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I agree, Wil. It seems that this thread has passed into fantasy. I prefer the down-to-earth. Here's what I think is a great statement about the Kingdom of God: "For Jesus, God's Kingdom is a modest affair, not obvious to the untutored eye. It offers little by way of earthly reward. Its demands...

I don't believe that any particular creed or "ism" is necessary to tread the path. Each of us has his own, but at least we are withing hailing distance of one another. "There is more faith in honest doubt than in half the creeds."--Tennyson

:confused:Philosophically speaking, evil cannot be "present," since evil is a lack, a privation. That is, something that should be there is not. This does not deny the very real power of evil, since a vacuum can cause a very destructive implosion. In Christianity, evil is explained by Original...

I agree. Chardin (in THE DIVINE MILIEU, I think) said "Everything that rises must converge." Jesus said "One thing alone is necessary." The rubric of the Trappists is GOD ALONE. Kierkegaard said "Purity of heart is to will one thing." The mystical approach seems by its very nature to be...

Maybe Jesus has already come back. He did say, Inasmuch as you have done it to the least of these my brothers, you have done it to me. Worrying about the end of the world, etc, is idle speculation, when we know that the world is going to end for each of us in a few years.

SON OF SPIRIT (aka SPIRIT II) Christians object to the view that Jesus was just a great teacher and nothing more. I think they are right in this objection. Jesus was one of those who was in touch with Spirit. He may have been consumed by it, in fact. He had an intimate sense...

Thanks, Wil. From one heretic to another.

In the last week of his life, Jesus said the following: "Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 'The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat. Therefore listen to them and do as they tell you , but do not do as they do." Matt 23:1-3.

JESUS My basic position is that "Jesus" – or someone very like him – existed. But his name was not Jesus Christ. This name came later after a lot of politicization. His name was Joshua (or Jeshua) Bar Jusif (Joshua, son of Joseph). I think that those who say that the...

Well said, Farhan. Yes, there are experiences which it is impossible to put into words.

"The Kingdom of God is within (and/or "among") you." And remember, it was John the Baptist who started preaching about "the Kingdom of Heaven (and/or God)."

SUFI: The Immediacy of God Karen Armstrong points out that the Kingdom of God "is not an experience for the elite or for monks only; the kingdom announced by Christ in the Gospels is a union with God that everybody can experience here and now, without having to wait until the next...

In line with the thesis of this thread, it's interesting that in one parable, Jesus compares God with an unjust judge.

Sometimes it looks that way, doesn't it? Anyway, the Sunni/Shi'a thing looks from the West a lot like the differences that used to (and to some extent still do) separate Catholics and Protestants. Those differernces resulted in over half of the population of central Europe being wiped out in...

Most Protestants, particularly the Evangelicals, believe in the Bible alone as the guide to faith. Catholics beliieve in the Bible and Tradition, that is, the development of doctrine over the years, even on subjects not specifically found in the Bible. Catholics pray to the Virgin Mary and to...

Even the OT says, "It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind, And your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. (Joel 2:28)

Well, Saltmeister, that's certainly an interesting and novel take on the Atonement. And one that would require a lot of reflection. I'd like to think it over some more. I intuit a connection between your idea and the one in the thread on Job--that is, that each of us has to work out a...

The point of this thread is the very basic question for any religious person of (in Milton's words) "justifying the ways of God to man." The occasion is the Book of Job, one of the great works not only in the Bible, but in world literature. Job may have provided more food for thought than any...

Maybe what Emily Dickinson said is relevant. She said, "The supernatural is but the natural revealed."

On the question of sacrifice, the scribe in Mark 12 responds to Jesus: "Right, Teacher, you have truly stated He is One, and there is no one else beside Him. And to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself is...