[jordyn]

i've been a witch my entire life and willingly chose God and His Son to guide my path a couple of years ago, it was not an easy conversion but i learned a lot about what i chose to worship...

your run of the mill family christian hasn't had the discussions, debates and teachers i have had from both sides of the argument, it all comes from one church, one priest and one book...i'm denominational free, have four different bible versions(one i purchased, two came as gifts and one is a gideons, they have a spectacular history)and the first church i went to was a tiny home group meeting at a local coffee shop...i was baptized a few months after falling in love with their discussional methods with singing and fellowship rather than the rigorous stand up pray, sit down pray, stand up sing, listen to long sermon, stand up sing, kneel down pray, have a wheat wafer and sip of grape juice and then pray until everyone is able to file up and get their daily bread, stand and sing, pray some more, hear a rundown of what the church needs done and then go onto our usual lives.

i've also gone to some of our messianic Shavuot celebrations,  they're not a big group and live out of town, but they have the idea of worshiping God;  food, dancing and celebrating the gifts He offers, rather than mourning his sacrifice in a solemn mass preaching damnation and hellfire, they worship as Jesus would have.

You've clearly got me all wrong... I have no run of the mill christian family.  I've been to church a grand total of 5 times in my life i think.  What i'm trying to say is i don't believe in the church system at all.  I have no influence or pressure from my family to choose a religion i choose to be christian because i like the ideals and morals and history it has. 

I tihnk the church has seriously manipulated the idea of God to control people and tell people what should and shouldn't be done.  I follow Christianity on my own terms.  I am by no means a convential christian nor am i some born again pray day and night type.  I enjoy talking to people about my beliefs with other people because it widens my perspective.

[jordyn]

all talk and no research results in such miscommunication, your understandings of heaven, hell and demons are very typical for being a non conventionalist christian...you don't rate that until you have a jewish atheist telling you you'd be considered a heretic for your ideas of how things came to be, fortunately he's jewish by birth and atheist by choice.

he also pointed out my observations make more sense then the non heretical perceptions, if you chose it for it's history...you need more research, especially pertaining to it's demonology.

Well thats why i came here to this forum to get more information i suppose.  I don't know where to really start except with my own personal beliefs and work through the layers of that until i get a full perspective on anything.  Once i have all the information i can base my beiefs on that.  Right now i only have what know to base them on and i still do like them.  I wouldnt mind learning more about it though and reconsidering. 

But a belief is just a beief there is really no such thing as incorrect belief because it ends up being up to ones interpretation based on the information available to them.  You could learn as much as you want but that doesnt mean that its correct.  Information and history is really just someone elses belief written down and passed down for future generations, doesn't mean that its true, just another opinion.

[jordyn]

asking christianity 101 questions on a forum gives you other people's opinions,  researching your questions and time spent at a library with books allows you to form your own as they apply to current understandings, using discussion and debate to elaborate your ideas rather than attempting to learn them off the cuff.

I would rather learn others opinions before getting the factual side.  I want to know whats out there from regualr people before going into the research.  I guess its a little bit weird of a method but i work well with it.  I wouldnt change my beliefs just based on some one elses opinion but people here are alot more well read in this study than i am so i'm sure i have a thing or two to learn. 

Plus i could probably get better references on literature and information from people here than lets say a local librarian haha.