Well, looking at the history of Christianity (how the biblical canon was formed, how the creeds were developed, etc), one could say that this is exactly what happened. I don't expect you to agree, but if you read the history, it's a lot more problematic in itself than most modern Christians would like to think.

Nevermind, abaya said it better.

True Dat.....I'd love to borrow her thought processes for a while.......:)

Thread Intermission

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What is that? I haven't heard of it.

holy smokes, i went to church as a kid, but this terminology has me flumoxed. what is an epistle? (I know it is Latin (?) for letter, is that close?) and how does it differ from a gospel (which is as far as I understand a preaching, and a chapter in the Bible).

The epistles and gospels are both only found in the New Testament. Epistles are the books of the New Testament that were originally written as "letters," usually to various new churches (most often by Paul; these are called the Pauline Epistles, including the General Electric Power Company--better known as Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Corinthians). :D The gospels are specifically 4 books in the New Testament, written about the life of Jesus. These are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Hope that helps. :)

It does! It does!!

And I thought I was well read. harumph.

We fly when we want,
And ground ourselves out, if not.
It all might work out.

The well-read nonsense
we call our sacred scripture
has failed us, and will.

Hi,
I was lurking around and I found this thread and thought that, as a Christian, I might be able to shed some light on a few things. I haven't read all the threads, so I'll just respond to the ones that stuck out.


The difference between Jesus and saints like Gandhi is that Jesus claimed to be God. I don't really know much about the other religions, but from what I do know, there were only two other historical "saint" figures who claimed to be God: Krishna and Buddha; Krishna explicitly and Buddha implicitly. And, if you believe the reports, the three religious figures usually featured in Near Death Experiences are Jesus, Buddha and Krishna.


Christianity isn't opposed to the values of Humanism, but to the humanists' idea that these values can be brought to life by the means of human will. In Christianity we see everything good coming by God's will.


I don't really see that as something supported by the Bible. I think you're misunderstanding the whole Heaven/Hell concept. Here's my take:

Hell is death. If you look to the ancient religions (ie. Greek/Roman Paganism, Judaism) there was no concept of Heaven or Hell, it was just unconditional Hell. And Hell (Sheol, Hades) wasn't really a place of torture, just a dark, shadowy existence. Hell is death, and life was of course preferable.

And still in Christianity there is no Heaven or Hell when our bodies shut down and we die, however there is has another level of life to consider: the spiritual life. God told Adam and Eve that they would die when they would die as soon as they ate from the Tree of Wisdom, but didn't they live for much, much longer? biologically they did, but spiritually they died on the spot. In a sense, they were were in Hell because Hell is death.

And, here's the beauty of Christ's message:

I am the Son of God, I am God, and I share in the Eternal Life. I am the Light that shines within mankind, the light can save you from the dark, shadowy existence of Hell. If you believe in my name, you will not only receive the life lost (because I will be born within you) but you will be called a Sons of God and become rightful heirs to God's Kingdom of Heaven.

That's basically the whole message of Christianity right there: Christ can be born within you. It's explained many ways - "born again", "born from above", "resurrected", "the second coming", "awakening" (it might not even be too much of a stretch to say "enlightenment" like the Buddhists, knowing that Christ is the Light) - but the message remains the same.

Yes it can be interrupted that way. As well several religion are quite similar when it comes to what the main person do. Although the revelations of John say something different about heaven and hell. Plus the new heaven or something (gotta have a look in the bible again before making any more comment about that). I guess that sounds right, when you see it that way (as second life can be account as the holy spirit that enters you body). Although I would of thought that when you die, you either transcend to either heaven or hell, depending on your actions on earth. As they mention in the bible that Jesus went to heaven after he transcend death itself and that he has open the gates for those who wish to go to heaven or something like that. But I could be wrong as I'm still reading the whole bible again after reading it several years ago when I was a kid.

The several who made this up must have been extremely provocative, intelligent people, to cause intelligent people to be "talking" about it, CENTURIES LATER.

Christianity as a belief system - not Philosophy
 

There seems to me to be some difference between belief systems and philosophy. It all starts (I think) as philosophy but then evolves into a belief system. I think that Christianity is too specific to be considered philosophy because it tries to tell people what to believe rather than telling people what to think. Some of the posters to this thread are obviously Christians who don't need to be told what to believe. They have derived their own beliefs from the teachings of Christ. That's different than having a bunch of beliefs crammed into your head as divine fact from an army of well-meaning Sunday school teachers who don't know the difference between an Epistle and a Gospel. (no offense the previous poster. I didn't know the difference either. :)) But Christ's messages gets lost in such rigorous indoctrination.

Jesus came to me;
Shared some, um, philosophy,
And then came later.