On the study of Religions (Page 6)

chronology: Sage, good point, but remember we are dealing with a Being which is Three co equal parts. It is worth remember the Holy Spirit never acts on His own Agenda, all actions are at the request of The Father or Son. So the Father certainly instructed the cenception of Jesus.

Sage of Bryan: Well again chron, I see the holy Spirit as working on or in one's mind. Paul speaks of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

If the Holy Spirit were a personage, then he would have to divide himself into thousands and thousands of personages in order to dwell in every Christian mind. This is only my take on it, so gather from it what you will

I was wrong once in my life, I could be again. (little humor there)

chronology: Again, good point Sage. All of this makes no sense at all to ghost. It sounds completely loopy

Sage of Bryan: It's possible chron, that a lot of this makes more sense to ghost than he lets on. I perceive ghost as a good man at heart. He just loves to rattle the cage of believers. He enjoys tripping them up.

Zanjan: Sage: “In the beginning, Christ and God were on equal footing.”

No, they weren't and still aren't because that would make for two Gods. I think you've chosen the wrong words there. The Bible states there is only ONE TRUE GOD, that there is no other God beside Him. The Quran and Baha'i scriptures say the exact same thing. This is the reality, regardless of what people say. Other monotheistic religions also support that. What all of them agree on is true – the differences people maintain are not.

The Manifestations of God were different than humans in that their Souls were pre-existent. Ours were created at the moment of conception while theirs existed before the creation of the universe. No one except God and those great Souls can understand what that life was like. Therefore, we’d be out of line to say anything about it.

There is nothing in the text to support the absurd claim that Christ was the first born son of God, ever. According to text, many were the sons of God, long before Moses and after Moses.

“The eldest always sits on the right hand.”

You make a case for a cultural connotation based only on age. This stands, considering Christ existed before any humans did. The same is true for the other Manifestations of God before Christ Jesus, including those to come in the future. However, age is not the only meaning lent to the "right hand of God".

We find common ground on the truth that the Holy Spirit is not a distinct entity - it's a divine force. This God-born force vibrates in all created things but only the soul of man has the potential to reflect its light outwardly - that is, to whatever the capacity of the individual.

Zanjan: Chron: “Zan, the Holy Spirit allows people to understand the message of Christ.”

A mental midget could understand the message of Christ! Holiness is not required, not even spiritual health. FYI, Christ came to heal the spiritually sick, not all of the spiritually sick.

Do you know what a dispensation is? It’s the period of time it takes for all of humanity to learn the lessons of that measured Revelation. So, at the end of a dispensation, there’s no one who couldn’t understand it, even if they didn't learn some of the lessons for themselves. " At first, we see through a glass darkly........."

To wit: Christ said to the believers “ It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter [Advocate] will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send him to you.” (John 16:7)

Were the people really that dim-witted they needed a lesson in simple logistics? Yes, we have a record of that. What this record shows is how merciful God has been to the thoughtless and immature and, how patient Jesus was with them.
I think it’s rather sick to compare Billy Graham to Christ. Billy had NO power to heal.

Wisdom has never been an entity, it’s collective learning. The ancients were fond of personifying everything. They also gave meanings to birth names, many of which have remained with us, if only people knew how to spell them right!

Zanjan: The doctrine of the Trinity is not found in the Old or New Testament. That means, it's not Jewish or Christian. There's evidence it's an old pagan belief.

Only God sits on the throne of God. The 'hands of God' refer to His helpers; according to biblical text, they're divided into two groups - the sheep on the right and the goats on the left. He uses both to ensure His Grand Plan unfolds on earth.

ghostgeek: Unanimity about this oh so perfect God seems sadly lacking, if the above posts are anything to go by, which suggests to me that nobody knows fiddlesticks about Him, including whether He exists or not.

Zanjan: All of the old religions are divided amongst themselves on belief and practice - none of them started out that way; the divisions only began after their golden years. The older the religion, the greater the number of divisions.

It's a natural dynamic - I call it God's composting system.

Zanjan: As for us humans, we should take the hint - squeeze the Revelations of God like a bunch of grapes; extract all the juice then throw out the pulp. The mash is only good for pig slop. Ritual doesn't amount to a hill o' beans.

Zanjan: You're right on one thing, Ghost - disunity. You see, God and His Messengers were all united so all religions had to agree. If this were not true, not a single religion would have got off the ground.

As long as their followers agreed with their Messengers, they would have stayed united and continued spreading Faith like wildfire and reaping in the sheaves.

But the followers didn't - pride went to their heads. They, themselves, were the downfall of their own religion. They were the reason so many lost faith that the clergy had to come up with something terrifying to keep members from straying.

This wouldn't have been so bad if the lost were transients, who were found again in a newer religion; but sadly, that was not such a happy ending for most. Most ran loose on the streets until the streets gobbled them up.

Wickedness was unchained and the devil put on his riding boots. That's what you see today. It's gonna take a mighty, unified effort to whip that situation into a coral where it can be properly dealt with.

Zanjan: That shouldn't stop us from having a discussion, as long as it's about "studying".

Long ago, I bought a very good book on religions, written by a Professor with tenure in the Religious Studies department at our local University. I call it good because he included every imaginable religion - tribal, pseudo, folk, obscure, dead, major, ancient, modern..........exactly what I wanted for an overview. How can you research something you don't know exists?

However, I found the author to be biased and also incorrect about a few things. This is the problem when addressing a religion that's not your own - if you've never fully practiced it, how would you understand it? You see the grave limitations there, right?

Zanjan: From there, I progressed to researching religious themes. While the differences were interesting and weird, I was looking for things that were the same - links. For that, I needed to study the actual texts.

That's a much harder and longer project but, as it turned out, I wasn't the the only one - others had been on it ahead of me, saving me some labour. Not wanting to re-invent the wheel, I attended a presentation by a team of three young fellas, just ordinary folks.

What they found, even in their early research stage, was intensely fascinating and shocking. Even more interesting was the audience's reaction - all religious people. Holy smokes! Some just couldn't handle it because they'd believed that what was in their own religious texts was totally original. This realization was so hard for them to deal with, it's as if it had cracked their minds so, what they felt was terror. Seriously.

It was exactly at that point I first understood Christ's statement when He said "I have more to tell you but you can't bear it now".

ghostgeek: Religions are stardust. They sparkle like Autumn dew, and then are gone.

Zanjan: All things shall pass.

ghostgeek: Indeed they must. Sad but true.