I wonder what right you feel you have to challenege someone else’s experience of God, or to claim them manipulative and false?
How would you like someone to challenge your experiences and understandings?
Perhaps God is large enough to allow for some variation in viewing and / or worshipping Him?
In reality. diversity would seem to be the norm, rather than a single exclusive approach or answer.
Or is that reading too much into God’s creation.
The whole point about Universalism is to accept diversity, not judge or condemn it.
I do believe that. At the same time, I do believe that Jesus did not lie when he claimed that he is the only way.
If I believe that Jesus spoke truth, that necessarily restricts the limits of what kind of beliefs God would consider ok. I do believe that God loves Muslims, Mormons and the other people that believe in whatever religion they have. That does not mean that God would consider these other religions ok.
I am not a judge. Luckily, it is not my task to say whom or what teachings God accepts or rejects. I just believe in what Jesus told.
As long as Jesus is divine (part of God) then the exclusivity is a truism. You cannot separate Jesus from God, so He will always be there. It becomes interlinked with the accommodation of Jesus coming to earth. It “helps” some people, but does not become a barrier to others.
Some days I feel the same way, others I feel the presence of God more clearly. I sympathize with Mother Theresa in her times of spiritual darkness, yet have hope still in the Light that dawns. I pray for you in your life journey, and covet your prayers as well.
And sounds like you are closing out the year with a bang!
gbrooks9
(George Brooks, TE (E.volutionary T.heist OR P.rovidentialist))
330
Unitarian Universalists are also familiar with some whopper Christological heresies!
SkovandOfMitaze
(One 8 ounce steak used as much water as 6,000 ai searches. )
331
I feel like honestly on my end everything is fine. People often mistaken the fact that naturalism has overwhelmingly replaced supernaturalism in my life that I’m more of an atheist. Perhaps. Sure my navigation in this world is predicated by what seems to be reality. Such as if any of us was suffering from a disease that could be treated with medical treatment we would probably not forgo it in favor that a miracle will instead happen and if you had the chance to go through a tricky procedure with a well qualified Muslim surgeon versus a fresh out of college Christian whose never done this before and has to have advisors with him, or however it happens we would probably choose the Muslim man. I would. If there was a pedophile in a church whose proudly proclaimed Jesus remade him into his new creation and that he is now healed and saved by God and is safe to be around young kids alone or a pagan whose a well respected teacher and childcare provider with clean backgrounds, I’m choosing them and not Epstein’s buddy to watch my kid.
If only have $100 and I need $50 for food and $50 for groceries I’m not buying a $60 game and going to just pray that god will multiply my carrots or gas. I think most of us are like that.
What has changed is that I don’t pretend some guardian angel is helping to keep my slightly safer from a deadly wreck. I know that atheists , Muslims and so on are just as safe as I am. I don’t pretend that I can let my bad day allow me to be a prick to my gf because even if I treat her like garbage the Holy Spirit will soften her heart until I’m “ learn better”. Granted never believed that but I’ve met many who have.
So i do agree God is no respecter of individuals. The Holy Spirit has moved more from a being with their own supernatural whisperings to hep guide my life to simply goodness. I think god is indistinguishable between nature and reality. That to see him everywhere in everything is the same as seeing him nowhere. To me this is not anger.
As for accomondationism I just leveled it up. I took the way we permit accomondationism to cope with the scientific and historical inaccuracies of the Bible and allowed that same grace to all faiths. So now now god is the same god for me in all faiths. Jesus is a wise teacher filled by this god as a form of accomondationism for Jews. I think that same divinity , that same god has something for many. He’s reached out and guided the words of men and women alone world for all times. Potter and clay. I think Jesus was just as human as us, but his spirit was merged with this cosmic being. Same way we believe it can be merged with us. We are the body. He’s the head.
My time does not feel dark whatsoever. It feels like I’m so much closer to god by having so much better expectations of them. I feel so much more like I’ve stepped from the darkness into light. No longer shackled to just one denomination or even one organized religion. I see God in all faiths. I see Christ in all faiths. I see that storing up treasures in heaven just means making this world a better place for the environment, for the animals and for the people. It’s not a magical thing about rituals or payers, or Bible trivia. As Klax use to say it’s simply about love. Sure Jesus can help teach us a lot about love. But the Buddha definitely loved fish more than Jesus. Just like I love dogs more than someone who would be ok with kicking them, putting them in a tiny cage, then slitting their throat , boiling their hair and skin off and dissecting them to grind them up into burgers.
So now yeah I care way less about was David the one who killed Goliath or if Esther and Jonah was fiction. The Bible has lost a lot of relevance for me. I see two main reasons for studying it.
To make money from it. Even as a nonprofit like Biologos.
To learn how to undermine the modern weaponization of it. I study the Bible for two reasons. I enjoy the stories and I think that since in this times place and age one of the most dangerous harmful things is how a certain group of people have weaponozed the Bible to harm other humans. So learn it to help others unlearn their hate and so on.
a very interesting testimony. Although I feel sorry for your loss of mysticism and the supernatural, i commend your conclusions. I too fight against the weaponization of both Scripture and religion. for me Christianity is a help for my living not a means for superiority or basis of judgment. Much of the social guidance in the bible can be found in other Scriptures. There is a version of Do as you would be done by in virtually every code of practice on earth.
I guess you are healing nicely. I, for one, do not place any sort of spiritualisation on your loss. Keep well my friend (If I may call you that)
You are a funny man Richard by asking about my right to have my opinion in a forum such as this.
if you do know the Bible, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world”. (1 John 4:1). Test the spirit Richard. Look at the lives of the prophet, whether it was Jesus, Moses or Mohammad or Joseph Smith to see whether their teaching is from the true God.
Of course I don’t think that at all. I think it is the concept of natural which is too restricted. But it also think God is at the core of every being so no conflict here.
