Old rules - for reference only

[flaglady]

0. PREAMBLE

By becoming a member of this site, you agree to follow the rules of this site. These rules apply to all communications made on this site, including posts in the forums (including automatically generated sections of posts such as signatures, custom user titles, and avatars), private messages, and posts in the chatbox. These rules apply to all members of this site, including members of Christian Forums Staff. If you do not follow these rules, your posts may be edited or deleted, you may be alerted or warned by Staff and you may even be suspended or banned. If you are younger than 13, your parent or guardian must provide written consent for you to become a member of this site.

This site has the goal of facilitating ecumenical discussions between various Christian faiths as determined by adherence to the Nicene Creed and the Trinitarian nature of God. Those who do not adhere to the Creed are welcome as members and participants in discussions in much of this site, but are required to respect these beliefs, even if they do not share them.

[flaglady]

1. LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD

Matthew 22:37

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment."

Nicene Creed

We believe in (Romans 10: 8-10; 1 John 4: 15)
ONE God, (Deuteronomy 6: 4, Ephesians 4: 6)
Father (Matthew 6: 9)
Almighty, (Exodus 6: 3)
Maker of Heaven and Earth, (Genesis 1: 1)
and of all things visible and invisible. (Colossians 1: 15-16)

And in ONE Lord Jesus Christ, (Acts 11: 17)
Son of God, (Mathew 14: 33; 16: 16)
Only-Begotten, (John 1: 18; 3: 16)
Begotten of the Father before all ages. (John 1: 2)
Light from Light; (Psalm 27: 1; John 8: 12; Matthew 17: 2,5)
True God from True God; (John 17: 1-5)
Begotten, not made; (John 1: 18)
of one essence with the Father (John 10: 30)
through whom all things were made; (Hebrews 1: 1-2)
Who for us men and for our salvation (1 Timothy 2: 4-5)
came down from heaven, (John 6: 33,35)
and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary (Luke 1: 35)
and became man. (John 1: 14)
And He was crucified for us (Mark 15: 25; 1 Corinthians 15: 3)
under Pontius Pilate, (John 19: 6)
suffered, (Mark 8: 31)
and was buried. (Luke 23: 53; 1 Corinthians 15: 4)
And on the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures, (Luke 24: 1 1 Corinthians 15: 4)
and ascended into heaven, (Luke 24: 51; Acts 1: 10)
and sits at the right hand of the Father; (Mark 16: 19; Acts 7: 55)
and He shall come again with glory (Matthew 24: 27)
to judge the living and the dead; (Acts 10: 42; 2 Timothy 4: 1)
Whose Kingdom shall have no end. (2 Peter 1: 11)

And in the Holy Spirit, (John 14: 26)
Lord, (Acts 5: 3-4)
Giver of Life, (Genesis 1: 2)
Who proceeds from the Father [and the Son]*; (John 15: 26)
Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; (Matthew 3: 16-17)
Who spoke through the prophets. (1 Samuel 19: 20; Ezekiel 11: 5,13)

In one, (Matthew 16: 18)
holy, (1 Peter 2: 5,9)
catholic**, (Mark 16: 15)
and apostolic Church. (Acts 2: 42; Ephesians 2: 19-22)

I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins***. (Ephesians 4: 5; Acts 2: 38)
I look for the resurrection of the dead, (John 11: 24; 1 Corinthians 15: 12-49; Hebrews 6: 2; Revelation 20: 5)
and the life in the age to come. (Mark 10: 29-30)

AMEN. (Psalm 106: 48)

*The phrase in square brackets [and the Son] (known as the filioque clause) is not compulsory and does not need to be affirmed by members.

**The word "catholic" (literally, "universal") refers to the universal church of the Lord Jesus Christ and not necessarily or exclusively to any particular visible denomination or institution.

***This can be interpreted to mean that baptism is a matter of obedience and not a requirement for salvation or a regenerating ordinance.

[flaglady]

1.1 No Blasphemy

You will not use the names or titles of God or Jesus (in any language) as expletives or interjections. You will not refer to God, Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit in a demeaning, degrading, or insulting way.

1.2 No Proselytizing for Other Religions or Faiths

You will not use any aspect of CF to promote a religion, belief, faith or doctrine other than "Christianity" as stated in the Nicene Creed. A post that merely provides information about a non-Nicene Christian belief is allowed for informational purposes only (with references provided) and without promotion. Promotion is defined as encouragement of the progress, growth, or acceptance of something including advertising and publicity. For the purposes of this rule, atheism and witchcraft/psychics are to be considered faiths. The Pentagram in all forms is banned from this site.

1.3 Misrepresentation of Beliefs Prohibited

You will not misrepresent your beliefs to make posts in those areas of the site designated "Christians Only" or to use one of the "Christian" icons. You may only make posts in those sections if you agree with the contents of the Nicene Creed and the Trinitarian nature of God, with the exception of threads containing the [OPEN] tag in their titles. You may only use one of the "Christian" icons if you agree with the contents of the Nicene Creed and the Trinitarian nature of God.

1.4 Congregational Areas

You may post in any of the Congregational Forums if you agree with the contents of the Nicene Creed and the Trinitarian nature of God, but you may not argue or debate with members of particular denominations and groups in their congregational areas unless you are a member of that particular denomination or group.

1.5 Outreach forums

Questions and comments in the Outreach forums will only be answered by Christians agreeing to the Nicene Creed.

[flaglady]

2.1 No Flaming

You will not "flame" other members or groups of members. Flaming includes, but is not limited to:
- Ridiculing, insulting, or demeaning another member or group of members;
- Ridiculing another member's beliefs;
- Ridiculing public figures important to another's religious beliefs;
- Stating or implying that another member or group of members who have identified themselves as Christian are not Christian;
- Calling or describing other people, groups, belief-systems, or ideas as heresy or a cult (or derivatives of these words). Instead of using these emotionally charged words, please state "X is wrong because of Y" rather than using these words in polemical discussion;
- Asking loaded questions that directly cause flames in response;
- Using sarcasm to attempt any of the above; and
- Threats of any sort, including advocating or supporting physical or mental harm against another living creature (this creature clause does not apply to political discussions of military action, hunting/fishing discussions nor ethical discussions of capital punishment).

2.2 No Professional Counsel Allowed

You will not direct, imply, or suggest that others should follow your advice by implying/stating you are an authority or professional psychiatrist, psychologist, counselor, physician, etc. This includes, but is not limited to advising others to disregard doctors' orders regarding medical diagnosis and/or treatment

2.3 No Harassment of Other Members

You will not harass or abuse other members in threads, private messages, via rep comments or blessing comments, in custom titles, signatures, avatars or profiles. This includes stalking other members, both online and in real life. This includes making bad faith "spite reports" of another member's posts.

2.4 No Violation of the Privacy of Other Members

You will not violate the privacy of other members by posting identifiable personal information about them; e.g. full names, addresses, email addresses or telephone numbers. You will not repost the contents of private messages or emails without the prior permission of the sender. You will also not post your own personally identifiable information such as address, email address, or telephone number in the open forums.

2.5 No Defamation of Members or Non-Members

You will not deliberately make posts you know are untrue about any other person, whether or not that person is a member.


2.6 Accusations of Rules Violations Prohibited

You will not accuse other members of violating these Rules in the discussion forums. Please use the report feature instead.

2.7 Copyright

You will not make posts that violate the copyrights of others. In general, this means that any quoted portion of any work must not exceed 20% of the total work. In the specific case of materials owned by the Associated Press, members shall not quote more than one sentence of the work and provide a link to the work.

2.8 No Off-Topic

You will not 'de-rail' or 'hijack' threads by making posts unrelated to the original post or other posts in the thread. You will not create threads unrelated to the topic of a forum or subforum.

2.9 No Disrupting the Peace and Harmony of the forum.

You will not do anything on the site that disrupts the peace and harmony of this forum. This includes, but not is limited to:

A. Deliberately reposting a post, thread, image, Chatbox post or anything else that has been removed by a staff member for a breach of forum rule.
B. Baiting where a member harasses another member to the point where he or she might retaliate in a flame.
C. Brinking where a member deliberately does things to push the boundaries of the forum rules.

[flaglady]

3.1 No Spamming

A. You will not post any messages anywhere on this site that are primarily for the promotion or advertising of any website, email address, business, MLM (Multi Level Marketing or pyramid schemes), activity, church, ministry, prophetic services or any other entities or services from which the member will receive any financial or pecuniary gain. This prohibition includes begging or soliciting donations or financial support (charitable or otherwise, for any reason) anywhere on the site including in e-mails, posts, and PMs.
B. You will not make multiple identical or nearly identical posts.
C. You will not post external links for the purpose of promoting traffic to that site. This includes any external URL contained in automatically generated sections of posts such as signatures, avatars, and custom user titles.
D. You will not make posts requesting site blessing points or reputation points.

3.2 Obscene, Vulgar, Racist, Sexually Explicit or Illegal Posts and Links Prohibited

You will not make posts, attach or link to images, or post links to web pages that are obscene, vulgar, racist, graphically violent, sexually explicit or graphic, or illegal.


3.3 Bypassing System Filters Prohibited

You will not bypass any of the filters written into the software to prevent certain types of posting, including:
- posting profanity (this includes using languages other than English);
- posting URLs or links posted before you have made 15 posts; and
- posting Images before you have made 100 posts.

3.4 No Threats and/or Endorsement of Suicide or Self-Injury

You will not make threats or post intentions to commit suicide or injure yourself in any way; nor will you endorse these behaviors. While Christian Forums staff and members can provide some support, they cannot offer professional counseling. If you are having thoughts or impulses of this nature, please contact your local mental health care provider or emergency services immediately.

3.5 Controversial Topics to Be Discussed Only in Certain Forums

A. You will not post content regarding the following subjects anywhere on CF except in Ethics & Morality, Liberal Theology, Christian Philosophy, or any subforums in the Congregation or Recovery* categories:

drug use
gambling
polygamy
extramarital or premarital sexual activity
homosexuality
transsexuality
abortion

*You will not make posts promoting or endorsing any of these subjects in Recovery forums.

B. Controversial doctrines listed below must be discussed in the Unorthodox Theological Doctrines or Liberal Theology forums only:

Full Preterism
Open Theism
Universalism or Universal Salvation
Annihilationism
Freemasonry

3.6 Limitations of Posting in Political Parties Forums

Political party forums are intended for the use and enjoyment of supporters of particular political parties. You will not misrepresent your political affiliation in order to gain access to those forums. If you are not a supporter of the political party, you will not argue or debate with supporters in those forums.

3.7 Age and Gender Limitations on Certain Forums

Staff has set age and gender limitations on who may post in certain forums. You will not enter false or misleading information into their profiles in order to post in those forums.


3.8 In-Thread Discussions of Moderator Actions Prohibited

You will not discuss Staff actions in the open forums. You may discuss Staff actions in the Appeals forum.


3.9 Discussion of Google Text Ads Prohibited

You will not discuss the contents of Google text ads in the open forums. This is a requirement of Christian Forums' contract with Google.

3.10 Bypassing Suspension or Ban Prohibited

You will not use any artifice or method to bypass or avoid a suspension or ban from this site, including creating additional accounts. This includes using accounts created by you prior to banning or suspension. Alerts, warnings, suspensions, and bans are directed to individuals, not accounts.

3.11 Special Rule for the Chatbox

The Chatbox is intended for light discussion only, with any theology, ethics or debate being reserved for forum threads. You will not post any external links in the Chatbox. All entries must be made in English.