Quote:
Originally Posted by kdbrich
That sounds great. Those are things we need to do. But is that going to get your sins forgiven by God?
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All sins are are errors. You correct them when you find them. Those you have not resolved upon death will be addressed later.
Regarding sin, we are sometimes like drug addicts, keep saying we are reformed, yet making those mistakes over and over again. Often, when we hit bottom we make a permanent change.
Are there spiritual influences that sometimes assist us? I think so, but our spiritual 'character' is not built through just saying 'I'm sorry'. We are not 'forgiven' until we learn our lesson and no longer screw up and try to right the wrongs that we have done if we have hurt others.
Sometimes the
guilt projected on people
by religion only serves to push the person more deeply into the old pattern which caused the 'sin' in the first place, so I can see how the game of - making a person feel guilty and then offering a handy dandy exclusive forgiveness, trapping an individual in the confines of a religion - is profitable to churches.
I wonder about the spiritual state of our president, saying he is born again and yet lying to get us into a war that kills so many innocents. He is obviously not sorry, but he has accepted Jesus and is therefore saved.
Then, I look at a man like Powell, who was duped into lying to the world about those non-existent weapons, but even though his act was a result of the lies of others, has repented in front of all the world - said he's sorry for his words and the horrors that resulted because of them.
I don't think the better man is born again.
Life is much more complex than the words in any one book and it is no way as simple and cut and dry as some branches of some religions delude themselves into believing.
Many religions in Christ's day required sacrifices from the people for forgiveness of sins. That is a tradition that has been with some aspects of Christianity, probably to this very day, using monetary contributions en lieu of the actual sacrifice.
Some people, early in the religion, may have been disgusted at priests getting rich by creating guilt in the people and demanding propitiation, so they invented the one god who would make the ultimate sacrifice and do away with all the imposed guilt trips. Actually, there were many such gods who died for our sins before Christ. It was not a new idea.
Even members of the Catholic clergy need special permission to access the Vatican records of old documents, and even they cannot go browsing but must know something is there and ask permission to view it. Many are turned down. I suspect there may be much info there that could shed an entirely new light on the religion, else why the secrecy?
I go back to Catholicism because they were the one source that controlled the religion for a very long time. They sifted through documents, hid some, determined what combo best suited their idea of what Christ should be, etc. They were the repository for all info, much of the stuff they discarded is now in their library, held in secret, even by their priests. Original and only copies. It was they who told us what the religion was to be, what was permitted to be in the bible.
The Protestants, later, just had those books and a few others, on which to base their protest of the hypocrisy of the church. So, much later, the fundies and born-agains were created, but their essential beliefs are based on these pre-screened documents.
I believe there are many 'words of God', not just the thing called the bible. Most have a great deal of myth and beliefs useful for less complex societies and a simpler life. Most also have gems of wisdom in them. We have to use our God-given brains to decide which to exclude and which to include. Of course, we are sometimes wrong, but it's all we have for the time being.
Christians filter through the bible, accepting some things and rejecting others all the time. Just because they group together and agree it's a bad thing to stone disobedient children does not refute God's word that you should. Heck, I am glad that fundies reject some parts of the bible. If they did not, they would be reacting just as poorly as those mad Muslim terrorists. In fact, even in these days, some do.
Sharks do have virgin births, by the way.
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