QUOTE : [upon reading for the first time the christian bible]
"in it I felt that the words of our Lord "Isa (Jesus)" cannot be the words of men; for no man or prophet dare say that he is the Way, Truth and Life… "No one comes to the Father except through me [John 14:6]"… "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. [John 8:12]"
This is nice.
I want to ask, but only if I am not offending anything of course, that when some man does say he is "the Way Truth and Life", and adds that "nobody gets to heaven except thru me", and "I am the light, follow me" , well, I need to know if that is enough , with some faith of course, to change one's religion? When do we know to base our lives, and influence the world that way too, on the basis is mere words? could our influence on the world turn out to be some sort of mild mind control, with religion as the way to make people go along with certain things, like creating an apocolypse to see who is pure enough to survive it, for example?
Is it something like this? - {quote: "for I was overwhelmed by great passion [to know more about Christ]" .
You mentioned this, so I guess thats how one decides? Like a feeling we might get?
Personally, I sure get a great passion rising up in me, urging me onwards, to fight my good fight [for the word 'nature' to replace the word 'god' in bibles so people might see that it works the same, but without the terrible division of peoples the the word god brings with it, always].
David Koresh said he is "the Way Truth and Life", "nobody gets to heaven except thru me", and "I am the light, follow me" , as have many others, and I dare say I can offer that up too: in fact, "I AM THE WAY, I AM THE TRUTH, and I AM LIFE."
But thats not to say I am special.
... and I suppose that some day, a woman might say those things too.
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quote: "our Lord "Isa (Jesus)" the Christ… well, I found in his sacrifice the solution to the problem of sin in my life. For in his crucifixion is the atonement for all my sins and iniquities. I decided to seek him and his precious blood for shelter because he is the one who died instead of me and shed his holy blood for me!" [end quote]
Jesus did die on the cross I suppose.
The rest could be made up by people using religion as control over the masses. The bible WAS written after Jesus died, all he had written , and the words others writ about him at the time, was destroyed I bet.
Jesus said his crucifixion would absolve all mens sins. Thats nice too. Was that just for the period up to the time of Christ, or for all time after that too?
Jesus died for out sins they say, but still we sin like crazy, people are hurt terribly for it, all that suffering at the hands of other people, and the guilty parties will have no sin on their hands. I never get that part, and I went to [christian] church for years and years, even sunday school as a kid.
Is this why a religious guy like GW Bush sees that it is okay to kill and torture people, because his sins will be borne by jesus? What if the offer expired when jesus died? did Jesus expect to live forever maybe, as a man and not just "in the hearts of men". did Jesus describe aheaven, or was that part snuck in later, as a promise for people, to give them hope?
Cruci-fiction? Other men were hanging beside Jesus that day.
Buy the way, how is it coming with that barrier? - quote :
"I was extremely religious but I had no true relationship with the God I was worshipping; for I always had felt that there’s a barrier separating me from God."
good luck with all that.
I intended this post to be intentionally non-personal , to avoid referring to you personally in things I discuss , or things I may feel negative about.
So I hope I did not offend,
Karlin.