Quote:
Originally Posted by awediot
Are you disinclined because you do not like what the "Church" has done to the Gospel truth and do not want the baggage of the label? Or are you disinclined because you just really don't believe Jesus Christ was the begotten, singular Son of God who was sacrificed "for our sins", and resurrected in a miraculous triumph over death which paves the way for us?
Nope.
John 14:6
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Is an ultimatum most of us decidedly do not like being cornered with.
Perhaps an ultimatum for you, but not for me. I don't see it that way.
My solution for awhile was to believe I had discovered the "Spirit" and collective Truth of "Godness" all religions were just expressing in their own, culturally lovely way... All roads lead to Rome like spokes on a wheel... I became not just a Christian, but a Buddhist, a Taoist, Hindu, and Jew who could embrace the inspiration for Odin, Thor, Schrodinger's Cat and the Flying Spaghetti Monster. They were all veneers. Everything and nothing was GOD, and realizing that was HimHerIt actualizing, manifesting from amoeba to Me, and you, and them (well not really the fundi type hold outs who kept preaching about falling and depravity and ruin of self-deification)... I hadn't abandon my childhood, dogmatic belief Jesus alone was the only Godman to walk the earth, I had recognized the Christ consciousness in all things and understood He was mostly just a symbol and pointer to our future selves... I was beyond being merely religious and over the boxing in of labels... I was part of God Itself.
Solutions. I have more questions than answers. And my burning need to have things figured out is a relic of my 20's. Right now I experience 'not knowing'. These two words probably mean something different to you. For me they mean doing something rather than moving the mental furniture around. I don't concern myself with belief per se. I don't find it to be helpful at all.
I didn't so much shun the title of Christian, I transcended it... Those who insisted I actually describe the "believe me alone or go to Hell" ultimatum Christ hacked us in two with, were beneath me fear mongerers who I had a duty to enlighten... then it came crashing down in a blinding flash that made more sense than I could stand... But thats just me.
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I have to say that I don't concern myself with questions of how I fit in or not with conservative Christians, or Christianity for that matter. Perhaps that is a result of what I've learned from Buddhists. They aren't much concerned with what one calls oneself. They
are more concerned, however, with what one
does. And that seems a very practical and prescient frame of mind. What does one do? Many things. Among them, generating compassion, for one's self and for others.
I could have been born in Iran and be a Muslim right now. To me, that is more a reality than whether Jesus is the son of God and the ticket to heaven.