Forest Music Since 1973,
Simple Bamboo Meditation Flutes
and Peaceful Relaxing Music CD
by John Niemi, Osaka, Japan
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O eternal Life and Light,
O infinite Wisdom,
O radiant Mercy,
as clear and unlimited as air.
You give sight to the blind
and show mercy to all.
O light imparting Light,
bountiful and generous,
your peace encompasses us
like the sea, and immerses us in infinity.
- Shinran Shonin (1175-1265 )
Japanese Buddhist Reformer
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Writings by John Niemi, Osaka, Japan
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Cosmological wake up call -
While various groups continue in their age old paths of animosity and violence mankind approaches a test which it seems likely to fail. We should have been a space faring multi-planet species by now, if, instead of devoting most of our time and resources to wars and destruction, we had been investing them in creative enterprises. And while governments and religious groups continue blithly along in their unwitting courses other astronomical bodies pursue their age old courses... In particular an asteroid appropriately namend Apophis after the Egyptian God of death ("big enough to fill the rosebowl like an egg in an eggcup"- see Death by Black Hole by Neil deGrasse Tyson)) which stands a good chance of paying us a visit in 26 years. In 2029 it will pass by the earth at a distance below that of our communications satellites, and if the earth's gravity influences it then it will return 7 years later, splashing down in the Pacific ocean and wiping out the west coast, Hawaii, and all the coastal plains of all Pacific rim countries. Imagine detonating 50,000 A bombs in the ocean off California... Surfs up dude ! Further effects such as earthquakes and fires are unknown. Right now the world's nations should be working on a crash program to develope systems to divert such asteroids, yet we continue to waste ever increasing astronomically large amounts of resources supporting failed businesses, wars, governments which exist to serve themselves, etc... "This is nature's way of telling us"... that our clock is about to be cleaned, that the shit may be going to hit the fan like it never has before in the history of our species. 26 years, 2010 minus 26 equals 1984... what were you doing in 1984 ? What are you doing now ? What will your kids be doing in 2026 ? What we should be doing, and when I say "we" I mean humankind, Islamic, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Atheist, whatever... we should be pooling our resources and developing systems to deflect earth crossing asteroids. The USSR made some humongous hydrogen bombs during the cold era. These devices were much too big to be carried by a rocket or plane, but such a device could be delivered in sections and assembled on an asteroid. Or nuclear engines could be attached to alter its speed, only a very small change in speed would be sufficient, so as it loops around the solar system for the next 7 years it would slowly gain speed and thereby alter its orbit. Will humankind amend its ways and pass this test ? We shall see... This is how nature works, purely survival of the fittest. We have been blessed with intelligence, the knowledge, and technological means to pass this test, but will our predeliction to bickering and violence be our downfall ? It may be, in which case our species may be erased from the blotter of existence. Maybe this is why SETI has not heard any other signals from ET civilizations... maybe most of them fail this test. Its a sad and sobering thought, but will it make any difference at all ? Will it even serve to give us pause ? Greenpeace - think of all the whales and dolphins this will wipe out...
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The simplest, most effective way to fix the US economic system would be to end all forms of insurance, return to a cash only system, no credit, scrap the current tax system and have a simple across the board flat tax, with no tax shelters, etc. There should be no lobbying - the current US government is not democratic. If everyone had to pay cash for medical care prices would come way down, the main cause of high prices is insurance. We need to return to a simple, basic system. All the government interference in the economy, attempts at regulation, all the bail outs of bad businesses, etc. has only served to worsen the problem while wasting astronomical amounts of money that should be put to useful, real purposes, such as infrastructure and education. The current welfare system has served to perpetuate poverty more than eleviate it. Perhaps a work program like the WPA which focuses on rebuilding and maintaining infrastructure would be a better investment. Turn the government over to the people, let them vote on issues via the internet. And of course the USA should become energy independent, which means building energy effecient and ecologically sound buildings and communities.
For an excellent illustration of the path America needs to follow, watch the film "Doc Hollywood" staring Michael J. Fox. America needs to return to its small town roots, move away from an economy centralized in sprawling urban centers, away from impersonal mall fast food corporate culture, back to a country of people, neighbors and dignity.
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On wasting the Earth's resources and man's predilection to violence -
If civilization survives, people of the future will look back upon our time in disbelief, "how could they have been so wasteful?". For we are throwing their future down the drain in our unbridled consumption of the Earth's limited resources. Oil is much more valuable as a source for plastics than a fuel, and in the future people will bemoan our burning of oil which will have deprived them of the main source of plastics. Uranium - the current fission reactors are extremely wasteful, and the world' supply of uranium willbe gone in 46 years at the current level of use (info from "The Space Elevator" by Edwards and Westling), but if we used the much more effecient breeder reactors , it would last 9,400 years at current usage, or 2,300 years if used to replace all hydrocarbons... The Earth has this energy supply, enough for several thousand years, certainly long enough until we develope fussion or something even better. But, it is being wasted, and very rapidly. Why are we using old style reactors when we have the technology now, have had for years, to make reactors that are 47 times more effecient. The answer is, such reactors produce plutonium, which can be used for weapons, so the old style wasteful reactors are politically correct. The problem is not fuel supply - we have it on hand and we have the technology, the problem is man's inability to live peacably, man's constant predeliction to war... So really the real solution is for people to learn to live in peace and harmony. It is not a matter of developing new technologies as much as it is solving the age old sickness that pervades our species. We have been givien this perfect planet, with everything we need to prosper and evolve, but we are mismanaging it and jeapordizing the very future of humankind in our stupid, cyclical, wasteful wars... If men could stop fighting, we could move ahead by leaps and bounds, quality of life would improve, we would head out to our neighboring planets... But, that may not ever happen, given the downward course mankind has been traveling throughout its history. We could produce clean, cheap power, if we did not have to worry about people using the fuel for weapons. We could also design more energy effecient homes, towns, and lifestyles. And if we did not waste most of our time making weapons and war, we could use it to do some really productive things. So, the Earth's uranium supply, which could replace fossil fuels for at least a thousand years even if we were to use twice as much energy as we currently do if we switched over to breeder reactors, this supply is being rapidly depleted in old fashioned extremely ineffecient fission reactors because men cannot live peacable with each other. This supply of Uranium should be an intermediate power source utilized while we develope fusion or some other form of energy production, and oil should have been saved as a source of plastics for future generations. But men seem to lack any long term feeling of stewardship, chosing instead to enrich themselves as much as possible and the heck with future generations.
However nuclear power generation via breeder reactors presents the problem of disposing of nuclear waste in a safe manner so it will not effect future people. For example, the USSR used to just dump old reactor cores in the ocean... If this is not possible to do, then we should not use it until we can solve the waste disposal problem. We cannot pass such a dangerous problem and health risk onto furture generations. The way things are currently going, people in the future may look back and view us as monsters who ruined the planet. My point is, the most important thing we need to learn to do is to live in peace and harmony.
Some scientists say we need to develope space colonies in case we destroy the earth. I think that is premature. It will be a long time before we have the ability to survive elsewhere in the solar system, and we never will unless we change our violent ways. If we were not such a violent and irresponsible species, there would be no energy shortage - we have been blessed with all the resources we need for thousands of years, if they were utilized properly. Its like a ship is wrecked on a desert island and the people on board have abundant supplies for more than 10 years. They figure they will be rescued long before their supplies run out, so they make no effort to conserve them or use them wisely, but their rescue ship takes longer than expected to arrive, and by the time it does they have all died... We could replace fossil fuels with nuclear power right now and have enough fuel for several thousand years if we used the much more effecient breeder reactors... By then we would be an interplanetary civilization with access to the asteroid belt and its vast resources... The next step, the next supply cache that has been positioned for our use is the Oort cloud, which contains the materials needed for interstellar expansion... Its all laid out waiting for us, if we can learn to behave ourselves, stop killing each other, and start creating instead of destroying.
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On medical insurance, costs of medical care, etc. -
No one seems to be mentioning the obvious, if people are healthy they do not need any medical care. But perhaps the powers that be do not want too many healthy people, since the health care/pharmaceuticals industry is the most profitable in the USA and hence wields alot of political clout... At any rate, if people simply ate properly, it would have an immense impact upon this problem. Eliminating junk foods, overeating, overdrinking and other forms of glutony would have a much greater effect on the overall health of Americans than any program for taking care of sick people. Americans eat way too much food - look at the average Japanese person, most people in Japan weigh about 40% less than their American counterparts. Eat a good healthy breakfast of real food. Eliminate sugary foods and refined flours, eat more vegetables and less meat, eat more fish and chicken and less red meat, if you are hungry eat a healthy, small snack, do not stuff yourself, allow your stomach to shrink back to its natural size. Its ok, even good, to feel hungry sometimes. The idea of being satiated all the time is totally unnatural. Stop eating before you feel full. And - this is very important, chew your food well, as this aids in digestion which means your food requires less energy to process while releasing more energy. Processing excessive amounts of food into fat requires alot of energy (hence people feel sleepy after overeating). So you can actually have more energy and be much healthier by eating less. The idea of excersizing to loose weight is misguided. We should excersize to keep our body and mind in good working order, healthy, and we should eat less junk food and sugary foods - and drinks - drinks are very fattening, and salad dressings which actually are high calorie, etc... i.e. eat simple real foods, fruit, whole grain breads, and do not eat at night. This is a key point. EAt a good healthy substantial breakfast, healthy snacks, a good lunch, and a smaller lighter supper. After supper do not eat anything. Do not drink anything other than water after supper. So when you go to bed your stomach is not full of food. Its good to feel hungry. Usually I feel hungry for about an hour around 9-10PM then it goes away. After awhile you get used o it and don't even notice. We must have discipline and self-control. Eating should not be an obsessive disorder. As far as medical care goes, if we simply returned to the system we had "in the old days" it would be much better. Better to have no insurance for anyone, just a straight cash system... Then the costs would naturally come down. There would be no cheating, no time wasted on paperwork, etc. etc. Watch the movie "Doc Hollywood", thats how America should be.
When you think about it, insurance has the effect of making things more expensive, and to perpetuate problems, such as people building houses in places prone to hurricanes and forest fires... If there was no homeowners insurance people would have to build in safer locations, build better, stronger, smaller homes, etc... Could it be that we'd be better off without insurance altogether ?
Sugary foods and drinks are one of the main causes of obesity.
In Japan most drinks do not contain sugar, and cakes, etc. are not nearly as sweet as those in the USA. Even fruit juice contains alot of sugar - its much better to eat fruit than drink juice. Sweets are an aquired taste which often is addicting, requiring higher levels of sugar. But sugary "foods" cause a sugar high followed by a low, so people eat more to regain the sugar high... and they are very fattening, they are not balanced and should be eliminated from the diet as much as possible. The bad habit of munching potato chips and sweets and junk food while watching TV, at sporting events, etc. should be eliminated as well. If you are hungry, eat healthy food.
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Regarding unemployment, poverty, gun deaths, etc.
I think we must adopt an attitude that we are all responsible for our actions and state-of-being, rather than placing blame on others. The way to overcome poverty is to live according to God's way of life, rather than getting a gun and pursuing a lifestyle of crime and violence. Men must feel responsible for their actions, which includes loving and caring for the children they father. One can live in poverty with dignity. There are times we need to just do our best and step-by-step move ahead. Trying to get rich quick with a gun and selling drugs can never have any good result, but only cause more suffering and even worse conditions.
On the other hand, a society which promotes guns and makes them easily available is immoral. Many guns are made to kill people, not for hunting. People who live in the country should be allowed to own rifles and shotguns, but many of the guns that are sold should be banned. Guns have no place in our cities. Gun dealers traffic in death. There are even Christian ministers who advocate gun ownership. Our society glorifies guns and violence as a means of dealing with problems. Look at how many movies and TV shows portray shooting and violence. We are often exposed to these violent fantasies if we go to the movies or watch TV. Its gotten so bad that some movies even portray getting shot as funny, or even a sort of male bonding ritual between friends. This is very sick and perverted. Video games teach children that shooting others is fun and earns points, etc. All this is done to line the pockets of greedy people in the "entertainment industry" who will do anything for money. Gun violence has become a major facet of life in the USA.
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On the future of the space program -
how about a TV network, The Mars Channel, which would enable live broadcasts with viewer participation, between audience and astronauts ? Subscriptions would help fund the mission, as well as advertising... As Robert Zubrin points out in his excellent series of books, the is not much point in going back to the moon right now, its a dead rock with no atmosphere to block deadly radiation and even out extreme temperature changes lacking in the materials needed to support human colonization. Mars, however is a Planet, with a hot core which means geo-thermal energy, most of the basic minerals and chemicals needed to manufacture fuels, metals, plastics, ceramics, gases, possibly abundant supplies of subsurface water ice, with a protective atmosphere capable of terraforming, and a habital land area equal to the Earth's since there are no oceans (yet)... And, it takes less energy to go to Mars than to the moon, the only drawback is it takes much longer to get there...
but we could design spacecraft with rotating habitat rings to provide artificial gravity, or - one that is launched in two stages then once on the way to Mars, separates and is rejoined, tethered together, side-by-side with an interconnecting flex-tunnel-passageway, then the two units are set to revolve around their common center-of-mass and, viola, simple artificial gravity, then upon arrival at Mars they are separated and land individually... Plus there could be a large inflatable "recreation balloon" , which would enable the astronauts to "stretch their legs" during the trip, extending out from each craft which would be jettisoned before landing.
Think of what we could have done if the money that has been wasted on economically debilitating wars would have been invested in establishing a Martian colony. The billions and trillions of dollars that are wasted on corporate bail-outs, over priced health care, a welfare system which actually perpetuates the very conditions it purports to alieviate... If we could turn the arms industry into a space exploration industry, develope interplanetary technology instead of weapons...
On colonizing the solar system and beyond -
if one observes the universe with an open mind, the mind being a direct reflection of God, then our natural curiosity and drive to learn and improve our lot is likewise an expression of divine nature. If we look at the layout of the solar system, we can see it as a perfect, step-by-step evolutionary process leading to the stars. There are evolutionary safeguards, in order for a civilization to reach interplanetary status they will first have to learn to live properly, in peace and harmony, on their home planet. Currently humanity is failing this test, devoting most of its resources to such things as wars and the greedy pursuits of power hungry, exploitive people. We now have the means (via the internet) to free ourselves, to throw off the yoke that has enslaved humankind and establish truely democratic forms of government. However, unless we pass the first stage, we will not have the resources or long term focus of activities neccesary to enable interplanetary colonization. (Mars could be terraformed in a thousand years, possibly several hundred if there was a concerted effort on behalf of the Earth's peoples) But, lets say by some wonderous good fortune, the leaders of Islam were to condemn terrorism and the leaders of the USA were to end their corporate prostitution and turn the government over to the people, etc... If some things like this were to occur, we might find ourselves moving forward... Anyway, it turns out that Mars would be a much better interplanetary hub (see the excellent series of books by Robert Zubrin) than earth, and hence a likely candidate for a future "capital of the solar system" due to its proximity to the asteroid belt, an enormous storehouse of resources which will enable us to move on to the outer planets, as well as provide numerous mini-worlds for future colonization... It is interesting that the asteroid belt is positioned perfectly in this sequnce... between the inner and outer planets... the capital of the outer solar system will likely be Saturn's moon Titan, since the Jupiter system is enshrouded by super deadly radiation for the most part and will require future technological advances before we can access its massive abundance of resources... Then, interestingly, there is the Oort cloud, trillions of bodies containing all kinds of materials including frozen fuels, an almost infinite supply of resources... lying between the solar system and the stars... the fuel for humankind's next step outward. But such civilizations will have to be peaceful, altruistic, and benevolent in order to achieve these future stages in our evolution. As we reach each new stage, an increasingly higher degree of "enlightenment" will be required in order to reach the next... Some party poopers can say its just as random accident, a coincedence, but I think such thinking is a form of bias, a sort of anti-mental block mental block, an anti-religious religion... The names and labels are superfluous, but there is a very obvious organization and evolutionary path laid out - if we can pass the various tests along the way. Unfortunately, we are failing miserably so far. Will humankind be able to throw off its "institutions of delusion" and learn to live in peace and harmony, or will we destroy ourselves and piss on the bright future that has been laid out for us ? Will we learn humility, compassion, and responsibility and move forward ? We are entering a new era in which we will have the ability to create new forms of life. We can make plants and high protein fungi that will thrive on Mars (plants will love the high CO2 content of the Martian atmosphere) as well as lifeforms to terraform Mars. We can create microscopic anti-cancer organizms which will simply be injected into the blood stream, destroying tumors without surgery, pain, or medication... We are entering an era in which our knowledge could grow exponentially, but will this growth be hindered by devious people exploiting our fears rather than our potential ? Or will new technologies be used unchecked, without wisdom, and cause irrepairable harm to the environment ? Will our future be destroyed so some people can live lives of wanton excess ? Will we continue plodding along this same miserable downward course to oblivion ? Now, more than ever we need spiritual guidance.
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From "Astronomy Picture of the Day website : D. rad Bacteria: Candidate Astronauts. These bacteria could survive on another planet. In an Earth lab, Deinococcus radiodurans (D. rad) survive extreme levels of radiation, extreme temperatures, dehydration, and exposure to genotoxic chemicals. Amazingly, they even have the ability to repair their own DNA, usually with 48 hours. Known as an extremophile, bacteria such as D. rad are of interest to NASA partly because they might be adaptable to help human astronauts survive on other worlds. A recent map of D. rad's DNA might allow biologists to augment their survival skills with the ability to produce medicine, clean water, and oxygen. Already they have been genetically engineered to help clean up spills of toxic mercury. Likely one of the oldest surviving life forms, D. rad was discovered by accident in the 1950s when scientists investigating food preservation techniques could not easily kill it."
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On the mindset of modern science -
In some respects contemporary science is becoming a cult, separate from the real world, existing in a world of peer review, publication and marketing of (flashy) ideas, increasingly polarized and inbred in its thinking. To me it seems a sterile world and a dangerous one in which people seem to have no qualms about selling their skills to weapons manufacturers or corporations whose sole regard is for profit. There appears to be a growing immorality and lack of ethics. This also holds true for our religious institutions. It is interesting how many of the writings in the bible hold up and offer relevant advice and insight into the dilemma of the modern mind, which, for all its increased database seems to be suffering from a correspondingly increased sense of isolation and futility. The scientist who rules out the world of spirit and mystery and the religionist who rules out the wonders and tools of science may suffer similar fates... Life, be it pursued from a scientific, religious, or mundane path must have a spiritual basis if it is to thrive and grow. The intellect is a powerful tool, yet when separated from its spiritual foundation it may become a tool for destruction rather than creation. The same holds true for religion, or any lifestyle.
Modern science needs to... instead of doing endless computer simulations, do some real work, quit the endless peer group conferences and paper writing and do something real, make some really impressive stuff, like go to Mars. Mars is real. The future of the universe will take care of itself. Science needs to set it sights on something real and do it. There are real adventures, and real experiences, and real, useful knowledge to be gained. Instead of looking for ever minute subastomic particles we could be building settlements on Mars, for example, which is much more relevant to the future of mankind than creating theories about the fate of the universe, etc. If men could go top the moon in 1969, imagine what we could do today with our current technology. If we had not wasted all our resources on wars, which cause great suffering, and supporting the rich corporate elite even though they do a horrible job at their business, instead of hocking the future of humanity so a small minority can live their brief existence in wanton luxury... we could be a multi-planet species right now. We can do it with our current technology. And we will learn by doing, rather than postulating theories. Our technology will naturally grow if we put it to use. But growth requires challenge and risk. Our current governments have sold out, abandoned the future...
Science has become a domain of the intellect. Newton, Darwin, Einstein were all very religious people, for them science and religion were aspects of the same quest. Now such has become unfashionable. modern scientists seem content to religate themselves to an unhealthy purely intellectual polarity.
This except from "Saving Us from Darwin" by Frederick C. Crews illustrates this sad state of affairs:
"... the human soul, insofar as it can be said to exist, may be a mortal and broadly comprehensible product of material forces...
AND THAT OUR UNIVERSE MAY LACK ANY DISCERNABLE PURPOSE, MORAL CHARACTER, OR SPECIAL RELAION TO OURSELVES..."
Yet, we are here, parents love their children, most people care about their neighbors and try to do their best, we are stuggling to rise above our ignorance and making progress - this is not a random accident, things are as they are... it is not a dream or an illusion. Randomness is a flawed concept, shallow thinking, however things come to be, the fact is, they do. How can anyone who looks at a blade of grass not be amazed by the workings of nature, enthralled with life.
This detached, polarized attitude is a product of the modern scientific mindset... What this man does not see is his argument proves the very immanence of an underlying "spirit" within all matter, space, time, energy, that organizes into systems and evolved into us. Science has no name for it, but if matter, energy, space, and time are all versions of the same stuff, or whatever, the term "spirit" seems to be fitting. And it is very interesting that certain writings in the bible bear an uncanny resemblance to the most recent discoveries in the areas of cosmology... Just because scientists may not relate with the universe in the same way as religious people do, and vica versa (although I think there is a great deal in common) does not mean their way is the only way, combating religious "fundamentalism" with anti-religious bigotry accomplishes nothing. One cannot deny the universe's existence, all we can do is try to understand it, rather than fight over whose labels and descriptions are best. Whether you use religious terminology or not is not the point. People need to see the common ground, not create new delusions... Truth is universal...
Such scientists seem ignorant of the wonder and mystery that surrounds them, lost in a false universe of ideas and abstractions. The revelations of modern science, such as the unity of matter, space, energy, and time... which mysteriously burst forth and evolved into such mindboggling diversity of systems, our own infinitely miraculous mind and body (which Christ says is God's temple, not manmade church buildings)... how can anyone say there is no purpose or order or direction ? The universe is Life, and whatever name you choose to call it, it is undeniably diverse and well ordered.
Such anti-life attitudes among scientists is sad and shocking... and dangerous. Modern technology without moral/ethical basis could bring an end to the delicate balance of Life that has taken billions of years to evolve. Surely science should be a pursuit of wonder, with humility and respect for that which is being studied, but modern scientists often spends their time staring at data scrawled across computer screens - perhaps their science is an expression of their life...
Do they, in their disections, loose track of beauty and mystery ? Has science become another big business, a career dependent on selling ones ideas, like soda pop ? What is it they wish to say ? Life is without meaning and purpose because they have lost sight of it ? They spout the latest rhetoric but beneath there seems to be little actual thought or understanding or appreciation. What is the purpose of such science then ? To publish papers and get tenure and acquire status among ones peers ? It seems a sad life... Where is the joy and thankfulness ?
These scientists are doing the same thing as the religious fundementalists - they label everyone, lump all Christians into one group, then dispose of them using arguments derived from their own contrived systems. For me, the most important thing in Life is its spirituality, its mystery, the inner link with all creation, etc.... To me these people seem to be lost in an artificial self-perpetuating world of ideas and conceptualizations. I think such a polarized purely intellectual lifestyle is unhealthy and unproductive as to actually coming up with some original, meaningful, useful discoveries. Much of this science seems to be people making work for themselves, ideas become institutions which must then be defended and perpetuated because the academic standing and careers may depend on it.
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On man's preference for ignorance -
From the MacAthur Student Bible page 1 -
"Scientific theories, by their very definition, are subject to change and adjustment. Scripture remains as God's unchanging declaration of truth. The Bible was not written as a challenge to any particular scientific theory, but scientific theories have often been designed to challenge or undermine biblical statements. They either agree with scripture or are mistaken."
How can any educated person pronounce such totally false ideas as being true ? This is the same basic mindset which Jesus had to confront among religious authorities 2,000 years ago. Truth is of God, not ignorance.
"Scientific theories, by their very definition, are subject to change and adjustment. "
And if one studies the bible free of bias, one cannot help but notice that God does exactly the same thing. God is creative, always hopeful, always trying to make adjustments for the deluded actions of men, always hoping they will excersize some intelligence and use the mind they have been blessed with. The scientific method is in keeping with the theme of evolution and progress that runs throughout the bible. This process is a reflection of the divine nature.
"Scripture remains as God's unchanging declaration of truth."
This is false, Jesus Christ is the only unchanging declaration of truth in Christianity. God's Law is written in our hearts.
"scientific theories have often been designed to challenge or undermine biblical statements."
This is false, and misrepresents the scientific method and the nature of science. In fact, just the opposite is true, the church has often sought to undermine scientific discoveries because they exposed the falicy of errant doctrines. God is truth, the bible says everything will be exposed in the Light of God. The sole purpose of science is the revelation of truth... However, I think modern science is often lacking in wisdom, and an interaction between religion and science is beneficial for both. Jesus taught us to use discerment in reading the bible as well as in our daily lives. Hopefully science would also have a basis in wisdom, be more discernimg and oriented towards the benefit of all people, the earth and all its creatures, instead of doing anything for the sake of one's career. For example, proficiency in mathmatics or computers may evidence specific sorts of intelligence, but often such experts seem to be lost in an artificial world of abstractions. This is not a healthy state. There is a need for wisdom, which leads to true intelligence, a balanced life, compassion, and proper use of our intelligence.
"They either agree with scripture or are mistaken."
Here we see how the advocates of bibleanity reject any discoveries which, according to them, do not agree with the bible. There can be no progress or discovery unless it agrees with their interpretation of the bible. This attitude results in contorted statements such as the one found on page 4 of the MacArthur Student Bible@-
"The first day - God completed creation in 7 days... each day in Genesis refers to a 24 hour period. The cycle of light and darkness means the earth was rotating on its axis, receiving light from a source on one side of the earth, even though the sun was not yet created."
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On population control - much is said about global warming and the destruction of the environment and the quest for new ways to "feed the world"... I just read an article where a scientist postulates new bioengineered crops and trees with black silicon leaves that are 10x more effecient than plants with green leaves which would enable us to sustain the world's booming population... Every time people talk about feeding the world, what they do not seem to realize is that every time our ability to produce food improves the population naturally grows to match the new supply... more food always means more people... The real solution is not creating new bioengineered crops, but new forms of birth control that are easy and safe to use... However, economies are based upon population growth, as are the ever growing tax demands of governments, and the world's major religions reject birth control... So, we have people living in dire poverty, living in dumps, starving, having large numbers of children. Natures response to such adverse conditions is to produce more offspring to insure the survival of the community/species. Its purely a matter of numbers from the natural point of view... Famine, disease, war - all are natural forms of population control. The only solution is to apply our knowledge and plan suitable population sizes, but this is unpopular on just about every front. So, we continue the cycles which lead to ever increasing disasters. If we do not manage the world with wisdom and knowledge then we are subject to natural forms of population control, which are always unpleasant, without heart, without any concern for individuals... While it is customary to glorify nature we should also be aware that nature will kill us without batting an eye if we get into a bad situation, like being caught in an undertow... Nature can be totally heartless and brutal, as can humans when they are driven to it. So we need intelligent management of populations, there cannot be unlimited growth, we are past the level the earth can sustain, the result will be an earth devoid of other creatures, forests, and masses of humans living in poverty. We must develope governments and economies based upon sustainable populations rather than endlessly increasing masses. And we need to launch a worldwide program of negative population growth to return to levels of about 30 years ago... We must concentrate on quality of life rather than numbers. Small healthy educated families rather than big, sick, uneducated groups in which men run around procreating irresponsibly, passing on diseases and bringing children into the world who they are unable to provide for, and who they may ignore, not accepting the responsiblity of fatherhood. This is especially true in our modern societies with their rampant sexual promiscuity.
Whether there are 1 billion people in the world or 10 billion, eventually we are going to have to draw the line, so really it might as well be at a much lower level, which would enable people to provide better lives for smaller numbers of children. Instead of destroying the Earth by over-population and subjecting humankind to ever greater disasters, epidemics, and deterioration of quality of life, it would be much better to plan our societies.
However the horrible practice of abortion should never be considered as a means of population control. What we need are safe, easy effective means, such as a pill or simple surgery. I wonder how many of the fundamentalists who tell people to abstain from sex did so themselves. The sex drive is one of the most powerful biological forces and to deny people effective birth control can only result in millions of unwanted births each year as well as millions of abortions. The unrealistic position of religious fundamentalists is a big part of the problem. The fact is billions of people are having sex and producing billions of babies. Many of these people do not want to be parents or cannot take care of another child. Many of them live in dire poverty. The only realistic solution is effective, safe birth control. But our religious institutions teach them its wrong so perpetuate and compound the problem. The end result is millions of children are innocent victims.
"Be fruitful and multiply" does not mean ravage and despoil the Earth. An orchard needs to be carefully tended in order to bear fruit. If left to the forces of nature it will become weed infested and its trees will produce less and less. Fruit trees need to be pruned, nurtured, and cared for, with knowledge, wisdom, and science.
Also, building cities in low lying coastal areas, in dry desert areas prone to yearly fires, etc. is a mistake. Such areas should not be major popoulation centers, as is currently the case. This is totally irresponsible and can only result in repeated disasters...
It is essential to understand the solution to the world's food problems, i.e. poverty and hunger, is not the production of more food. Increases in food supply are always accompanied by increases in population, more food begets more people. The only solution, short of migrating to another planet, is birth control and family planning. However since governments are operating on the principle of deficit spending they require ever increasing populations of taxpayers. All of this is heading towards ever greater disasters, epidemics - coupled with the prevailance and ease of air travel which distributes new viruses almost immediately around the world, and poor sanitary conditions due to ever increasing overpopulation... And, as the numbers of humans spiral upwards the number of extinct species also spirals upwards... This may have a huge impact on the balance of nature in the future. One organism, such as the lowly dung beatle, even a species of bacteria... all of these things are part of a delicate balance that has evolved over billions of years. Insects pollinate crops, animals maintain the balance of the insect population, microscopic organisms in the oceans produce a large part of our global oxygen supply, eliminate one link in the chain and it can have very far reaching consequences. Add to this the involvement of corporations in the hybridization of seeds, for example. Whereas a hundred years ago there was a vast panopoly of food crops being grown worldwide, that number is decreasing drastically, where there were once hundreds, or even thousands, of different varieties of plants being grown for food in a region, now there may ten or twenty... The new seeds are patented, hybridized and untested over long periods of time. A single blight could wipe out a large portion of a region's food supply. This coupled with spiraling overpopulation will have dire consequences. The solution is not producing hybridized supercrops that increase yields by factors of 2, 3, or 4, but planned population size. More food always equals more people. It will just keep snowballing... Our economic system, corporate capitalism, perpetuates the problems it claims it is solving. Responsible procreation is the only solution, otherwise nature will impose its own solutions in the forms of epidemics, disasters, wars, etc. If we do not manage our affairs, nature will, and nature has no compassion in these matters.
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On medical care - a huge amount of disease could be eliminated for free, at no cost what-so-ever... But to do so would deprive one of the most powerful industries of much of its profit, and in our corporate controlled world, that is taboo... However, if people would simply eat modest amounts of real food and cut out all junk food and sweets there would be a huge increase in health and well-being. Its very simple, eat less fatty meat and more vegetables. Eat a good healthy balanced breakfast of fruit, yogurt, tea without sugar, one egg and a piece of whole grain toast, a similar good healthy lunch, a smaller size supper, and after supper do not eat anything. Cut out all the junk foods and sugary desserts. Eat healthy snacks - a piece of fruit or cream cheese on whole grain crackers... Excersize one hour a day. You can excersize while watching TV too, by doing simple calesthenics with light weights, the plastic water filled variety work nicely. Walk and ride a bicycle instead of driving. Live closer to your place of employment to avoid wasting time, energy, and money on stressful commuting which also pollutes the air.
Another reason medical care is so expensive is the practice of trying to prolong life as long as is physically possible, even if it means forcing elderly people near the end of their lives to undergo surgeries and painful proceedures with a small chance of success in the hopes of prolonging ones life for a sort period. I think it is important to realize we are all going to die and see this as an important part of our life. Death should be a conscious passing. I see no moral reason for forcing people to endure horrible suffering and degradation. If I was suffering from some horrible, debilitating disease, I could choose to "leave this mortal coil" with my mental faculties intact... I am sure the fact that many people fear such an ending results in numerous suicides. People should be allowed to live, and die, in freedom, with dignity, among caring and compassionate people. To be forced to vegetate for years while the mind slowly deteriorates is, I believe, cruel and inhuman. This suffering is prolonged by our health care industry when patients are forced to undergo very expensive surgeries, proceedures and tests even when it may only add a short time to this existence, often draining thier families resources.
I am not advocating suicide, but rather ending the practice of keeping people alive by any means possible. Death is the natural ending we all face and to try to avoid it when it is inevitable is also wrong and causes suffering. Prolonging life should not be equated with quality of life. There must be a balance, For example, people should be given the freedom to decide if they want to undergo surgeries, etc. It should not be forced upon them. If a person does not have the mental abiblity to make such a decision, then their previous wishes should be honored. Lack of mental awareness might be considered as grounds for allowing a person to die peacefully rather than forcing them to undergo surgeries, etc. to prolong the existence of their physical body while their mind deteriorates. I think this is very wrong and unnatural.
On government - The USA is not a democracy nor is it a capitalistic country. Rich executives and corporations receive huge rewards for doing horrible jobs. Honest competition is being prevented and the natural forces of the marketplace are subverted. Good companies like Honda are prevented from realizing their fair share of the market because corporate dinosaurs like GM are given massive "bailouts" which will only prolong their demise. For the cost of one such "bail out" of one of these massive corporate failures we could have a manned base on Mars. This is money that should be invested in the future, in new ideas, new companies, new more effecient forms of government, such as direct voting via the internet. We could dispense with much of our government and replace it with true democracy via the internet. Why should lobbiests and career politicians control the future of humanity ? We need a national referendum on changing the way our government is run, and putting it into the hands of the people. There is no good reason why the people should not be allow to vote directly on many issues. Get rid of the special interests which have taken the reigns of government from the people. Its itme to move ahead and realize the vision of our founding fathers, one person, one vote, freedom, liberty, and equality for all. If we are going to institute a true democracy each person's vote must be equal, and with the advent of the internet we can dispense with "politicain-middlemen" and a host of bureaucracies that drain our economy of its life blood. Actual government can be locally based, the Federal Government would be scaled down, its main role being to insure basic rights and fair play. The people should be allowed to decide on the course their future should take and how their taxes should be used. As it is now, one party argues with the other, blocks legislation, year after year, the same old ineffectual power struggles, huge amounts of money are wasted, it takes way too long to pass legislation, while problems and debt are continually passed on to future generations. We could just vote via a government website and bypass the whole mess. Have an actual democracy.
These huge, extremely ineffecient institutions are diverting the future of humankind. If we can rid ourselves of them and use the technology at hand we will be free to move ahead and act decisively and democratically. Create a congressional website and allow the people to create legislation and vote, without the interfence from lobbiests and politicians. The difficult part will be getting rid of the old, entrenched institutions.
And of course there should be a simple flat tax system and the old income tax system should be totally scrapped. In such a system there would be no need to waste money sending out refunds.
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message to NASA :
The Space Shuttle is a bad design and NASA's persistence in using it is an example a government agency that is more concerned with its own image and PR than crew safety. The original shuttle design was to be much smaller and positioned atop a booster - had this more sensible design been adhered to none of these disasters would have occured. Imagine, an multi-billion dollar craft that is damaged by pieces of foam insulation falling off a booster... Why did NASA choose to pursue such a gigantic, heavy, costly, and dangerous design - a spacecraft the size of a DC 7 ? A smaller shuttle positioned atop a booster would not be damaged by hot gases from faulty O-rings or pieces of foam insulation. This is so obvious, yet NASA persists in using this dangerous dinosaur of a spacecraft. It was a bad concept - who would make a spacecraft in which the crew could not escape in an emergency? Clearly, politics and economics took precedence over crew safety and practicality. NASA should end the current shuttle program now and return to safe, responsible spacecraft design. Crew safety should never be compramized due to economic or political concerns.
The shuttle's function should be to ferry personel into space and back, not carrying payloads. (The current shuttle is like a giant spacegoing cargo container). Payloads should be launched separately. Residential orbital habitats would enable crews to remain in space for exended periods. Sending people into space and returning them after a few days or weeks is wasteful and at present, dangerous. A shuttle designed for this purpose can be compact. Or if a simpler re-entry vehicle, such as a capsule, were used, spare heat shields could be stored in the orbital habitats in case one sustained damage. Such a vehicle should be of simple, modular, utilitarian design, capable of being repaired in orbit. Ideally it would be standardized internationally, so craft from various countries could be used interchangably, as well as repaired using the same orbiting spare parts inventory. It would be easy for our engineers to design such a system.
more on the space shuttle design problems... some ideas for solutions... design an insulating material for the fuel tank that doesn't fall off... mount a smaller sized shuttle atop the booster rockets instead of alongside... OR... mount the shuttle with the heat shield facing out, rather than towards the booster, with shock absorbing foam on the top of the shuttle facing the booster... design smaller modular spacecraft with spare parts supply depots in orbit so they could be repaired if need be... orbiting habitats (the old sci-fi revolving wheel kind so no zero gravity health problems) which astronauts could live in for extended periods so launches would be reduced and in case of a damaged craft its crew could live aboard the habitat until they could be picked up by another craft... a symetrically designed shuttle with heat shields on top and bottom which could flip over and re-enter using the top secondary heat shield if the primary bottom heat shield was damaged... rather than sticking with bad designs for political reasons we need a new approach which is more flexible and capable of moving ahead into better designs as they become available. and we need to stop wasting our resources on misguided wars and bailing out failed corporations. we reward mediocrity and force our best and most talented people to work within an ineffecient and flawed system... worse than that is we put them in danger, forcing them to risk their lives flying unsafe craft when we could do much better... astronauts should be part of the design process... no spacecraft should ever be built that does not have basic safety features... look at the number of people who have died flying the space shuttle... each time it launches we just cross our fingers and hope there is no serious damage to the heat shields... this is wrong, morally, ethically, and scientifically.... so why are we doing it ? is it possible that this is an example of the Ford Pinto design mentality applied to spacecraft ? our government has hocked our future to pay for misguided wars and corporate bailouts... congress will forkout trillions in free gifts to corporations that have failed but cuts funding for the space program... what is the greatest accomplishment of humankind ? possibly the Apollo program, yet even it was cut short by short-sighted politicians...
or, orbiting robotic lifeboat/re-entry vehicles built to international standards that could be used by any country's astronauts... which could respond to an emergency, locate and transport a crew to a habitat or back to earth...
how about a rotating "geodesic sphere" structure, with habitats constructed along the equator so people can live in a gravity environment... while at each of the poles there could be zero gravity observatories which would rotate in such a manner as to maintain a stationary relationship with the earth or stars, for astronomical and terrestrial observation. most of structure between the equator and the poles would be an open framework, with connecting tunnels to the poles from a central axis in the hub. of course there would be large solar arrays for power which would also function as sunshades...
also, we are going to have to start programs to eliminate orbiting space junk, or else by the time we have the technology that will enable spacetravel we will not be able to use it because the Earth will be surrounded by vast clouds of shrapnel that will instantly shred anything that attempts to penetrate them. The longer we put off doing this the more costly and difficult it will become in the future. Nuclear powered laser satellites could zap and vaporize orbiting debris, however since these could also function as an offensive weapons to destroy satellites, it is doubtful they could be deployed during the current state of international affairs, but such a satellite could track thousands of pieces of junk and destroy them easily and rapidly from a distance... or robotic collectors which would fill themselves then burn up in the atmosphere, but these would take much longer and be more costly... All satellites should be designed to eliminate space junk by re-entry after their period of service has ended, or by launching themselves into the sun along prescribed disposal trajectories... governments and corporations who clutter the sky with deadly debris should have to pay for its removal... once again corporations and governments are irresponsibly creating problems for future generations who will have to foot the bill for cleaning up their mess.
The international space stationis another bad design ... after spending extended periods in zero gravity people suffer physical deterioration... so how would lenghty spaceflights be possible ? remember those old big wheel space stations from sci-fi books in the 50s and 60s ? we should build such a revolving spacestation so there would be no damage to people from long duration zero gravity missions, and - the "spacestation" should actually be a spaceship... think about it... whats the point of building a low earth orbit space station ? we could just as well build a movable habitat ! isn't that obvious ? also, we should send modular habitats, equipment, and supplies to Mars, then send people, not send everything at once. an orbiting spaceship that never lands or needs to take off from earth would be capable of supporting Martian and Lunar excursions, a suitable long term habitat with artificial gravity would allow people to live in space for extended periods, years at a time, Robotic supply ships would bring needed materials and personel.
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Jesus' teachings 0n love (this should be the heart of Christianity) -
Luke 6:27 But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, 28Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. 29And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also. 30Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. 31And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. 32For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? ...35But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. 36Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. 37Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: 38Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
So, how was this, the true Way of God as presented to us in the very person of Christ, changed into a religion of war and terror by the church and numerous despotic rulers throughout Europe beginning with Constantine into the middle ages ? How is it possible the doctrine of Holy War is still being preached by many of Christian authorities today ?
Here is a quote from The MacArthur Study Bible, millions of copies in print, including student textbooks, one of the most popular study bibles, and there are other study bibles espousing the same doctrine, re. Numbers 31 -
"This battle with the Midianites modeled God's requirements for Holy War when Israel took vengence on His enemies... All the Midianites, except the virgin women, were to be put to death... The execution of all male children and women of child bearing age insured the extermination of the Midianites. "
The MacArthur Study Bible, re. Isaiah 11,4 -
" 'Breath of His lips' - this is another figure for the Messiah's means of inflicting physical harm."
The NCV Everyday Study Bible, printed in 1996:
"In light of the repeated commands against murder in the bible, it is difficult to make sense of the OT stories where God commands people to annihilate their enemies... in the conquest of Jericho and Ai where all people - women youth, and elderly - are slaughtered... it is confusing to read that God himself demands the killing of non-combatants... from the perspective of God's people, this was an execution of corporate punishment, a group death penalty for an evil people who acted against the God of Israel... every member of the family was involved in pagan worship... but more significantly, God wanted to remove every source of future corruption to his people..."
"The bible is full of the sights, sounds, and smells of warfare... Study of the Bible reveals that there is a theology of warfare that runs from Genesis to Revelation... The plunder includes material goods that are given to the treasury of the sanctuary...@and also prisoners of war who are usually executed... This is the picture of Holy War in the OT. At the center stands God, the divine warrior."
"In the OT God graciously accepted the life of the sacrificial animal instead of taking the life of the person offering the sacrifice as punishment for sin... Jesus' life was the perfect sacrifice because it did away with the need for any more animal sacrifices... One day, Jesus will return to earth as a kingly warrior and subdue all those who oppose him. " - NCV Everyday Study Bible.
The NCV ESB, p.1141 - "...a Christian is one who has God as father. But cannot this be said of every person, Christian or not ? No ! The idea that all are children of God is not found in the Bible anywhere."
(Duh, the very first chapter of the bible says God created ALL PEOPLE IN HIS IMAGE. MAN AND WOMAN... These people are seriously screwed up.)
These are just a few examples of the type of comments found in many study bibles on the market. This is an afront to God, Christ and the Holy Spirit - the antithesis of the teachings, life and example of Jesus Christ.
How can people who purport to be followers of Jesus say this sort of thing ? The Christian Church has a history of this sort of deluded behavior which has, in the past, led to horrible atrocities and monstrous deeds committed in the name of Christ. Clearly this is not based in the example and teachings of Jesus, so why is it espoused and marketed under the guise of Christianity ? This has nothing to do with Christ, it is the opposite of what he taught.
There are many very violent, dark, wrathful passages in the bible that have nothing to do with God. It is the most violent book I have read. The doctrine of a divine and perfect bible serves to perpetuate wars and violence and has had a horrendous impact upon our history. Such sritings are not the world of God, but rather the beliefs of ignorant men. Christ incarnated to set things straight and reveal God's true nature.
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Jesus went into the mountains alone at night to pray, to commune with God spiritually... That which brings true peace, understanding, wellbeing, love and compassion is of God, the rest is not. Hence it is essential to interpret the bible from a basis in Christ rather than twisting Jesus' teachings to conform with the false doctrine of a perfect and divine bible. The men who wrote the many diverse writings in the bible did so from a basis in a different worldview. The incarnation of Christ and his subsequent work among us changed all that. But the advocates of bibleanity seek to re-instate the same old obsolete worldview. Whenever the bible talks abut the wrath of God, etc. it should be understood that this is how ancient men viewed God, not how God actually is. Such accounts might better be seen as what happens to people when they live selfish, hedonistic, unspiritual lives, i.e. the results of their actions. A morally corrupt society will naturally fall apart. Life requires harmony and fitness. Evolution is one of the main themes of the bible. Rather than a natural universe controlled by God, it is more like a machine that once set in motion follows certain (totally cold-hearted) laws. God's realm is spiritual. However if we live in accordance with God's law of love, compassion, respect for all life, we will become masters of the physical world to a certain extent, but never completely. The physical universe will never be perfect and without risk. Such is life. It is interesting that this is what the bible actually says, if it is read with an open mind, free of religious bias. We are presented with the universe and expected to become its caretakers, to manage utilize its resources wisely, not as gluttons but as good stewards. We have an obligation to think of future generations and how our actions will affect their lives. This is not being done. This is very wrong. We should leave the earth in better condition then when we inheritied it. We are doing just the opposite and at a rate that may be causing irreparable harm to the earth, its creatures, and future generations.
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What is bibleanity ?
Several centuries after Jesus' incarnation the Christian Church compiled what is now entitled the Holy Bible and declared it to be the Word of God, perfect and infallable, divinely dictated, even though in many places it contradicts the teachings of Jesus. Advocates of the divine bible have used this doctrine to justify the repression of Jesus' original teachings of unconditional love and non-violence. Advocates of bibleanity continue to teach that Jesus is a warrior who will return to destroy the earth and anyone who doesn't believe in him, they also teach that Jesus Christ is the author of the bible in its entirety, and the architect of numerous wars and conquests depicted in the Old Testament. They say everything that happens is an act of God, epidemics, disasters, disease... that such things are punishments from God. For modern people to perpetuate such ancient superstitions is mindboggling, and to mislead children in this manner is an offensive against God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit... Bibleanity represents a re-establishment of the very sorts of false manmade religious institutions which Jesus opposed even in the face of the cruelist torture and death.
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Did you know that there are bible colleges that actually are teaching people that dinosaurs are still alive in Africa, and have actually sent expeditions there to prove their "creationist" theories ? They totally discount evolution and the actual age of the earth, proclaiming authoritatively that the earth and all living organisms were created within a period of a few thousand years. And many people actually believe this... So there are many professors and Ph.Ds teaching totally false psuedo-science all on the "authority" of the bible. The bible says God made Adam and Eve therefore evolution is false... Such is the delusive nature of bibleanity, the belief in a divine bible. And it is becoming increasingly popular. People are actually seeking out and embracing ignorant beliefs... Perhaps it gives people a sense of security, but its a false sense of security because its based on a fiction. Which leads to more insecurity, so its a vicious circle. The solution is spiritual communion with God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit instead of Bibleanity. Science is a reflection fo the divine nature. God is creative. God gives life, diversity, hope and wellbeing. Choosing to embrace superstitions and false doctrines does not bring us closer to the truth.
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The bible, ancient peoples and science -
On the very first page of the bible we read, Genesis 1,11 - " And God said, let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them. " This is something we take for granted, but how did ancient people, thousands of years ago, know this ? Through Science, through careful observation, study, accumulation of data, experimentation, and successful implementation of this new knowledge. And people used this knowledge to change the world, exactly as it says we should do in Genesis... This displays a very important understanding (these people seem to be more knowledgable in this area than many modern day people) - that Seeds contain the "masterplan" for each variety of plant and animal, something all living things have in-common... They also knew semen contained the seed for animal life and human life, thus all life having this in-common, and offspring, children, were called "seed"... And that gave birth to the idea that ideas were also seeds which gave birth to new ideas... Although for some strange reason many modern people who study the bible decry evolution, it is in fact, one of the main themes that runs throughout the bible. So, the basic fundamental biological process in which each lifeform produces its own unique seed containing the blueprint for all its unique charateristics as well as its basic structure, which we now know is infinitely complex and miraculous, was well known to these people in ancient times. This knowledge allowed people to change the world and move from hunter-gatherers to become farmers and herdsmen. People regarded knowledge as something Holy, something spoken to them by God, not a cold academic pursuit, but an interaction with the Creator of the universe in the most intimate manner. An interaction which brought forth new life.
But how did people in biblical times initially learn these things ? The answer is - Science. Science is an aspect of our very nature, Science is human in its deepest sense, and as the bible clearly states, is a reflection of the divine nature... God is a creator, an explorer, an optimist, a benevolent friend ... Yet, men have often rejected God's creative Way of Life and chosen instead the ways of destruction ad death. This verse attests to scientific studies, experiments, and successful applications of scientifically derived knowledge among "primitive peoples"... But, I have a feeling they were very much like you and me, perhaps even more intelligent, resourceful, and creative... We just inherited their "intellectual property". Can we recapture this sort of drive and motivation, to pursue knowledge as a Way to Life, rather than blindly doing anything to make money, regardless of the consequences ?
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The Apocalypse (Revelation) was written by an unknown author but was later added to the bible canon under the pretense of being written by the Apostle John.. So Jesus is depicted in the last book of the bible as a divine warrior, as these verses from Revelation illustrate :
Rev. 6,16 "And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"
"The wrath of the Lamb" ? Our loving Lord and Savior, the Prince of Peace, was turned into a wrathful destructor... by the Christian Church !
Men have a penchant for projecting their limited concepts upon God and the Way God works in us and among us, expecting God to conform to their expectations as it were, rather than allowing God, in faith, to conform them to their true potential, to become the person God wants us to be...
In Apocalypse (Revelation) 2, 23 Jesus is quoted as saying, "And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.... 25 But that which ye have already hold fast till I come. 26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: 27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. "
Clearly Jesus would never say, "And I will kill all her children." But because Apocalypse was tacked onto the end of the bible many Christians hold it to be true. Jesus offers us passage to God's heavenly kingdom, which is a spiritual kingdom within us, but the advocates of bibleanity want a kingdom here on earth, where their King will exact vengence upon their enemies, just like in the OT. In the genre of apocalypse authors employed famous characters to express their views. Ancient people were aware of this. The author of Revelation is using Jesus as a literary character to express the author's views. It is not written by the author of the fourth Gospel.
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In Matthew 4,4 Jesus says, " It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
Not all words "proceed from the mouth of God, but those that do give us life, and sustain us. Those words in the bible which "proceed from the Mouth of God"- those which are in accord with the teachings, spirit, and revelation of God's true nature in the person of Jesus Christ - are spiritual food with the power to give us Life.
The Love Compass - its simple, that which inspires love, truth, peace, compassion - all the characteristics demonstrated by Christ during His time on earth - such things are of God. Things which inspire hatred, violence, suffering, and ignorance are not of God. Clearly a great deal of the writngs in the bible are not of God, such as the manmade religion of war and conquest, but we can learn from them as well, just as a scientist learns from all data. That which is false often clarifies that which is true.
Jesus teaches us the true nature of God's love.
GOD IS LOVE AND INFINITE COMPASSION.
GOD HARMS NO ONE.
THE BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY IS SPIRITUAL COMMUNION WITH GOD,
Originally Christianity was about the direct spiritual experience of God though Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Perhaps the best example of true Christianity is Saul's encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. He was the arch enemy of Christ, a hunter and killer of Jesus' followers, but the moment he experienced Christ in the Spirit, he was instantly and totally transformed into "Paul"... He was blinded by the Light. He did not argue, he did not discuss theology... Having immediately recognized the Risen Christ as the Lord, he simply asked what he should do. "What do you want me to do ?" His old life vanished in an instant, it was not an intellectual decision, and he became one of the foremost advocates of Christ. But several centuries later the church had become a worldly power and its concerns were the concerns of men, and the same old deluded ways of being were grafted into church doctrines and actions. The Holy Bible was compiled, designated the Word of God, and the OT view of a wrathful destructor God was reinstated. Revelation, an anonymous apocalypse falsly attritbuted to Apostle John, was tacked on to the end of the new Holy Bible to counteract the view of Jesus presented in the Gospel of John. Revelation says Jesus is a divine warrior who will come in a future Day of the Lord and destroy the earth and all who oppose him.
( Saul/Paul's experience is very similar to the Zen experience of Satori.
Hence Christ based Zen practice may be beneficial for Christians... )
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On reading the bible with discernment
Jesus spoke in parables and demonstrated the need for discernment in reading the bible. Jesus often spent the night in spiritual communion with God, and while he mastered scriptural studies at a young age and often drew from scripture in his sermons, he did not conform to the image of a wrathful God presented therein. Rather he demonstrated God's true nature through his life, his relationships with other people, and his total faith in God. His life was based in his spiritual relationship with God. Jesus spent many hours in prayer and silent communion with God, often retreating to isolated places for this purpose, shouldn't this be a major part of Christian religious practice ? Yet little is said of this form of prayer life.
Some people say the bible is divine, perfect, and infallible and interpret the life and teachings of Jesus according to this belief and in the process distort Jesus' radical teachings of unconditional love, non-materialism and non-violence. Jesus always worked with people, the healing and salvation of souls.
The fact that this collection of writings has been claimed to be the "Word of God" for millennia has had a huge impact upon our history. Its repetitive litanies of wrath, punishment, doom and gloom are the product of an archaic mindset. An attempt by an ancient religion to explain why bad things happen, to attribute wars, epidemics, earthquakes, etc. as punishments from God. There are even "holy wars" (ban) in which God supposedly orders the extermination of entire populations ! This belief has led to a acceptance of war and violence among people who believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible.
If we accept Jesus as the revelation of God's true nature it is impossible to accept much of the bible as "the Word of God." Jesus shatters the image of the wrathful God found in the bible. Jesus said we are to love God and to love each other, he never said to love the bible, indeed on many occasions he corrected mistaken views found the OT. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would teach us and guide us.
We are told we should obey the bible - how can one obey the bible? What part of it? The bible says we should stone people who collect firewood on the sabbath day. Jesus says "let him who is without sin cast the first stone", Jesus refuted such cold hearted and brutal aspects of Mosaic law..
Original Christianity is essentially mystical, the revelation of God within us, working in our lives, transforming us, realizing our true potential, a spiritual, evolutionary process, intimate and direct. Through the Way of Life as presented to us by Jesus, God is revealed in our hearts and in our daily lives. Jesus always dealt directly with people and held the corrupt political and religious institutions of his time in disdain.
When people regard all the writings in the Bible as being literally true the results can be misleading, even devastating. For example, the antisemitic tone of certain parts of the NT has fueled persecutions of Jewish people for almost two millenia. During the middle ages thousands of people were tortured and burned alive by "Christians" who believed in the wrathful image of God as presented in the bible. If people believe God destroys whole cities with fire and brimstone they are more prone to commit such acts as bombing of civilian populations, massacres, ethnic cleansing, and other atrocities. Recently the war in Iraq has been hailed by many fundamentalist Christians as being a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. It is essential to see the difference between false manmade religion, such as Jesus opposed, and the Way of Life which Jesus taught.
Jesus told the story of the good Samaritan and upon meeting a Samaritan woman at a well blessed her and spent several days teaching the people of her village - this is how the Lord brings about change, not through acts of war. God is infinite love and never inflicts harm or causes suffering. The images of a wrathful God found in many places in the bible are a product of human ignorance.
Violence begets violence. Jesus teaches us to break the cycle of violence. When Jesus was being taken prisoner in the garden of Gethsemane and one of his disciples cut off a man's ear in an attempt to defend him. Jesus rebuked his disciple and healed the man's ear. God does not punish people, God is by nature totally compassionate, and always hopeful. We punish ourselves when we fail to live accoridng to the Way of Life and separate ourselves from God, the source of life, happiness, and truth.
The fact that people have used certain OT writings to justify warfare and atrocities for more than two thousand years is proof of the persistence of man's delusions, which are seemingly born anew with each generation.
In ancient times it was a common belief that all events were controlled by gods, or God. Natural disasters such as volcanos, tsunamis, tornados as well as epidemics and wars were all considered to be acts of God. The priestly class claimed these events were sent as punishment from a god which they alone spoke for, thus instilling fear and obedience. This ploy has been utilized by priestly classes in many cultures throughout history.
Jesus had total faith in God and total compassion for humankind, even the men who tortured and killed him, "Forgive them father, for they know not what they do," then he said , "it is finished."
Jesus' teachings of unconditional love and non-violence are clear and unmistakable. They were so radical that he was crucified in an attempt to squelch them. Jesus knowingly took the path of the cross. Through his non-violent demonstration of faith and his total love, compassion and forgivness he thereby conquered the forces of evil and death which had enslaved humanity. He even had compassion for those people who were torturing him, and prayed, "forgive them father for they know not what they do," after which he said, "it is finished", and released his spirit to God. He did it. It was this final act of forgivness and total compassion which defeated the forces of evil in the world.
The truth is plainly visible if the bible is read with an open mind and heart... if we are not blinded by status quo religious doctrines but rooted in the teachings and example of Jesus Christ. People who claim to be authorities may in fact be wrong. God gave us a brain and a conscience for a purpose. Christianity is not about conforming to the group, its about conforming to Christ.
Jesus Christ brings spiritual salvation to all humble people who seek to live in peace and harmony as he instructed. Jesus heals people, wherever he went people would flock to him. If someone simply touched his garment in faith healing energy would stream forth. This is the true nature of our Lord. God's truth does not change. The many violent acts depicted in the OT are symtomatic of a disease that has plagued humankind since its inception. The cure for this disease is the love of Christ.
If we are indeed, each man, woman and child, created in God's image then one can view our innate sense of wonder, our desire to learn about the universe and to improve our lives as reflections of the divine nature. Yet religious institutions have, throughout history and even to this day, opposed scientific inquirey and advancment. Children are being taught the Bible is literally true and the scientific view of the universe is false. There are millions of people who deny the reality of evolution. This belittles life. A universe that was created by God in six days is easier to dispose of than one in which life has taken billions of years to evolve. People who are taught to look forward to the destruction of the earth in the "day of the lord" have little incentive to live harmoniously or to be good stewards of God's creation. The universe is a creative process. As we become more aware of the extremely precise parameters required for the advent of life at the moment of the universe's inception it is clear that this is not a random/chaotic event but one of perfect balance and order. We are called upon to take care of our home planet and our fellow beings. Life is sacred and holy, we are put here as stewards, not gluttons, despoilers and exploiters.
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On Christian Meditation -
Jesus often spent the entire night in prayer and mediation, in the Garden of Gethsemane he asked his disciples to join him in prayer during his final night on earth, yet they were unable to grant his request, instead choosing to sleep and leave him alone. Has this situation changed much in the last 2,000 years ? How much time do Christians spend meditating in spiritual communion with God ? Its much easier to talk about bibleanity, but the true realization of Christ must take place within the quietness of our hearts. Busy, noisey minds are incapable of this basic requirement, so like Jesus' disciples in the garden, many Christians prefer to sleep in the belief that the intellectual distractions of bibleanity are "true religion." But that is not what God wants, that is not what the bible says, that is not what Jesus asked for, he came to us as a friend, seeking equality of love and friendship, but how many of us actually develope the ability to listen to the "still, quiet voice" of God within the temple of our lives and being ? Its so much easier to differ to experts, authorities, and professionals, to be spoon fed at the trough of bibleanity.
Meditation based in Christ is an excellent practice. Of course, the most important thing is our heart and spirit, whether or not we practice meditation or study the bible. It is a mistake to judge others. We should concentrate on our own relationship with God and trust God to do what is best in our lives and relationships. If we get judgemental we project our limitations and biases, thereby interfering with the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. In order to experience God's presence in our lives we need to learn to quiet our noisy minds and see beyond our prejudices and biases. Meditation is the perfect vehicle to do this. Intellectual studies have their proper place, our mind needs to be stimulated and excersized, but intellectual pursuits should not be the center of spiritual practice. We need to learn to go beyong the limits of intellect and enter the realm of spirit, actually living in harmony, not just talking or arguing about it, in accord with the example of Jesus Christ, our loving, compassionate, eternally caring Lord and Savior...
The practice of prayer and meditation is conducive to quieting our mind and being, enabling us to be more open to God's spirit and "voice". This world is God's church, and everyday is holy. God is infintie love, compassion and caring. Meditiation may be very effective when approached from a Christian point of view. We can learn to quiet our minds, open ourselves to God and be filled with the Spirit of Life which Jesus brought us. This heals us, and we can participate in the process of Life which started when the universe was born. Jesus Christ is the incarnation of the logos, pre-existant, eternal, within and without time. He says it is important not to judge others, rather we should concentrate on removing the beam from our eye, while respecting our fellow students in this school of life.
Jesus often went off alone into the wilderness and spent the night in prayer with God. Shouldn't this type of spiritual communion/meditation be a major aspect of christian practice ? More emphasis should be placed on developing this ability and less on sermonizing and bible study.
Its interesting that the basic teachings of the Buddha, the Dhammapada, are almost identical to those of Jesus. Buddhism is much closer in practice to the teachings of Jesus than numerous institutions that profess to be Christian. I have found the meditative practices of Soto Zen Buddhism, shikantaza, or pure sitting, to be beneficial when adapted to Christian practice. This body is God's temple, each day is holy, our life is a wonderful educational experience, and everyone we encounter is the body of Christ.
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From "Moon in a Dewdrop, the Writings of the Zen Master Dogen" (I do not recommend this book in its entirety, but there are some good parts) -
"Kind Speech means that when you see sentient beings you arouse the mind of compassion and offer words of loving care. It is contrary to cruel or violent speech... Praise those with virtue, pity those without it. If kind speech is offered little by little virtue will grow. Thus even kind speech which is not ordinarily known or seen comes into being. You should be will to practice it for the entire present life, do not give up. Kind speech is the basis for reconciling rulers and subduing enemies. Those who hear kind speech from you have a delighted expression and a joyful mind. Those whou hear your kind speech will be deeply touched - they will never forget it... Thus you should benefit friend and enemy equally. You should benefit self and others alike... in the human world the Tathagata took the form of a human being. From this we know that he did the same in other realms... With a gentle expression practice identity-action for all people..."
Buddhism teaches us to speak with kindness and compassion, never to use harsh words, never to do anything that harms another. Harsh words cause harm and suffering. Kind speech with a gentle expression brings virtue, realization of the true Mind of Being, healing and salvation. There is a great deal of "violent speech" in the bible. Christ incarnated to correct this deluded manmade view of God.
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The Lord does indeed work in mysterious ways, but God is also always with us, intimately, ready to guide us, help us, heal us, and fill us with "the peace which passes all understanding."
Anyone can ask God to come into their lives, its very simple and direct. All that is required is a sincere heart. Simply being a nice person, trying to care for and respect others is the most important thing. Theology is pretty much meaningless, a diversion... a contrived profession that employs many people but mainly serves to "muddy the waters". Such intellectual knowledge, conjecture and argument should not be construed as spiritual knowledge. There are many experts spouting their pet brands of christianity, growing rich of the the proceeds of their numerous authoritative publications... Religion is a huge lucrative business that employs thousands... Such people are selling water by the river, making things seem much more complex than they truely are. Anyone can have an intimate relationship with God here and now without the contrived trappings of such religious experts and professionals.
Jesus said we are to love, help, and care for our fellow beings as God cares for us - this is true religion according to Jesus.
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Did woman really come from man as the Bible says ?
The Bible says: (from Genesis 2) "And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man"
Everyone has always known that all people are born of woman. Clearly this is patriarchal religious propaganda aimed at subjugating and exploiting women. This is from the second creation story, the first just says God created man and woman in God's image - God is equally man and woman. Modern science has proven that the brains of all humans are initially female, then then after several weeks in the womb sexual differentiation in the brain begins. So we all start out with a female brain ! Yet the above story has been claimed to be "the Word of God" for thousands of years by male religious institutions for the express purpose of empowering men and subjugating women. The idea of a God that is equally male and female is not suitable for a warrior religion.
The fact is, every human being on this planet started out as a female in their mother's womb.
Later, as they grew inside their mother they began to differentiate sexually.
According to the first chapter of the bible, God is equally she and he.
The father creates the seed, he gives his lifeforce and his genetic code,
and this seed then awakens the life force in the egg,
which contains the mothers genetic code,
and the mother creates a baby within her womb,
containing equal stands of genetic material from father and mother,
the two literally become one flesh,
exactly as it says in the bible.
Man and woman are both aspects of the whole, equally dependent upon the other, equally a reflection of the divine nature. The partriarchal male bible is not an accurate reflection of life as it truely is. Jesus treated men and women equally. His disciples were at times shocked and offended that hw should speak to women, children, and non-jewish people as equals.
If indeed Christianity sees Jesus as the incarnation of God, shouldn't his teachings and example be the only guidelines ? But bibleanity makes the bible in its totality the "standard by which all things are judged." Thus Jesus becomes a functionary of their divine bible.
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With the decoding of the human genome it can be definitely proven that humans and apes only differ in about 2% of their genetic information (imagine a 30 volume encyclopedia - that would be 98% of the information in our genome which we have incommon with apes and to lesser degrees every living thing on the earth, and then a small paper back - that would be the difference between us and apes - from "Universe in a nutshell" by Stephen Hawking) and all living things are related, human DNA contains the exact same genetic infromation as yeast, for example. All living things have shared genetic information, which means a mutual origin. This is incontrovertible proof of the process of evolution, as well as the inter-relatedness of all life on earth, and if the seeds of life were brought to earth in comets, then perhaps all life in this galaxy may be inter-related in this manner. Evolution is scientific fact, as well as one of the main themes of the bible, yet advocates of bibleanity insist Evolution is wrong because the bible says God created the earth and all its inhabitants in 6 days. Even this does not conflict with science if we simply view a "day" as a complete cycle, such as a geologic period, or period between mass extinctions due to asteroids and comets impacting the earth. For ancient people to believe this literally is understandable, but for modern people to deny scientific truth and embrace ignorant views attests to a predisposition to ignorance, that given truth many people will choose the opposite. This is actually against the principles of the bible, which states we are created in God's image... This includes our minds, abilities, the desire to learn and grow and improve our lives. God creates. Truth and understanding are of God, ignorance is not. The thing is, when read from a contemporary point-of-view, many of the writings in the bible take on new meaning, but the doctrine of bibleanity prevents this growth of understanding and keeps people locked in an obsolete mindset. There is scientific proof that all living things have a common origin and are intimately related, we are one big family of beings.
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There are many violent passages contained in the "Holy Bible" that cannot be reconciled with the teachings of Jesus Christ.
God does not make wars nor condone them. War is an abomination resulting from the failure to live according to God's true way of life. This is an ignorant view of God resulting from an archaic mindset. That people still espouse such views testifies to the enduring nature of the delusions of men. God cannot be known by intellectual study, but only through actual experience of God's Spirit, one moment of which instantly exposes the falicy of such writings. God is love, infinite and inconceivable, incapable of any acts of cruelty.
A moment of God's spiritual presence instantaneously reveals more than a lifetime of intellectual studies ever could. The acts described in the bible are inconceivable from God's point of view. God never punishes anyone - we punish ourselves when we do things that separate us from God, the source of life, happiness, and wellbeing.
Contrary to the OT view in which all events are controlled by God, this is not the case. Life would have no meanig if that were so. The universe has certain natural laws which once set in motion will bring about certain chains of events. Most importantly, all people are originally created in the image of God. All people, men, women, children... And his means we have free will. We can chose to reject God's way. God never imposes upon anyone.
When the church said the bible was the Word of God they re-instated the OT view of a violent and wrathful God which is more suitable for controlling people and maintaining empires. Religion has often been used as a form of propaganda to control people and trick them into doing things no sane person ever would - i.e. commit atrocities, acts of aggression, genocide, etc. A way of blinding them to their innate goodness with which we are each originally blessed. A way of creating an illusion of separateness, of one group being superior to another, or rulers being given their power by God, etc.
Jesus totally blew away that image of God, yet it did not take long before men began to twist his teachings and fabricate new authoritative doctrines, thereby sidestepping his radical teaching of unconditional love and non-violence. God's word is living spirit written within our hearts. The bible is a manmade book. It may be useful to study, but it should not be worshipped as being perfect and divine. There are numerous points of view represented in its writings, all of which are educational. We can learn about what is true from that which is not.
The barbaric practice of stoning was not instituted by God, but by deluded priests who falsly claimed to represent God's will. Stoning was obviously widespread, as it is referred to many times in the NT. Whenever Jesus angered people by violating their "law" they immediately picked up stones. This murderous practice turned common people into a murderous mob which executed anyone who did not obey the dictates of the priestly class. Jesus said the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. He exposed the fallicy of this aspect of "the law"in his teachings. 2,000 years later people are still being stoned in some Islamic countries for violations of religious "laws". The delusions of men are very deeply entrenched. Jesus was killed for his opposition to such attitudes. God never imposes his will on anyone. All men are responsible for their actions. God respects the sanctity of all life.
Such dark violent wrathful passages may depict the brutal realities of life in OT times, but that does not mean these were acts of God, rather, they illustrate the horrible things men may do when they do not live according to the Way of Life. God is infinite love and compassion. God never has and never will cause such things to happen nor condone such acts. Such acts are inconceivable from God's point of view.
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The Midianintes were the same people from whom Moses sought asylum and lived for many years, he was graceously accepted into their community married a Midianite woman and she bore his first children.. Moses dwelt among them for many years and was always treated well by them ...
The Encounters with God Daily Bible contains the following notes regarding the atrocities depicted in Numbers 31,
"The Israelites did not require their full fighting force for their battle against the Midianites. Selecting one thousand men from each tribe allowed each tribe to participate in God's activity."
The authors of this study bible are teaching people such atrocities as depicted in numbers 31 were "God's activities."
The authors of this study bible are Doctors of Divinty and Christian ministers, yet they teach that "God's activity" includes the slaughter of unarmed men, women and children of all ages, that God sent an army of 12,000 men to slaughter an entire populace, put all them to the sword, babies, boys, old men, grandmothers, pregnant women, everyone except the virgin women who they were to "keep for themselves." ... such religious doctrines perpetuate the very things Jesus said we should not do.
These learned men, authors, Christian ministers, say massacres and extermination of unarmed populations are "God's activity." This is an affront to God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and any sane half way normal human being... Why does the so-called Christian church refuse to stand up and denounce such horrendous statements ? Why do millions of Christians sit back and blindly absorb such teachings which in fact blatantly violate the teachings of Jesus Christ ?
Bibleanity is big business, and once these authorities espouse a doctrine they are committed to it, even if its mistaken. Any normal person can admit their mistakes, religious institutions rarely do.
This is a betrayal of Jesus Christ and all he lived and died for. He said we are to love one another, to love our neighbors as God loves us, to turn the other cheek, never to repay evil for evil, but rather to repay good for evil, etc. the bible is not God. God is Love, eternal, unchanging, God never harms anyone, we do that to ourselves. Ignorant people try to attribute the acts of deluded men to God, as being part of God's plan. Such people are in essence saying all wars, disasters, diseases, etc. are part of God's plan. This is totally false. We are responsible for our actions and destiny. We were given free will. People make history, not God.
We find this mind boggling response to this verse in the NLT Faith Bible note: 31:14 -
"I become angry when the leaders of God's people flagrantly disobey."
In other words, the authors of this study bible are saying Moses acted correctly and we should follow his example, which should be impossible for anyone who professes to follow Jesus Christ.
31:15 gWhy have you let all the women live?h he demanded.
The NLT Faith Bible's response in this note on verse 31:15 -
"I obey the LORD completely."
Do these authors really think God, as represented in the person of Jesus Christ could ever order such a thing ? This is the insideous nature of bibleanity - it countermands the life, teachings and example of Jesus Christ.
Numbers 31:16 g...They are the ones who caused the plague to strike the Lordfs people. 17 So kill all the boys and all the women who have had intercourse with a man. 18 Only the young girls who are virgins may live; you may keep them for yourselves."
It is incomprehensible that anyone who professes to follow Christ could say this is "God's Word". Clearly the bible is a manmade book and there is a great deal in it that is not inspired of God. Hence it must be read with discernment, and we should not allow ourselves to be misled. Following Jesus does not mean blindly accepting whatever the church, theologians, or experts dictate. And it means we should speak out agaisnt such doctrines.
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Proverbs 23, 13-14 "Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell."
Is there anything more offensive in the eyes of God than the abuse of an innocent child by a mean and ignorant adult ? And when the abuse comes from a parent it is all the worse, for parents are entrusted by God for the well-being of the children with whom they have been blessed. I shudder at the thought of how many children have been abused by parents who believed God writings such as this are "the Word of God". Clearly Jesus taught the need for discretion. Clearly he opposed and corrected such mistaken views. When his disciples rebuked the children he told them, "let the children come unto me, for the kindom of heaven is such as these.". The church's failure to address such issues, and the failure to place notations in bibles denouncing such passages is inexcusable. People who claim this is the "Word of God" are perpetuating child abuse. God is infinite love and kindness but has no tolerance for such behavior.
The rod is an instument of guidance, carried by the good shepherd, used to guide his flock. The shepherd never beats his sheep ! The shepherd's rod and staff are used to guide sheep along the way and keep them from wandering of the path. If a lamb should go astray and fall into a crevice the shepherd's staff has a special crook at the top which he uses to life the lamb to safety. "Thy rod and thy staff comfort me..." Like the good shepherd, parents are to give their children guidance - never to beat them and abuse them ! Parents should set an example for children to follow. This is a prime example of how God's true word, as exemplified in the person of Jesus Christ, has been perverted by men.
When some bible doctor, or church group, attempts to act as a councelor, the results can be dangerous. For example, this quote from the NIBC, Matthew, page 50, "Jesus extends the definition of neighbor to include enemies and those who persecute you" - this is false, Jesus says to pray for these people, and to forgive them (I think they have to repent and ask for our forgivness) but this does not mean they are the same as "neighbors", a neighbor is someone you can trust, a good person. Jesus is not telling us to naively open ourselves to dangerous people. This doctor of theology goes on to state, "Within the realm of everyday relationships there is no category that can be labeled as "enemy" - this is very bad advice, especially for children. This author goes on to proclaim, "Everyone we meet, even the one who would abuse us, is a friend and therefore one whom we are to love. " This is perhaps the worse "advice" I have ever heard, and I can only imagine how many abuse victims have been further victimized by such "bible councelors" giving horrible advice such as this. If you are a victim of abuse, know this - it is not your fault people do bad things. And, by all means, find a good, licensed counselor who has experience in this area. There are real councelors who can help you a great deal. This is not something to be entrusted to someone with a bible college education or church group. Also some church groups have a history of supporting abusers and blaming their victims, and can actually make things much worse...
"And the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore unto David, and it was very sick." (KJV, " 2 Samuel 12:15)
God never struck a child. God never punished a child for their parents sins. God never made a child sick... God never sent a plague to kill babies... This is the OT mindset of a wrathful God who punishes sinners and enemies. The child born out of David's adultery with the wife of Uriah, his loyal and honorable soldier whom David subsequently arranged to have killed, this poor child got sick and died... Thats it. The child was innocent. But in OT times sickness was often attributed as being punishment for sin, so in OT parlance God "struck the child" to punish the parents. Thankfully Jesus corrected this ignorant view of God's nature.
From the Barber commentary on 2 Samuel 12:13-14, page 192 -
"Most modern exponents of this passage believe that since David himself was not to die, the sin was transfered tot he child who, though innocent of all wrongdoing, was made o bear the sin of his parents. The fine evangelical biblical scholar, Dr. William Blaikie, explained it this way: "the Lord, in the excersize of his clemency, had been pleased to remit (David's sins). But a palpable proof of his displeasure was to be given in another way - the child of Bathsheba was to die. It was to become, as it were, the scapegoat for its father."
If we read the bible from a spiritual basis in Christ rather than the deluded doctrine of a divine and infallible bible, it is clear that God could never do such a thing.
Here is another take on this passage: perhaps David and Bathsheba's child was sick from natural causes and died. Period. But some people attach this a religious significance to the poor babies death. Or, from a religious POV, perhaps God called the child's spirit home, as being innocent of all wrongdoing, it should be spared the hardships it would have suffered if it had been born. From God's POV, this was an act of compassion for the child, not a "transfer of David's sin" to a poor innocent baby. What kind of God would do such a thing ? That is sick. David's sins affected the rest of his life, and attracted future negative events as well. How can anyone worship a god who would transfer a parent's sins to an innocent baby and kill the child so the father would not have to die for his crimes ? This is theology based in bibleanity, a double dose of delusion.
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Isaiah 13,9 "Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it..... 15 Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword. 16 Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished."
How many atrocities have been inspired by such language? To say ths is the Word of God is unconscienable and ouright dangerous because such a belief leads people to think such acts are in accordance with God's will. This is an abomination. This has definitely contributed to the exceedingly violent nature of much of our history. Violence begets violence. Jesus teaches us to break the cycle of violence with unconditional love. Jesus said those who take up the sword shall die by the sword. The sword of Christ is his word, which brings healing, salvation, and life, never destruction and death. . Jesus said those words which come from the mouth of God give us life, he did not say all of the bible's content was "from the mouth of God," rather he opposed and corrected erroneous aspects of the law, even thogh he also said it would be fulfilled in him. This is another mistaken doctrine, to fulfill something means to bring it to its conclusion, totally, not that it is perfect or even correct. The writings of the NT did not exist until one or two generations after Jesus' earthly incarnation.. But bibleanity and bible publishing are extremely luctrative enterprises, employing thousands ot relgious professionals.
There are many passages such as this in the Holy Bible.
In OT times stoning was a widespread practice. Anyone who disagree with the relgious establishment was murdered by a mob. Jesus' teaching on the practice of stoning is clear, "let him who is without sin cast the first stone."
God does not change, God is eternal and omnipresent. Jesus heals people, wherever he went people would flock to him. If someone simply touched his garment God's healing energy would stream forth. This is the true nature of our Lord and Savior. God's truth does not change. He is not at one time a slayer of women and children and at another a loving father. God's love is constant . The image of the wrathful warrior god of the OT was contrived by men. God's true nature is revealed in the person, life, and teachings of Jesus.
Jesus opposed the biblical experts, priests and scribes of his time. God sees into the hearts and minds of all people. He cares nothing for our religious dogma or rhetoric. A person with love in their heart and no understanding of the bible is much closer to God than a biblical expert who is lost in a world of argument and intellectual posturing.
If we are to enter the "Kingdom of God"
we must learn humility and become pure in heart,
"as one of these little children."
Jesus taught us to pray
"... forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us..."
He did not say to kill anyone who disagrees with our religion.
I sometimes see "christian" websites showing a sword laying across the bible. The sword is an instrument of death, brutality, and suffering. Jesus is life, humility, and salvation. Jesus Christ is the Word of God, eternal, within and without time, the alpha and he omega. Yet we can know God spiritually, intimately. We often try to limit God by our preconceived notions and ignorant beliefs rather than opening ourselves to the continual revelation of God's spirit within our day to day lives.
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The Gospels and anti-semetism -
The Gospels were written at a time when the relationship between the early Christian Church and the Jewish community/synagogue was confrontational, and this animosity carried over into the Gospels and the Pauline latters. This anti-jewish sentiment grew within the Christian church and snowballed into later persecutions of European Jews at the hands of Christians for hundreds of years. This tradition of hate was fanned into a blaze by the anti-semetic diatribes of Maritn Luther, the father of the Protestant reformation, who advocated driving Jews from their homes and stealing their possessions. Centuries later Germany, the homeland of Martin Luther, under the reign of Nazism elevated this institution of hate to levels of depravity unheard of in all of man's previous violent history. This anti-Jewish hatred had become commonplace, established hundreds of years earlier before it culminated in the Nazi holocaust. This was largely a result of the anit-semetic tone of the NT and the church's failure to address these issues. Instead of correcting this unChrisian behavior, many Protestant Christian leaders followed the lead of Martin Luther's attacks. This was based in the doctrine of bibleanity, which had been given precedence to the teachings and example of Jesus Christ by the church.
God is Love -
That is what Jesus lived and taught. Jesus said true religion is loving others, caring for others as God cares for us. An atheist with love in their heart is much closer to God than a religious person whose heart lacks this type of true love for all people. All of the violent acts in the bible would be inconceivable to a Buddhist, for example. Pretense of religion, names and labels, theological arguments, etc. mean nothing to God, and are in fact often a distraction from the sort of love Jesus is talking about. Throughout history, Buddhists have been much closer in actually practicing the teacings of Jesus than Christians.
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On right sexuality and relationships
As fas as I am concerned, the most important thing we need to develope is nonselfish love. This does not mean the selfish sexual exploitation of others, as in "make love", which is actually based in our biological drive to reproduce and usually has nothing to do with love in the spiritual sense. Promiscuity is unhealthy, destroying the natural bonds people need in their relationships, turning what should be an act of intimacy and caring into one of exploitation. Hence such "casual sex" relationships leave people drained of their spiritual energies, and set them on a downward path... Sexual relations that are not based in a true loving bonded relationship are actually harmful and demeaning. The old fashioned ideal of boy meets girl, falls in love, they get married and raise a family, sticking together through the good times as well as the bad times is the proper relationship in God's Way of Life. The modern self centered approach of delaying marraige until middle age in order to play the field has the effect of destroying people's natural abiblity to form deep bonds, and the idea that we can find true happiness through sensual, yet spiritually shallow, relationships has led to the high rates of divorce, singlemother families, and irresponsible men who father children only as the accidental outcome of their sexaul promiscuity - such people should not be parents... Women often choose to abort unwanted children... this is a horrible form of birth control... what we need are better methods of birth control, yet the church opposes this and thereby contributes to the problem. Clearly it would be much better for people who do not want to be parents to have a safe means of birth control. The current situation makes the children victims, they are caught in the middle, either they are aborted or they are born into a family situation that may not be nurturing nor healthy. Children should be any sane society's number one treasure and concern, but in our modern capitalistic world which revolves around greedy self-indulgent adults children are pushed to the rear of the bus, and exploited as well. They will inherit astronomical debts and a severly damaged environment from the current crop of adults... In the future people will look back upon these times and regard its people as the ones who ruined the earth, people ruled by greed, selfishness, and lack of discipline in their excessive lifestyles.
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This is from the first chapter of the bible,
the first page,
this is how it actually starts,
but for some reason this is pretty much ignored -
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
( notice, the earth has an inate ability to bring forth life, "let the earth bring forth life" this agrees with scientific truth )...
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. ..
( the Hebrew word for "man" used here is "Adama" which includes man and woman, hence "people" - this is very important, the very first chapter of the bible says men and women, all people, are created equally in God's image. )
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth...
(replenish the earth - not exploit and destroy it)
... And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.
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God cares nothing about theology, all that matters to God is the heart. .The Holy Spirit is very real and ever present to guide you. Do not be diverted by pretentious people. Do not try do explain yourself to people whose minds and hearts are rigid. If you can't find any truely spiritual friends its fine to go it alone. Your inner spiritual life should be kept secret. Jesus says we should judge a tree by its fruit... God always brings peace, happiness, and wellbeing. God never harms anyone. God never has and never will cause wars to happen or condone war as being inspired by God. War is an abomination. the result of man's failure to live according to God's true Way of Life as exemplified in the person of Jesus Christ. God created Eden and man turned it into battlefields, concentration camps, polluted waters and ravaged lands.
We don't need prima dona preachers and theologians to impress us. The roll of a minister should be to guide people so they can enter into a relationship wth God and derive their own insights and understanding. One of the most basic rules on the spiritual path is we keep our relationship with God private, it is not something to parade around in front of others. Jesus said we should enter our room, close the door, and commune with God in privacy.
Why hasn't the church denounced the numerous violent passages in the bible ? The bible attests to the tendency of men to create religious institutions that have nothing to do with the true nature of God. War stories are not "scripture." Jesus Christ incarnated to correct these false views of God, but the delusions of men are very persistent, so eventually they began contriving new doctrines to counter Jesus' true teachings and re-instate their unholy and violent ways.
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Why would God want anyone to perform animal sacrifices ? To uselessly slaughter his creatures and burn their bodies ? This is sick. We are told God likes the smell of burning flesh. Imagine what it was like to attend such a "ceremony" - the sounds and smells of thousands of animals being slaughtered, their blood being poured out and their bodies impaled on the horns of the altars then burned...
As it says in Isaiah 1,11 "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats... your hands are full of blood. 16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17 Learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, protect the fatherless, help the widow. 18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD..."
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Not very long ago people with psycological problems or mental illness or epilepsy were accused of being possessed by demons or evil spirits. Several hundred years ago such people may even have been burned alive by "Christians" who used religion as a vehicle of fear and brutality. Fortunately in modern times we know the true causes of many of these conditions, often resulting from chemical or hormonal imbalances, physical defects within the brain, etc. Yet there are still study bibles and fundementalists perpetuating this ignorant archaic belief.
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Stoning -
This horrible practice, instituted in the time of Moses, had become prevalent and firmly entrenched by the time of Jesus, a span of many hundreds of years. This was a terroristic means of maintaining utter control over people which was especially monstrous in that it forced the members of a community to murder neighbors and family members who were accused of violating certain aspects of Mosaic law. In thisway anyone who dared to disagree with the utter domination and tyranny of the priestly class could be eliminated and fear effectively instilled in the community in a most cruel fashion. This "law" forced members of the community to commit murder, effectively turning them into a mob of murders and uniting them in this manner. There are few greater sins against God conceivable, yet the bible claims this "law" was given to Moses by the Lord.
This is impossible because God's true nature is infinite love and compassion. One moment of God's Spirit exposes the total falicy of the OT view of a wrathful destructior god. The OT contains a record of a sick manmade religious institution and the NT contains the revelation of God's true nature in the person of Yeshua the Messiah, later refered to as Jesus Christ. The Gosples and the Pauline letters are the most reliable sources of truely Christian scripture. Their purpose is to lead us into a living spiritual relationship with God through the salvation of Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Followers of bibleanity perpetuate the very things Jesus ( as well as any sensible, normal person, religious or athiest... ) opposes. Only people who have been twisted by some manmade doctrine, be it religious, political (Maxism), scientific (Nazism-eugenics), or some combination thereof, are capable of commiting such atrocities. It requires us to ignore our conscience and feelings of compassion. People have to be manipulated and brainwashed to do such things. Jesus was killed because he stood up to these tyrannts who use religion as a vehicle for evil. Yet, he asked God to forgive them, for they knew not what they were doing. He is not, never was, and never will be a "warrior" in the worldly sense. His means are non-violent and spiritual. He fights ignorance with truth, darkness with light, suffering with salvation. War is an abomination resulting from our failure to live according to God's true way of life as demonstrated in the person of Jesus Christ.
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May all people learn to live in peace and harmony.
This Earth is a holy creation
a single blade of grass is a miracle of life
and this planet abounds with life
in the hostile environment of space.
The human race is at a crossroads -
either we learn to live in harmony
or we will not survive.
It has taken many billions of years to reach this point in our lives.
Many generations of stars have been born and died
just to create the elements of which all things are composed.
The building blocks of life were created in stars and nebulae and comets -
they form our bodies and we live among the stars.
What shall we do with this inheritance?
Shall we devote these billions of years of effort
toward selfish gain and momentary pleasures?
Or can we learn to use our time wisely
to create something of lasting meaning and worth,
a nurturing home for all children
and a bright future?
Will the "adults" of this world learn to live
with intelligence and humility,
or will they continue in their delusions,
ushering in armageddon
in the name of ignorance and folly?
We are each blessed with a ruely miraculous brain,
body, intelligence and conscience.
Jesus said to test all spirits
and judge a tree by its fruit.
Jesus is a healer and savior.
God never harms anyone.
God is love,
infinite,
beyond the scope of the human intellect,
God is eternal,
honest and faithful.
Yet God is humble
and does not desire praise or glory,
God is gentle,
the creator, savior, guide and friend.
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from Psalm 36 -
How precious is your steadfast love, oh God.
All people may find shelter in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house;
you give them drink from the river of your delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light
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Your opinion and beliefs are just as important as those of any theologian, minister, guru, master, whatever... Any person or group that will only admit you if you conform to their dogma should be avoided. The most fundemental law of the spiritual path is respect for others and humility. Your relationship is with God - Truth, there is no need to impress others with your faith or win anyone's approval. Let the Holy Spirit be your guide. Like the Buddha says, if you can't find true spiritual friends, better to go it alone. Sometimes we can find greater peace, well-being and happiness in solitude.
We can each become a unique living vessel for God's Spirit. Its not an intellectual thing. We experience salvation through Christ. Living with the Holy Spirit as our guide in a most real and intimate way. "Belief" seems to imply an intellectual decision, whereas faith is a matter of trust and experience. We can be followers of Christ, but we cannot "believe" we are followers of Christ. Too much talk is not conducive to the spiritual life. Its actually very simple and direct. We need to listen more and talk less.
If we listen to Christ under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we shall return to our long lost home and realize our long awaited future potential in God's Kingdom, which is no other place but here and no other time but now. Always has been , always will be.
we can know God's truth intimately and directly...
There is a life and vitality present in Christ and among those people who choose to follow Christ and to be guided in their lives by the Holy Spirit that is absent from other religious groups I have encountered. What good is learning to sit in silent meditation for days, weeks, and years on end if ones heart is cold ? I do not believe life is an illusion or a divine play. We are not capable of grasping the depth of life's meaning through our intellect - it is not a matter of "believing", but rather of experiencing... The human mind is not able to describe God, yet we can experience God's presence, and for me this is best exemplified in the person of Jesus Christ... Just to be an honest person is perhaps the greatest achievment, just to live according to God's Way of Life, setting aside the quest for fame and fortune, rejecting the life of selfish hedonism, and allowing truth to work within our being, allowing God's tranformation to take place through God's grace...
May God bless you and keep you
as s/he always does
if but given the opportunity to do so.
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Giordano Bruno - 400 years ago, he said -
"In space there are countless constellations, suns and planets; we see only the suns because they give light, the planets remain invisible because they are small and dark. There are also numberless earths circling around their suns, no worse and no less than this globe of ours. For no reasonable mind can assume that heavenly bodies that may be far more magnificent than ours would not bear upon them creatures similar or even superior to those upon our human earth." - from "Just Six Numbers" by Martin Rees, page 22.
(From Wikipedia) Giordano Bruno (1548, Nola, Italy - February 17, 1600, Rome) known for his mnemonic system based upon organized knowledge and as an early proponent of the idea of an infinite and homogeneous universe. Burnt at the stake as a heretic by the Roman Inquisition, Bruno is seen by some as the first "martyr for science."
Under this model, the Sun was simply one more star, and the stars all suns, each with its own planets. Bruno saw a solar system of a sun/star with planets as the fundamental unit of the universe. The Earth was just one more heavenly body, as was the Sun. God had no particular relation to one part of the infinite universe more than any other. God, according to Bruno, was as present on Earth as in the Heavens, an immanent God, the One subsuming in itself the multiplicity of existence, rather than a remote heavenly deity. Bruno also affirmed that the universe was homogeneous, made up everywhere of the four elements (water, earth, fire, and air), In particular Bruno held firm to his belief in the plurality of worlds, although he was admonished to abandon it.
His trial was overseen by the inquisitor Cardinal Bellarmine, who demanded a full recantation, which Bruno eventually refused. Instead he appealed in vain to Pope Clement VIII, hoping to save his life through a partial recantation. The Pope expressed himself in favor of a guilty verdict. Consequently, Bruno was declared a heretic, handed over to secular authorities on February 8, 1600. A month or so later he was brought to the Campo de' Fiori, a central Roman market square, his tongue in a gag, tied to a pole naked and burned at the stake, on February 17, 1600. (from Wikipedia)
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Moses and the Midianites - by John Niemi
Moses seeks asylum among the Midianites and is welcomed into their midst. Moses thrives in Midian, the priest of Midian is most hospitable to Moses, he adopts Moses and gives him his daughter in marriage, she bears him a son, Moses dwells there happily for fourty years...
Yet in the Book of Numbers we see a very different Moses. Perhaps the character of Moses was adapted to fit in with the militant stance of the priestly class in those days. Was a new legend of the warrior Moses contrived by later priestly authors ?
"And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baalpeor. And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand; And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. "
Later Phinehas will be made a hero and rewarded richly for doing this. The couple he murdered were both children of the heads of families - the woman was a reputable "upper class" woman from a good family, she was not a whore or harlot. The crime was intermarriage with non-Isaelite women.
BUT MOSES HAD A MIDIANITE WIFE AND FATHER-IN-LAW, HE WAS THE ADOPTED SON OF A MIDIANITE PRIEST, AND HE DWELT HAPPILY AMONG THEM FOR 40 YEARS. I BELIEVE THIS IS THE ORIGINAL MOSES STORY. AND REFLECTS THE TRUE STATE OF AFFAIRS, ISRAELITES INTERMARRIED AND DWELT PEACEFULLY AMONG NEIGHBORING PEOPLES. THE LATER ACCOUNTS OF WARS, ETC. WERE FICTION ADDED LATER BY SCRIBES OF THE PRIESTLY CLASS WHO WERE AGAINST THIS SORT OF THING.
"Now the name of the Israelite that was slain, even that was slain with the Midianitish woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a chief house among the Simeonites. And the name of the Midianitish woman that was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur; he was head over a people, and of a chief house in Midian. "
This was the murder of a couple representing the union of two prominant houses, something that was a threat to the power base of the priests. they were murdered for purely political reasons.
And then later in Chapter 27 there is the account of the massacre of all the people of Midian, men, women, children, babies, preganant women, elderly grandmothers - all put to the sword, except the virgin girls who were saved for the soldiers. Among the world's relgious literature there is nothing so violent, depraved, and contrary to God's true nature than these stories, yet they are upheld even today by Christians as being the Word of God. This is immoral.
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The view of unbiased modern archaeologists is that many of these events never occured and Israelities dwelt peacefully among people of other cultures, so actually the story of Moses living peacefully with the Midianites for 40 years most accurately portrays the actual situation. The subsequent stories of the conquest of Palestine appear to be fiction fabricated by the priestly class at a later date.
It is interesting that a very different picture than the one depicted in the bible is surfacing from recent non-biased archaeology, which says most of the stories of conquests never happened , rather the first story of Moses and the Midianites, wherein he sought sanctuary among them, was adopted by a Midianite priest, married his daughter who bore him a son, and lived happily among them for fourty years, reflects to actual state of affairs, that these various peoples lived in peace and harmony, and the later depiction of Moses as the leader of an army that conquered many cities throughout Palestine is fiction, as are many stories in the bible, fabricated by later authors for propagandistic purposes.
When men are separated from God, when they choose to eat the fruits of evil rather than the fruits of good, they are driven, not by God but by the consequences of their actions, from Eden, God's paradise, from their true and original relationship with God. Yet God never gives up hope, never stops trying to redeem his/her lost children, even when it required his/her beloved son to incarnate in person and bear the most horrible and cruel treatment at their hands. "Forgive them Father for they know not what they do." This is the mentality of God, not wrath and vengence...
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These quotes from The MacArthur Study Bible illustrate how the advocates of bibleanity alter the teachings and example of Jesus Christ. This is from page 972, re. Isaiah 11,4 : "Rod of His mouth - the Branch's (Messiah's) rule over the nations will be forceful. The NT uses equivalent terminology to describe the warrior-king at his triumphant return to earth (Rev. 19:15)".
Notice the equating of Revelation with the entirety of the NT, this is a common pratice of bibleanity, to counter the teachings of Jesus Christ with some verse from Revelation, etc. But the Gospels and Revelation are two very distinct entities. This is the opposite of what Jesus teaches... "rod" means shoot, sprout, grass... i.e. whereas men strike the earth with instruments of violence, Jesus "strikes" the earth with his healing word and spirit, the "shoot of his mouth" is life giving, healing word ! Jesus often used hyperbole, metaphor and symbolism but his disciples did not understand.
and also re. Isaiah 11,4 the MacArthur Study Bible offers this commentary:
"Breath of His lips - this is another figure for the Messiah's means of inflicting physical harm."
Here we have one of the foremost authorities on the bible, the author of numerous books and study bibles with millions of copies in print, proclaiming Jesus to be a warrior-king who will inflict physical harm with his breath. And this study bible contains many such comments. This is the antithesis of the teachings, life and Spirit of Jesus Christ...
I think "Breath of His lips" refers to God's lifegiving breath, his healing word...
God breathed life into the universe in Genesis,
God breathed life into all people...
Any child can see this...
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In Matthew 4,4 Jesus says, " It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
Not all words "proceed from the mouth of God, but those that do give us life, and sustain us. Those words in the bible which "proceed from the Mouth of God"- those which are in accord with the teachings, spirit, and revelation of God's true nature in the person of Jesus Christ - are spiritual food with the power to give us Life.
The Love Compass - its simple, that which inspires love, truth, peace, compassion - all the characteristics demonstrated by Christ during His time on earth - such things are of God. Things which inspire hatred, violence, suffering, and ignorance are not of God. Clearly a great deal of the writngs in the bible are not of God, such as the manmade religion of war and conquest, but we can learn from them as well, just as a scientist learns from all data. That which is false often clarifies that which is true.
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When Jesus says (in Mat. 5,17-18) "I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it", he is of course speaking of God's true eternal law which he embodies, that is the only law he knows... The Greek word "pleroo" which has been translated as "fulfill" has a much deeper meaning, which is to perfect spiritually, to cause to abound with spiritual gifts... This verse has been grossly misinterpreted. Jesus came to correct the numerous faults of manmade law and reinstate God's true eternal law. Pleroo can also mean to consummate, as in a marriage. And it also carries the meaning that a definite time has arrived for so doing. But the clearest, simplest, most accurate definition is, "to render perfect". Render means to work, like a blacksmith or and artist, or a doctor, to bring about the perfection of health, wellbeing, truth...
Not to fulfill the institutional obligations of Mosaic Law, but to correct its shortcomings, to enlighten, to shed true light upon "every last letter and mark" within it. "It shall not pass away until I have fulfilled (rendered perfect) every last letter and mark." Notice the word "until," clearly this means that the old law does in fact pass away once it is perfected. Every single letter and mark will be exposed to the true light and spirit of God. This being accomplished by Christ, God's true law will shine forth, as Jesus is in God and God is in Him, only He is capable of this feat, of this transformation, of this healing miracle.
The final stage involved his crucifiction - in order to know human life in its entirety he even allowed this, so that by actually experiencing death and suffering he could overcome them, and therefore so could all who take refuge in Him. "With man it is not possible, but with God all things are possible."
Jesus was not a human blood sacrifice to placate a wrathful God of the OT, but the bringer of God's true eternal unchanging law of love and compassion for all beings. Through his crucifiction he was able to perform the ultimate act of forgiveness, this was the final nail in the coffin of the forces of evil in the world, the final victory. And then he said, "It is finished" and gave up his spirit to God...
Another meaning of Pleroo is to bring to realization, to realize, to beautify, and this is exactly what Christ does, now and then, eternally, within and without time, throughout the universe.
It is not the fact that Jesus died, rather he faced death and even after horrible torture yet he was still compassionate and asked for his torturers to be forgiven, "Forgive them Father, they know not what they do." It is this last act of compassion and kindness, the final act in his earthly incarnation, which :
1-defeated the forces of evil in the world
2-led the way for all people to have a new relationship with God and to have forgiveness for their sins and inadequacies by taking refuge in him. This act of compassion was the fulfillement/perfection/beautification of the "law and the prophets" and much more...
3-this act also demonstrated the errant nature of the OT idea of a wrathful God... he incarnated and gave his life, to save mankind, to bring the light of truth, salvation, and even though it meant enduring a horrible death, he chose this course. In the OT blood is the source of life, and Jesus gave his life for all people, so grotesque phrases such as, "we are washed in his blood" are bandied about but some Christians. I think it is wrong to say such things, we do not have the right... We should be sorry, not happy, Jesus had to do this.
4-this final act of his earthly incarnation sets an example for us, demonstating God's true way of life, being one of non-violence and compassion.
It was not the fact that Jesus died, but that he lived, and the final act of his human incarnation was an act of compassion which defeated the forces of ignorance and cruelty. This was not something that could be argued, preached, or theologized, it was something he actually did, physically, himself, something which no one else could do. Something no one else could bear to do. But in so doing he changed the world, and gave people the same strength, abilities, compassion and love. We can choose to accept this gift, or to deny it. If we choose, we can repent of our sins and be forgiven, and God will enter our lives and begin transforming us spiritually. We can come to know the Holy Spirit and have an intimate relationship with God the father/mother, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. This is the true basis of Christianity, not the doctrine of a divinely dictated, perfect and infallible bible.
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When the bible speaks of Eternal Life this may be seen as refering to the quality of life one experiences in God's presence. God is eternal, to be with God is to know eternal life. The same holds true for "eternal damnation" - sinful actions separate us from God and if we persist we gradually cut our bonds to God, and to be separate from God is to experience total darkness, i.e. eternal damnation. The repulsive force of wrong actions pushes us away from God, true perception, and wellbeing. However I don't think its possible to be entirely separate from God. I believe God always maintains a connecting thread, being ever hopeful and receptive to a repentant soul.
It makes no sense at all that anyone should be permanently damned, cut off. This goes against the main theme of the bible, which is God's unending work to bring people into the Way of Life, to save them from their sinful propensities and ignorance. I do not think anyone could enjoy life knowing there were people in some other place being punished for eternity. Jesus said he came to save sinners. So while people may chose to live sinful lives and suffer the consequences I believe God is always present and receptive to the sincere soul. Besides, how could there be any place or time where God is not ?
We should always question authority and serve God first. Paul's statement that all authorities, governments, emperors, kings, etc. are divinely ordained is mistaken and has led to alot of tyrannts like Henry the 8th using the bible as justification for monstrous crimes.
Openness and honesty are essential. All information should be accessible. There should be no secret organizations or agencies, no hidden agendas... Everything should be done in broad daylight. Governments bear the same responsibility to act according to God's Way of Life as do individuals, and suffer the same consequences when they deviate from this Way of Life, honesty, openness, and selfless service.
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Do not confuse sex with love - usually its the opposite, someone trying to exploit you for their selfish indulgences. You can never "make things right" in a relationship with such a person. Such people have destroyed their ability to love and mask this with sexual promiscuity. Sexual promiscuity will make people incapable of forming a true bond with anyone, hence such people are incapable of having a true, loving relationship... unless they repent of their own accord and are healed spiritually.
It is not your fault other people do bad things. No matter what are situation is, we can always choose to be good people and live by God's law. Even if we are surrounded by people who do not. Remember Jesus defeated the powers of evil 2,000 years ago.
You are a child of God, created in God's image, you do not need to be anythng other than what you truely are... God is love, infinite compassion. We may imagine we are something else, some people may try to get us to think we are something else in order to mislead and exploit us. All the money in the universe is God's... It means nothing other than what good purpose we can use it for. Sensual pleasures are fleeting and have no lasting value. A life spent in the pursuit of sensual indulgence is a life that produces nothing of true value and worth. However, if we live in faith and trust God, even unpleasant situations can be used as learning experiences and enable us to grow in new ways and to become better people. Seeking purely pleasant conditions is not neccesarily the way to go. Of course we all want to live a safe comfortable life, but if we should find ourselves in a less than ideal situation, we need not despair - this may actually be an opportunity, as Buddhists say, to work out some past karma, or from a Christian POV, grow closer to God, to grow spiritually.
Past experiences are just that. Attachment to experiences, painful or pleasant, can be a stumblingblock. Its important to let things end... to throw out the garbage and move on. "This is over." "I would never do that again", "thats not who I really am", etc. Experiences form mental patterns. We need to let God heal us and bless us with "a new mind in Christ". Those who accept Christ into their hearts and choose the spiritual path are guided by the Holy Spirit, advocate, guide, counselor, and companion. All beings are in truth created in God's image, all have the potential to be the people God wants us to be. We are blessed with free will.
Many people choose lives of indulgence and gluttony, that is their choice. We all reap what we sow. Live and Learn. Whenever anyone sincerely repents and asks to be forgiven they will enter onto the true way which leads home, which is no other place than here and no other time than now. Its fine to live a simple, peaceful life. Fame and fortune can be a burden and often interfere with our well-being. A simple life with meager yet adequate possesions seems to be the best way to go.
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On sexuality -
Sex is an extremely powerful biological drive, which has been utitlized by commercial interests to sell just about anything. So in our modern world people, including children are bombarded with sexually suggestive ads and blatantly sexual TV shows and movies. Its gotten so bad that some popular TV shows use the F word freely, often several times a minute, as if the shows sales department told the writers to use it as much as possible in the characters dialog. Small children using foul language is depicted as cute and funny, etc. A child growing up in such a culture is impacted by all this. Permiscuous sex is seen as the norm, as is drug abuse, something cool to do and desirable, whereas marital fidelity, sobriety and Christianity are often, if not usually portrayed as being uncool, unhip, something for loosers, people who do not meet up to this world's standards of fashion and freedom.
Sex definitely has its proper place within a committed loving relationship, hopefully marriage is such a relationship. But even then, it can be over-emphsized, seen as being the core of the marriage relationship, so if sexual bliss wanes, the marriage may break-up. However true happiness is not a product of sex. Thats right. People have been brainwashed regarding this, but if anyone honesty looks a the reality of the situation it is easy to see that the momentary pleasures of sex do not equate with long term, true, happiness. Just the opposite is often the case, when people depend on sex for happiness it becomes an addiction, a high which has to be repeated often, then they begin to grow bored with one partner and seek others, its a downward path, as they pour away their lifeforce with people who do not love them, they lose the basis of the grounded marital relationship until finally they have become totally debased, doing anything with anyone to try to recapture the sexual high. I think its worse, and more harmful, than being a drug addict.
However, if we can learn to respect this biological drive for what it is, to understand how it works, and its proper function, we will be free to move onto the true source of happiness, spiritual enlightenment... This does not mean we cease to have hese strong feelings and desires, to do so would be to lose an important aspect of our humanity. Healthy people have strong sexual feelings, this is not bad and it is not something we should actually "turn off", but rather we should learn to understand that when these feelings arise it is natural and healthy, but on the other hand, we can let go of them, instead of being driven by them, instead of being controlled by them, we can, though our will power chose not to pursue them. Instead we can work to form truely loving, spiritually based relationships with others. This leads to happiness. Caring about the other persons wellbeing instead of trying to selfishly exploit them for momentary sexual gratification, we can begin to form lasting friendships, true, caring relatinships. To become fully alive. This is actually the way to happiness - just the opposite of the message we are being bombarded with. So, even between married partners, it may be good to have periods of celibacy, so we can develope our spiritual energies. In men, sex depletes life force, all men know this. I don't know how it is with women. But to be honest, when I look back at the happiest tiems in my life, not one of them is sexual... Rather they are times of contentment, of feeling an expansive peace and inner joy, and these usually occured during times in my life when I was not involved in a sexual relationship, during those months and years between relationships when I was celibate. I was never promiscuous, my hope was to find a soulmate, a true love... That is a nice dream, andif you have done so, congradulations... But I think for many people, at least for me, I have learned to find happiness in the "here and now"... We can develope our spiritual nature, and even the best human relationship will end someday, yet if we "store up treasure in heaven" we find happiness that is not limited by time, it does not rust or fade, but just the opposite, it grows in new and inconcievable ways...
May you be blessed with good health, a clear mind, and a joyful life.
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"Breath of His lips - the Messiah's means of inflicting physical harm,"
from the MacArthur Study Bible, over a million copies in print...
These quotes from The MacArthur Study Bible illustrate how the advocates of bibleanity alter the teachings and example of Jesus Christ. This is from page 972, re. Isaiah 11,4 : "Rod of His mouth - the Branch's (Messiah's) rule over the nations will be forceful. The NT uses equivalent terminology to describe the warrior-king at his triumphant return to earth (Rev. 19:15)".
Notice the equating of Revelation with the entirety of the NT, this is a common pratice of bibleanity, to counter the teachings of Jesus Christ with some verse from Revelation, etc. But the Gospels and Revelation are two very distinct entities. This is the opposite of what Jesus teaches... "rod" means shoot, sprout, grass... i.e. whereas men strike the earth with instruments of violence, Jesus "strikes" the earth with his healing word and spirit, the "shoot of his mouth" is life giving, healing word ! Jesus often used hyperbole, metaphor and symbolism but his disciples did not understand.
Re. Isaiah 11,4 the author offers this expert commentary: "Breath of His lips - this is another figure for the Messiah's means of inflicting physical harm."
Here we have one of the foremost authorities on the bible, the author of numerous books and study bibles with millions of copies in print, proclaiming Jesus to be a warrior-king who will inflict physical harm with his breath. And this study bible contains many such comments. This is the anti-thesis of the teachings, life and Spirit of Jesus Christ.
Actually "Breath of His lips" refers to God's lifegiving breath, his healing word.
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The truth is not difficult to see, if our mind is clear and our heart is open to God's Living Spiritual Presence. Rather than projecting our extremely limited, linear view on the ways in which we permit God to act, we should learn to be quiet and listen, here and now. God does not operate according to our fixed perameters. Yet how many experts presume to speak for God ? They say the most ignorant and screwed-up things at times with an air of assurance and are seemingly unaware, like someone passing wind in an elevator, then proclaiming it to be the deepest truth... And there are even institutions of higher education that award degrees to the most proficient wind-passers. And this ability naturally extends into the world of book publishing, and it just keeps on snowballing, until the actual person of Jesus is lost in a smog of theological flatulence.
But, in spite of all this, millions of people have found Christ, and actually developed a spiritual life guided by the Holy Spirit, they just don't usually say much about it. They live the life, they walk the walk, and God's true spirit silently permeates the world around them, healing, comforting, changing, they are unnoticed perhaps, yet very effective... God always responds to the sincere heart... An atheist with love in their heart is much closer to God than some trumped up theologian preacher author with a plethora of degrees and books under their belt teaching people that Jesus is a "divine warrior who is going to destroy his enemies with wars, and plagues, and fire, etc."
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From 1 John 3 - "6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him... 8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning... 9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin... 10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. 11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another."
This passage shows a dangerous diversion from the teachings and example of Jesus. People make mistakes, that does not mean they are "children of the devil." If Jesus shared John's attitude in this passage, who would have been saved ? This sort of divisive judgemental talk is actually counter to what Jesus taught. He said we are to forgive someone, no matter how many times they sin... This idea that if someone sins they never knew God is totally wrong. If people intentionally sin and do not repent then they separate themselves from God, but that does not mean they never knew God, nor that they may someday return to God's Way of Life. Clearly, no one is perfect and sometimes we fail. People may be lonely, or influenced by others, or tempted of themselves... To "love one another" of course means to be compassionate and forgiving. Thus even the NT must be read with discernment from a basis in Christ.
This is from a letter written to an early Christian church regarding the problem of false teachiers who were perverting the Gospel of Christ. Such teachers taught people the Christians would not be held morally responsible for sins they committed since they had been "perfected" by Christ, and as such were free to engage in immoral activities, others claimed that intellectual knowledge of Christ was most important and to simply claim Jesus as their saviour garunteed thier salvation, etc... This was a letter, not a "book" in the bible. It was never intended as such, when it was included in the bible no information about its origin and purpose were included, it took on great significance, this letter became "the word of God", a "book" in the Holy Bible, and its inflamatory rhetoric misled future generations.
The various NT letters, designated as books, were never intended as additions to the Hebrew bible - they were letters addressing certain problems within the early Christian church. The false doctrine of bibleanity has supplanted true Christianity, and much of what churches teach about the bible and its contents is false, as well as in conflict with the true teachings and person of Christ.
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Jesus was always very succinct in his language, never overly wordy, always to the point, and so his teachings remain pure and easy to understand 2,000 years later. However it never ceases to amaze me how men of every age think they need to write endless volumes of commentaries on his teachings, they seem to feel a need to tell us what they mean, as if their way is THE way... Even though Jesus said the Holy Spirit would teach us such things.
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In Defense of John 8:1-11, The Adulterous Woman -
This is one of the most controversal passages of the bible, and I believe one of the most important. Many recent translations insert notes or textual subheadings stating that this passage was not originally part of the Gospel of John or that it is missing from most of the most ancient MSS. This may be true, but this does not mean it is not a true teaching of Jesus. All of the Gospels are composits of various accounts of Jesus' life and teachings. They are not accounts of everything he did and said. Jerome, perhaps the foremost expert on ancient manuscripts, said that this passage was 'found in many manuscripts, both Greek and Latin.' Including the Old Latin manuscipt, circa the second century, is one of the most ancient manuscripts which Jerome revised and became the Latin Vulgate. Of the other four most ancient manuscripts which lack this passage, two of them have a space in the text where this passage would have begun, as if something was purposely left out. I believe this passage was too radical for the male dominated early church, so it was excluded. Augustin said, 'Some of slender faith, or rather enemies of the true faith, have removed it from their MSS, fearing, I believe, that an immunity to sin might be thought to be given by it.' Many other ancient experts agreed with this view. The Geneva Bible, which was the bible of the puritans and pilgrims, includes it intact, without any qualifying note, as does the KJV. When recent translations state, "This passage is not found in most ancient MSS" they give the wrong impression. This may be literally true, but the reason it was not found in many MSS may well have been it was found offensive by men who, preferring a more punitive picture of God, chose to omit it. What is certain is that this passage was extremely controversal. I believe this is one of the key passages in the Gospels, and whatever its history, it is essential that its truth be communicated without being besmirched by inaccurate and misleading notes.
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The many lengthy, dark, violent passages in the bible can be very depressing and unhealty. Books communicate the spirit and consciousness of their author, and a great deal of the bible was not written by enlightened authors. War stories and legends are not "scripture". By the middle ages Christianity had become a religion of war, starting with Constantine, and numerous despotic tyrants across Europe, such as Henry the 8th and Ivan the Terrible, committed horrible atrocities in the name of God, believing the accounts of wrath and punishment in the bible to be the Word of God, and themselves to be God's ministers of wrath. There were exterminations of entire towns, entire populations were tortured in the most hideous manner. This is the legacy of bibleanity; Christianity had been turned into a religion of war, conquest and fear. Many thousands of innocent people were brutally tortured and murdered in the name of Christ.
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Whenever the bible talks abut the wrath of God, etc. it should be understood that this is how ancient men viewed God, not how God actually is. Such accounts might better be seen as what happens to people when they live selfish, hedonistic, unspiritual lives, i.e. the results of their actions. A morally corrupt society will naturally fall apart. Life requires harmony and fitness. Evolution is one of the main themes of the bible. Rather than a natural universe controlled by God, it is more like a machine that once set in motion follows certain (totally cold-hearted) laws. God's realm is spiritual. However if we live in accordance with God's law of love, compassion, respect for all life, we will become masters of the physical world to a certain extent, but never completely. The physical universe will never be perfect and without risk. Such is life. We are presented with the universe and expected to become its caretakers, to manage utilize its resources wisely, not as gluttons but as good stewards. We have an obligation to think of future generations and how our actions will affect their lives. This is not being done. This is very wrong. We should leave the earth in better condition then when we inheritied it. We are doing just the opposite and at a rate that may be causing irreparable harm to the earth, its creatures, and future generations.
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On Christian Meditation -
From a Christian point of view, the only purpose in practicing meditation is to quiet our mind and body so that we are more receptive to God's direction and guidance in our lives. It is very helpful to learn how to relax and understand how our thoughts affect our lives, for example. But - salvation is a spiritual process given to us by God as a gift, purely by the grace of God, and it is not necessary to "meditate" to receive this gift. I find meditation based in Christ to be beneficial, but it is more a sort of prayer, communion, and silent sitting in God's presence. Some approaches to mediation can be nihilistic and may actually defeat God's purpose in our lives. Christians do not practice meditation to escape from a life they view as an illusion but rather to enter into Life more fully, to learn to appreciate the manifold blessings that rain down upon us constantly. To do this we have to become aware of how certain things distract us from this spiritual reality, and this requires discipline and self-control, but always based in God's spiritual presence, never selfish or manipulative, always humble, compassionate and respectful of others... It is not necessary to sit in the eastern sytle positions when meditating - any comfortable position is fine, including lying down... The important thing is to be comfortable and relaxed. Long hours of sitting in the lotus position or seiza can lead to back, hip, and knee trouble. Shikantaza, or Pure Sitting from a Christian point of view is simply becoming quiet and listening to God... God will guide us, through the Holy Spirit. This is not an intellectual metaphor or argument, but an actual, experiential reality.
Which brings me to the idea of converting people... I think this is a mistake. We should simply live as Christ demonstrated and taught... People are touched by love, spiritually, not by intellectual arguments and religious dogma. And telling people the bible is the "Word of God" is also a big mistake, since its not true and many people will be turned off by all its dark, negative, violent content. Bible study is not essential. To love others is. This is, in fact, what Jesus commanded us to do - to love others as God loves us. Thats it, very simple. He didn't tell us to study the bible.
Meditative forms of excersize seems to be much more effective at my age, walking, swimming, cycling, visiting temples, etc. Such excersize is healthy, oxygenating our body and brain, using muscles, stretching, etc. We can sing or recite mantras or psalms while walking or cycling in a quiet place, sending out healing vibrations and peace as we go. Sitting still for long periods may be unhealthy.
Unfortunately many people in Japan seem incapable of being quiet, engaging in a constant stream of "worthless chatter". Its common when visiting a temple to be surrounded by noisey chattering busy minded people who seem to do anything they can to avoid a moment of quiet, talking on the cell phone is also common, and now there are cell phones with live video so you can hear both ends of the conversation including barking dogs and babies on the other end. If there is silence it must be filled. Stores often play many different kinds of music simultaneously producing a chaotic din. Added to this may be the sounds of TVs, advertisements, video games, etc. People here seem to be comfortable in this sort of extremely noisey sound environment and uncomfortable in a quiet, or harmonious sound environment. In a country with so many Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines this is a sad paradox. Buddhist monks with leaf blowers and tour guides with bullhorns were not what the Japan I had imagined... So I prefer the quiet out of the way places, or the normal towns... And try to avoid traveling with noisey chattering people. Especially I would never go on a bus tour in Japan again, as the tour guide is probably trained to talk incessantly, which is considered to be the trait of a good tour guide, one must fill the silence... lest people be confronted with themselves ? Or the temporary nature of our existence ?
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On Science and Religion -
Science and Religion are two diferent things. There is no reason why they should be merged into one way of seeing. Science is about the physical universe... Although at times some people view science with a sort of religious-cultict POV, witness the popularization of "string theory" which is not really a theory at all, none of its claims have ever been verified experimentally... yet modern physicists have jumped on its bandwagon in force... It is a mind game, an intellectual construct which many professionals believe "should be right" or offers "a solution to a unified theory of everything." While I do not believe the bible is some perfect divinely dictated book, there are many interesting and timelessly relevant passages within it which accurately describe such contemporary foibles, i.e. such as the way in which "God confounds the wisdom of the wise" and instead reveals himself/herself to children, etc... Religion is about mystery, there is nothing wrong with this. I think most scientists will also agree that there is a great deal that is mysterious in the realms of the natural universe as well. The difference is, science aims to define, control, and manipulate the physical world - exactly as we are instructed to do in the first two chapters of the bible, btw... This is all fine and good. However, I think there is something akin the the uncertainty principle in effect when it comes to trying to define and analyze God... The more we try to analyze and dogmatize the more we separate ourselves from that which we seek... I once purchased a book purporting to show similarities between theology and science, it was the worse book I have ever laid my hands on. Theology is the worst form of pseudoscience, with an elaborate, pseudotechnical complex vocabulary... Which is basically what this book was filled with, lots of words, dead words, words contrived for the sake of contriving words... Words made to sound impressive that conveyed nothing of value... As it says in the bible, "in a profusion of words sin is not lacking." Things like this may happen when people try to merge science ad religion. Another can be witnessed among some practicioners of yoga, who, after years of arduous practice, develope a sort of psuedo-spiritual state, similar to that which might be experienced by a drug addict... It may have a slight resemblance to God's presence, at least thats what they believe, but it is not... It is a state of mind they have artificially constructed within themselves. So, science should return to experimentally verifiable understanding of the physical laws of the universe and relgion should be a personal matter, a means of spiritual growth and enlightenment, to combine them or view them in the same light is a mistake.
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The false doctrines of bibleanity cannot be reconciled with the true nature of God as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. Attempts by men to re-instate the violent religion of war and wrath described in the OT have had horrendous effects upon our ignoble history. You cannot have both. Jesus clearly taught non-violence, or Ahimsa as it is known in India. The false doctrines of bibleanity cannot be reconciled with the true nature of God as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.
Writings communicate their author's state of consciousness, being, spirit. A great deal of the writings found in the bible are not scripture in the true spiritual sense in that they are the product of deluded minds and may further suffering rather than healing. Jesus incarnated into this historical context explicitly to correct these wrong, violent practices. The teachings of Christ are in perfect agreement with the teachings of Buddhism.
Men have depicted Jesus as a divine warrior who will return to punish and destroy all who do not bow down to him, etc. This is the same old sick mindset of violent men being
imposed upon the Gospels. Why do churches do this ? Why do millions of Christians blindly permit this travisty to continue ? Why do Christians support numerous authors and evangelists who perpetuate doctrines which are antithetical to the teachings, life and example of Jesus Christ ?
Jesus does not conform to man's doctrines and expectations. He offers healing, transformation, life, love. Not wars, stonings, and fear... Out with the old, in with the new... Witness Saul on the road to Damascus, this is how our Lord works... A brief moment in God's presence instantly sets us upon the right path. It touches us deep inside, and exposes all that is false within us. It brings peace, wellbeing, and joy. God's gift of grace. Hence we need to practice prayer and meditation and relating to others more and rote religion less... but some people are addicted to the old ways so they may fabricate clever ruses... Such is human nature and such is the unending patience and hopefullness of our Lord. Live and learn.
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Instead of living as Christ instructed and allowing the Holy Spirit to reshape our lives and the world, The Christian church adopted the false dogma of bibleanity, which included waitng for Christ's second coming at the millennium. Christ's victory was postponed until some indefinite time in the future and the anti-life forces which Jesus defeated were said to reign over the earth until the second coming of Christ. This is an obfuscation which reinstates those very things which Jesus gave his life in order to correct. This is bibleanity - interpreting Christ from a doctrinal, biblical POV instead of a basis in His Living Spirit among us.
God is truth. That which reveals truth is the Word of God. Truths are often embodied in works of fiction, legends, myths. Jesus told many stories which were not of a literal, historic nature. When people are involved in creative activities they are working in concert with God, therefore the creative acts of humanity can also be seen as reflections of the divine nature. This includes science, art, music, literature...
The history of man's conflicts is not a history of God's works among men, quite the contrary, it is a testament to man's tendency towards perversity and violence. War stories are not "scripture". God sure as hell never sent an army to exterminate all the people in a city, as the bible says he did on numerous occasions. Hopefully as time passes humankind will grow in its understanding of the true living Word of God, in all it vast permutations... the doctrine of bibleanity locks people in an archeaic mindset which becomes a stumbling block in the way of progress and the revelation of truth.
The bible is our record of the background upon which the incarnation of Christ occured. In it we can see the ways in which man viewed God and the sorts of religious institutions men create, contrasted with the true nature of God as embodied in the person of Jesus Christ. One second in God's presence is more formative, beneficial, educational, and healing than a lifetime of biblestudy. Why ? Because God's spirit has a very real effect upon us. The experience of God's presence is pure love and compassion on a level that surpasses anything we might imagine or concieve of, yet we can experience God's love and guidance in our lives to whichever extent we allow... God never, ever harmed anyone. There is no wrath whatsoever in God's nature. All of these things have been attributed to God by ignorant men projecting thier ideas and delusions upon God. The "wrath of God" spoken of by men in the bible might better be seen as the consequences of men's actions when they separate themselves from God's way of life. When this occurs they remove themselves from the realm of God's protection and grace, which inevitably leads to destruction and death. The order of the natural world is a reflection of spiritual truth, that which does not live in harmony is canceled out. Nature is always experimenting with new forms of life. In an instant an asteroid could wipe out every living thing on this planet. That is the way of the natural universe, once set in motion it obeys certain laws, this is the realm of physical existence. God offers us a means of evolution, but in order for us to take this next step we must be totally free of violence and cruelty. Jesus said he regards us as his friends. Our life could end at any moment, suddenly and without notice, and all we have worked for, all the things we have worried about and been fearful of will be rendered instantly meaningless. Only love endures, only our acts of compassion and kindness. A single act of kindness is worth more than a fancy car or home, more than a prestigious award, more than glowing praise from our peers. We should get our priorities straight while we still have the chance..
MAY GOD BLESS YOU AND KEEP YOU
MAY ALL PEOPLE LEARN TO LIVE IN PEACE AND HARMONY
MAY WE LEARN TO SEE CLEARLY
MAY WE REALIZE OUR POTENTIAL
MAY WE ALL LEARN TO LIVE ACCORDING TO GOD'S ETERNAL
WAY OF LIFE
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My Homepage Part Two - More writings on bibleanity, etc. by John Niemi ---
Bibleanity substitutes the bible for God, from the Open Bible, page 13 -
"The Bible discovers sin and convicts us.
The Bible helps cleanse us.
The Bible imparts strength.
The Bible instructs us in what we are to do.
The Bible provides us with a sword for victory over sin.
The Bible makes our lives fruitful.
The Bible gives us power to pray."
All of the above are false. The bible is a manmade book. It is far from perfect and even farther from being divine and infallible. It is not God and a great deal of its content is the product of the deluded minds of men. God is love and never harms anyone. The pretense of bibleanity is false, God does not control history, nor cause wars, plagues, send armies to exterminate entire populations...
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The Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible puts a new, upbeat twist on bibleanity:
"Regarding the Bible, then, perhaps the most basic question is: Shall we try to control the Bible, that is, try to make it "come out right," or shall we simply seek to release its life into our lives and make our world ? Shall we try to "tilt" it this way of that, or shall we give it complete freedom to "tilt" us as it will ?"
These people are actually attributing the bible with life ! How could anyone say this of a book ? "Shall we give this book the freedom to make us and our world as it will ? Shall we seek to release its life into our lives." I think this is a very dangerous mindset. The numerous dark, violent passages that fill much of the bible have nothing to do with God's way of life. And I definitely do not want such dark and violent writings to "make our world"... I think that has been happening for thousands of years, as the violent history of the church and Christian countries attest.
On page 1084, The Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible, on Jeremiah 1:10, states:
"Though only a boy, Jeremiah is put in charge of the downfall and rise of kingdoms, the task of destroying and creating cultures. That is some power to place in the hands of a young preacher... The word that brings new life is also the word that destroys and overthrows. The intrusion of the word of God is not a placid or pleasant affair. Time and again, the community must relearn the potentially disruptive, disconcerting, and even destructive power of the word of the living God..."
This is bibleanity disquised behind a Chrsitian facade. It is the reintroduction of the same ignorant OT view of a wrathful destructor God which Jesus came to correct. God does not respond to trendy catch phrases and tricky rhetoric. God does not "destroy cultures", God's way is never "disconcerting," indeed, to experience the peace and love of Christ is exactly the opposite, it is reassuring and healing, compassionate and forgiving. Men are destroyed by the consequences of their actions, as are decadent cultures, nations, and religious institutions.
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To designate the bible as being the Word of God is misleading -
What is the true Word (Logos) of God ? If we look at the actual meanings of the term Logos (from Thayers Lexicon) we come across these definitions,
" a word, yet not in the gramatical sense... a word which, uttered by the living voice, embodies a conception of idea... discourse, the act of speaking, speech... what is communicated by instruction ... the attainment through Christ of salvation in the Kingdom of God... the personal wisdom and power in union with god, his minister in the creation and government of the universe, the cause of all the world's life both physical and ethical, which for the procurement of man's salvation put on human nature in the person of Jesus the Messiah and shone forth conspicuously from his words and deeds... "
This does not mean the bible. When the church began teaching people the bible, instead of Jesus Christ, was the Word of God, it deviated from its original, true course, in the pursuit of "worldly" and deluded ends, the very things which Jesus seeks to counteract and correct are being perpetuated by the false doctrine of bibleanity.
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The Apocalypse (Revelation) was written by an unknown author but was later added to the bible canon under the pretense of being written by the Apostle John.. So Jesus is depicted in the last book of the bible as a divine warrior, as these verses from Revelation illustrate :
Rev. 6,16 "And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"
"The wrath of the Lamb" ? Our loving Lord and Savior, the Prince of Peace, was turned into a wrathful destructor... by the Christian Church !
Rev. 19, 15 "... he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God."
Jesus Christ, who taught us to love each other unconditionally, is going to rule the nations with a rod of iron ? Who rebuked his disciples when they wanted to call down fire on an unreceptive city ? Who told us always to repay evil with good ? How could anyone who read the gospels say such things ?
The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ (Revelation) expresses the views of an unknown author, or more likely authors, writing in the literary form of apocalypse. This book is not unique, there were many apocalypses dedicated/attributed to various biblical personages. The words "spoken" by Jesus in Revelation do not bear the same weight or veracity as those spoken in the Gospels. Although some bibles place them in red print to place them on equal footing with those in the Gospels, such is the mindset of bibleanity. In an apocalypse the author uses the main character to express his ideas, which may or may not be inspired. The author of Revelation chose to use the character of Jesus to express his views, then the church claimed it was written by the author of the fourth Gospel, which is perhaps the most spiritually inspired of all the Gospels. Why? Could it be Jesus' radical teachings of unconditional love, non-materialism, and non-violence were not suited to their agenda, nor that of the Roman Emporer Constantine ? Clearly much of this book runs counter to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Did the church abandon the true teachings of Jesus Christ when it compiled the Holy Bible under the auspices of Constantine and designated it "the Word of God" ?
Apocalypse - Men could not accept the true nature of Christ as revealed on the cross. Someone who accepts defeat and blesses those very people who tortured him... This was totally unacceptable to any normal man. The Messiah was supposed to be a mighty King who conquers all his enemies. Certainly leaders of nations could not have their people believing in such a non-violent pacifist Messiah, so... they decided to restore the status quo... thus Apocalypse was tacked on to the end of the new Christian bible.
Apocalypse - Men could not accept the true nature of Christ as revealed on the cross. Someone who accepts defeat and blesses those very people who tortured him... This was totally unacceptable to any normal man. The Messiah was supposed to be a mighty King who conquers all his enemies. Certainly leaders of nations could not have their people believing in such a non-violent pacifist Messiah, so... they decided to alter the teachings of Jesus and restore the status quo... thus Apocalypse was tacked on to the end of the new Christian bible. The humility of Christ, his defeat of the forces of evil, all of his work, was subverted... the very things he died trying to change were re-empowered... by the Christian Church ! The bible was designated the Word of God, the sole unfallible divine authority... Apocalypse purports to be a message from Jesus Christ. It says he is coming in power and glory as a King to destroy everything that does not bow down before him. This is not Christ speaking. It is a fiction seeking to reassert the old ways of violence, war, the god of armies ... Men wanted a warrior king Messiah, and when Jesus did not fit their expectations they contrived one that did, and Apocalypse is the result. God never has and never will send a plague, cause a war, or harm anything. To say Jesus Christ is going to return to the earth and visit it with plagues and wars and unquencable fire is an abomination. Apocalypse may contain some inspired writngs, but much of it is not in accord with the teachings of Jesus. As Jesus tells us, we must be discerning, and not believe everyone who says they speak for him. He told us the Holy Spirit would teach us and warned us about this kind of thing. "Apocalypse" should be interpreted with an understanding of the nature of this genre - it was never intended as a statement of literal events. I believe it is best approached as metaphor of the inner spiritual process, and a "secret" guide to spiritual practice. Parts of it may be inspiring, but its language can be very misleading if taken literally - witness the errant belief that Jesus is coming "soon" as a worldly king to defeat the enemies of Christianity, and the resultant practice of "waitng for the return of Christ and the end of the age" among nunerous Christian congregations throughout the history of the church which is to this day still being preached by some. Jesus always speaks of the kingdom of the spirit and how we can actualize this in our lives right now. Men have a penchant for projecting their limited concepts upon God and the Way God works in us and among us, expecting God to conform to their expectations as it were, rather than allowing God, in faith, to conform them to their true potential, to become the person God wants us to be...
In Apocalypse (Revelation) 2, 23 Jesus is quoted as saying, "And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.... 25 But that which ye have already hold fast till I come. 26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: 27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. "
Clearly Jesus would never say, "And I will kill all her children." But because Apocalypse was tacked onto the end of the bible many Christians hold it to be true. Jesus offers us passage to God's heavenly kingdom, which is a spiritual kingdom within us, but the advocates of bibleanity want a kingdom here on earth, where their King will exact vengence upon their enemies, just like in the OT. In the genre of apocalypse authors employed famous characters to express their views. Ancient people were aware of this. The author of Revelation is using Jesus as a literary character to express the author's views. It is not written by the author of the fourth Gospel.
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In Matthew 4,4 Jesus says, " It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
Not all words "proceed from the mouth of God, but those that do give us life, and sustain us. Those words in the bible which "proceed from the Mouth of God"- those which are in accord with the teachings, spirit, and revelation of God's true nature in the person of Jesus Christ - are spiritual food with the power to give us Life.
The Love Compass - its simple, that which inspires love, truth, peace, compassion - all the characteristics demonstrated by Christ during His time on earth - such things are of God. Things which inspire hatred, violence, suffering, and ignorance are not of God. Clearly a great deal of the writngs in the bible are not of God, such as the manmade religion of war and conquest, but we can learn from them as well, just as a scientist learns from all data. That which is false often clarifies that which is true.
Jesus teaches us the true nature of God's love.
GOD IS LOVE AND INFINITE COMPASSION.
GOD HARMS NO ONE.
THE BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY IS SPIRITUAL COMMUNION WITH GOD,
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These are some more in depth versions of the writings in Part One above -
There are many violent passages contained in the "Holy Bible" that cannot be reconciled with the teachings of Jesus Christ, here are a few examples:
From Jeremiah 25 (NIV) -This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: "Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because of the sword I will send among them." So I took the cup from the LORD's hand and made all the nations to whom he sent me drink it:.... all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. "Then tell them, 'This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Drink, get drunk and vomit, and fall to rise no more because of the sword I will send among you.' ...for I am calling down a sword upon all who live on the earth, declares the LORD Almighty.'
( God does not make wars nor condone them. War is an abomination resulting from the failure to live according to God's true way of life. This is an ignorant view of God resulting from an archaic mindset. That people still espouse such views testifies to the enduring nature of the delusions of men. God cannot be known by intellectual study, but only through actual experience of God's Spirit, one moment of which instantly exposes the falicy of such writings. God is love, infinite and inconceivable, incapable of any acts of cruelty. The abominable doctrine of "Holy War" has been perpetuated for thousands of years... Even at this moment there are "study bibles" being churned out proclaiming this doctrine. How can anyone who purports to follow Christ accept this as "the Word of God". When the Messiah came he was not what anyone expected. Jesus Christ is the Word of God, not the bible. This is why direct spiritual communion with God through prayer and mediation should take precedence over bible study. A moment of God's spiritual presence instantaneously reveals more than a lifetime of intellectual studies ever could. The acts described in the bible are inconceivable from God's point of view. God never punishes anyone - we punish ourselves when we do things that separate us from God, the source of life, happiness, and wellbeing. It is a simple mater to correct the errant OT perspctive. Whenever some prophet speaks of the Lord's wrath, or of a punishment from God, it should be understood as being a consequence of man's deluded actions. Contrary to the Ot view in which all events are controlled by God, this is not the case. Life would have no meanig if that were so. The universe has certain natural laws which once set in motion will bring about certain chains of events. Most importantly, all people are originally created in the image of God. All people, men, women, children... And his means we have free will. We can chose to reject God's way. God never imposes upon anyone. When the church said the bible was the Word of God instead of Jesus, they re-instated the OT view of a violent and wrathful God which is more suitable for controlling people and maintaining empires. Religion has often been used as a form of propaganda to control people and trick them into doing things no sane person ever would - i.e. commit atrocities, acts of aggression, genocide, etc. A way of blinding them to their innate goodness with which we are each originally blessed. A way of creating an illusion of separateness, of one group being superior to another, or rulers being given their power by God, etc. Jesus totally blew away that image of God, yet it did not take long before men began to twist his teachings and fabricate new authoritative doctrines, thereby sidestepping his radical teaching of unconditional love and non-violence. Even today there are many "study bibles" being churned out which tell us God is a divine warrior and Jesus is going to return and destroy the earth and anyone who opposes him. This is sick and dangerous. Jesus Christ is the Word of God. God's word is living spirit written within our hearts. The bible is a manmade book. It is definitely important to study, but it should not be worshipped as being perfect and divine. There are numerous points of view represented in its writings, all of which are educational. We can learn about what is true from that which is not.. )
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From Judges 4 (KJV)-
"And the LORD discomfited Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his host, with the edge of the sword before Barak; so that Sisera lighted down off his chariot, and fled away on his feet... to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite... And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said unto him, Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; fear not. And when he had turned in unto her into the tent, she covered him with a mantle. And he said unto her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink; for I am thirsty. And she opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink, and covered him... Then Jael Heber's wife took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died... So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel." (KJV)
One of the most famous bible commentators, Matthew Henry, wrote in 1710 regarding this passage, "It is probable that Jael really intended kindness to Sisera; but by a divine impulse she was afterwards led to consider him as the determined enemy of the Lord and of his people, and to destroy him."
This is an example of how the dogma of a divine bible perverts the teachings of Jesus. What is particularly disturbing is the authors claim that Jael probably intended kindness toward Sisera, even though he was an enemy of Israel, but the Lord inspired her to drive a tent stake through his head while he slept. Such is an image that might be found in some grotesque horror movie, certainly not in the "scriptures" of the world's largest relgions. How can anyone who professes to follow Jesus accept such violence, let alone claim such acts are in accord with God's will ? This is bibleanity, the belief in a perfect and infallible bible. The doctrine of a divine and perfect bible has resulted in a very schizoid view of God. Surely in all the world's religious writings the bible is unique in this sort of extremely violent content. This is exactly the sort of thing Jesus sought to correct, yet the church that bears his name reinstitutes the same old delusions when they claim such writings to be the Word of God.
Matthew Henry makes the following comment on Luke 19, 27 - " Whoever will not be ruled by the grace of Christ will inevitably be ruined by the wrath of Christ." Here we see the result of bibleanity. This is totally contrary to the actual teachings and example of Jesus Christ. A few verses earlier Jesus says (Luke 19,10) " For the Son of Man is come to seek and save that which was lost." Jesus always heals people, if we practice meditation we can experience His presence directly.
Now, given that Matthew Henry wrote his commentary on the murder of Sisera by Jael several hundred years ago, one might think that Christians nowadays might have come to think differently regarding this horrible bible story, but not to be out done, some modern commentaries add new, upbeat twists... such as this excerpt from the NIBC book on Judges, page 174:
"Sisera thought he had to fear a male, but it was a woman who did him in when he least expected it."
The author of this commentary is a woman, the author's insight is: women are to be feared just the same as men, i.e. they are capable of the same acts of murder and deception... such is progress in the world of modern bible commentaries. Notice how the brutal murder is downplayed by using the cute phrase 'did him in'.
Then she goes on to glorify this horribly sick, violent story,
"...the story is so skillfully told that even in translation it captures the imagination of its audience... the wonderful wordplay and assonance upon which the storyline turns... to make the point more emphatically and humorously... the miraculous victory... behind it all lies the hand of the Lord."
It should be impossible for anyone who follows Jesus' example and teachings to say such a story is "scripture", let alone praise it. This is pure bibleanity, sucking up and glorifying the bible even though such stories clearly fly in the face of any halfway normal person's sense of morality. Which leads me to believe that bibleanity is a giant cult that worships a manmade book, a deluded doctrine that distorts and alters the teachings of Jesus and works to empower the very forces of violence and hatred which he gave his life to abolish.
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Numbers 15,32 Now while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. 33 And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation. 34 They put him under guard, because it had not been explained what should be done to him. 35 Then the LORD said to Moses, gThe man must surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.h 36 So, as the LORD commanded Moses, all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died.
(The barbaric practice of stoning was not instituted by God, but by deluded priests who falsly claimed to represent God's will. Stoning was obviously widespread, as it is referred to many times in the NT. Whenever Jesus angered people by violating their "law" they immediately picked up stones. This murderous practice turned common people into a murderous mob which executed anyone who did not obey the dictates of the priestly class. Jesus said the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. He exposed the fallicy of this aspect of "the law"in his teachings. 2,000 years later people are still being stoned in some Islamic countries for violations of religious "laws". The delusions of men are very deeply entrenched. Jesus was killed for his opposition to such attitudes. God never imposes his will on anyone. All men are responsible for their actions. God respects the sanctity of all life.)
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Numbers 31,7 And they warred against the Midianites, as the LORD commanded Moses; andthey slew all the males. And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods. 10 And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire. 11 And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of men and of beasts. 12 And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan near Jericho. 13 And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp. 14 And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host... 15 And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive? ..... 17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. 18 But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves..... 31 And Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the LORD commanded Moses. 32 And the booty, being the rest of the prey which the men of war had caught, 35 And thirty and two thousand persons in all, of women that had not known man by lying with him.
(Such passages depict the brutal realities of life in OT times, but that does not mean these acts were of God, rather, they illustrate the horrible things men may do when they do not live according to the Way of Life. God is infinite love and compassion. God never has and never will cause such things to happen nor condone such acts. Such acts are inconceivable from God's point of view.)
The Midianintes were the same people from whom Moses sought asylum and lived for many years, he was graceously accepted into their community married a Midianite woman and she bore his first children.. Moses dwelt among them for many years and was always treated well by them and he availed himself of their hospitality...
The Encounters with God Daily Bible contains the following notes regarding the atrocities depicted in Numbers 31,
"The Israelites did not require their full fighting force for their battle against the Midianites. Selecting one thousand men from each tribe allowed each tribe to participate in God's activity."
The authors of this study bible are teaching people such atrocities were "God's activities."
The authors of this study bible are Doctors of Divinty and Christian ministers, yet they teach that "God's activity" includes the slaughter of unarmed men, women and children of all ages, that God sent an army of 12,000 men to slaughter an entire populace, put all them to the sword, babies, boys, old men, grandmothers, pregnant women, everyone except the virgin women who they were to "keep for themselves." ... such religious doctrines perpetuate the very things Jesus said we should not do.
These learned men, authors, Christian ministers, say massacres and extermination of unarmed populations are "God's activity." This is an affront to God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and any sane half way normal human being... Why does the so-called Christian church refuse to stand up and denounce such horrendous statements ? Why do millions of Christians sit back and blindly absorb such teachings which in fact blatantly violate the teachings of Jesus Christ ?
Bibleanity is big business, and once these authorities espouse a doctrine they are committed to it, even if its mistaken. Any normal person can admit their mistakes, religious institutions rarely do.
This is a betrayal of Jesus Christ and all he lived and died for. He said we are to love one another, to love our neighbors as God loves us, to turn the other cheek, never to repay evil for evil, but rather to repay good for evil, etc. the bible is not God. God is Love, eternal, unchanging, God never harms anyone, we do that to ourselves. Ignorant people try to attribute the acts of deluded men to God, as being part of God's plan. Such people are in essence saying all wars, disasters, diseases, etc. are part of God's plan. This is totally false. We are responsible for our actions and destiny. We were given free will. People make history, not God.
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Numbers 31 (NLT Bible) - 7 They attacked Midian as the Lord had commanded Moses, and they killed all the men... 9 Then the Israelite army captured the Midianite women and children and seized their cattle and flocks and all their wealth as plunder. 10 They burned all the towns and villages where the Midianites had lived...
31:14" But Moses was furious... "
We find this mind boggling response to this verse in the NLT Faith Bible note: 31:14 -
"I become angry when the leaders of God's people flagrantly disobey."
In other words, the authors of this study bible are saying Moses acted correctly and we should follow his example, which should be impossible for anyone who professes to follow Jesus Christ.
31:15 gWhy have you let all the women live?h he demanded.
The NLT Faith Bible's response in this note on verse 31:15 -
"I obey the LORD completely."
Do these authors really think God, as represented in the person of Jesus Christ could ever order such a thing ? This is the insideous nature of bibleanity - it countermands the life, teachings and example of Jesus Christ.
Numbers 31:16 g...They are the ones who caused the plague to strike the Lordfs people. 17 So kill all the boys and all the women who have had intercourse with a man. 18 Only the young girls who are virgins may live; you may keep them for yourselves."
It is incomprehensible that anyone who professes to follow Christ could say this is "God's Word". Clearly the bible is a manmade book and there is a great deal in it that is not inspired of God. Hence it must be read with discernment, and we should not allow ourselves to be misled. Following Jesus does not mean blindly accepting whatever the church, theologians, or experts dictate. And it means we should speak out agaisnt such doctrines.
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Proverbs 23, 13-14 "Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell."
Is there anything more offensive in the eyes of God than the abuse of an innocent child by a mean and ignorant adult ? And when the abuse comes from a parent it is all the worse, for parents are entrusted by God for the well-being of the children with whom they have been blessed. I shudder at the thought of how many children have been abused by parents who believed God writings such as this are "the Word of God". Clearly Jesus taught the need for discretion. Clearly he opposed and corrected such mistaken views. When his disciples rebuked the children he told them, "let the children come unto me, for the kindom of heaven is such as these.". The church's failure to address such issues, and the failure to place notations in bibles denouncing such passages is inexcusable. People who claim this is the "Word of God" are perpetuating child abuse. God is infinite love and kindness but has no tolerance for such behavior.
The rod is an instument of guidance, carried by the good shepherd, used to guide his flock. The shepherd never beats his sheep ! The shepherd's rod and staff are used to guide sheep along the way and keep them from wandering of the path. If a lamb should go astray and fall into a crevice the shepherd's staff has a special crook at the top which he uses to life the lamb to safety. "Thy rod and thy staff comfort me..." Like the good shepherd, parents are to give their children guidance - never to beat them and abuse them ! Parents should set an example for children to follow. This is a prime example of how God's true word, as exemplified in the person of Jesus Christ, has been perverted by men.
When some bible doctor, or church group, attempts to act as a councelor, the results can be dangerous. For example, this quote from the NIBC, Matthew, page 50, "Jesus extends the definition of neighbor to include enemies and those who persecute you" - this is false, Jesus says to pray for these people, and to forgive them (I think they have to repent and ask for our forgivness) but this does not mean they are the same as "neighbors", a neighbor is someone you can trust, a good person. Jesus is not telling us to naively open ourselves to dangerous people. This doctor of theology goes on to state, "Within the realm of everyday relationships there is no category that can be labeled as "enemy" - this is very bad advice, especially for children. This author goes on to proclaim, "Everyone we meet, even the one who would abuse us, is a friend and therefore one whom we are to love. " This is perhaps the worse "advice" I have ever heard, and I can only imagine how many abuse victims have been further victimized by such "bible councelors" giving horrible advice such as this. If you are a victim of abuse, know this - it is not your fault people do bad things. And, by all means, find a good, licensed counselor who has experience in this area. There are real councelors who can help you a great deal. This is not something to be entrusted to someone with a bible college education or church group. Also some church groups have a history of supporting abusers and blaming their victims, and can actually make things much worse...
"And the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore unto David, and it was very sick." (KJV, " 2 Samuel 12:15)
God never struck a child. God never punished a child for their parents sins. God never made a child sick... God never sent a plague to kill babies... This is the OT mindset of a wrathful God who punishes sinners and enemies. The child born out of David's adultery with the wife of Uriah, his loyal and honorable soldier whom David subsequently arranged to have killed, this poor child got sick and died... Thats it. The child was innocent. But in OT times sickness was often attributed as being punishment for sin, so in OT parlance God "struck the child" to punish the parents. Thankfully Jesus corrected this ignorant view of God's nature.
From the Barber commentary on 2 Samuel 12:13-14, page 192 -
"Most modern exponents of this passage believe that since David himself was not to die, the sin was transfered tot he child who, though innocent of all wrongdoing, was made o bear the sin of his parents. The fine evangelical biblical scholar, Dr. William Blaikie, explained it this way: "the Lord, in the excersize of his clemency, had been pleased to remit (David's sins). But a palpable proof of his displeasure was to be given in another way - the child of Bathsheba was to die. It was to become, as it were, the scapegoat for its father."
If we read the bible from a spiritual basis in Christ rather than the deluded doctrine of a divine and infallible bible, it is clear that God could never do such a thing.
Here is another take on this passage: perhaps David and Bathsheba's child was sick from natural causes and died. Period. But some people attach this a religious significance to the poor babies death. Or, from a religious POV, perhaps God called the child's spirit home, as being innocent of all wrongdoing, it should be spared the hardships it would have suffered if it had been born. From God's POV, this was an act of compassion for the child, not a "transfer of David's sin" to a poor innocent baby. What kind of God would do such a thing ? That is sick. David's sins affected the rest of his life, and attracted future negative events as well. How can anyone worship a god who would transfer a parent's sins to an innocent baby and kill the child so the father would not have to die for his crimes ? This is theology based in bibleanity, a double dose of delusion.
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Isaiah 13,5 They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land. 6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. 7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt... 8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames. 9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it..... 15 Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword. 16Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.
( How many atrocities have been inspired by such language? To say ths is the Word of God is unconscienable and ouright dangerous because such a belief leads people to think such acts are in accordance with God's will. This is an abomination. This has definitely contributed to the exceedingly violent nature of much of our history. Violence begets violence. Jesus teaches us to break the cycle of violence with unconditional love. Jesus said those who take up the sword shall die by the sword. The sword of Christ is his word, which brings healing, salvation, and life, never destruction and death. . Jesus said those words which come from the mouth of God give us life, he did not say all of the bible's content was "from the mouth of God," rather he opposed and corrected erroneous aspects of the law, even thogh he also said it would be fulfilled in him. This is another mistaken doctrine, to fulfill something means to bring it to its conclusion, totally, not that it is perfect or even correct. The writings of the NT did not exist until one or two generations after Jesus' earthly incarnation.. But bibleanity and bible publishing are extremely luctrative enterprises, employing thousands ot relgious professionals. )
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From Deut 13, "If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God..."
(In OT times stoning was a widespread practice. Anyone who disagree with the relgious establishment was murdered by a mob. Jesus' teaching on the practice of stoning is clear, "let him who is without sin cast the first stone.")
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Ezekiel 9,5 And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: 6 Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women...
( God does not change, God is eternal and omnipresent. Jesus heals people, wherever he went people would flock to him. If someone simply touched his garment God's healing energy would stream forth. This is the true nature of our Lord and Savior. God's truth does not change. He is not at one time a slayer of women and children and at another a loving father. God's love is constant . The image of the wrathful warrior god of the OT was contrived by men. God's true nature is revealed in the person, life, and teachings of Jesus. )
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Jesus opposed the biblical experts, priests and scribes of his time. God sees into the hearts and minds of all people. He cares nothing for our religious dogma or rhetoric. A person with love in their heart and no understanding of the bible is much closer to God than a biblical expert who is lost in a world of argument and intellectual posturing.
If we are to enter the "Kingdom of God"
we must learn humility and become pure in heart,
"as one of these little children."
Jesus taught us to pray
"... forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us..."
He did not say to kill anyone who disagrees with our religion.
I sometimes see "christian" websites showing a sword laying across the bible. The sword is an instrument of death, brutality, and suffering. Jesus is life, humility, and salvation. Jesus Christ is the Word of God, eternal, beyond the scope of human understanding, within and without time, the alpha and he omega. Yet we can know God spiritually, intimately. We often try to limit God by our preconceived notions and ignorant beliefs rather than opening ourselves to the continual revelation of God's spirit within our day to day lives.
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The Gospels and anti-semetism -
The Gospels were written at a time when the relationship between the early Christian Church and the Jewish community/synagogue was confrontational, and this animosity carried over into the Gospels and the Pauline latters. This anti-jewish sentiment grew within the Christian church and snowballed into later persecutions of European Jews at the hands of Christians for hundreds of years. This tradition of hate was fanned into a blaze by the anti-semetic diatribes of Maritn Luther, the father of the Protestant reformation, who advocated driving Jews from their homes and stealing their possessions. Centuries later Germany, the homeland of Martin Luther, under the reign of Nazism elevated this institution of hate to levels of depravity unheard of in all of man's previous violent history. This association is denied by the Lutheran church, which cites examples of Lutheran ministers who opposed the policies of the Nazis and, as aresult, were also sent to the extermination camps. However, this anti-Jewish hatred had become commonplace, established hundreds of years earlier before it culminated in the Nazi holocaust. This was largely a result of the anit-semetic tone of the NT and the church's failure to address these issues. Instead of correcting this unChrisian behavior, many Protestant Christian leaders followed the lead of Martin Luther's attacks. This was based in the doctrine of bibleanity, which had been given precedence to the teachings and example of Jesus Christ by the church.
God is Love -
That is what Jesus lived and taught. Jesus said true religion is loving others, caring for others as God cares for us. An atheist with love in their heart is much closer to God than a religious person whose heart lacks this type of true love for all people. All of the violent acts in the bible would be inconceivable to a Buddhist, for example. Pretense of religion, names and labels, theological arguments, etc. mean nothing to God, and are in fact often a distraction from the sort of love Jesus is talking about. Throughout history, Buddhists have been much closer in actually practicing the teacings of Jesus than Christians.
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God's Word Bible,, compare re. John 1:16 -
NIV - From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.
NAS - For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.
ESV - And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
KJV - And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
God's Word Bible - "Each of us has received one gift after another because of all the Word is."
Wow - Jesus is taken out of the picture and replaced by the bible, which in biblanity parlance is called the "Word." Advocates of bibleanity speak of the bible's power to save us, or heal us, or tell us to love the bible... Unbelievable - "From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another" is changed to "Each of us has received one gift after another because of all the Word is."
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These quotes from The MacArthur Study Bible illustrate how the advocates of bibleanity alter the teachings and example of Jesus Christ. This is from page 972, re. Isaiah 11,4 : "Rod of His mouth - the Branch's (Messiah's) rule over the nations will be forceful. The NT uses equivalent terminology to describe the warrior-king at his triumphant return to earth (Rev. 19:15)".
Notice the equating of Revelation with the entirety of the NT, this is a common pratice of bibleanity, to counter the teachings of Jesus Christ with some verse from Revelation, etc. But the Gospels and Revelation are two very distinct entities. This is the opposite of what Jesus teaches... "rod" means shoot, sprout, grass... i.e. whereas men strike the earth with instruments of violence, Jesus "strikes" the earth with his healing word and spirit, the "shoot of his mouth" is life giving, healing word ! Jesus often used hyperbole, metaphor and symbolism but his disciples did not understand.
and also re. Isaiah 11,4 the MacArthur Study Bible offers this commentary:
"Breath of His lips - this is another figure for the Messiah's means of inflicting physical harm."
Here we have one of the foremost authorities on the bible, the author of numerous books and study bibles with millions of copies in print, proclaiming Jesus to be a warrior-king who will inflict physical harm with his breath. And this study bible contains many such comments. This is the antithesis of the teachings, life and Spirit of Jesus Christ...
I think "Breath of His lips" refers to God's lifegiving breath, his healing word...
God breathed life into the universe in Genesis,
God breathed life into all people...
Any child can see this...
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An example of how bible translators change it to fit their beliefs, from Hosea 13,14 -
JPS (Jewish Study Bible) - "Revenge will be far from my thoughts."
KJV - Repentence shall be hid from my eyes.
NAS - Compassion will be hidden from my sight.
NCV - I will show them no mercy.
Other Protestent translations are similar to these...
Notice how the Protestant translations give this verse a meaning that is the opposite of the Jewish translation. Shall we believe the Jewish OT experts or the Protestent OT experts ?
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You are a child of God, created in God's image, you do not need to be anythng other than what you truely are... God is love, infinite compassion. We may imagine we are something else, some people may try to get us to think we are something else in order to mislead and exploit us. All the money in the universe is God's... It means nothing other than what good purpose we can use it for. Sensual pleasures are fleeting and have no lasting value. A life spent in the pursuit of sensual indulgence is a life that produces nothing of true value and worth. However, if we live in faith and trust God, even unpleasant situations can be used as learning experiences and enable us to grow in new ways and to become better people. Seeking purely pleasant conditions is not neccesarily the way to go. Of course we all want to live a safe comfortable life, but if we should find ourselves in a less than ideal situation, we need not despair - this may actually be an opportunity, as Buddhists say, to work out some past karma, or from a Christian POV, grow closer to God, to grow spiritually.
Past experiences are just that. Attachment to experiences, painful or pleasant, can be a stumblingblock. Its important to let things end... to throw out the garbage and move on. "This is over." "I would never do that again", "thats not who I really am", etc. Experiences form mental patterns. We need to let God heal us and bless us with "a new mind in Christ". Those who accept Christ into their hearts and choose the spiritual path are guided by the Holy Spirit, advocate, guide, counselor, and companion. All beings are in truth created in God's image, all have the potential to be the people God wants us to be. We are blessed with free will.
Many people choose lives of indulgence and gluttony, that is their choice. We all reap what we sow. Live and Learn. Whenever anyone sincerely repents and asks to be forgiven they will enter onto the true way which leads home, which is no other place than here and no other time than now. Its fine to live a simple, peaceful life. Fame and fortune can be a burden and often interfere with our well-being. A simple life with meager yet adequate possesions seems to be the best way to go.
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In Paul's second letter to Timothy we read (KJV) "3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:"
This verse is one of the foundation stones of the doctrine of bibleanity. However, this illustrates several very important points. The first being, many words are inserted into the bible text by translators, and even the addition of a single word or punctuation mark can change the meaning. This verse is an excellent example, because the word "is" is not in the actual text, by inserting this tiny word twice into this verse the authors have arbitrarily assigned a meaning to it. But if we read what the bible actually says (and it is interesting that people who claim to believe the bible was dictated by God see fit to add to it whenever they deem it neccesary to uphold their doctrines) what it actually says is this, " All scripture (is) given by inspiration of God, (and is) profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:", i.e. "All scripture given by inspiration of God, profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:" Now, if we view the teachings and example of Jesus as the revelation of God's true nature, then the numerous accounts of massacres, murders, the unending litanies of doom and gloom we find repeated ad nauseum throughout the OT and again in Revelation, clearly do not mesh with the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus corrected many false views in the bible and opposed the advocates of bibleanity. His teachings of unconditional love, non-violence, and non-materialism can in no way be construed as being in agreement with the violent wrathful image of God found in the OT. Now, this verse is taken from a letter written by Paul, it was not part of the bible, the Christian bible did not exist a that time, it was not attached to the bible as it is now. So from a view based in Christ, does this verse actually mean the entire contents of the bible is inspired by God ? That is impossible, as God is love and never harms anyone. The image of the wrathful destructor god of armies in the OT is a fabrication of deluded, ignorant men. I believe this verse means exactly what it says, " All scripture given by inspiration of God, profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:" That is, those writings which are inspired by God are beneficial. That is the only logical interpretation from a Christian point of view, but bibleanity demands the bible take precedence, even if it means changing the teachings of Jesus so they conform with the doctrine of the divine, perfect, infallable bible. Jesus taught faith in God, healing, love for others, and the denial of selfish interests... Even though Jesus said we are to love our enemies and turn the other cheek, the advocates of bibleanity ignore this and teach that Jesus is in fact the OT god of armies and he is going to return and "judge" the earth. What they seem to be missing is that the word " to judge" in Hebrew means to bring justice - not punishment and destruction. Christ will bring justice, fairness, kindness, and compassion to the earth. Jesus said we are to test all spirits. Christianity means faith in God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. God is spirit and can only be revealed spiritually, through the heart, through our interactions and way of life. God's living word must be carefully discerned. That which brings peace, truth, healing, and fulfillment is of God, things which bring the opposite are not. God is infinite love and compassion. God never harms anyone. Jesus incarnated to show us the true nature of God...
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God does not change in time as man does. From a Christian POV, first we should honor Christ for who and what He is, then view the bible from that vantage point. Bibleanity does just the opposite. Bibleanity imposes man's "linear time bias" upon God, hence the idea of a God of History, when in fact God's time is always "now"... History is made by men, not God. The idea of God conforming to some linear progression, some grand plan revealed in history, is a deluion of men. The writers of the NT took the wrong course when they chose to represent Christ as a "fulfillment of OT prophecy", turning him into an OT style blood sacrifice to placate the wrathful OT god which they had dreamed up. Jesus' life, work, miracles, all took a backseat to his torture and execution... that is what they chose to emphasize. Rather than seeing his last great works as the culmination of his life and teachings, they began to give this basically OT idea precedence. To quote the NIBC, "Ths attitude that the OT is a record of God's workand plan and that Jesus must be interpreted as fulfillment of the work and word of God in the OT, is reflected throughout NT writings and received continuing expression as the church used the OT writings as Scripture is its subsequent history." So, this then actually became viewed as history, but it is just a false contrivance based in the delusions of men. a perpetuating of their bias and ignorance, an insistance upon their views rather than those actually presented to them in the Living Person of Christ. The church, with its fabrications of bibleanity, chose to pursue a course that misrepresents the actual Person of Christ, and inserts Him into the context of a divine and holy bible, God's masterplan in print, to which everything and everyone must conform, including Jesus. The whole pretense of the God of History, Jesus as a fulfillment of prophecy, is misquided. So-called "prophecies" sould be seen as imperfect glimpses of the coming Messiah, rather than the Messiah being the fulfillment of God's perfect word as written in the bible. The writings of the bible should be seen in the light of Christ, and when so exposed their ture nature surfaces, like impurities being smelted out of gold. There are glimpses and currents within the writings of the bible, but to say it is some perfect plan is to go against the very writings of the bible itself... for time and time again people chose to ignore God's Way and chose violence and selfishness... this was not part of any divine plan. Why would God create a universe which s/he totally controlled and manipulated ? That is not creation but dictation, and God is a creator not a dictator.
When Jesus says (in Mat. 5,17-18) "I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it", he is of course speaking of God's true eternal law which he embodies, that is the only law he knows... The Greek word "pleroo" which has been translated as "fulfill" has a much deeper meaning, which is to perfect spiritually, to cause to abound with spiritual gifts... This verse has been grossly misinterpreted. Jesus came to correct the numerous faults of manmade law and reinstate God's true eternal law. Pleroo can also mean to consummate, as in a marriage. And it also carries the meaning that a definite time has arrived for so doing. But the clearest, simplest, most accurate definition is, "to render perfect". Render means to work, like a blacksmith or and artist, or a doctor, to bring about the perfection of health, wellbeing, truth... Not to fulfill the institutional obligations of Mosaic Law, but to correct its shortcomings, to enlighten, to shed true light upon "every last letter and mark" within it. "It shall not pass away until I have fulfilled (rendered perfect) every last letter and mark." Notice the word "until," clearly this means that the old law does in fact pass away once it is perfected. Every single letter and mark will be exposed to the true light and spirit of God. This being accomplished by Christ, God's true law will shine forth, as Jesus is in God and God is in Him, only He is capable of this feat, of this transformation, of this healing miracle. The final stage involved his crucifiction - in order to know human life in its entirety he even allowed this, so that by actually experiencing death and suffering he could overcome them, and therefore so could all who take refuge in Him. "With man it is not possible, but with God all things are possible." Jesus was not a human blood sacrifice to placate a wrathful God of the OT, but the bringer of God's true eternal unchanging law of love and compassion for all beings. Through his crucifiction he was able to perform the ultimate act of forgiveness, this was the final nail in the coffin of the forces of evil in the world, the final victory. And then he said, "It is finished" and gave up his spirit to God... Another meaning of Pleroo is to bring to realization, to realize, to beautify, and this is exactly what Christ does, now and then, eternally, within and without time, throughout the universe.
MAY GOD BLESS YOU AND KEEP YOU
MAY ALL PEOPLE LEARN TO LIVE IN PEACE AND HARMONY
MAY WE LEARN TO SEE CLEARLY
MAY WE REALIZE OUR POTENTIAL
MAY WE ALL LEARN TO LIVE ACCORDING TO GOD'S ETERNAL
WAY OF LIFE
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The church has turned Jesus into a blood sacrifice to placate the wrathful, misconstrued OT conception of God. Bibleanity says Jesus died for our sins, but it was not his death which brings about salvation. It is not the fact that Jesus died, rather he faced death and even after horrible torture he was still compassionate and asked for his torturers to be forgiven, "Forgive them Father, they know not what they do." It is this last act of compassion and kindness, the final act in his earthly incarnation, which :
1-defeated the forces of evil in the world
2-led the way for all people to have a new relationship with God and to have forgiveness for their sins and inadequacies by taking refuge in him. This act of compassion was the fulfillement/perfection/beautification of the "law and the prophets" and much more...
3-this act also demonstrated the errant nature of the OT idea of a wrathful God... Bibleanity twists this around 180 degrees by making Jesus into blood sacrifice to placate the wrath of God, to allow Him to take man's due punishment from God upon himself. There is some truth in this, he incarnated and gave his life, to save mankind, to bring the light of truth, salvation, and even though it meant enduring a horrible death, he chose this course. In the OT blood is the source of life, and Jesus gave his life for all people, so grotesque phrases such as, "we are washed in his blood" which are bandied about but some Christians may have an underlying basis in truth. However I think it is wrong to say such things, we do not have the right... We should be sorry, not happy, Jesus had to do this.
4-this final act of his earthly incarnation sets an example for us, demonstating God's true way of life, being one of non-violence and compassion. Again bibleanity twists this, saying Jesus was an OT style sacrifice whereby God cleansed us of our sins, and goes on to subvert all he did by saying he is going to return as a divine warrior and destroy everyone who does not bow down to him. It is a really bad testimony against the Christian religion that so many people blindly swallow this false doctrine, seemingly oblivious to what Jesus actually said and did. Humans clearly seem to have a penchant for deluded ways, even when given the truth they turn their backs on it and run in some other direction.
It was not the fact that Jesus died, but that he lived, and the final act of his human incarnation was an act of compassion which defeated the forces of ignorance and cruelty. This was not something that could be argued, preached, or theologized, it was something he actually did, physically, himself, something which no one else could do. Something no one else could bear to do. But in so doing he changed the world, and gave people the same strength, abilities, compassion and love. We can choose to accept this gift, or to deny it. If we choose, we can repent of our sins and be forgiven, and God will enter our lives and begin transforming us spiritually. We can come to know the Holy Spirit and have an intimate relationship with God the father/mother, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. This is the true basis of Christianity, not the doctrine of a divinely dictated, perfect and infallible bible.
In the OT world, blood was believed to be the "seat of the spirit." So when the NT says things like our sins are cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, it is not tlaking about somekind of pagan blood sacrifice to placate God's wrath, or that Jesus was punished by God for our sins. It means he gave his life for all people, and through the final act in his earthly body he defeated the forces of evil through his total compassion and forgivness. He did that which is impossible for us to do on our own, he took our sins upon him out of love, that is God's true nature. God does not punish. We punish ourselves when we do things that separate us from God/Life. God always works to restore health, wellbeing, relationship. Jesus gave us of hisliving spirit, his "blood" in the OT sense, which during those times held religious significance, but he transformed the OT practice of animal sacrifice into an act of compassion, love, obedience to God's true law, even though it meant great suffering on his behalf for our sakes, the "true sacrifice of righteousness" of which Isaiah speaks. God does not delight in the blood of animals or the smell of burning flesh. This was a mistaken idea dreamed up by deluded men. Jesus corrected their errors. When he said he came to fulfill the law, i.e. to prefect it, it does not mean the law was perfect, or even divine, rather it needed to be perfected, corrected, down to its very last letter and jot - exactly opposite to the interpretation given to this passage by the advocates of bibleanity. Rather than wrath and punishment Jesus demonstrated compassion and forgivness, for all people...
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When the bible speaks of Eternal Life this may be seen as refering to the quality of life one experiences in God's presence. God is eternal, to be with God is to know eternal life. The same holds true for "eternal damnation" - sinful actions separate us from God and if we persist we gradually cut our bonds to God, and to be separate from God is to experience total darkness, i.e. eternal damnation. The repulsive force of wrong actions pushes us away from God, true perception, and wellbeing. However I don't think its possible to be entirely separate from God. I believe God always maintains a connecting thread, being ever hopeful and receptive to a repentant soul. It makes no sense at all that anyone should be permanently damned, cut off. This goes against the main theme of the bible, which is God's unending work to bring people into the Way of Life, to save them from their sinful propensities and ignorance. I do not think anyone could enjoy life knowing there were people in some other place being punished for eternity. Jesus said he came to save sinners. So while people may chose to live sinful lives and suffer the consequences I believe God is always present and receptive to the sincere soul. Besides, how could there be any place or time where God is not ?
We should always question authority and serve God first. Paul's statement that all authorities, governments, emperors, kings, etc. are divinely ordained is mistaken and has led to alot of tyrannts like Henry the 8th using the bible as justification for monstrous crimes.
Openness and honesty are essential. All information should be accessible. There should be no secret agencies, no hidden agendas... Everything should be done in broad daylight. Governments bear the same responsibility to act according to God's Way of Life as do individuals, and suffer the same consequences when they deviate from this Way of Life, honesty, openness, and selfless service.
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I believe Apocalypse was written as metaphor of personal spiritual practice, not actual physical events, not a prediction of eternal historic events, but rather a depiction of the interior process which culminates in Christ's spiritual return, his second coming, within us. The kingdom of heaven is within us. Literally waiting for Jesus to physically return as some divine warrior king... in so doing Christianity took the wrong path, a worldly path, this literal waiting for the second coming. Jesus always spoke of a spiritual kingdom and a spiritual process. Apocalypse has been misinterpreted from a worldly POV by the church and theologians. It is not a depiction of future historic events, rather a symbolic representation of early Christian spiritual practice, as well as encouragement to those Christians who were undergoing horrible persecution, couched in the symbolic language of apocalytic literature.
The bible is a construct of men. The various NT letters, designated as books, were never intended as additions to the Hebrew bible - they were letters addressing certain problems within the early Christian church. The doctrine of bibleanity has supplanted true Christianity. Much of what churches teach about the bible is false, as well as in conflict with the true teachings and person of Christ. As such bibleanity undermines the original purpose of Christianity and discredits the church in the eyes of people who do not accept the teachings of bibleanity. For example, there are still study bibles being marketed which claim the stories of Noah of Jonah are literally true, the Earth was created in 6 days, the Earth is less than 10,000 years old, humans were created in a few minutes by God, etc...
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A house built upon sand -
It is much easier to study the bible than to actually live as Jesus demonstrated. . The bible is an imperfect manmade book, it is not infallible, it must be studied from a basis in Christ, not visa versa. Jesus Christ is the Word of God and Christianity is supposed to be about spiritual growth and transformation, not worshipping a book.
In Paul's second letter to Timothy we read (KJV) " 14 But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; 15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
2 Timothy 3:16 " All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: " is one of the foundation stones of the doctrine of bibleanity. However, this illustrates several very important points. The first being, many words are inserted into the text by translators, and even the addition of a single word or punctuation mark can change the meaning. This verse is an excellent example, because the word "is" is not in the actual text, by inserting this tiny word twice into this verse the authors have arbitrarily assigned a meaning to it. But if we read what the bible actually says (and it is interesting that people who claim to believe the bible was dictated by God see fit to add to it whenever they deem it neccesary to uphold their doctrines) what it actually says is this, " All scripture (is) given by inspiration of God, (and is) profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:", i.e. "All scripture given by inspiration of God, profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:" Now, if we view the teachings and example of Jesus as the revelation of God's true nature, then the numerous accounts of massacres, murders, the unending litanies of doom and gloom we find repeated ad nauseum throughout the OT and again in Revelation, clearly do not mesh with the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus corrected many false views in the bible and opposed the advocates of bibleanity. His teachings of unconditional love, non-violence, and non-materialism can in no way be construed as being in agreement with the violent wrathful image of God found in the OT. Now, this verse is taken from a letter written by Paul, it was not part of the bible, the Christian bible did not exist a that time, it was not attached to the bible as it is now. So from a view based in Christ, does this verse actually mean the entire contents of the bible is inspired by God ? That is impossible, as God is love and never harms anyone. The image of the wrathful destructor god of armies in the OT is a fabrication of deluded, ignorant men. I believe this verse means exactly what it says, " All scripture given by inspiration of God, profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:" That is, those writings which are inspired by God are beneficial. That is the only logical interpretation from a Christian point of view, but bibleanity demands the bible take precedence, even if it means changing the teachings of Jesus so they conform with the doctrine of the divine, perfect, infallable bible. Jesus never told anyone to study the bible, he did not write anything we know of, his was a teaching of faith in God, healing, love for others, and the denial of selfish interests... Even though Jesus said we are to love our enemies and turn the other cheek, the advocates of bibleanity ignore this and teach that Jesus is in fact the OT god of armies and he is going to return and "judge" the earth. What all these doctors and authorities seem to be missing is that the word " to judge" in Hebrew means to bring justice - not punishment and destruction. Christ will bring justice to the earth. That is what the bible really says. Jesus said we are to test all spirits. Christianity means faith in God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. The bible is not the "Word of God" - Jesus is. Why ? Because God is spirit and can only be revealed spiritually, through the heart, through our interactions and way of life. God's living word must be carefully discerned. That which brings peace, truth, healing, and fulfillment is of God, things which bring the opposite are not. God is infinite love and compassion. God never harms anyone, God has never brought enemies to put people to the sword or plagues or desired blood sacrifices or burnt sacrifices, all of these things are the ideas of men. Jesus incarnated to show us the true nature of God...
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How numerous translators are altering the content of the bible, the most flagrant being "The Message" paraphrase version -
Its becoming common for bible translators change the meaning of the bible to fit their own relgious beliefs. The worse examples are translations done by one person from a specific doctrinal POV. Many study bibles insert notes into the text propagandizing various docrines. In order to obtain a copyright on the bible text translators claim to have retranslated the entire bible text from its original Hebrew and Greek sources, yet their translations often differ in order to conform the bible to their personal beliefs.
from The Gospel of Mark 2, 1-5
kjv - And again he entered into Capernaum... and he preached the word unto them. And they... let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.
ALL OTHER MAJOR BIBLE TRANSLATIONS AGREE WITH THE ABOVE, YET "THE MESSAGE" DIFFERS... THIS "TRANSLATION" WAS WRITTEN BY ONE PERSON. NOTICE HOW HIS CHANGES ALTER THE MEANING OF THE TEXT TO CONFORM WITH THE VIEWS OF BIBLEANITY...
the message - After a few days, Jesus returned to Capernaum... He was teaching the Word. They ... removed part of the roof and lowered the paraplegic on his stretcher. Impressed by their bold belief, Jesus said to the paraplegic, "Son, I forgive your sins."
"He was teaching the Word" - fundememtalists call the bible the Word of God, when in fact Jesus Christ is the Word of God, the Logos, God's Spirit incarnate. This translator turns Jesus into a bible teacher, someone who was teaching "the Word"... Jesus often refered to the Hebrew bible, but he also told many stories and gave many teachings that were his original revelations. "Preaching the word"means preaching the gospel, Christ's spoken word was from God, he was not giving a bible study class as this author suggests. This seemingly minor alteration totally changes the meaning - now Jesus is teaching the Word, with a capital "W", which in fundememtalist parlance means the bible.The bible becomes "the Message", not the person of Jesus Christ.
The "translator" goes on to actually change the gospel text and quotes Jesus as saying, "Son, I forgive your sins." This author is changing what Jesus says in the gospels ! Its ironic that such "fundementalists" are actually the most liberal in their interpretation of the bible, and they make alot of money to boot. Jesus never took credit for the healings and miracles that came through him. He always said, "your faith has made you whole," etc. This is an essential point, he placed the emphasis on one's faith as being the crucial ingredient. This author changes his teaching. Jesus always gave credit to God the Father, and regarded himself as God's humble servant. Here we have, in just one paragraph two major erroneous intentional changes in the Gospel of Mark. Imagine how many such alterations have been made throughout the entire text. This is bibleanity at its worst, undermining and distorting the original text to propagandize a false manmade religious institution. Jesus Christ is the Word of God - not the bible.
or, compare these two verses -
Isaiah 2 (The Message) ... "They'll turn their swords into shovels, their spears into hoes. No more will nation fight nation; they won't play war anymore. "
Isaiah 2 (KJV) ... "and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. "
War is not a game that people "play", and a sword could not be made into a shovel, whereas it would make an excellent plowshare, .the image of tilling the soil rather than cutting people...is this too diffiuclt for modern readers to fathom ? and the image of the pruning hook is consistent with numerous stories in the bible which compare God's Kingdom to an orchard, and God's instruction as a sort of spiritual pruning, but hey, what the hell, we'll just toss it out the window, we'll just throw these ancient biblical associations out the window... and replace them with something more... more what is hard to say, lest I should wax profane... what could be the point of this ? This is like reading the bible filtered through another person's brain, why publish this book at all ? its like drinking beer through a donut...
Could it be that in order to get a copyright on the bible, a new "translation" has to be sufficiently different from other translations, hence the numerous, diversions in this book. Could this actually be an attempt to make a "translation" different enough to get a copyright ? And as more people seek to aquire new copyrights they will have to make more and more intentionally diverse "translations"?
2 Samuel 6,1-2 (King James Version) Again, David gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. And David arose, and went with all the people that were with him from Baale of Judah, to bring up from thence the ark of God, whose name is called by the name of the LORD of hosts that dwelleth between the cherubims.
2 Samuel 6, 1-2 (The Message) David mustered the pick of the troops of Israel, thirty divisions of them. Together with his soldiers, David headed for Baalah to recover the Chest of God, which was called by the Name God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who was enthroned over the pair of angels on the Chest.
What could possibly be the point in changing "the ark of God" to "the Chest of God" ? This is profane... "ark" has much deeper spiritual implications, as a repository for divine knowledge, for example, and there is the connection with Noah's ark, which was a repository for all the various lifeforms which inhabit the Earth... "Chest" is like a piece of furniture in the bedroom. In addition, "Chest of God" has another literal meaning which doesn't fit at all. There is absolutely no good reason for making such sweeping changes, which is why all bible translations should be approved by Church panels.
"David mustered the pick of the troops of Israel" (the Message) is supposed to be clearer than, "David gathered together all the chosen men of Israel,"(KJV) ? This is ridiculous, the poetic cadence and deep spiritual quality of the KJV is much, much better. And, the "Old English" is clearer and will outlast such modern idioms. The English of the Message lacks grace, is crude, and confusing. This sort of thing happens throughout this book. Are we to believe that modern people can understand "David mustered the pick of the troops of Israel" easier than "David gathered together all the chosen men of Israel." ? On the contrary, the Message often displays English that is difficult to understand and just plain ugly. Almost all of the changes I found detracted from the actual meaning. And in many places things are inserted which simply seem to be the products of the author's imagination, as when John the Baptist says he's just a stagehand, etc. Jesus was not an actor on a play... but that is how bibleanity portrays him. Bibleanity turns Jesus into a cog in the machinations of a divine bible.
Cherubim are very special types of heavenly beings, they are the very means by which God is transported from heaven to earth, to change "Cherubim" to "angels" is clearly wrong, as Angels were most often seen in human form, as men in radiant bright white clothing, as God's messengers. Angels and Cherubim are two distinct entities. This book is chock full of this sort of slight in which critical information is essentially erased. Psalm 18 (NIV) clearly illustrates the role of the Cherubim, " He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet. He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind..." God did not mount Angels and fly on their backs. The roles of Cherubim and Angels are distinct, but "The Message" does away with such distinctions. And these changes are just a minute sampling...
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Luke 41-44 (The Message) When the city came into view, he wept over it. "If you had only recognized this day, and everything that was good for you! But now it's too late. In the days ahead your enemies are going to bring up their heavy artillery and surround you, pressing in from every side. They'll smash you and your babies on the pavement. Not one stone will be left intact. All this because you didn't recognize and welcome God's personal visit."
Luke 41-44 (KJV) And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
Notice how the author changes this passage. "And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee" this refers to the stones from which Jerusalem is constructed shall be leveled, laid even with the ground, and children refers to all the inhabitants of the city. "Thee" is Jerusalem. But the author says, "They'll smash you and your babies on the pavement. " That is not what this passage said, that is not what Jesus said in the Gospels, that is not the meaning of this passage. It is the authors imagination at work. The author then says, "All this because you didn't recognize and welcome God's personal visit." These things were not a punishment from a wrathful God because they did not recognize Jesus, but because they missed the opportunity to follow the true way of life and peace he embodied and taught, thus their subsequent actions led to the destruction of the city, they chose to follow a different course, it was the consequence of their actions, it was not done by God as a punishment, as the authors version implies. This is misleading and deviates from the actual content and meaning of the text. I
Regarding this passage from The Message Bible, Hosea 13,
"Now Samaria has to face the charges because she has rebelled against her God: Her people will be killed, babies smashed on the rocks, pregnant women ripped open."
Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan as an example of how someone who lives by God's Way behaves toward others, in contrast to the behavior of the Priest who ignored the suffering man. Jesus himself visited Samaria and stayed there several days teaching the people there who recognized him as the Messiah. When he met a woman at a well there and asked her for a drink of water, their interaction led to her immediate recognition of him as the Messiah - something people in his hometown failed to do.... So clearly Gods Way of relating to the Samaritans is totally different than what the Prophet says in this passage in Hosea. Because the Prophet filtered his vision through his religious beliefs rather than his heart. This was before Christ came into the world. It was a different place. But in no way did God do the sorts of horrible things attributed to him in the OT. All of these things were purely the consequences of the actions of sick and deluded men. None of them were punishments from God. Bibleanity ignores the teachings of Jesus in this very important area and goes about reinstating the very things he worked so hard, and suffered so terribly, to correct. In this regard bibleanity is the antithesis of what Christianity should be.
kjv- Jer 29,8-9 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed. For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith the LORD.
m - Jer 29:8-9 Yes. Believe it or not, this is (the Message ) from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel's God: "Don't let all those so-called preachers and know-it-alls who are all over the place there take you in with their lies. Don't pay any attention to the fantasies they keep coming up with to please you. They're a bunch of liars preaching lies and claiming I sent them! I never sent them, believe me." God's Decree!
kjv Mark 14-15 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
m -Mark 1:14 -15 After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee preaching the Message of God: "Time's up! God's kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message."
the author often uses punctuation to change the tenor of these writings. Exclamation marks abound, I guess he thinks God needs to shout to be heard. The result is lacking in grace and humility:
Psalm 4 (The Message) "When I call, give me answers. God, take my side! Once, in a tight place, you gave me room; Now I'm in trouble again: grace me! hear me! You rabble? how long do I put up with your scorn? How long will you lust after lies? How long will you live crazed by illusion? Look at this: look Who got picked by God! He listens the split second I call to him."
In the advertising blurb on the box for the Message Bible, the publisher likens it to a "letter from God", and asks, "how would you feel if you received a letter from God ? Would your mind race..." Just to set matters straight - God's presence always brings a feeling of deep serenity, indescribable peace and love, beyond the ken of the human mind. The presence of God does not "make your mind race", that sort of frenetic energy is unhealty and it is not of God.
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On the back of the Inductive Study Bible it says, "Inductive study of the bible is the best way to discover Scriptural Truth. Knowledge that is self discovered is stored in the deepest part of the mind... There is no jewel more precious than that which you have minded yourself ". This sound very nice, but in fact this study bible is extremely opinionated and biased, the only difference is that instead of honestly expressing an opinion, the author lists many questions for people to answer, and other activities which manipulate their "study" of the bible, this includes a great deal of misleading things in the form of lists of questions and lists of "things to think about." This is very similar to the way a con-artist manipulates naive people. There is a "Things to think about" section that prefaces each book - if you are making a study bible in which people discover their own insights, why tell them what to think about ? Why not follow Jesus' instructions and allow the Holy Spirit to teach us ? And there are many "Insights" - why tell people what their "Insights" are supposed to be ? You can't dictate insights ! In the list of questions on Genesis 1, it says, "Jesus took Genesis at face value." It never ceases to amaze me how these people presume to speak for Jesus whenever it serves their purpose. Jesus never took anything "at face value." That is pure conjecture on the author's behalf, and untrue to boot... The author goes on to say, "As you study you will see..." Could anyone be more blatantly manipulative ? Here is a study bible which purports to guide people to their own insights and it is telling people what they are supposed to think about as they study !
"Are you going to take God's Word at face value and believe as Jesus did..." Wow, the author is now telling us what Jesus believed. But the fact is, while Jesus refered to the bible and Moses, he perfected, i.e. fulfilled, the law and the prophets - just the opposite of accepting them at face value. Advocates of bibleanity presume to speak for God and Christ, and twist everything to fit their agenda. Naive people who are perhaps too lazy to use the brains God gave them seem content to swallow whatever goop these "experts" ladle out Jesus clearly did not accept the bible at face value, he corrected the monstrous practice of stoning, he taught non-violence and love, he corrected the law on divorce, etc... he clearly did not conform to the wrathful image of God as presented in the bible, nor the bible's expectation of a Messiah who was a worldly king. The author goes on, "are you going to follow the philosophies of men" - science is not philosophy, evolution is scientific fact, as is the age of the earth, etc. Women were not created from men, Adam and Eve are mythic figures, etc. Bibleanity is an errant philosophy of men which equates the bible with God, when in fact the bible is a book made by men that contains a great deal that is not of God. The author continues in this polemic, "are you going to follow men with finite minds who critique God and his Word ?" again the author's statement is actually the opposite of the true state of affairs. We are created in God's image. God expects us to ask (our own) questions and learn. Scientific inquirey is in keeping with what the bible actually says, i.e. God's Word is written in our hearts, God is evident throughout creation, Jesus constantly required people to use their powers of thought and discernment, etc.
The advocates of bibleanity often work in opposition to God's true nature while putting forth a facade of righteousness, and those who do not agree with them are often slandered. Whenever anyone says what is actually true, i.e. evolution is a fact, or the bible contains alot of mythic and legendary materials, etc., the advocates of bibleanity often revert to petty name calling and insisting their interpretation of the bible is the only correct view. The effect of this is to discredit Christianity in the eyes of many intelligent persons, and to misrepresent the true nature of God and Christ. Spreading doctrines of ignorance does nothing to further the Gospel. Jesus told us how we should spread the Gospel - through following his example. Ignorance and bigotry do not a righteous person make. On Romans 1 the author includes these questions in the preface, "are you ready to defend the Gospel ? Can you refute modern day Judaizers and/or antinomians ?" Comments such as these have no place in a bible and reflect the authors biased views, rather than Christ's teachings of unconditional love and compassion.
At times the advocates of bibleanity resort to the inflamatory rhetoric of bigotry, assuming anyone who does not agree with their views is not a Christian. Jesus said to tell a tree by its fruit. Ignorance and bigotry are not the fruits of the Gospel of Christ.
Bibleanity places the bible before the teachings and person of Jesus. The true basis of Christianity should be spiritual transformation and communion with God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, which bibleanity attempts to replace with bible study. Bibleanity is much easier, and more lucrative, than following Jesus' example and instructions. The bible contains many horribly violent things which have nothing to do with God. Advocates of bibleanity worship the bible as being perfect and place it before Christ, twisting his life and teaching to conform with their beliefs. It is not the bible per se that is at fault, but rather its misinterpretation and the belief that the bible is divinely dictated and infallible, which makes no sense at all because the bible contains a great deal of conflicting materials, mistruths, false claims of authorship, and errant information.
Furthermore, its lengthy dark, violent passages can be very depressing and unhealty. Books communicate the spirit and consciousness of their author, and a great deal of the bible was not written by enlightened authors. War stories and legends are not "scripture". By the middle ages Christianity had become a religion of war, starting with Constantine, and numerous despotic tyrants across Europe, such as Henry the 8th and Ivan the Terrible, committed horrible atrocities in the name of God, believing the accounts of wrath and punishment in the bible to be the Word of God, and themselves to be God's ministers of wrath. There were exterminations of entire towns, entire populations were tortured in the most hideous manner, murder and intrigue often ran rampant within royal courts... This is the legacy of bibleanity; Christianity had been turned into a religion of war, conquest and fear. Many thousands of innocent people were brutally tortured and murdered in the name of Christ.
Jesus went into the mountains alone at night to pray, to commune with God spiritually, he did not go to study the bible... That which brings true peace, understanding, wellbeing, love and compassion is of God, the rest is not.
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from the God's Word Bible,, compare this verse from John 1:16 -
NIV - From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.
NAS - For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.
ESV - And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
KJV - And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
God's Word Bible - "Each of us has received one gift after another because of all the Word is."
In the Gospel of John, the Logos, is the greek word which has been translated into "the Word" - however this should not be confused with the English term "word", in greek Logos has a much deeper meaning, according to Thayers, it does not mean a word in the gramatical sense, but "the personal wisdom and power in Union with God, his minister in the creation and government of the universe," etc. The term translated as "his fullness" is not Logos (the Word) but "pleromatos - that which fills or with which a thing is filled" clearly this should not also be tranlated as "the Word", there is no justufiable reason for doing this, other than to change the meaning of the text, and to imply the the Bible is the source of gifts, not the person of Jesus Christ... This is saying, incorrectly, that the bible and Christ are the same thing. This is not at all what the text says. Just looking at the ESV Greek interlinear and Thayers reveals this obvious fault. So how could it be that bible doctor experts could make such a mistake ? The answer is, it is not a mistake, but a deliberate act to alter the meaning of this verse. Such is the nature of bibleanity.
Wow - Jesus is taken out of the picture and replaced by the bible, which in biblanity parlance is called the "Word." Advocates of bibleanity speak of the bible's power to save us, or heal us, or tell us to love the bible... Unbelievable - "From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another" is changed to "Each of us has received one gift after another because of all the Word is." Who needs this sort of thing ? The box cover states, "Today's most readable bible" and "Over 4 Million in Print !" wow, bibleanity is lucrative indeed. Every big name evangelist churns out his personalized "translation", and has hisname plastered on the box, is an easy way to make alot of money. So what if the actual text of the bible has to be changed so they can get their copyright...
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Woe unto you who are rich -
In Luke 6,24 we have Jesus saying, "But woe unto you who are rich..." This sounds rather like a condemnation, however it is essential that we remember who is saying this. And it is essential that we first and foreost come to experience the spiritual presence of Christ in meditation... because, once we experience the peace, love and compassion which is the reality of God's presence embodied in Jesus and at work in the Holy Spirit, our guide, councelor and advocate, it is obvious that the tenor of such language does not fit the person of Christ. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say, those who are rich should be very careful because riches entail responsiblity and often result in grief and calamity. Woe means grief and calamity. But passages such as this are often given a judgemental twist that was not implied by Jesus. Jesus is saying that in this young man's case, since he was attached to his materialistic possessions and this was blinding him to God's Way, it would be best for him to sell them all and donate the proceeds to the poor. There are also people who are blessed with wealth and utilize it to help others, so its not the riches but the naute of the attachment to them, that is the issue here. How many times have people who have won the lottery had their lives ruined by their sudden acquisition of immense wealth... Riches are a burden, and entail an obligation to use them according to God's Way of Life, not for selfish, gluttonous, hedonistic pursuits. So Jesus gave this young man his advice but due to his attachment he was unable to heed it. Such is the danger of wealth if we do not realize who is the actual owner of everything. We are stewards, not owners. All the money in the universe belongs to God. A billion dollars is a drop in the bucket, a grain of sand, but in human terms, even such a meager amount of God's goods require responsible care and use. And, true happiness is not a question of money, but purely related to our spiritual condition, hence some "poor" people may be much closer to God than some "rich" people, but that is not always the case. The are poor alcholics who neglect and abuse their families and the are rich people who live in humility and do their best to use their Godgiven talents properly... So its not a matter of social or economic class... So the rather hardnosed tenor with which Jesus is sometimes portrayed in the bible is inaccurate, the result of the authors projecting their views into their writitngs at times. So it is essential to base our spiritual practice in meditation, spiritual communion with God/Christ/Holy Spirit, and to read the bible (if we so choose) from that basis.
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Here is an interesting example of how the advocates of bibleanity alter the bible to fit their agenda, John 1:16-17 from the God's Word translation -
GWT-"Each of us has received one gift after another because of all that the Word is.
The Teachings were given through Moses,
but kindness and truth came into existence through Jesus Christ."
KJV -"And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
For the law was given by Moses,
but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."
The only teacher in the NT is Jesus and the only teachings in the NT come through him.
Mosaic law is not "Teachings." Furthermore, the law could not lead people to salvation as does Christ, so why this change in the Gospel of John which seems to elevate Moses and demeen Christ ? "because of all the Word is." Unbelievable, fundamentalists call the bible the Word, and here it is replacing the person of Christ - this is pure bibleanity, a flagrant and errant alteration of the Gospel of John.
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Luke 22,29 KJV reads -
"And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed (one) upon Me,
so that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom..."
In the MacArthur study bible we find this comment on page 1560, re. Luke 22,29 -
"Christ confirmed the disciple's expectation of an earthly kingdom yet to come..."
Jesus always refered to the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven as a spiritual kingdom. He told many stories illustrating this point, such as the kingdom of heaven being like a small amount of yeast which leavens a large amount of dough, or a mustard seed which grows into a large plant, etc. Clealy he is teaching of a spiritual condition, the kingdom of heaven is within you. So to say he was confirming expectations of an earthly kingdom seems to be the opposite of what he taught. As Jesus clearly stated on numerous occasions, his is not an earthly kingdom and he was not to be an earthly king. It seems to me the author is more concerned with upholding the ideas of a future kingdom as set forth in Apocalypse, i.e. upholding the doctrine of the divine bible, rather than the teachings of Jesus. So, this verse is interpreted in such a manner as to be consistent with later writings such as Hebrews and Apocalypse (written many years after Jesus' earthly sojurn) which were then compiled to form the "Holy Bible", even if it means "re-writing" the teachings of Christ. This is the nature of bibleanity. This verse says, " And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed upon Me..." God did not bestow an earthly kingdom upon Jesus. From the start it was clear that his kingdom was "in heaven", of the spirit, within us. Jesus bestows the same spiritual "kingdom" (basilea) upon us as God bestows upon him, i.e. he bestows the exact same state of grace and blessedness as God has bestowed upon him.
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These quotes from The MacArthur Study Bible illustrate how the advocates of bibleanity alter the teachings and example of Jesus Christ. This is from page 972, re. Isaiah 11,4 : "Rod of His mouth - the Branch's (Messiah's) rule over the nations will be forceful. The NT uses equivalent terminology to describe the warrior-king at his triumphant return to earth (Rev. 19:15)".
Notice the equating of Revelation with the entirety of the NT, this is a common pratice of bibleanity, to counter the teachings of Jesus Christ with some verse from Revelation, etc. But the Gospels and Revelation are two very distinct entities. This is the opposite of what Jesus teaches... "rod" means shoot, sprout, grass... i.e. whereas men strike the earth with instruments of violence, Jesus "strikes" the earth with his healing word and spirit, the "shoot of his mouth" is life giving, healing word ! Jesus often used hyperbole, metaphor and symbolism but his disciples did not understand.
and also re. Isaiah 11,4 the author offers this expert commentary: "Breath of His lips - this is another figure for the Messiah's means of inflicting physical harm."
Here we have one of the foremost authorities on the bible, the author of numerous books and study bibles with millions of copies in print, proclaiming Jesus to be a warrior-king who will inflict physical harm with his breath. And this study bible contains many such comments. This is the anti-thesis of the teachings, life and Spirit of Jesus Christ.
As above, a spirit based meaning of this phrase, "Breath of His lips" refers to God's lifegiving breath, his healing word.
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When Jesus says (in Mat. 5,17-18) "I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it", he is of course speaking of God's true eternal law which he embodies, that is the only law he knows... The Greek word "pleroo" which has been translated as "fulfill" has a much deeper meaning, which is to perfect spiritually, to cause to abound with spiritual gifts... This verse has been grossly misinterpreted as meaning Jesus came to fulfill Mosaic Law, that Mosaic Law is God's true law, and Jesus came as a human blood sacrifice to fulfill the demands of Mosaic Law which required blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins in order to placate the OT God's supposed wrath. This is very wrong. Jesus came to perfect the errant Mosaic Law, as he demonstrated on numerous occasions. Jesus came to correct the numerous faults of manmade law and reinstate God's true eternal law. Another possible interpretation of this verse is, "to flood the soul with spiritual possesions", as when "Christians... are pervaded with the power and Gifts of the Holy Spirit" (Thayer). Pleroo can also mean to consummate, as in a marriage. And it also carries the meaning that a definite time has arrived for so doing. But the clearest, simplest, most accurate definition is, "to render perfect". Render means to work, like a blacksmith or and artist, or a doctor, to bring about the perfection of health, wellbeing, truth... Not to fulfill the institutional obligations of Mosaic Law, but to correct its shortcomings, to enlighten, to shed true light upon "every last letter and mark" within it. "It shall not pass away until I have fulfilled (rendered perfect) every last letter and mark." Notice the word "until," clearly this means that the old law does in fact pass away once it is perfected. Every single letter and mark will be exposed to the true light and spirit of God. This being accomplished by Christ the old law no longer exists, like a disease that has been cured. Then God's true law will shine forth, as Jesus is in God and God is in Him, only He is capable of this feat, of this transformation, of this healing miracle. The final stage involved his crucifiction - in order to know human life in its entirety he even allowed this, so that by actually experiencing death and suffering he could overcome them, and therefore so could all who take refuge in Him. "With man it is not possible, but with God all things are possible." Jesus was not a human blood sacrifice to placate a wrathful God of the OT, but the bringer of God's true eternal unchanging law of love and compassion for all beings. Through his crucifiction he was able to perform the ultimate act of forgiveness, this was the final nail in the coffin of the forces of evil in the world, the final victory. And then he said, "It is finished" and gave up his spirit to God... Another meaning of Pleroo is to bring to realization, to realize, and this is exactly what Christ does, now and then, eternally, within and without time, throughout the universe.
Jesus always spoke and acted with compassion. However the author of Apocalypse casts him in a different light. Clearly much of this book is the author's POV. Parts of it may be spiritually inspiring, and there is some very interesting symbolism pointing at possible "hidden" teachings... But there is a great deal that could not have come from the mouth of Jesus. Such as Rev. 2,22-23 : " Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. " Now, from a basis in Christ this may be interpreted as, people who pursue lives of sexual pormiscuity will suffer spiritual death, they will reap the results of their sinful acts, unless they repent. So the basic content is correct, but the author's wording is biased by his own limited POV, which is rooted in an OT view of God. So he is recasting Jesus in the roll of the OT god of wrath and vengence, which is obviously totally wrong. Yet if read with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, rather than false beliefs in a divine perfect bible, we can ascertain a Christ based interpretation. So, it is not the writings of the bible that mislead people, but the advocates of bibleanity and a naive (and cowardly ?) church which sticks its head in the sand and caters to their deluded ramblings. The truth is not difficult to see, if our mind is clear and our heart is open to God's Living Spiritual Presence. Rather than projecting our extremely limited, linear view on the ways in which we permit God to act, we should learn to be quiet and listen, here and now. God does not operate according to our fixed linear time sense and spacial perameters. Yet how many experts presume to speak for God ? They say the most ignorant and screwed-up things at times with an air of assurance and are seemingly unaware, like someone passing wind in an elevator, then carefully savoring its aroma and proclaiming it to be the deepest truth... And there are even institutions of "higher education" that award degrees to the most proficient wind-passers. And this ability naturally extends into the world of book publishing, and it just keeps on snowballing, until the actual person of Jesus is lost in a smog of theological flatulence.
Whenever we see a passage which cites Jesus as being a fulfillment of OT prophecy or when Jesus says he did something "that prophecy might be fulfilled" we should keep in mind the actual meaning of the word "fulfilled" in the NT Greek text, which is "to render perfect." Bibleanity reverses this and says Jesus is a functionary of the divine bible, he is fulfilling the requirements of biblical prophecy, and Jesus becomes a cog in the machinations of the divine and Holy Bible... Advocates of bibleanity often twist his teachings in order conform with their deluded beliefs. Hence the Way of Meditation based in Christ should be an essential part of Christian practice. There has been way too much preaching, debate, argument, spouting off pet rhetoric and doctrines, printing tons of books and study bibles... we'd be better off without most of it. People need to learn to center their life in God, and this is not something to talk about, or write a book about... our spiritual lives should be kept private, or else they will loose their power. Usually we can say much more simply by being who we are, not talking about it, not trying to make a public display... Christians need to learn to be quiet and listen to God... We have an advocate, intimate guide and counselor, this is who we should be listening to. People need to discover their own relationship with God, but many "authorities" try to subvert them from so doing, and try to capitalize on their desire to know God. The loud mouth experts proclaiming to be God's mouthpiece, "Join our church and give us your time and money, do what we say and we will love you..." (but otherwise we will slander you and cast you out...) Do not be naive. Anyone can have a living relationship with God, for free... God's true Word is written in our hearts - that is what the bible says, in the OT and NT ! The advocates of bibleanity often twist the writings of the bible to suit themselves... Christ could have remained in Heaven with God the Father, but he chose to incarnate in order to set things right... but then the Holy Bible was compiled by the church and designated "The Word of God" and the true living Word of God was relegated to be an OT style blood sacrifice to placate the OT style God of wrath... But, in spite of all this, millions of people have found Christ, and actually developed a spiritual life guided by the Holy Spirit, they just don't usually say much about it. They live the life, they walk the walk, and God's true spirit silently permeates the world around them, healing, comforting, changing, they are unnoticed perhaps, yet very effective... God always responds to the sincere heart... An atheist with love in their heart is much closer to God than some trumped up theologian preacher author with a plethora of degrees and books under their belt teaching people that Jesus is a "divine warrior who is going to destroy his enemies with wars, and plagues, and fire, etc."
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2 Timothy 3,16 - this is one of the main passages the advocates of bibleanity cite (words in parenthesis do not appear in actual bible text, but have been added) -
KJV - "16 All scripture (is) given by inspiration of God, and (is) profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: "
The addition of the word "is" changes the meaning of thispassage to conform with the doctrine of a divine bible, but at least the KJV translatiors were honest and put such additions to the text in italics, whereas modern translations incorporate thousands of added words which do not actually appear in the text. This illustrates how one small change can effect the meaning of a passage.
Youngs - 16 every Writing [is] God-breathed, and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for setting aright, for instruction that [is] in righteousness,
Darby - 16 Every scripture [is] divinely inspired, and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness;
Wycliffe - 16 For all scripture inspired of God is profitable to teach, to reprove, to chastise, [for] to learn in rightwiseness,
The RV has it best, "Every scripture inspired by God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction (which is) in righteousness."
The NAB has a footnote, "Another possible interpretation is, All Scripture inspired by God is useful..."
The NRSV has this marginal note, "Every scripture inspired by God is also useful..."
The most honest footnote is found in the HarperCollins Study Bible, " The reading given in the text note is equally possible."
This is extremely important, for this is but one example among hundredss in which bible verses have been interpreted to support the views of an author or institution.
Especially among the numerous "modern language versions" that are flooding the market, such as this:
CEV - "Everything in the Scriptures is God's Word. All of it is useful for teaching and helping people and for correcting them and showing them how to live." Which is clearly the result of interpreing the bible from a basis in bibleanity.
Hence we have numerous authors and preachers who profess to be followers of Jesus teaching people that God makes wars, plagues, disasters, sent armies to exterminate entire populations in "Holy Wars", that God told people to stone anyone who did not obey the Mosaic "law", etc., etc. Even though Jesus came in the flesh and showed us the Way of Life, people insist on perverting the truth of the Jesus' teachings of unconditional love, non-violence, and humility and reverting to the same old delusions and abominations.
We should follow the life and example of Jesus, who told us the Holy Spirit would teach us and guide us. God is love and infinite compassion. God never harms anyone. The advocates of bibleanity are spreading delusion and perpetuating the very things Jesus tells us not to do. Christianity should be about relating to people and living as Jesus did. The roll of the bible (with its highly violent content, mindnumbing litanies of wrath, doom and gloom) in Christianity needs to be downplayed, the doctrine of a perfect and infallible bible refuted, and the teachings of Jesus given precedence. Faith is about trusting in God, not merely "believing" in God, but actually living in faith, trusting God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit...
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Mark 4,24 And he (Jesus) said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. 25 For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath. 26 And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; 27 And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. 28 For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. 29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. 30 And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? 31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: 32 But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it. 33 And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it.
"And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it."
The advocates of bibleanity call the bible "The Word." But this is not what it means in the bible ! The Greek text uses "logon" which, according to Thayer's Lexicon means:
" a word, yet not in the grammatical sense, but language, uttered by the living voice... discourse, the act of speech, what is communicated by instruction, the attainment through Christ of salvation in the Kingdom of God, reason, the faculty of thinking, the personal wisdom and power in union with God, his minister in the creation and government of the universe, the cause of the world's life, both physical and ethical, which for the procurement of humankind's salvation assumed human form in the person of Jesus the Messiah, and shone forth conspicuously from hiswords and deeds."
This does not mean a written text or book, it means theact of discourse between people, in this case between God and humans. Jesus engaged in discourse with people, he was not conducting a bible study, he did not write anything that we know of, although at times he incorporated material from the bible in his discussions... teaching "the word" means, according to the bible, discourse, not written words, not the bible. The bible is not the Word of God - Jesus is. That is what the bible says. Bibleanity is a subversion of the life and teachings of Jesus. Bibleanity is big business, very lucrative, employing thousands, but its a false doctrine. And it interferes with Jesus' true teachings. And at times it actually perpetuates the very things Jesus opposses...
"For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath."
Has/has not - this refers to a spiritual basis in our life. People who do not have a spiritual basis spend their lives accumulate temporal experiences and possesions which have no permanent, lasting value. All material, sensual things are fleeting... But people who choose the spiriual life will grow and be continually blessed with spiritual fruits that endure and grow and give life. This passage clearly does not refer to material goods or possesions. Some rich "evangelists" who live in mansions and live lives of luxury may cite this verse as a justification for their lives of excess...
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From 1 John 3 - "6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him... 8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning... 9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin... 10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. 11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another."
This passage shows a dangerous diversion from the teachings and example of Jesus. People make mistakes, that does not mean they are "children of the devil." If Jesus shared John's attitude in this passage, who would have been saved ? This sort of divisive judgemental talk is actually counter to what Jesus taught. He said we are to forgive someone, no matter how many times they sin... This idea that if someone sins they never knew God is totally wrong. If people intentionally sin and do not repent then they separate themselves from God, but that does not mean they never knew God, nor that they may someday return to God's Way of Life. Clearly, no one is perfect and sometimes we fail. People may be lonely, or influenced by others, or tempted of themselves... To "love one another" of course means to be compassionate and forgiving. Thus even the NT must be read from a basis in Christ.
This is from a letter written to an early Christian church regarding the problem of false teachiers who were perverting the Gospel of Christ. Such teachers taught people the Christians would not be held morally responsible for sins they committed since they had been "perfected" by Christ, and as such were free to engage in immoral activities, others claimed that intellectual knowledge of Christ was most important and to simply claim Jesus as their saviour garunteed thier salvation, etc... This was a letter, not a "book" in the bible. It was never intended as such, when it was included in the bible no information about its origin and purpose were included, it took on great significance, this letter became "the word of God", a "book" in the Holy Bible, and its inflamatory rhetoric misled future generations.
In Jude, the final NT letter, which preceeds Apocalypse, the last book in the NT, this problem of false teachers is also addressed, " 4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. 5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not..." Notice the distinction between "the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ", but in the next verse we read, "how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not." Here we find the reintroduction of the OT image of the wrathful warrior God, whom is now addressed as "Lord," the same name used for Jesus. Then comes Apocalypse which depicts Jesus (now speaking greek instead of Aramaic, "I am the Alpha and the Omega", why would Jesus use such language, he never spoke that way before ? Why would he address himself in such a manner to his "beloved disciple" if that was indeed the case ? Why would he address his disciple in greek and describe himself in purely Hellenistic terms ? Clearly this book is the work of an unknown author writing in the genre of apocalypse, not actual statements by Jesus Christ as the advocates of bibleanity and the church maintain ) as the returning warrior god of the OT who will destroy all his enemies. This is the opposite of the teachings, life and example of Jesus Christ. I believe the bible is a carefully constructed collection of writings assembled by men with a specific agenda that is not the same as that of Jesus Christ. It is essential it be read from a spiritual basis in Christ, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and not viewed as some perfect, divinely dictated, "infallible" book. Quite the contrary, it contains many mistakes and deviations. However, in the Light of Christ such can be seen as educational examples of how men may persist in their deluded ways, chosing to remain ignorant even when presented with the truth.
I believe Apocalypse was written as metaphor of personal spiritual practice, not actual physical events, not a prediction of eternal historic events, but rather a depiction of the interior process which culminates in Christ's spiritual return, his second coming, within us. The kingdom of heaven is within us. Literally waiting for Jesus to physically return as some divine warrior king... Christianity took the wrong path, a worldly path, this literal waiting for the second coming. Jesus always spoke of a spiritual kingdom and a spiritual process. Apocalypse has been misinterpreted from a worldly POV by the church and theologians. It is not a depiction of future historic events, rather a symbolic representation of early Christian spiritual practice as well as encouragement to those Christians who were undergoing persecution couched in the symbolic language of apocalytic literature.
The idea of attaching the various writings of the NT, culminating in Apocalypse, to the Hebrew Bible was to give them legitimacy, just the OT idea of a "chosen people" and a "promised land" was to legitimize the conquests of neighboring peoples and the seizure of their lands. This is why Jesus made a point of telling stories about Samaritans, Gentiles and other people who were regarded as enemies... Hence Jesus' instruction to love our enemies - not kill them and steal their possesions and land.
The bible is a construct of men. The various NT letters, designated as books, were never intended as additions to the Hebrew bible - they were letters addressing certain problems within the early Christian church. The false doctrine of bibleanity has supplanted true Christianity, and much of what churches teach about the bible and its contents is false, as well as in conflict with the true teachings and person of Christ.
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A deadly mistranslation -
the subheading for 2 Samuel 12 in the KJV bible reads, "26 David taketh Rabbath and tortureth the people thereof."
The passage reads: "31 And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln: and thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon. So David and all the people returned unto Jerusalem."
The NASB agrees with the KJV: " 31 He also brought out the people who were in it, and set them under saws, sharp iron instruments, and iron axes, and made them pass through the brickkiln. And thus he did to all the cities of the sons of Ammon. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem."
However the NKJV and other modern translations give us the correct version, this agrees with the JPS, NIV, NRSV, HCSB, YLT etc also :
"31 And he brought out the people who were in it, and put them to work with saws and iron picks and iron axes, and made them cross over to the brick works. So he did to all the cities of the people of Ammon. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem."
In the 1 chronicles 20 version of this event,
NASB: "3 He brought out the people who were in it, and cut them with saws and with sharp instruments and with axes. And thus David did to all the cities of the sons of Ammon. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem."
kjv-"3 And he brought out the people that were in it, and cut them with saws, and with harrows of iron, and with axes. Even so dealt David with all the cities of the children of Ammon. And David and all the people returned to Jerusalem."
Again, the NKJV shows the correct (?) rendition, which agrees with other modern translations: "3 And he brought out the people who were in it, and put them to work with saws, with iron picks, and with axes. So David did to all the cities of the people of Ammon. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem."
ylt-"3 and the people who [are] in it he hath brought out, and setteth to the saw, and to cutting instruments of iron, and to axes; and thus doth David to all cities of the sons of Ammon, and David turneth back, and all the people, to Jerusalem. "
But JPS 1 Chronicles 20 says, "He hacked them with saws..." Why would the JPS have this different translation of the same account in 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles ? Which translation is actually correct ? The NASB is supposed to be the most literal, but the YLT differs... Has this passage been changed to conform with modern sensibilities, or are the KJV and NASB wrong ?
Whatever the case, this sort of bible verse led "Christian" tyrannts to commit acts of mass murders on numerous occasions during the middle ages.
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Regarding meditation, yoga, spiritual practice, etc. They can be useful and beneficial or the opposite. Names and labels mean nothing. It is always a matter of the underlying spirit, the Heart of the matter, so to speak. Do not confuse sex with love - usually its the opposite, someone tryin to exploit you for their selfish indulgences. You can never "make things right" in a relationship with such a person. Such people have destroyed their ability to love and mask this with sexual promiscuity. Sexual promiscuity will make people incapable of forming a true bond with anyone, hence such people are incapable of having a true, loving relationship... unless they repent of their own accord and are healed spiritually. It is not your fault other people do bad things. No matter what are situation is, we can always choose to be good people and live by God's law. Even if we are surrounded by people who do not. Remember Jesus defeated the powers of evil 2,000 years ago. Meditation, etc. can be useful, but the idea that one needs to meditate to achieve enlightenment is false, a trap, a waste of time. As the Zen proverb goes, "the everyday mind is the enlightened mind". The ability to quiet the mind and sit in meditation may be spiritually beneficial. It is not a matter of trying to achieve some enlightened state, but of simply getting in touch with who and what we really are... And it may be possible to do this without meditating at all... its purely a question of that which brings us home to the center of truth and well-being. You are a child of God, created in God's image, you do not need to be anythng other than what you truely are... God is love, infinite compassion. We may imagine we are something else, some people may try to get us to think we are something else in order to mislead and exploit us. All the money in the universe is God's... It means nothing other than what good purpose we can use it for. Sensual pleasures are fleeting and have no lasting value. A life spent in the pursuit of sensual indulgence is a life that produces nothing of true value and worth. However, if we live in faith and trust God, even unpleasant situations can be used as learning experiences and enable us to grow in new ways and to become better people. Seeking purely pleasant conditions is not neccesarily the way to go. Of course we all want to live a safe comfortable life, but if we should find ourselves in a less than ideal situation, we need not despair - this may actually be an opportunity, as the Buddhist would say, to work out some past karma, or from a Christian POV, grow closer to God, to grow spiritually. Past experiences are just that. Attachment to experiences, painful or pleasant, can be a stumblingblock. Its important to let things end... to throw out the garbage and move on. "This is over." "I would never do that again", "thats not who I really am", etc. Experiences form mental patterns. We need to let God heal us and bless us with "a new mind in Christ". Those who accept Christ into their hearts and choose the spiritual path are guided by the Holy Spirit, advocate, guide, counselor, and companion. All beings are in truth created in God's image, all have the potential to be the people God wants us to be. We are blessed with free wll. Many people choose lives of indulgence and gluttony, that is their choice. We all reap what we sow. Live and Learn. Whenever anyone sincerely repents and asks to be forgiven they will enter onto the true way which leads home, which is no other place than here and no other time than now. Its fine to live a simple, peaceful life. Fame and fortune can be a burden and often interfere with our well-being. A simple life with meager yet adequate possesions seems to be the best way to go.
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When men are separated from God, when they choose to eat the fruits of evil rather than the fruits of good, they are driven by the consequences of their actions (karma) and as such cast themselves from Eden, paradise, their true and original relationship with God. Yet God never gives up hope, never stops trying to redeem his/her lost children, even when it required Christ to incarnate in person and bear the most horrible and cruel treatment at the hands of deluded and violent men. "Forgive them Father for they know not what they do." This is the mentality of God, not wrath and vengence...
Advocates of bibleanity say the bible is the only standard by which to judge things. This belief has led to a great deal of violent behavior and suffering. Whereas from a Christian POV the only true standard should be the life, teachings and example of Christ. There is a great deal in the bible that does not agree with this standard of unconditional love, non-violence, and supreme compassion... Consequently men sometimes seek to reintroduce the very same deluded institutions of violence and hatred which Jesus gave his life to heal us from. The greatest perversions of Christ's teachings have come under the guise of Christian authorities... therefore we must be careful not to conform to some group just because they claim to be a church or the body of Christ, we are supposed to test all spirits. The idea of a divine, infallible, divinely dictated bible is false Religions built upon such ideas may perpetuate ignorance rather than truth.
Are we to be content with theological arguments and intellectual "belief" and bible study, or should we pursue a different course ? Should we try to actually know God personally instead of talking about who and what we think God is supposed to be according to our definitions, biases, and dictates ?
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God does not change. God is not limited to our linear time sense. God's time is always now, with God all moments are eternally present... Man's understanding of God may change, however this limited understanding should not be construed as God's true nature. Often men project their ignorance upon things they perceive, clouding their perceptions. We can see this tendency throughout the bible, in the OT as well as the NT, which is why Jesus always taught people to use the brains God gave them, to test all spirits, and judge a tree by its fruit. It is essential to realize the writings of the bible were written in languages that no longer exist, for people in ancient cultures that have long since passed away, so to interpret the bible from a literal POV may often be misleading. Jesus taught us the Holy Spirit was to be our guide, not theologians and professional commentators. We are expected to use and develope the intelligence with which we are blessed. Yet it seems that many people are more concerned with conforming to the expectations of some group than the actual teachings, person, and spirit of Christ. Such is eternally unchanging, constant, infinite love and compassion. There is no wrath in God. This is a false doctrine dreamed up by ignorant men. Wrath of God should be re-interpreted as consequences of our actions. To be separated from God is to suffer, and if we pursue a path that leads us away from Truth we will leave the Way of Light and embark upon the way of darkness... The outer darkness. This is man's doing, not God's. Much of the writings on the bible falsely attribute the consequences of man's deluded actions to an imaginary wrath of God. This is wrong. Our current understanding of God's nature is not the same as it was 2,000 years ago. Thanks to the intervention of God and ithe incarnation of Christ in the person of Jesus... names are not critical, spirit is. God sees into the hearts of all people because God is at the heart of all people. We are united by this common thread. Some choose to honor this and other choose to reject this. We are each given free will, otherwise life would have no meaning. Jesus said we are friends, this is what God wants, not automatons or yes men. The view of God presented in the psalms is very different from our view today, yet there is an underlying truth that transcends our limited conceptualizations... if we can discern that which is timeless from that which is misguided. God does not change, hopefully we do, in a positive, evolutionary sense. But it is also possible to regress. Just because we have high tech devices and an exponentially expanding data base does not equate with an increase in understanding and wisdom. What have we done with all our knowledge ? History is mainly a record of warfare. This is what we have chosen to do with our manifold blessings - kill each other in increasingly greater numbers. Will we pass the test and survive as a species ? Right now it does not appear this will be the case. We have been given many opportunities, but we have failed to establish societies based up0n the teachings of Jesus, for example. Instead our societies are for the most part characterized by the pursuit of individual greed, hedonism, and gluttony. Will we learn to discern that which is timeless or succumb to that which is temporary and of no lasting value ? Time will tell. - John Niemi 2-2010, Osaka.