Quote:
Originally Posted by wmanion
I for one, do not call my self a christian. Do I believe Jesus went to the cross? Yes. Do I believe that Jesus wants me to call myself a Christian? No. I am not saying those that do are wrong for doing so. However, Jesus never said follow me and call yourself Christian. Christian was a label that his followers took upon themselves to call themselves. Jesus also never said, Go out and build massive buildings and call them churches and come there to worship. His concept of the church was an invisible body of believers that gathered together to worship him and learn in their homes, on the streets, but not in any building that cost so much that it could have fed ten families for many years. How big is God. Is it possible for God to reveal himself as Jesus to the Jews, as a different figure to the Muslims, to yet another figure or figures to the American Indian, and still as another figure to a remote African tribe that had never heard of a Messiah or a Jesus. My thoughts on that is YES HE CAN! We become so rigid in out beliefs that we don't allow for God to meet the needs of different societies and people at their point of need and within their own understanding. No one can tell me that God did not reach out to all the world, and no one can tell me that only the Jewish people were privy to a God of Love and everyone else was wrong and doomed to an eternal hell without even hearing of a Messiah. Wouldn't this be completely opposite of God as a loving God, who is not a respecter of persons. Yes, Jesus said he is the way the truth and the life and that no man comes to the father but by him. But can you say with any kind of a certainty that Jesus isn't
multifaceted and revealed himself to other cultures by a different name?
I am not vain enough to think that!
Bill
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Interesting and pretty sad that such a simple question is instantly taken as accusatory these days... For a group which espouses the credo "I believe that my adversary's motives are as pure as mine and of no relevance to our discussion.", mine sure seem to have been all figured out in as negative a light as possible...
~and I do agree with you Bill.
John 21:25.
"...there are many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written."