The practice is is foreign to Judaism.

I don't understand how it went from him being a perfect being to loving his own beauty so he wanted a higher position then just a guard against nothing to hating humans and God?

I'm probably gonna also post this in r/askatheist as well. I'm curious about other people's perspectives and reasoning to why they believe.

I have been pondering the issue of slavery in the Bible over the last few days as it is one of the main reasons I object to Christianity. In the OT God gives clear instructions to the Israelites on how they are to purchase and treat slaves. While many of these were indeed progressive for the time and were accompanied by the return law I still can't help but feel that merely regulating slavery is a massive problem for the unchanging nature of the moral law that most Christians subscribe to.

God is very concerned with relatively innocuous sins such as same sex relationships, fornication, adultery and Sabbath breaking to name a few, all of which carry the death penalty. Many other sins require capital punishment as well, with God even being willing to engage in the destruction of entire cities that disobey him with even the children not being spared his wrath. This stands in stark contrast with how he treated slavery and indentured servitude, both of which were perfectly legal under the law. This is, it seems to me, an arbitrary application of what is supposed to be his absolute moral law.

I know that Christians will defend this by refering to Exodus 21:16 and Deuteronomy 23:15-16 but this is surely at odds with what comes later in the same chapter where God affirms that beating slaves as long as they get up after a day or two is fine and with the most damning verses regarding slavery Leviticus 25:42-46 where a distinction is made between the indentured servitude permitted for fellow Israelites and the purchase of slaves from the surrounding nations with direct reference to the slavery suffered by the Israelites in Egypt.

It is clear that the OT explicitly condones slavery. The argument I usually hear in defence of this is that God could not prohibit slavery as he did other sins because the hearts of the Israelites were hard, so he opted for gradual change over an outright ban. From everything I have written I think you can guess my objections to this argument. I do not understand why God does not afford the same pragmatism to far lesser crimes. I do not see how banning some practices and merely regulating others constitutes a moral law that transcends time and culture as Christians generally claim. Lastly I don't understand why and all powerful and all knowing God would be unable to leave no ambiguity in his opposition to slavery. He had no issues with razing Sodom and Gomorrah for their sin, having a man killed for gathering sticks on the Sabbath or even submitting Egypt to the ten plagues but when it comes to slavery he is suddenly bound by the constraints of a fallen world. Why is this?

I'm an atheist, but I'm really interested in learning how Christians/Jews/Muslims understand their religion. I'm not religious, but I want to understand this better from your perspective. I'm willing to hear you talk about anything about your religion. How do you personally understand your religion? What's your reasoning behind believing in your religion? What do people in your religion do traditionally or how do you view differing religions? I'm trying to understand the cultural and historical side of this. I'm curious how these religions feel from the inside, from someone who believes in these religions.

Just for some background, I've struggled with intense menstrual pain since I was a little girl. I would throw up and pass out constantly from the pain, until I got put on birth control to stop my periods completely. I haven't had my period in a long time because of it, and it's been great.

Yesterday, I decided to skip school today because I wanted to go shopping with my grandma. I felt bad about skipping school, but I'm a 4.3 GPA student with perfect attendance, so I thought it would be fine. However, I woke up this morning bleeding through my pants with awful cramps (this hasn't happened in a LONG time). I hadn't changed anything in my diet or exercise and I'd been taking my medicine perfectly normal. I ended up missing school AND shopping because I physically couldn't walk without puking.

At first, I thought God did it because I planned to shop instead of go to school. I thought He was like, "Oh, you want to skip? I'll give you a reason to skip." But I don't understand why He would be petty like that. I also think maybe it was the reason behind why I wanted to shop. I really wanted to get a bikini, not like a horribly skimpy one, but still a two piece.

I've never worn something like that before, and usually I wear floor length dresses and skirts every day, so I find myself to be pretty modest. I think the reason He did it was because I planned on buying something immodest? I don't mean to be skimpy or anything but I want to wear something cute, plus my family and friends make fun of me for wearing one pieces and swim dresses.

Another thing I considered (I know this isn't in my main question so you don't have to answer), is reincarnation. I don't believe in reincarnation, but I went on a tour to a Hindu temple the other day, and the man said that the bad things that happen in this life are a result of the bad things you do in your past life (for example, one man at the temple suffered from severe migraines, turns out a hypnotist helped him see his past life somehow and he had drilled a screw into a dog's head), so I've been trying to think of what I could have possibly done in a past life to deserve this much pain.

TL;DR: I’ve had really severe period pain since I was little, but birth control stopped my periods and it’s been fine for a long time. I skipped school to go shopping with my grandma, but then I suddenly got my period again out of nowhere and was in so much pain I couldn’t even go. Now I’m wondering if it happened for a reason, like if God was punishing me for skipping school or for wanting to buy a bikini, or if it’s some kind of karma, even though I don’t really believe in that.

When I say “predestination“, I mean those that believe agnostics and atheists have already been chosen or have been created to end in hell.

 not in a loud way
just… constant

I’ve recently been trying to take my faith more seriously, actually reading the Bible for myself, praying more, really trying to build a relationship with God instead of just going through the motions.

I’ve been reading through Exodus, and I hit the part about the death of the firstborns, and I honestly feel really shaken.

I completely understand that what Pharaoh did to the Israelites was evil and deserved consequences. But the idea that all the firstborns were killed, including the firstborn of slaves who had no say in anything just feels really hard for me to process.

And then it makes me think… if God intervened in such a dramatic way there, why not in other horrific moments in history? Like slavery in the 1800s, or the Holocaust? Why step in then, but not in those situations?

I want to be clear, I do believe! and I don’t want to lose my faith over this. But I’d be lying if I said this part isn’t really bothering me and making me question things.

I am a Christian lady. I live by myself. Recently, I went through an unforeseen difficult time, where I missed work due to my car having problems and becoming sick in the midst of that time. I am now between jobs, waiting to work again in a couple of weeks. Today, a Christian man who is a friend of my extended family and who is quite wealthy, noticed that I did not have a lot of food. He commented that he felt I might have a "blockage" in my life causing me to be short of money. He asked if I could speak in other tongues and I admitted that I don't really know how to. He also thought this was a blockage. He seemed to think that I had sin in my life, stopping the flow of God's blessing to me. I have tried to obey God and to spend time with God each day and I am asking God if there is sin in me that could restrict his blessing to my life. I am wanting to ask please if anyone might have any insight? Thank you

What exactly is the correct line to forgiveness? for example, let's say like.. A person bullied B person. Years passed, regret set in and B person still despises A person. Is A person still forgiven for trying to apologize? Or is it going to remain that way for B person has no intention of forgiving?

I'm telling you, my grandfather is unwell, I don't know how likely it is that he will pass away or if he is in real danger of death, but he is very ill. Honestly, I don't have much affection for him, he lives far away and I barely knew him, but he is my mother's father. She is very sad. We are a family where we don't talk about our feelings and we hide them. We don't know how to express feelings to each other, nor show them. My mom's grandfather died a few years ago. I don't remember if she cried much. It's obvious I loved him, and now she has barely cried. She definitely holds back a lot. I don't know how to help her or comfort her. As ugly as it sounds, we aren't very affectionate with each other. How do I help her if the worst happens? It makes me very sad that I've barely seen her cry and I don't know how to help her. It will definitely be very hard for her if my grandfather passes away. Give me advice on how to help her, mine don't matter, hers do. I'm telling you this because I really don't even know how to comfort someone when they fail.

I have heard God described as an omnibenevolent being most of my life. But where did this notion come from? In the bible, God is described as jealous, wrathful, angry in addition to the loving aspects. So while I definitely understand that God can be described as generally good, it does not seem to be the Core of who he is. One could just define good as whatever God does but that makes the word good meaningless.

God to me seems to be more of the ultimate authority and is beyond notions such as good and evil. Being all powerful would make dissenting opinions irrelevant as no one can hold God accountable regardless.

So when people describe God as omnibenevolent or good do they mean that literally or just that God has tendencies that way? Or something else?

With Jesus being our brother and friend along with God our Faither coming back soon, I still see a lot of debate about what activities are permitted or immoral and should be avoided. I was just wondering, if for some Jesus and our Father is hard to consider, could we imagine if what we were doing were seen by an actual sibling, best friend or maybe coworker, would that make us stop those activities permanently or make us feel good about sharing them?

Hi, so I have a question regarding interfaith marriages between a Catholic and Muslim person. So, I have heard that a Catholic woman can marry a Muslim man with dispensation. It's also allowed in Islam for a Muslim man to marry a Christian woman. However, my question arises because like how does it work since Catholics are only allowed to have one wedding? Like because what about the nikka marriage contract that's required for muslims for the marriage to be binding? I am guessing that there is one wedding and the nikka contact is done after the Catholic marriage. Is that what's allowed and permissible? How would the Catholic wedding be different?

Approximately two times, Sarah got snatched up by foreign kings.

• Genesis 12:10–20: Sarah (then Sarai) was taken by the Pharaoh in Egypt.
• Genesis 20:1–18: Sarah was taken by King Abimelech of Gerar.

Which brings me to my question....................how gorgeous was she? I mean......she was literally 65 in Egypt and then 89 when she was taken by Abimelech. What was so attractive about an elderly woman far passed her prime that made (not one but) TWO kings want to have her all to themselves?

If she were in her 20-30s (or maybe even early 40s), I could understand. But a 90-year-old grandma?

She had to have been the most beautiful old lady in the world for multiple men to find her still attractive.