Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Thrill, what is a Spiritualist Universalist Christian ?
Glad you asked, pcamps.
A SUC (acronym for "success") is a person who accepts the basic tenants of Christianity
1. Jesus was/is the Son of God
2. His most important teaching is "Do compassionate things for others and don't expect a reward for doing them; kindness is its own reward.
3. His death paid a ransom in some way for me; how, I don't know; He didn't explain and so I don't knock myself out intellectually to figure it out.
4. He taught that all would eventually be saved (poor terminology because there is no fiery hell to be saved from, but it's just a simple way of saying that God will see to it that all find fulfillment in whatevert part of heaven they have progressed to.
5. the spiritualist part simply means that the basic tenants of the eternal destiny of souls as preached by fundamentalist Christianity are completely discarded as being false and totally worthless. Why? Because millions of people--15 million Americans alone--have had varying degrees of spiritual experiences. A small percentage of them, roughly 5%, exhibited all the signs of clinical death--flatline EEG; flatline EKG; no respiration; no pulse, hence no oxygen circulating; no bodily activity; eye pupils fixed and dilated (classic sign of brain death)---in fact the patient was so dead that a doctor in attendance "called it" (time of death).
This figure is arrived at by eliminating 95% of these experiences as being non-veritical (unprovable)--anywhere from total fiction and thus worthless (Mary K Baxter's, for example--no doctor around; no medical personnel to confirm she was dead) to those not exhibiting enough evidence of death, leaving 5% or 750,000 experiences as authenticated by doctors and scientists being true clinical deaths.
The interesting part comes when these 750,000 people who have passed muster by the scientific community have their experiences analyzed: they display strikingly similar descriptions which I won't bore the readers with; I've outlined them in other posts. Apart from being able tell doctor and nurses attending them exactly what they said and did while the experiencer was flatlined, they describe having these beautiful visits to heaven to varying degrees, meeting their dead relatives, experiencing a feeling of total love and peace to such a degree that never wanted to come back and were literally forced back into their bodies. Now the kicker which puts the lie to fundamentalism is that it didn't matter the person's faith, religious affiliation, atheist, agnostic, etc --- ALL experienced this non-judgmental overwhelming love from God. Anything of a "judgmental" nature was directed at how a person could be better, kind, and more loving.
That's the spiritualist component of my description.
Last edited by thrillobyte; 04-15-2014 at 07:56 PM..
My experience is similar. I didn't choose the God of the Bible. I chose everything but Christ; Buddhism, Mormonism, Wicca, Zen, and as a last resort picked up the Bible thinking it was ridiculous but I was persuaded by someone persistent. Then God answered, and now I can't 'not' believe even if I tried.
For God Who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts so as [to beam forth] the Light for the illumination of the knowledge of the majesty and glory of God [as it is manifest in the Person and is revealed] in the face of Jesus Christ (the Messiah).
This ^^^^^^^^ is what persuaded and convinced me
God the great persuader.
I would also like to add that this is not a one time experience, but this light dawns daily.
Glad you asked, pcamps.
A SUC (acronym for "success") is a person who accepts the basic tenants of Christianity
1. Jesus was/is the Son of God
2. His most important teaching is "Do compassionate things for others and don't expect a reward for doing them; kindness is its own reward.
3. His death paid a ransom in some way for me; how, I don't know; He didn't explain and so I don't knock myself out intellectually to figure it out.
4. He taught that all would eventually be saved (poor terminology because there is no fiery hell to be saved from, but it's just a simple way of saying that God will see to it that all find fulfillment in whatevert part of heaven they have progressed to.
5. the spiritualist part simply means that the basic tenants of the eternal destiny of souls as preached by fundamentalist Christianity are completely discarded as being false and totally worthless. Why? Because millions of people--15 million Americans alone--have had varying degrees of spiritual experiences. A small percentage of them, roughly 5%, exhibited all the signs of clinical death--flatline EEG; flatline EKG; no respiration; no pulse, hence no oxygen circulating; no bodily activity; eye pupils fixed and dilated (classic sign of brain death)---in fact the patient was so dead that a doctor in attendance "called it" (time of death).
This figure is arrived at by eliminating 95% of these experiences as being non-veritical (unprovable)--anywhere from total fiction and thus worthless (Mary K Baxter's, for example--no doctor around; no medical personnel to confirm she was dead) to those not exhibiting enough evidence of death, leaving 5% or 750,000 experiences as authenticated by doctors and scientists being true clinical deaths.
The interesting part comes when these 750,000 people who have passed muster by the scientific community have their experiences analyzed: they display strikingly similar descriptions which I won't bore the readers with; I've outlined them in other posts. Apart from being able tell doctor and nurses attending them exactly what they said and did while the experiencer was flatlined, they describe having these beautiful visits to heaven to varying degrees, meeting their dead relatives, experiencing a feeling of total love and peace to such a degree that never wanted to come back and were literally forced back into their bodies. Now the kicker which puts the lie to fundamentalism is that it didn't matter the person's faith, religious affiliation, atheist, agnostic, etc --- ALL experienced this non-judgmental overwhelming love from God. Anything of a "judgmental" nature was directed at how a person could be better, kind, and more loving.
That's the spiritualist component of my description.
Excellent post and witness, Thrill. I have not had any NDE but I can attest to the unconditional love and acceptance in bold because I experienced it in deep meditation. The immense joy of it was indescribable and I can fully imagine not ever wanting to leave it. I have tried to experience it at the same magnitude for 40+ years with little success . . . but what I do experience is the same just less overpowering.
First let me say this. I have believed in God for as long as I can remember. After I determined to 'know' Him vs. just 'knowing about' He did some things in my life that proved He believed me, and proved He does exist.
Again as far back as I can remember I have always believed the Bible was/is God's words to His ppl. Once I determined to read/understand the Scriptures, God has used Scripture[s] to prove things to me.
I was never separated from God..Religion tried to convince me I was, but the Holy Spirit was stronger in me than the doctrines of man outside of me. His words written in my heart were stronger than those said by man.
I believe in God because something inside of me won't allow me to believe otherwise. I believe in the Bible because it teaches me about God, and especially about my Savior's mortal ministry. If a person believes in God, it stands to reason that he would want to learn everything he could about Him.
I believe in God but I don't believe the Bible is His word.
Unfortunately, you have not had my spiritual experiences (re: post 20).
And unfortunately, you have not had these spiritual revelations:
(1) Man has always been a spiritual idiot, with no way of knowing what the truth really is.
(2) Nah, let's just stop here for now ... if you don't get (1), you're totally lost about this!
So, let us know when you you get point (1), and we can continue. Is that fair?
Hint: this will require a little thinking and looking around, etc.
.
Last edited by evangelist-77; 04-17-2014 at 09:27 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
