[mrnoodle]

Oh I'm with you on the second point. I don't pretend to know when it's happening. But because I know the word of God to be true, and I see where prophecies have been fulfilled left and right, it's clear to me that strange things are afoot at the Circle K. It might be tomorrow, it might be in 1000 more years; there's no way for us to know when it's going to happen. But to believe in Christ means believing everything he said, not just some of it.

Determining ethical behavior is only a small part of my struggle, and that of other Christians. Once you have experienced a relationship with God, losing it becomes a terrible thing. When you fight with your wife (all jokes aside here), you feel a gap in your heart until you've made things right with her. She's not "there" until you come back together. Likewise, until you reach a good relationship with your creator, there is an emptiness and a searching that is never fulfilled (hence the constant philosophical meanderings that never reach a destination). Once you've experienced that relationship, it is a horrible thing to lose. That's why struggling with sin is so important to Christians. It's not just some legalistic moral requirement, it's the way to reestablish a connection.