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You might call it the Holy Spirit: I might just say it is one of the many mysteries of life that we do not understand. But we would agree: that it is created by Someone (I hope a loving God).
I understand . . . and I respect your beliefs. I also am reminded of His perfect love and divine nature. But I believe it is just an act of remembrance. We must never forget that His body endured scourging and shed His blood in love for us all . . . including His torturers and murderers. There is no ambiguity in such love . . . so it amazes me that anyone could believe God required it as punishment or payment for ANYTHING . . . let alone to appease His Holiness or justice! I particularly despise the fact that so many Christian churches retain the ancient savage beliefs about God . . . especially a hell of eternal torments . . . which makes our God of love out to be an evil merciless torturer. It boggles my mind.
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Originally Posted by janelle144
God is a God of justice and He does not send us to hell, we do.
That idea is the product of primitive human vengeance . . . NOT God. What justice is there in Christ's forgiving and loving His torturers and murderers just because they didn't know what they were doing??? It has nothing to do with justice to appease our human carnal concepts of vengeance. It is ALL about mercy and forgiveness for our spiritual ignorance . . . "missing the mark."
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Plus if there is no hell than there is no heaven. Jesus lived in a savage time, no getting around that. He was punished as many in His day were punished. The Romans were brutal to people.
Non-sequitur. There are always consequences and we WILL reap what we sow . . . but ONLY what we sow and no more. Eternal torment is an evil egregious concept beyond ANY concept even of our flawed human justice.
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God could have used many ways to atone for our sins but He chose the way of the cross. Jesus came to earth as a man and felt everything we feel and died as a human to show us just how much He loves us.
God chose the only way available to raise human consciousness to His perfect agape love consciousness. He sent Jesus to do it for us . . . our "designated hitter." The tragedy is that it was during the most barbarous time in our history and Jesus had to suffer so egregiously to accomplish it. But His death eliminated any fear of death and His rebirth as Spirit (resurrection) ensured that we would have the guidance of His Holy Spirit (Comforter) to lead us to the truth God has "written in our hearts" under the New Covenant.
Last edited by MysticPhD; 11-18-2013 at 03:15 PM..
I am a follower of Christ. That makes me a Christian . . . but not for the same reasons so many Christians espouse. I know we were saved from eternal separation from God by Christ . . . but again not for the same reasons so many Christians espouse. I know Christ epitomizes the TRUE NATURE of our loving Father and that God IS Love. I do NOT accept the OT descriptions of God believed by our ignorant savage ancestors. I do NOT believe in any magical thinking, sacraments or rituals of any kind. I believe that communion is simply an act of remembrance of Christ, period. The only description for me would be a pure Christian follower of Christ . . . NOT Catholic or any of the many denominations of Christianity out there.
Here is one instance of a Eucharist miracle, there are many more.
The Boston Archdiocese had very expensive property not being heavily used (St. John's Seminary in Brighton, being one) that they didn't even need and they sold it for millions to pay off lawsuits.
The Church is a huge organization with many people giving money over the centuries along with free will donations for special issues like building a seminary. They do have property and money but they give a huge amount to charities around the world. I am glad they have property to sell off, I wish our government would do the same thing with unused properties they have that are not being used, instead of raising our taxes to pay for new programs. The government has thousands of unused buildings all over the country just sitting there deteriorating and they could be sold to pay down the debt.
The Church is a huge organization with many people giving money over the centuries along with free will donations for special issues like building a seminary. They do have property and money but they give a huge amount to charities around the world. I am glad they have property to sell off, I wish our government would do the same thing with unused properties they have that are not being used, instead of raising our taxes to pay for new programs. The government has thousands of unused buildings all over the country just sitting there deteriorating and they could be sold to pay down the debt.
If you want to get into political debate, this is not your forum.
Not according to the RCC. Homosexuality (same sex attraction) is an illness that, with therapy, can be overcome.
There Wrong and being lead of the devil to drive people to suicide.
Some one I cared about killed herself,
she was gay and when she came out to her conservative Baptists parents the first thing they said was: "Oh honey this is just an illness, if you try and pray hard enough it'l go away."
She prayed about it, got depressed, realized her parents didn't love her because their dedication to a book was more important, then after they began to hate her thinking it was her fault she was gay she killed herself.
Hate is a Mental Illness,
Closed Mindedness Is a Disease,
but Orientation is Some thing Natural given to us by our God and it is not a sin or an illness, it can't be changed.
And for each of the gay Christians who kills themselves, I say unto those who persecuted them and drove them to do it, "Cursed are you for the death you have caused, for you the covenant is broken, the new wine dries up and the vine withers, all you merry makers shall groan.
Murderers you have attempted to put New Wine into old wine skins and look they have busted."
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