Is anyone else getting an error when attempting to view your user page? Or, perhaps, when attempting to view my user page? I get the "Oops! Something Bad Happened" error when hitting this link: christianity.stackexchange.com/users/21576/nathaniel

@Nathaniel Nope, I can see mine & yours w/o error... I imagine the problem will clear itself up quickly.

@ThaddeusB Cool, thanks.

How important are words? We're taught that God knows what's in our heart vs what we are saying. A case in point: if you profess to believe in Jesus and not mean it, God knows your true intention and you'll be rejected from entering heaven. On the flip side of that; if you believe in Jesus but due to a threat, you say "I do not believe", then God would know what is in your heart and what you truly believe.

If both cases are true, then I suspect that there were some Christians during Roman times who wish they knew that.

@DanAndrews In your second case, he might know what you believe, but he also knows that you are lying and putting your own safety above him. Whether or not that is enough to "lose your salvation" is widely debated.

@Nathaniel true, I always struggle with losing your salvation paradoxes.

@DanAndrews There are actually many Christian missionaries who support this approach. New converts need not disassociate themselves with Islam, but call themselves something like "Jesus-following Muslims"

I suspect that @Caleb would have first hand experience with this.

The idea basically being that Islam is more of a culture than a religion, so therefore it is possible to affirm Islamic culture and follow Jesus at the same time... I'm not particularly convinced.

@Nathaniel I'm not particularly convinced. Indeed!

@ThaddeusB It's a really intriguing argument, though, made by careful missionaries. I've been toying with how to best address it on the main site.

@Nathaniel I think there is a certainly validity in saying "you don't have to abandon (all of) your culture," but I certainly wouldn't phrase it as "Islam is a culture."

@ThaddeusB Exactly. Of course, this is a very simplistic rendition of the position.

A milestone for me: "1,001 helpful flags"

@Nathaniel A relevant story is that of the healing of Naaman, the Syrian, in 2 Kings 5:1-19. (The story continues to the end of the chapter, but this is the relevant part.)

@ThaddeusB Now that flag counts are public I realize I have a lot of work to do to catch up with you heavy flaggers :)

After being healed by the power of the Lord, Naaman asks forgiveness when he (in the future) bows down with his master, the king of Syria, in the temple of the Syrian God Rimmon. And Elisha gives his tacit agreement to this by replying, "Go in peace."

@LeeWoofenden Yes, that's a very interesting verse.

@DanAndrews I do. The concept that Islam has a different relationship to culture than other religions is legitimate. But the idea that you can divorce the one from the other —that you could deliberately keep the outward apperance and substitute some beliefs on the backend— is bananas. There is nothing but flagrant heresey down that road.

Islam aspires (usually more sucessfully than not) to control all aspects of life. It does not see religion and culture as separate. You cannot bring the light of the full Gospel to bear on it without disturbing thing Islam rightfully views as its turf.

You cannot follow Christ and conform to a pattern dictated by another religion. Worse, by trying you confuse the heck out of people trying to think through their own beliefs and give an unclear witness. In the name of what? Betraying both parties?

Islam doesn't appreciate the effort and Islamic scollarship (justifiably) views such attempts as perversions of both their faith and ours. And those caught up in the middle have no cleao articulation of Christ's work because the rightful implioations of it have been obscured.

@Caleb Judaism is also both a culture and a religion. And in Judaism, too, culture and religion are closely intertwined both in belief and in practice. And Jews, also, have no use for Christians (primarily Messianic Jews) who mix Christianity with their religion.

@Nathaniel Traffic cops of Christianity.SE! :-D

@LeeWoofenden To some extent, there is such a thing as a "culture only" Jew - although such people generally still have a very negative attitude about Christianity... I wouldn't be surprised if something similar existed in Islamic countries.

@LeeWoofenden Fair points all round. There is a reason Christianity embraced an identity other than a "sect of Judaism" over 19 centuries ago. Becoming a follower of "The Way" was more than slaping on a bandaid.

@LeeWoofenden Yah I've been meaning to throw out a special thanks to a few of you (including but not limited to @Nathaniel, @ThaddeusB, @curiousdannii, @LeeWoofenden, @Mr.Bultitude) for your efforts in moderating CSE. The diamond mod work load got a lot easier with all you guys reading, flagging, and especially commenting on things and pointing folks in the right direction.

@Caleb Glad to help! This is a great resource and I like doing what I can to keep it that way.

@Caleb My pleasure.... Q: Why does the star on this message look different?

@ThaddeusB I've just posted a reasonably lengthed (!) answer to your question about the Tabernacle, based on Hebrews and Swedenborg's extensive commentary on the Tabernacle in his magnum opus, Arcana Coelestia:

@Caleb You're welcome! It's not that much work, and it helps keep this place on track. Now if you'll all just go and upvote a bunch of my questions and answers, I'll lighten your load on open and close votes, too! :-D

@ThaddeusB Cuz they really want you to like it? ;-)

@LeeWoofenden okay, maybe I should have said, "Reasonably lengthed for me" :-)

@ThaddeusB I wondered the same thing: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/123787/chat-star-colors