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Not arguable at all to anyone remotely familiar with (legitimate) history and Christianity's origins in earlier pagan religions.
Quote:
Nevertheless, a personal relationship with Jesus is established by God.
True, only when "God" means the men who wrote the Bible.
If there is a supreme being, he/she/it has zero need for, interest in or relation with Jesus or Christianity and certainly had no hand in the train wreck called The Bible..
Many factions of religions have "personal God" -- it is often dressed up (told to the followers) as "personal relationship".
"Personal God" means: you can interpret God in your own way to certain extent. For example, you want to have a steak diner tonight, but you are concerning your own weight loss goal. So, what to do? "Personal God" (or "personal relationship") will offer you an excuse to do it.
Religion is the liturgical rules that define a group of people with a common belief. Often this belief has no basis in fact, but is based on what they have been taught. Consequently many muslims and christians have the "fire insurance" syndrome. "Lets believe what mom and dad taught us......if they are right, we are covered, if they are wrong, at least we live good lives. "
A "personal relationship" is one where one has come to an awareness of the creator and the relationship between all of creation and that creator. There are several "faiths" that teach this in addition to Jesus' teachings.......what has been bastardized into the "Christian" faith. There is no currently scientifically definable connection between the creator and the creation. Some faiths have come close.....ndn's have long taught the brotherhood of people to the elements of the earth......we are kin to the rocks and trees and streams. People that defined Hebraic traditions recognized this. The Psalms are chock full of elemental encounters with the creation.....the rocks, the streams, the soil. Psalms even describes the connection between the creator and creation in talking about how "you knew me before I was born"........a seriously important element in the right to life movement.
But the connection between the creator and the creation can only be experienced. It cannot be described, shared, or transferred. When you find a person who is "religious" you have found a person who has adopted a liturgical ritual as a method to "connect" to the creator. But there are those of us who have eschewed that liturgical mantra and have chosen, instead, to follow a solitary option. This option requires us to seek that connection on a one to one basis. When that connection is established, nothing else is required. It is at that point that we have a personal relationship with god/the creator. While you might consider it a derangement, or a form of a disease or a psychosis it is simply an awareness of the creator, the creators relationship with the creation, and the individuals place within that relationship.
quoting from your bible doesn't change that Christianity is man made (thanks to Paul) and it has its own rituals.
Yet another flight of fancy. Yawn.
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