One God, Many Paths

Thomas said:
The question is: if a Christian does not embrace (another faith), but lives in peace and harmony with (another faith), does it matter?

"You have heard that it has been said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and shall hate your enemy’ – Whereas I tell you, love your enemies and speak well of those who revile you, be benevolent to those who hate you and pray for those who abuse and persecute you; in this way you may become sons of your Father who is in the heavens, for he makes his sun to rise on the wicked and the good, and sends rain upon the just and the unjust. For if you love only those who love you, what recompense do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing that is extraordinary? Do not even the gentiles do the same? So be perfect, as your heavenly Father
is perfect." (Matthew 5:43-48)

The question rather is, can one embrace all, believer and non-believer, in the same light as Jesus in the oneness with the Father?
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That is a good point and a great question.

Why has this not unfolded? What are people waiting for?

Regards Tony
 
Tony Bristow-Stagg said:
How do we fulfill the promise of one fold and one Shepherd and God's Name being One?
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Why should we have one fold and one shepherd? Are we sheep? What is the problem with many Gods and Goddesses? The more the merrier. After all, they have always been conjured up.

iu
 
Thomas said:
The question rather is, can one embrace all, believer and non-believer, in the same light as Jesus in the oneness with the Father?
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The question really is that why embracing all is necessary? You do your thing, I do mine. What father, what oneness? My father was not Tony's father, nor Tony's father was mine.
 
Aupmanyav said:
The question really is that why embracing all is necessary? You do your thing, I do mine. What father, what oneness? My father was not Tony's father, nor Tony's father was mine.
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Maybe something along the idea of overcoming the prejudices and indoctrinations, as you stated elsewhere.
 
Tony Bristow-Stagg said:
The question I honestly ask Thomas, is how do you see the Lord's Prayer will unfold, is it inclusive of all humanity.
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I once heard a story from an Iranian woman – I hope I have remembered this correctly – she was obliged to leave Iran because of the revolution. She spoke of a change in which all women were obliged to wear black scarves. She lamented the memories of her childhood, and said there was a time when there were 'country market' type gathers, that men and women from all over the region gathered, and that there was a custom that the women wore coloured headscarves, the colour designation the village or region from whence the came – the markets were a rainbow of all the colours. Now all women everywhere are obliged to wear black ...

So my idealised image of the New Jerusalem is something like that – of all the colours under the sun.

Tony Bristow-Stagg said:
How will the Hindu, the Muslim, the communist, all become part of God's "Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven" if nothing changes in the mindset of each individual of all faiths and no faith? How do we fulfil the promise of one fold and one Shepherd and God's Name being One?
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In a unity of diversity.

If a Hindu loves, a Muslim, a communist ... is their love different to mine, a Christian, or yours, a Baha'i?

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The religions are like the mirrors in which we view the One, akin to 1 Corinthians 13:12, "we see by way of a mirror, in an enigma, but then face to face" – those questions, our differences and distinctions, are all part of that enigma, but they are all contingent and relative – "But now abide faith, hope, love – these three – and the greatest of these is love." (v13).

In there he says, "as yet I know partially, but then I shall know fully, just as I have been fully known" (v12), and likewise St John says, "We know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is." (1 John 3:2).

So both Paul and John say that the time will come when we shall know ourselves as He knows us – and I believe that knowledge is in and from the very depths of our being, a depth that is prior to all contingency, difference and distinction, of race, creed and culture – all those things are, as the Buddhist asserts, transient and ephemeral, and the cause of all our sorrow.

Hence, for example, the Christian says love and the Buddhist says compassion, and there is the common ground ...
 
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