Christianmetrics.org
Christian
– A follower of Jesus Christ.
Metric
- A standard by which something is measured.
Perhaps the first topic to go into is the question of how and why Christianmetrics.org came about. The answer is, Christianmetrics.org was created in reaction to the number of people its author had encountered who were in conditions of serious suffering because of the church.
Over the past few years its author has met a number of people who were in varying situations of serious hardship or suffering. The people typically were having difficulties related to their personal (as opposed to work or scholastic) areas of their lives. Usually the author would try to help them by bringing up the subject of the love of Christ and God's desire to help people get through their hardships and sufferings. Unfortunately, and to the author's surprise, many of them conveyed in various words and ways that they did not want to hear talk about those things, and that the church was actually a contributing factor, or sometimes the cause itself, of them being in their condition. Specifically it was usually due to some major disappointments or disillusionment that they had towards the church because of something that it had said or did in relation to a personal issue (either earthly or spiritual in nature) that they were struggling with, or some important subject or topic (either earthly or spiritual in nature) that they deeply cared about. In regards to the matter that was causing them distress, they found the church to be either insensitive or uncaring, or hostile, or in some cases hypocritical. In short, instead of helping them with a very important personal struggle, in their eyes the church either provided no help when they looked for and needed it, was the main cause of their problems, or contributed to prolonging or making their situation worse by what it said or did.
The author knew something was very wrong; the church and and message of the love of Christ should give support and hope, and uplift people, and not be a contributing factor, and certainly not be the main cause for people's troubles (i.e. outside of the troubling feeling people tend to get when the Holy Spirit convicts them about something in their life that they should change) or sufferings. Now, that is definitely true if the church (i.e. Christians) know and are following the true word of God as given in the Bible. Therefore, though it seems to be the case that many, if not most, Christians generally do a credible job in reflecting the teachings and love of Christ in what they say and do, the Christians known by many of the suffering people the author had met probably had not. Hopefully, this was probably not intentional, as unfortunately is sometimes the case however, but it is more likely that for some reason, they probably were not as knowledgeable about the actual teachings of scripture as they should have been.
Accurately knowing the word of God is important for every Christian for many reasons, including instructing them how to be compassionate and supportive of people undergoing difficulties. Additionally, and importantly, the authentic word of God is invaluable for non-Christians, because some who hear it may then go on to accept God's offer of adoption by becoming followers of Christ. In summary, accurately knowing the authentic word of God is important for everyone.
Christianmetrics.org is a ministry who’s main objective is to offer to people an accurate picture of authentic Christianity and its beliefs, and enabling Christians, and interested non-Christians, to readily find out how closely the beliefs that they hold compare with authentic Christian beliefs, in other words beliefs based on the words and actions of Jesus Christ.
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Site Note: Since the whole
of Christianity revolves around the person of Jesus Christ, it
perhaps might be a good idea for visitors, before going though
the contents of the site, to find out how much
they actually know about the real, historical Jesus Christ. To see
how much you really know about Christ, and take a slightly
light-hearted look at what he said and did - or perhaps didn't say or
do - you can visit this site's The
Christ Quiz page. It is a quick on-line quiz which
can be completed in only about 5-10 minutes. You might be in
for a few surprises!
In today's world, there are a great many fields of formal study. These fields of formal study may also be referred to as "spheres of study" or just simply "spheres" for short. A few examples of spheres are the economics sphere, and the politics sphere. Typically, within each of these spheres there exists two or more distinct schools of thought. These distinct schools of thought, from a slightly different perspective may also be viewed as being distinct schools of beliefs, and proceeding a little further, may also be thought of, and referred to, as "systems of beliefs".
One of the most important of the spheres which have practical universal relevancy, and one in which throughout human history people have striven for understanding, is the spirituality sphere; that is, what to believe concerning spiritual matters. Importantly, what a person believes in terms of spiritual matters usually has big implications for, and influence on, their perceptions and understanding of the non-spiritual (i.e. everyday) world, as well as their actions and interactions in the everyday world. Essentially, what a person believes concerning spiritual matters tends to have a big effect on almost every aspect of their life, if indeed they earnestly hold those beliefs to be true.
This site is mainly concerned with the spirituality sphere, and specificity with the things that the system of beliefs known as Christianity asserts to be true. However, it presents various ideas and a conceptual framework that are applicable to not only Christianity, but also to the spirituality sphere's other systems of beliefs, as well as systems of beliefs of other spheres of study.
There are many followers of Christianity worldwide, and it is one of the world's top three systems of beliefs in the spirituality sphere in terms of the number of proclaiming members. Yet, Christianity often seems misunderstood due to a lack of knowledge, or the (sometimes seemingly intentional) misrepresentation of the beliefs it asserts and advocates as true. This often results in non-Christians having a negative opinion of Christianity, and some people who consider themselves Christians adopting beliefs and/or practices, doing things, or making decisions and choices in their lives, which are actually in contradiction to Christian beliefs as stated in the Bible.
Additionally, periodically people are highlighted in the media who, sometimes seemingly through ignorance and sometimes seemingly knowingly, do bad things claiming to do so in the name of Christianity; even though they actually do not factually have a biblical basis for their actions. As well, sometimes people who do bad things are designated or proclaimed to be Christian by others, often by/through the news media, when in actuality they are not. What also sometimes happens, is that what a well regarded Christian has said or done is miss-characterized or taken out of context by/in the media. Finally, sometimes people who appear in the media and state that they are Christian, then go on to state opinions on some topic/person which are not backed-up or sanctioned by scripture. All of these things further damage people's perceptions and understanding of authentic Christianity, and convey to people an inaccurate picture of Christ, and God as revealed in the Bible.
1. Main Topics
Visitors are first introduced to the concepts of doctrines, beliefs, and belief systems. The site explains how some doctrines in a belief system are actually more important to the belief system as a whole than others. It subsequently examines how someone can legitimately be an adopter of a belief system, yet not adopt all of its doctrines; along with the implications and possible ramifications of that.
Then, the Christian belief system is specifically examined in light of all of the preceding points. The site then offers objective definitions for the often used and heard, yet usually not clearly defined terms, “conservative”, “liberal”, and “nominal” (i.e. "in name only"). After that, expanding the subject matter a little, the connection between a society's predominant spiritual belief system and its system of laws, given civil rights, its set of values, as well as the society's social organization, is explored on the page, "The Importance Of Christianity To America's Existence".
2. The Question of Evil
As an extra topic, one of the most often heard questions that people ask in connection with Christianity is considered. The question particularly is heard after tragedies such as the October 2017 Las Vegas shooting. The question is, "If there really is a God as you say that there is, why would he allow such evil in the world?". Sometimes, Christians (commonly, but not exclusively, Christians who are newer to Christianity) ponder and ask a similar question: "How can a God of love allow such evil in the world?" These questions and their answers are covered on the page, "A Loving God And The Question of Evil".
3. The Doctrines List
The site also includes a list of doctrines which which were selected based upon the ideas and concepts presented in the main track. The list constitutes a recommended standard set of Christian doctrines.
Additionally, due to the significance of human sexuality in everyday life as well as in Christian doctrines, the doctrines list page also features a section on human sexuality; about the good, bad, and hazards aspects of it, both in spiritual and in everyday world terms. Topics include sex within vs. outside of marriage, and the importance of people having control of their sexual impulses (the author is temped to use the acronym “CSI”, but it seems to already have been taken by some television show,...or two,...or three,...).
The Doctrines List is accessible through the navigation box at the bottom of the Basic Concepts page.
4. America's Future Generations
It is often said that the world of the tomorrow will be in the hands of today's generation of youth. Unfortunately, today's youth face a variety of unprecedented threats and dangers to their growing up to be adults who are healthy in both body and mind, and who are able to make wise decisions for the well being of themselves as well as their country. Today's adults need to act in ways which give today's youth a good chance to overcome these hazards and dangers, and grow up to be healthy and successful adults. This topic is discussed on the page Young People In Jeopardy: Providing Them A Path To A Successful Life
5. The Direction And Future Shape Of
America
An important related issue that the site looks at, is that over the last fifty years or so in the United States, numerous very contentious (and sometimes violently so) issues have surfaced. Most are related to issues of personal rights, group rights, governmental reach, and/or disputes about what moral values should be acceptable and encouraged by American society. In addition, numerous daunting social problems that relate to personal choices, and the consequences of those choices to both the person and society have also appeared.
Upon close examination, it appears that most of these issues and problems can be traced to a modern day spread in America of “moral relativism”. “Moral relativism” can alternatively and probably more clearly be called “subjective morality”, and in recent decades in America the belief and adoption of it has increasingly spread, especially among the younger generations.
Because the main beliefs that it asserts run opposite to that of Christianity, historically America's predominate spiritual belief system, the spreading of it over the past four or five decades has had a dramatic influence in almost every area of American society. Because to this, the site features a somewhat stand-alone section of pages under the overall title of, “The Reshaping of American Society”.
These pages cover a number of topics, from its definition, to the various guises in which it shows up throughout different areas of society, and how the increased adoption of it has resulted many changes in many of the most important aspects and areas of American society.
6. The Beliefs Quiz
A central part of this ministry is that it provides to visitors an easy way to find out how closely the beliefs that they hold compare with those of Christianity. The most direct way it does this is through the beliefs quiz. The quiz is an easy to take yes/no on-line quiz that can be completed in about 10-15 minutes. It presents quiz takers with a list of statements related to many of the most important and central Christian beliefs, which they then give responses to. After which, they can view how their responses compare to the correct answers for each of the statements, which allows them to see how the various beliefs that they hold compare with Christian ones.
However, in addition to that, with the click of a button quiz takers are able to see a graphical representation of their overall quiz results. A graph provides them with an easy to understand reasonably accurate visual display of the degree of similarity of the set of their beliefs that they hold to those of the Christian belief system. It is hoped that by taking the quiz and going through the results, that visitors will increase in their knowledge and understanding of Christian beliefs, and of God and Jesus Christ as according to the Bible, and that the knowledge will be beneficial for their life. The Beliefs Quiz is accessible through the navigation box at the bottom of the Basic Concepts page.
7. Viewing Order and Tracks
Some pages of the site are meant to be viewed in a particular order, and those pages are linked together in the green portion of paging areas which are located at the bottom of each site page. Pages whose links appear in the gray portion of paging areas are offered to be viewed at any time, in no particular order. After some basic concepts are presented, visitors are given the choice of selecting between two different information tracks. For visitors who would like to go through all of the information presented in the site there is the Full Track. In addition, there is the Short Track, which presents essentially the same information given in the Full Track, but in an abridged format.
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