Posted on 05/14/2018 1:27:44 PM PDT by HarleyD
Great explanation!
By spreading the lie that you must follow Jesus to enter heaven, someone (cough) achieved the remarkable feat of convincing billions of people that the birth of Christ *condemned* multitudes of people globally, such as American Indians who had never heard the Gospel.
[[In an environment of such plurality and diversity this really seems an implausible or even arrogant claim of Christians.]]
It’s not arrogant, it’s the truth- disbelieve it if you wish- God have mercy if you do
So God gave us laws to live by knowing that it would be impossible for us to obey them all due to human nature God created? I can't buy that God is such a cruel trickster.
Yes, but that doesn’t give humans the license to live a life of debauchery and then expect to spend eternity with Christ.
Next question please.
Jesus is giving us a free way out of the eternal death that we brought upon ourselves.
It’s not the fault of Christians that people love their own sin too much to want to use that way out.
There’s two ways.
1) Never sin
2) Be forgiven.
Nobody achieves #1 according to scripture. And Jesus is required for #2.
Are you blaming God for every wicked thing that you’ve done in your life?
——Yes, but that doesn’t give humans the license to live a life of debauchery and then expect to spend eternity with Christ.——
Gee, where did I say that...
I have no idea what you’re talking about.
“Are you blaming God for every wicked thing that you’ve done in your life?”
No. But you can’t say people have free will, so our sins are our own fault, and at the same time say it’s impossible for humans to obey God’s commandments. Well, I guess you could say it, but it makes no sense.
For the record, I believe in God, but I don’t believe in all the contradictory things people say about God (religions).
Maybe people don’t have free will.
Maybe our wills are bound to sin and our own sinful desires, and Jesus’ death and resurrection is the only way that our will can be freed from slavery to sin.
Whether or not this is objectively the case is a whole 'nother can of worms.
I think you are misreading scripture. It does not say that Jesus is the only way. It says that you can not get to God except through Jesus.
John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
This is a very true statement.
People do not understand spiritual growth. They imagine that it is like following another person down a path to a destination. It is not that way.
In order to find God, you must go within self. In doing so, your conscious awareness expands beyond your physical body and you begin to comprehend your reality directly from your soul or spirit. This is the true “Being born of the Spirit” that happens when the Holy Spirit helps us.
Rather than a linear trail, imagine the concept of Russian Nesting Dolls where we are the little doll in the middle and God is the large outer doll in which we exist. We can not get to God except by going through all the other dolls. I will not argue which of those dolls represents Jesus and which one the other enlightened teachers who came here to save us.
Jesus is my Savior as He lowered Himself to my level by being born in the flesh to teach us how to grow.
Try to read the rest of John 14 without this model of understanding:
10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
I have made this journey many times and it is real. By the way, you will always perceive any level of consciousness above you as Light when you go within. God is Light.
You automatically have eternal life as nothing can destroy your soul. It is who you really are.
Where your soul is at when it leaves the physical body determines the location where it is restricted in spirit. Some places are not so good.
How about the hundreds of millions of people who lived Before Christ?
You offered, “By spreading the lie that you must follow Jesus to enter heaven...” Now who did that? Thye article says faith in Him as your Savior, focusing on belief. But you are saying someone has said you must work for the Grace? who said that?
You get to choose! Cool,huh!
In a nutshell.
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