Harry Potter and God

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, No Limberger <no.limberger at ...> wrote:

No.Limberger responds:
> You and your denomination (presumably, the Church of
> England) have interpreted the bible in such a way to define
> how you & your denomination define Christianity.  

Geoff:
Wrong, I fear. You may have missed the fact that I have 
stated on many occasions, including in a number of replies 
to your posts, that I am a member of a Baptist Church. If 
anyone asks me about my faith, my reply is that I am first 
a Christian and second a Baptist.

I have also pointed out a number of times that I became a 
Christian at the age of 21 in my final year at teacher 
training college, my conversion being helped by seeing the 
unity and love shown by members of the Christian Union 
amongst themselves. They did not belong to any one 
denomination but to a wide range.

No.Limberger:
> This is no different from any other Christian 
> denomination/sect that does exactly the same thing. While 
> you may not regard Jehovah's Witnesses to Christians, they 
> do; and, in all likelihood, they probably do not regard you 
> as being Christian.
 
> The bottom line is simply this: what each individual chooses
> to believe is up to each individual.  There are many paths
> that anyone can choose to follow.  While one path may be
> right for one, it may not be right for another.  Thus, someone
> can be Christian and choose from a vast assortment of
> denominations & sects to be part of....

Geoff:
I think it can be said that all Christian denominations 
subscribe to the same basic statement of faith. We see God in 
three ways - as the Father who created the universe; coming to 
earth as Jesus, taking on human form and being crucified as a 
human and rising from the dead to confirm his godhood and to 
offer eternal life to believers; and, as the Holy Spirit, living within the lives of believers. Some denominations add on other matters such as baptism or dedication, prayers to Mary for 
example but I have compared these in the past to having extras 
on a car which are not necessary to the running of it.

When it comes to the Jehovah's Witnesses, I quote from some 
data I accessed that, among other things, "they consider use 
of the name Jehovah, one of the proposed pronunciations of the Tetragrammaton, vital to proper worship; they reject 
Trinitarianism, immortality of the soul, and hellfire, 
which they consider to be unscriptural;"

Some of those positions mean that they do not subscribe to 
the outline I gave earlier. There is also their unusual 
statement of faith that only 144,000 believers will go to 
heaven, which means that a very large number of their members, however hard they work, will be on a hiding to nothing at the 
end.

No.Limbergrer:
> An individual may also choose to reject religion entirely, 
> which is also a valid path.

Geoff:
Perfectly true. But many people who reject religion - or 
specifically Christianity - have changed their views with 
experience and become believers. St.Paul was one of the most 
notable early examples.