My "Christian" Experience
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I converted to Christianity about 3 years ago but my friends in the church were freaking me out by
1 - telling me to only make friends with other christians of my church and to stay away from my non christian friends
2 - all conversations with this bunch of people involves chrisianity and nothing else. I mean its normal to talk about christianity within a christian group but to have months and months of conversations only about christianity/church activity is not normal. Some were my coursemates and they never spoke to me about anything else except christianity/church matters - even when we were at school
3 - once they found out I listen to the radio, their response was why I listen to worldly songs??? they expect christians to only listen to christians songs???
4 - they keep asking me to do 'surveys' and collect alot of my personal data then one day they told me that GOD had told them his plan for me and proceed to tell me of their/"HIS" plan for my life. they actually plan out my whole life???
Is this normal or had I join a cult?
My church is somewhere along Orchard Road. Does anyone have any similar experience?
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I wil not go so far as to say you have joined a cult, but just to maybe share a few of my own opints.
Originally posted by ChiBet:I converted to Christianity about 3 years ago but my friends in the church were freaking me out by
1 - telling me to only make friends with other christians of my church and to stay away from my non christian friends
I don't see why you should be staying away from your non-christian friends, especially if they are not leading you astray or leading you down a path of wrong doing.
Moreover, you can actually share the gospel with them when the time comes.
Personally I feel there is nothing wrong in making friends with anyone in itself. Did your church members ever explain why? Or what is the rationale behind only socialising with friends from your own church?
My past two churches never encouraged something like this.
2 - all conversations with this bunch of people involves chrisianity and nothing else. I mean its normal to talk about christianity within a christian group but to have months and months of conversations only about christianity/church activity is not normal. Some were my coursemates and they never spoke to me about anything else except christianity/church matters - even when we were at school
I think being dedicated it's good, the impression you give me is that it's to the point of overdoing it. As a christian you also need to understand what is going on with the world as well. How else are you going to talk to younger christians next time and help guide them along the challenges they face in the world?
3 - once they found out I listen to the radio, their response was why I listen to worldly songs??? they expect christians to only listen to christians songs???
My christian friends and I have never had an issue with listening to non-christian songs. We even exchange CDs to listen or go music shops together. The occasional clubbing/pubbing is ok too.
What matters is you don't get caught up with these things.
4 - they keep asking me to do 'surveys' and collect alot of my personal data then one day they told me that GOD had told them his plan for me and proceed to tell me of their/"HIS" plan for my life. they actually plan out my whole life???
Is this normal or had I join a cult?
My church is somewhere along Orchard Road. Does anyone have any similar experience?
All these things seem very planned and deliberate, even the way they try to restrict your habits seems very taught. Which worries me actually. I personally feel that some personal issues or data should be shared and not so much 'collected' so systematically.
Once again, I won't go so far as to say say you've joined a cult, but perhaps you need to pray and think whether this is the direction and path you want to take a christian. To be a christian doesn't mean you must be in the same church your whole life, but what are these practices doing for you as a christian and does it help you to grow?
I believe any choice you make, you need to feel comfortable doing it. If it is not something you want to do, the very least I hope you feel that is what the holy spirit wants you to do.
Pray about it.
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every religion is a cult
only depends on what an individual thinks
as for yourself, you already have the answer
maybe switching to another church will be good.
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Originally posted by ChiBet:
I converted to Christianity about 3 years ago but my friends in the church were freaking me out by
1 - telling me to only make friends with other christians of my church and to stay away from my non christian friends
2 - all conversations with this bunch of people involves chrisianity and nothing else. I mean its normal to talk about christianity within a christian group but to have months and months of conversations only about christianity/church activity is not normal. Some were my coursemates and they never spoke to me about anything else except christianity/church matters - even when we were at school
3 - once they found out I listen to the radio, their response was why I listen to worldly songs??? they expect christians to only listen to christians songs???
4 - they keep asking me to do 'surveys' and collect alot of my personal data then one day they told me that GOD had told them his plan for me and proceed to tell me of their/"HIS" plan for my life. they actually plan out my whole life???
Is this normal or had I join a cult?
My church is somewhere along Orchard Road. Does anyone have any similar experience?
NO worry, me had some kind the same encounter as u when I was a new christian. Nothing but crap, now I give up I feel so relieved, heng ah me no longer brainwashed. -
Originally posted by ChiBet:
I converted to Christianity about 3 years ago but my friends in the church were freaking me out by
1 - telling me to only make friends with other christians of my church and to stay away from my non christian friends
2 - all conversations with this bunch of people involves chrisianity and nothing else. I mean its normal to talk about christianity within a christian group but to have months and months of conversations only about christianity/church activity is not normal. Some were my coursemates and they never spoke to me about anything else except christianity/church matters - even when we were at school
3 - once they found out I listen to the radio, their response was why I listen to worldly songs??? they expect christians to only listen to christians songs???
4 - they keep asking me to do 'surveys' and collect alot of my personal data then one day they told me that GOD had told them his plan for me and proceed to tell me of their/"HIS" plan for my life. they actually plan out my whole life???
Is this normal or had I join a cult?
My church is somewhere along Orchard Road. Does anyone have any similar experience?
This is hogwash. If there's really such a church, the ISD will be the first to clampdown on such church activities.
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Originally posted by googoomuck:
This is hogwash. If there's really such a church, the ISD will be the first to clampdown on such church activities.
You mean ChiBet is trying to defame Christian church...(not intended to attack anybody)
Well it's actually obvious people, ChiBet titile is: My "Christian" experience
Why did he quote the Christian word? suggesting that his is actually not a true Christian experience? IMO He already knows the answer before he even asked. That is what the quote is for.
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Originally posted by ChiBet:
1 - telling me to only make friends with other christians of my church and to stay away from my non christian friends
2 - all conversations with this bunch of people involves chrisianity and nothing else. I mean its normal to talk about christianity within a christian group but to have months and months of conversations only about christianity/church activity is not normal. Some were my coursemates and they never spoke to me about anything else except christianity/church matters - even when we were at school
3 - once they found out I listen to the radio, their response was why I listen to worldly songs??? they expect christians to only listen to christians songs???
4 - they keep asking me to do 'surveys' and collect alot of my personal data then one day they told me that GOD had told them his plan for me and proceed to tell me of their/"HIS" plan for my life. they actually plan out my whole life???
Is this normal or had I join a cult?
My church is somewhere along Orchard Road. Does anyone have any similar experience?
weird church.
1. If all your friends are Christians, how are you going to witness to non-Christians?
2. If all your conversations are about on Christian topics, how are you going to learn?
3. Christian songs are NOT for enjoyment or entertainment, they are meant for worship. There is nothing wrong in listening to the radio or non-Christian music.
4. God will work out his plan for you WITH you, not through some other people.
What church is this? Be very cautious about these people, there are many people with weird ideas about Christianity.
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the christiandom as we know it now is no longer like what it was meant to be during the 1st century. "devotees" tend to be very passionate and over zealous. sad to say, many christians only use passion and not rationale in their faith. while your church asks u to saty within the congregation, its becuz they do not want you to stray from the faith. your church obviously are doing pretty much the wrong things that are not taught in the bible.major flaw is that they said God( yodh heh wah heh) has told them he has planned out your life. why doesnt God tell you about the plan since its your life???and the bible explicitly states that to believe in luck and destiny is to turn away from him(not him as in them{3 in 1 coffe mix,eh i meant holy trinity})
the only person who knew how his life would be is christ.no not because hes God(anyone care to show me which verse said Jesus is God?) but he was willing to do God's word. so regarding your church...most likely its just the same as most churches..wanting 10% of your income.
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TS sounds like he's just joined the Taleban .....
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I really am not trying to defame any church else I would have put in the name of the church.
I put the word "Christian" in quotes is because my gut feeling tells me that what I had experience is somehow not really correct.
I am born to a buddhist/taoist family and I chose to become a Christian because I do not believe that praying to a dead human would work as at the end of the day, they were still human.
I believe that somewhere, there must be a being more powerful than mere humans so I decided to believe in GOD. Getting into heaven is good too.
To clarify further
1 - telling me to only make friends with other christians of my church and to stay away from my non christian friends
trying to get my non christians friends to come to the church is ok but if my non christian friend is non-responsive then the church people encourage me to stay away from these non-responsive people. their reason being i might be influence by them
I am constantly asked to ditch my non christian girlfriend and encourage to find a girl from the church
What i find a bit extreme is that the church encourage me to stay away from my christian friends from other churches - ther reason being different churches concentrate on different parts of the bible - methodist/evangelistic
2 - all conversations with this bunch of people involves chrisianity and nothing else. I mean its normal to talk about christianity within a christian group but to have months and months of conversations only about christianity/church activity is not normal. Some were my coursemates and they never spoke to me about anything else except christianity/church matters - even when we were at school
Seriously, 90% of all conversations with this bunch of people involve christianity. No matter what topics i try to engage them in conversation (movies, recent events, politics), the conversations always end up involving Jesus and God.
example:
me: hey you heard about the increase in GST?
christian friend: yes, everything is becoming more and more expensive. We need to put our lives in GOD's hands and in his infinite wisdom and power, he will guide us through this difficult time.
me : ??? ............ yeah ........GOD is great isnt he. Hey anyone heard that new madonna/britney spears song
christian friend: Why do you listen to world songs? Hillsongs came out with a new album recently. You should go buy it and listen to that instead
me: ??? ...........yeah ok. I like hillsongs too.
christian friend: now let us pray together to ask Jesus to guide us in everthing we do in our lives.
4 - they keep asking me to do 'surveys' and collect alot of my personal data then one day they told me that GOD had told them his plan for me and proceed to tell me of their/"HIS" plan for my life. they actually plan out my whole life???
I assure that this is totally true. they not only survey church members, they also survey visitors to the church and even people on the streets. Evangelistic events are conducted like MLM recruitment drives.
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religion is bullshit - george carlin
i'm a christian but i still have a sense of humour.
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Please use your mind to discern and rationalize. Every extreme actions/thoughts leads to suffering.
If a religion/belief makes you change your lifestyle and behaviour drastically (in a negative sort of way) I think its not worthwhile at all.
Just my two-cent worth.
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my past experience with christian friends were not pleasant too. they are too obessed with their own religion, its like a frog in the well, it is not able to see the whole world, thinking the well is the best of everything.Self centered is the word to describe them. they must realise it is very important to respect every religion.
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Originally posted by ChiBet:
I believe that somewhere, there must be a being more powerful than mere humans so I decided to believe in GOD. Getting into heaven is good too.
i strongly do not believe that by going into christianity means auto go to heaven! we must earn it! if we keep doing harm to others and cause great damage, then we can still go heaven? Like the case of Anthony who met his wife in church, years later hire a teenager to kill her. then he still can go heaven?every one of us is responsible for the actions and decisions we make in life. even if you do not have a religion, and you do good deeds and be kind to all, you will go to hell??
i find it amusing when my friend told me if i do not go into christianity i will go direct to hell. i find it really hard to believe.
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Christ was great,chritianity well you know.
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Originally posted by ChiBet:
I converted to Christianity about 3 years ago but my friends in the church were freaking me out by
1 - telling me to only make friends with other christians of my church and to stay away from my non christian friends
2 - all conversations with this bunch of people involves chrisianity and nothing else. I mean its normal to talk about christianity within a christian group but to have months and months of conversations only about christianity/church activity is not normal. Some were my coursemates and they never spoke to me about anything else except christianity/church matters - even when we were at school
3 - once they found out I listen to the radio, their response was why I listen to worldly songs??? they expect christians to only listen to christians songs???
4 - they keep asking me to do 'surveys' and collect alot of my personal data then one day they told me that GOD had told them his plan for me and proceed to tell me of their/"HIS" plan for my life. they actually plan out my whole life???
Is this normal or had I join a cult?
My church is somewhere along Orchard Road. Does anyone have any similar experience?
i think i know where. hope of god issit? LOL. i was from there. WAS. =x
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Originally posted by dumbdumb!:
i think i know where. hope of god issit? LOL. i was from there. WAS. =x
wow thats amazing........ same experience? -
Originally posted by Alucard101:
Christ was great,chritianity well you know.
Christianity was and still is great but Christians were great but now....must admit most Christians are only Christian in name.....no more/much less charisma. It's an old faith with the flock dying slowly losing its charisma and spirit. It's a religion when once dominant was widely misused and abused both by its lost clergymen and aristocracies.
Look at the history of Crusade. I read about it. So many false claimed apparitions and many false prophets. Many people abused religion as an excuse to do as their wish. God damn that kind of people who mislead and thus disappointed others which are innocent.
I apologize ChiBet for accusing you. If what you told us is true then
Stay away from that creepy church LOL. Really AWAY.
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Originally posted by ChiBet:
wow thats amazing........ same experience?lol. yeah. it's a double edged sword la really. in a way, if it's not because of them, my family would not have received the Lord.
are you from the adult side or the youth side? pastor jeff or pastor benny?
the leaders there... i dunno la. different style i guess. i grew in ferventness in hope of god, but after i changed church, i grew in the knowledge of love and grace.
but there's alot of unhappiness in that church. some of the leaders are really quite jialat. i'll share if you want me to. shrugs
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i joined while I was in poly under Pastor Jeff then transfered to adult under Pastor Ben. the pastors are generally ok people, its the care group/unit leaders (or the leaders wannabes) that are jialat ones. As for sharing the jialatness, its ok, no need to share bad things lah.
Even though this group of people are freaking me out, I genuinely want to lead a good christian life, just not up to the extreme level of this group of people, thats why i stayed on but I really cannot stand those who claim that GOD spoke to them, literally hearing GOD's voice in their heads.
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Have you considered visiting other churches, perhaps Methodist one which encourages a more balanced perspective in conducting your life?
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Originally posted by ChiBet:
i joined while I was in poly under Pastor Jeff then transfered to adult under Pastor Ben. the pastors are generally ok people, its the care group/unit leaders (or the leaders wannabes) that are jialat ones. As for sharing the jialatness, its ok, no need to share bad things lah.
Even though this group of people are freaking me out, I genuinely want to lead a good christian life, just not up to the extreme level of this group of people, thats why i stayed on but I really cannot stand those who claim that GOD spoke to them, literally hearing GOD's voice in their heads.
I'd be very concern about folks making dubious claims.
There are many overzealous people with convoluted views about scriptural teachings, and that happens one need to do a check-and-balance with the pastors or even members of other churches.
.... as princess rose had suggested, you might want to try other churches, Methodist are typical more balance and tolerant over what one can or cannot do.
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Originally posted by ChiBet:
i joined while I was in poly under Pastor Jeff then transfered to adult under Pastor Ben. the pastors are generally ok people, its the care group/unit leaders (or the leaders wannabes) that are jialat ones. As for sharing the jialatness, its ok, no need to share bad things lah.
Even though this group of people are freaking me out, I genuinely want to lead a good christian life, just not up to the extreme level of this group of people, thats why i stayed on but I really cannot stand those who claim that GOD spoke to them, literally hearing GOD's voice in their heads.
tts good. in the end, just go back to the Word of God. as you grow in love, you will know where you should be. =)
christianity isn't about doing - that's one of the flaws i noticed in hope of god. they're very focused on works. remember that you're covered in God's love and His grace. even if you don't do anything, it wouldn't change the love God has for you. once you are able to fully rest and trust unyieldingly on that love, you will automatically do the works that God has planned for you.
nobody should force you to do anything before you are ready to do it. God loves a cheerful giver. if you can't give cheerfully, it's pointless and hypocritical already. (whether it's tithing, offering or time or service)
and it's not true that you cannot have non-believer friends. Jesus was always around sinners. He's called the friend of sinners. But Jesus never forgotten about His heritage. He stood by His principles even being with sinners. He will have good clean fun with them, but when they are doing wrong things, He stood unwaivering on His principles. You're the salt and light, so remember to stand firm on your godly principles.
and it's again not true that christians must only talk about things of christianity. it just happens that, christians who really really love God, just talks about christianity. How you lead your life.. is really just a reflection on how you love God.
i think it's a mistake that hope of god focuses on work first, before the heart of the work. let me illustrate an example - a christian who loves God, will goto church, but a christian who goes to church may not love God.
as for songs. i mentioned it somewhere before. nothing wrong with listening secular songs. there's no condemnation in christ, ever. but again, it boils down to this principle - a christian who loves God, will goto church, but a christian who goes to church may not love God.
i prefer to listen to christian music, because it gives me peace and joy. and the world's already so screwed up. full of hate, frustration etc. i don't think i need to listen to more music about unrequited love, getting dumped, sadness sorrow, and dispair. again, it's a personal thing.
God's plan for you. an interesting point. i always believe that God will not ask you to do something which you really have no desire to do so, or you will hate doing. i notice in hope of god, they like to tell their followers that God's plan is for them to do this or that, and usually coincidently, there is a need in the church. for example - there's a need for more ushers in church, so they tell you that God's plan is for you to be an usher etc.
i'm not saying that God don't reveal His plan through people. I definitely do think that it's possible, because it happened to me regarding the salvation of my family. the prophecy came to pass, so i definitely believe that God do speak to us through people too. but one of the ways to know if you're actually doing God's will is that as you serve, you will be cheerful, you will desire to serve in a particular field. as you serve, you find a sense of purpose, and even though it may be hard, you don't find it burdensome. that's one of the signs you're at the right place doing the right thing. again, this comes only when you have fully dwelled in God's love, and you serve from that love. no point rushing into ministry or something without being stable in that love first. you'll just burn out and fall away.
and lastly, i don't think hope of god is a cult - but they definitely are zealots. they're more like an army camp than a family. if you doubt your place in this church, you can try visiting other churches. i'm not encouraging you to church hop, it's true that church hopping isn't beneficial. but if you're not growing anyway, i think you should try other denomination. for me i'm not really suited for churches like city harvest etc. i grow better in a family church, where relationships are strong and everyone is really like one big family.
so i believe God led me and my family to my current church - even though hope of god for a period of time persistantly say that i'm walking away from His plan etc.
oh, the biggest bullshit that hope of god dishes out regularly is their "bgr is a sin" teaching. of course they don't say it literally, but that's what they usually enforce.
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well said dumb2....
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I guess it makes sense for me to look into other churches in this case. thanks for all your feedbacks