Meta-narrative

@kellyjay said
Now you may not grasp that you don't have to be disagreeable to disagree with
someone every time someone doesn't affirm your beliefs. There is nothing personal
about this with him from me. Disagreements with you seem to have many names-
callings involved with almost all you talk to; I'm simply staying on point, nothing
more.

Don’t dodge the question, defend these unscriptural claims you are making!

How does a person “fall away” without denying god?
Who are you to declare what is and what isn’t “falling away”?

@fmf said
I am talking about your evasiveness.

Could be a whole topic of itself!

@fmf said
You are claiming that I was never a Christian, that my faith was never real to me, you are claiming that it was just me "going through the motions", that it was "merely a set of rules", that it was only a "fuzzy feeling", that it was only about "sitting on a pew in church", that God was like an "Easter bunny" to me, that my faith did not impact my life, and lest we forget, it's o ...[text shortened]... ou are being very strange, KellyJay. Do you perceive my loss of faith as some kind of threat to you?

The bitterness with which kellyjay pursues you with this unsubstantiated judgment about your prior Christianity is shameful.

@divegeester said
Don’t dodge the question, defend these unscriptural claims you are making!

How does a person “fall away” without denying god?
Who are you to declare what is and what isn’t “falling away”?

Matthew 7:22-24
English Standard Version
On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

A Christianity without God in it is what his’ falling away is from; being a Christian
means to have Jesus is in your life, and as I have pointed out to you and others
one can walk away from the Lord even having Him in their lives, so if that is what
he claims the conversation is quite different.

Hebrews 6:4-6
For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

@kellyjay said
Matthew 7:22-24
English Standard Version
On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise m ...[text shortened]... ince they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

Thanks so much for posting all this, I’m sure someone will find it interesting.

Meanwhile, how does a person “fall away” without denying god?

@divegeester said
Thanks so much for posting all this, I’m sure someone will find it interesting.

Meanwhile, how does a person “fall away” without denying god?

You are missing the point deny God was ever real and leaving that godless faith is denying a godless faith, which I think is actually a good thing. If God isn’t a reality in your beliefs what is there is an empty faith void of the most high God. A Christian without God is no different than an Atheist except for the confession, the reality is no different. Which is also why some who profess Christ have more in common with Atheists than others who profess the Lord.

@kellyjay said
If God isn’t a reality in your beliefs what is there is an empty faith void of the most high God.

God WAS a "reality in [my] belief", KellyJay. My faith WASN'T "empty". Haven't you been reading any of my posts?

@fmf said
God WAS a "reality in [my] belief", KellyJay. My faith WASN'T "empty". Haven't you been reading any of my posts?

Yes, the reality of the universe didn't change when you changed your mind, or
do you think it did?

@fmf said
God WAS a "reality in [my] belief", KellyJay. My faith WASN'T "empty". Haven't you been reading any of my posts?

The reality of God disappeared which means it wasn’t much of a reality now if it could go away with a change of mind.

@kellyjay said
The reality of God disappeared which means it wasn’t much of a reality now if it could go away with a change of mind.

I now realize that the "reality of God" for you, for the last 40+ years, and for me back then~ for almost three decades ~ is/was a matter of cognition.

Was my faith real, sincere and life-changing? Yes, of course. Is your faith real, sincere and life-changing? Yes, of course.

Do I believe your faith is "empty" or that it is "just following some rules" or just you "going through the motions" or "sitting in a pew in church"? No. I do not.

It'd be silly and facetious for me to suggest it is, just as it's silly and facetious for you to suggest that that was all my Christian faith was.

@kellyjay said
Yes, the reality of the universe didn't change when you changed your mind, or
do you think it did?

The "reality of the universe" is not determined or affected by your belief in Jesus.

@fmf said
I now realize that the "reality of God" for you, for the last 40+ years, and for me back then~ for almost three decades ~ is/was a matter of cognition.

Was my faith real, sincere and life-changing? Yes, of course. Is your faith real, sincere and life-changing? Yes, of course.

Do I believe your faith is "empty" or that it is "just following some rules" or just you "going t ...[text shortened]... it is, just as it's silly and facetious for you to suggest that that was all my Christian faith was.

I agree that was all it was regarding you; that was why you could deny it as having
nothing to do with reality later. Your faith went away; it was all between your ears;
if God were real, that wouldn't change, no matter your circumstances. So you could
move from someone who professed love for Christ to an anti-Christ with nothing
but thought.

Truth doesn't change; you profess what you once believed was true isn't anymore,
now you know, you know what you had wasn't real; it may have felt good, but
reality and feelings are not the same thing.

Please don't get on a high horse and say I'm being facetious suggesting that
your EX- Christain faith is something important to you that you have to defend
it, since in the end even you renounced it.

@kellyjay said
Your faith went away; it was all between your ears;
if God were real, that wouldn't change, no matter your circumstances.

Your faith is "all between your ears" too, KellyJay.

IF God were real, IF God were real, IF God were real, IF God were real, IF God were real, IF God were real... exactly: IF.

@kellyjay said
Please don't get on a high horse and say I'm being facetious suggesting that
your EX- Christain faith is something important to you that you have to defend
it, since in the end even you renounced it.

You are being facetious, though, KellyJay. And disingenuous. And oddly defensive.

@kellyjay said
Truth doesn't change; you profess what you once believed was true isn't anymore,
now you know, you know what you had wasn't real; it may have felt good, but
reality and feelings are not the same thing.

Your faith does not create "truth". We can only speculate about "the truth" in these matters. Whatever "the truth" might be, it is not affected by your faith or by my loss of faith. That leaves us both firmly in the realm of subjectivity and personal opinion.