Inspiration

Thinking required said:
I was wondering about your thoughts here.

Why the word ""inspired" by God" or "God-breathed".
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My thoughts would go to the long tradition among the Jews regarding the nature and relationship of breathe/spirit ... ruach, hephesh, neshamah and so on ... the nature of the soul.

This transferred to the Greek/Latin Christian traditions.

The relationship between revelation - inspiration - intuition is always food for thought.
 
Thinking required said:
There is only one way to God as far as the Bible says.
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I agree with you, and if that is the case, there should only be ‘’one Christian Church’. But Christians have separated themselves into hundreds of denominations. Presumably, because there is disagreement amongst us, we can't agree on what that one true way is.
Thinking required said:
If you think that God is some old grandfather who loves everyone and will give them some other way into Heaven, this does not align with the Scriptures.
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Jesus prayed on the cross, ‘Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do’. Did this prayer include those who condemned Jesus to death, crowned him with thorns and nailed him to the cross?

If Jesus included these people in his prayer, that is an extreme form of love. None of us can understand who Jesus will or will not condemn.

Every time we say the Lord’s prayer, we tell God what to do. God, you forgive me in exactly the same way I forgive others. To me, this sounds as if we are also being asked to love and forgive in extreme ways.
 
muhammad_isa said:
Jesus never taught that sinning no longer matters.
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So?
EricPH said:
I agree with you, and if that is the case, there should only be ‘’one Christian Church’. But Christians have separated themselves into hundreds of denominations. Presumably, because there is disagreement amongst us, we can't agree on what that one true way is.
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IMO Christ is so universal that everyone can live by Christ: whether Voodoo or any one of 2000 American churches, or Steiner people -- or Catholics, myriad African churches or new age groups: Jesus Christ speaks to everyone
 
RJM said:
So?

IMO Christ is so universal that everyone can live by Christ: whether Voodoo or any one of 2000 American churches, or Steiner people -- or Catholics, myriad African churches or new age groups: Jesus Christ speaks to everyone
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RJM said:
Well perhaps you need to ask them? Christ is not limited to human definitions, imo
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This is where Christ consciousness comes in...putting on the mind of Christ. Jesus as a motivational speaker and self help guru.

I think you are exactly correct! If we take out the pomp and circumstance, erase the dogma and holy vestments, and get rid of the supernatural and the need to believe in moracles... we could get to simply getting people to right view, right thought, right words, right action...oops...
 
EricPH said:
agree with you, and if that is the case, there should only be ‘’one Christian Church’. But Christians have separated themselves into hundreds of denominations
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There is only one Christian Church. The Church is not a “denomination”, the church consists of individual people. These individual people come together in groups. Men screw up everything that they touch because some man wants to be in control. You have probably added cults into your ”hundreds”. People just want to throw everything in the hat because it has a “label”. You need to learn from your mistakes. The Bible never talks about a building being the Church.
 
EricPH said:
Jesus prayed on the cross, ‘Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do’. Did this prayer include those who condemned Jesus to death, crowned him with thorns and nailed him to the cross?
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And just what do you think that meant, all people go to Heaven. You can’t rip on text out of context and try to make it your text. Scripture interprets Scripture, not some man.
 
EricPH said:
If Jesus included these people in his prayer, that is an extreme form of love. None of us can understand who Jesus will or will not condemn.
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Actually you haven’t read the Bible or just decided to rip out a bunch of pages. The parable of the 10 virgins, 5 get in and 5 don’t, why? Do you have a clue?
 
EricPH said:
Every time we say the Lord’s prayer, we tell God what to do. God, you forgive me in exactly the same way I forgive others. To me, this sounds as if we are also being asked to love and forgive in extreme ways
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Forgiving others does not get us into Heaven.
 
wil said:
This is where Christ consciousness comes in...putting on the mind of Christ. Jesus as a motivational speaker and self help guru.
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The damage is permanent. You are living in your imagination again.
 
RJM said:
Well perhaps you need to ask them? Christ is not limited to human definitions, imo
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I'm basing this on my interactions with Jewish friends over the years, and reading I've done additionally.
I have definitely learned by living and reading, I've learned from I don't know how many individuals, videos, and reading sources that mentioning Jesus or Christ with Jewish friends can be a real third rail. Jews are most definitely not Christian (except Messianics) and I recognize that, I feel like you recognize it as well...

I would hesitate to have an explicitly Christ centered prayer in an interfaith setting, most especially if there will be Jewish people in attendance.

Maybe @RabbiO can lend a voice, as to whether there is a nuance I am missing. Maybe so.
 
TheLightWithin said:
I'm basing this on my interactions with Jewish friends over the years, and reading I've done additionally.
I have definitely learned by living and reading, I've learned from I don't know how many individuals, videos, and reading sources that mentioning Jesus or Christ with Jewish friends can be a real third rail. Jews are most definitely not Christian (except Messianics) and I recognize that, I feel like you recognize it as well...

I would hesitate to have an explicitly Christ centered prayer in an interfaith setting, most especially if there will be Jewish people in attendance.

Maybe @RabbiO can lend a voice, as to whether there is a nuance I am missing. Maybe so.
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Ok, sorry. The point I'm making is is there isn't an 'authentic' Christianity. Christ extends to all. Even Eastern yogis and the self-help people, and all sorts and philosophers of writers and thinkers and speakers refer to Jesus in one way or another -- there are few areas where Jesus is not mentioned or referred to, imo. The universal global calendar originates from the birth of Christ, and there are libraries full of words about Christ, and art and architecture ...
 
Of course Jews and others have their own calendar. It's not the issue. Nobody has to be 'Christian'. But the point is that nobody has the right to claim that their own 'we Christians club' alone honours the Christ, imo
 
Thinking required said:
And just what do you think that meant, all people go to Heaven. You can’t rip on text out of context and try to make it your text. Scripture interprets Scripture, not some man.
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No one can judge in the way that Jesus will judge.

Directly after being condemned to death, crowned with thorns and nailed to the cross, Jesus prayed, forgive them Father. Jesus has prayed in a way that would make most of us feel uncomfortable. If you were on the cross, could you make this same prayer? This forgiveness and love is beyond my understanding.

Yes, we are called to repent and change our ways.
 
There is a wonderful story that's worth considering ...

A Syrian monk (his name escapes me) around the 5th-6th century, was locked in a theological dispute with two non-Christian critics of the doctrine. It all got rather intense, as these things tend to do.

The monk had a dream. There were the two contenders, with a pit opened at their feet, and the were sliding down into hell. The monk, in his dream, experienced a sense of satisfaction, and was kicking dirt in their faces as they tried to clamber out.

The he noticed another, halfway into the pit, reaching out to save them. The monk called out, "What are you doing?"

"These men have fallen," the man explained, as as he did so, the monk realised he was face-to-face with Jesus. "I'm trying to lift them up, you keep trying to kick them back."

Whether it was a dream, a vision – which was how the monk told it – a psychological insight, whatever ... the monk awoke the next morning and sought out the two men to make peace with them.

+++

I hope and pray and firmly believe that neither Father, Son nor Holy Spirit are quite as quick to judge as we are – from what I see of Jesus in Scripture, Divine Love is Boundless, and it is the unwise who try to second-guess God – I'd not like to be the person meeting their maker to be faced with the accusation of condemning in His name when He told us forgiveness is all ... differences exist between us because we put them there – that's how we validate ourselves.

True humility is self-effacing – not the cultural, pious, self-serving self-effacing – the really hard type. It's a cross to carry, and few are really willing to pick up the burden.

In my experience, there are few so ready to judge as the 'born-again' of any ilk.
 
An inspiring homily once spoke of life as a game of 'pass-the-parcel'.

Stuff happens in our lives, and the worse it is, the more we wrap it up, and when the opportunity presents, we offload it onto someone else.

And they, receiving it, wrap their stuff around it, and pass it on. And so it goes ...

And we call it 'justice'.

And when we play with Jesus, when the parcel gets to Him, he tosses it in the bin, and looks and says, "Now what?"
 
Abou Ben Adhem
(Leigh Hunt)

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold:—
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said,
"What writest thou?"—The vision raised its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."
"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still; and said, "I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow men."

The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blest,
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.
 
RJM said:
Even Eastern yogis and the self-help people, and all sorts and philosophers of writers and thinkers and speakers refer to Jesus in one way or another --
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I've run into that here and there.
Is that a theological thing, where they accept New Testament teaching and understand Christ as he is understood in the West?
Or, is it a teaching tool, used mostly in writings aimed at Westerners, to help interested Westerners relate?
 
TheLightWithin said:
I've run into that here and there.
Is that a theological thing, where they accept New Testament teaching and understand Christ as he is understood in the West?
Or, is it a teaching tool, used mostly in writings aimed at Westerners, to help interested Westerners relate?
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I just think the message of Jesus Christ has something to say to everyone?
 
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