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Am I understanding you correctly? There is but one God, and we all should be following her/him?
Am I understanding you correctly? There is but one book and we should all be reading it?
Am I understanding you correctly? There is but one ear to God's voice and that be Jesus?
If your a Christian yes, if not then, you follow who you chose. I did not say that is what you have to do but, as a Christian it's what I MUST do to enter the Kingdom of God that I worship!!
If you like literature you might nab a copy of The Man Who Died (Paperback)
by D.H. Lawrence. Lawrence puts Jesus in the lap of Isis, so to speak!
A wonderful read.
From what I saw on the back cover these are things Christians deny Jesus was here for. Jesus did not have sex!! His job was to spread the word of His Father and prepare the lost. If he was out having sex how could he have kept his journey true.
People want to put Jesus at Human level when HE was so much more. Jesus is not a religion HE is a relationship.
I hope you'll bear with me, wildberries61, as I look at my experience with organized religion. In the context of my work in medicine and public health, only, I see the church not working for either social justice or the public good:
- Church doctrine against birth control: A hundred years ago, no really, sometime in the 60s, I conducted some medical symposia. One of the symposium was about birth control. We had a pilot. It was conducted if I remember correctly in Mexico (that hated place so many talk about in the Immigration Forum) - Well one of the women came in pregnant. Why? We asked did you take your pills? "Yes," she replied, "I did, but I forgot a few days and so my husband took them instead."
Well of course we all laughed among ourselves. The pills weren't going to work if she shared them with her husband. But the Church made it so difficult for folks to even accept birth control that all they had was ignorance. And too many children!And no money! The very issues many complain about here at City-data!
- Church doctrine, fast forward 2002: I am working as a public health advocate for adolescents at risk for STDs, STIs and HIV. We have some funding out with a Catholic Charity (State money, not Church money). We make it clear that birth control education is part of our package--provide it or we'll have to defund the program.
Instead of heeding our advice, the head of the local Archdiocese asks to see us (my co-director and myself): We are fallen Christians. At the next cycle, I personally make sure that not only this program for adolescents is defunded, I go to my other colleages and get them to also defund this charity.
Why?
In their community they had a higher rate of STDs, STIs and HIV than the entire Borough. But it was and continues to be more important to follow the church doctrine than to save lives.
These are but two of dozens of experiences where I have found that the Church works against people's best interests; not in their favour.
And by working against the people's best interests, they are not my brand of Goodness = God!
Quote:
Originally Posted by wildberries61
If your a Christian yes, if not then, you follow who you chose. I did not say that is what you have to do but, as a Christian it's what I MUST do to enter the Kingdom of God that I worship!!
From what I saw on the back cover these are things Christians deny Jesus was here for.
So is this the limit of your research? If you truly want to understand another persons beliefs, there should be more indepth research. Not saying you have to agree with or accept their beliefs, but take a little extra time to research. However the choice is still yours, much like religion is for everyone else.
With exception of UB50, it appears this thread and the posters are concentrating solely on Christianity.
The subject heading was God(s), so surely there are people that believe, and strongly believe, in other Gods.
Do we make room for them in our daily lives?
Although the subject line started like it was going to go in many directions, the questions posed by the original poster was directed towards the Bible and biblical beliefs which is why it went in the direction it did.
Yes, madicarus2000, I was hoping for more open dialogue.
Guess it just won't happen!
Quote:
Originally Posted by madicarus2000
Although the subject line started like it was going to go in many directions, the questions posed by the original poster was directed towards the Bible and biblical beliefs which is why it went in the direction it did.
I am not really sure what to say about Buddhism and Hinduism, I do not know much about them and to try to make any claims pro/con would be folly on my part.
The issue of exclusivity is interesting though. When I was an "outsider" to the world of religion, I had the same thought as many. Religion is just man's attempts to get a handle on what is going on, and they all get to the same spot, just different ways (what ever all that meant). As I desired to sort this out, I did some inner searching, to see what made sense to me. The thought of trying to study and learn every religion to determine which one, if any, are right seemed out of reach. So this was my basic flow chart.
It made sense to me that thing were created. I could understand that if they are, it would only take one creator, not a bunch. I made little sense to me that "all things are god" Hinduism, or "that everyone is god" Buddhism. So I decided to "shelve" those two, knowing I could come back if the others fell short.
That essentially left me with Judaism, Islam, and Christianity (I ruled out Atheism earlier, but I could always come back if these didn't pan out).
Without a doubt, Christianity and Islam are mutually exclusive. Both of them can not be right, they may both be wrong, but both being right is not possible.
Since Judaism and Christianity share a good portion of the same scripture (the Old Testament), I thought I would start there, maybe kill two birds with one stone.
While some of the Old Testament seemed odd and far fetched, of those things I could confirm, it was 100% right (Places, people, events). There are many things that can not be confirmed, but not wanting to spend a life time trying to track down every "yot and title", I decided to move on to the New Testament.
As stated in another post, I focused on Christ, who was He, did He really exist, and did He do what is said about him. I found sources outside of the Bible that confirmed He did exist, He at least did some of what they said, and some of the events that surround His life were also confirmed.
So, my thoughts naturally went to the death and resurrection of Christ. No other "religion" claims this for their faith, so this might be a determining factor, if this event is true, Wow, what more do you need, if it can be proven false (which should not be that difficult) then we can put Christianity to bed and move on.
I found, to my satisfaction, that there is ample evidence, both within and outside of the Bible to confirm the Death AND Resurrection of Jesus. The more I learned about Him, His task, His sacrifice, His gift, the more I understood who God is, why I am here, what He wants from me.
Can I confirm everything in the Bible, no way, but I can confirm some of it. And so far, of the things that can be confirmed, it is 100%. So I choose to give God the benefit of the doubt, I will trust that what He tells me (via the Bible) is true, until He lies to me.
I don't have "faith" that God exists, or that Jesus exists...I Know they do. Faith is, that I can rely on God to keep the promises that He made and that I can trust Him even when I don't understand Him. I must admit, this took a long time for me, and I am not always 100% faithful to God, but He has yet to let me down, and that is good enough to keep me learning and growing in my relationship with Him.
Sorry it ran long, I will give this Thread a breather for awhile, let others jump in.
Thanks for your persistence in getting to the truth....albeit roundabout, you hung in there and turned your doubt and confusion into knowledge and faith. This is what God wants us to do. He wants us to study his word (the Bible) and draw our own conclusions. He actually requires this. Don't be swayed by what you hear....search the scriptures for your own truth and understanding. What I am saying here is not directed at you now, Funfaler.
The Bible warns of false prophets and following blindly. These times show proof of how deadly that can be and you need your own personal knowledge of Biblical things past and of things to come. People, this unnecessary fodder is just that....in the end, none of it matters. Where exactly do you think all of this nonsense gets you?
Do you think that sounding educated and well-read will somehow magically give you immortality? Drop the pretentiousness and bow down to your God. He is way bigger than anything we can even imagine in this life. This is a test run, in case you didn't know. Eternity beats 70 or 80 years all to pieces. God wants your loyalty and love. It's so simple...we make it complicated.
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