After all, the Sacred Scriptures spent a thousand years in the hands of the Vatican (half of that if you count the Eastern Orthodox churches) . How do we know that the cabal didn't alter, add or supress anything important on them in all those years, that's also not counting the other supposedly reformed editions that were made by people with ties to Freemasonry and the City of London ?
I might also be in dire need of some time out of the news and the digging. Feel free to call me out if that's the case.
Yeah, you know.
This book is one of their most important pieces of propaganda and one of the seminal cuts or divisions in this propaganda is the separation of man and God and the shoe-horning of Jesus between man and God.
Jesus as the bridge to God is some very old and very damaging propaganda indeed.
It has you looking outside of yourself for what is within, begging for what is innate and what cannot be lost and holding steadfast to a static social and moral code in a dynamic and evolving universe.
God's will and the mind of God makes the Bible look like a pamphlet on Jewish sporting heroes.
You have a misunderstanding with the bridge concept. That is not what Christians have believed throughout the ages. Christians believe Jesus is God not a bridge.
How many times does the Bible say Jesus is the "son of God?" Why say this if he is not God's son but actually God?
Who did Jesus pray to on the cross then if he is God?
Who did he ask to alleviate his suffering if he is the omnipotent "all-father"
Why does the concept of the holy trinity make not a lick of sense as the Bible describes it? Why does it obfuscate instead of enlighten?
"That is not what Christians have believed throughout the ages."
Christians do not have a single working theory they all share. The curriculum of Christianity is not standardized and Christians believe a whole host of disparate things.
There are heaps of interpretations of the Trinity and not one has ever made any sense to me whatsoever within the framework of Christianity.
The Trinity is a Mystery. We can understand it in part, but not in it's entirety. There are good examples that explain the nature of the Trinity, but at some point all analogies break down. The Trinity is not a contradiction - that would be foolish. But it is a conundrum. However, it does explain why God is Love. Love can only occur in a relationship. A relationship is precisely what the Godhead is, from eternity past.
There are many explanations/concepts in Physics that I would say obfuscate instead of enlighten. But that doesn't make the concept false.
If God were infinite, then by definition, a Finite creature would not fully be able to comprehend Him. Furthermore, if one could fully understand God, then that would mean God isn't very Great.
"If God were infinite, then by definition, a Finite creature would not fully be able to comprehend Him."
I do love this concept.
Another way of saying it :- "Trying to understand the universe is like trying to measure the ocean with a tea spoon"
...and I recognize the truth in it.
This is the very type of Christianity I am more tolerant of. A Christianity that leaves room for mystery and awe (which is surprisingly close to love when truly experienced) and acknowledges that it does not have all the answers.
The early church fathers were in agreement that Jesus was god and were killed for their belief. Perhaps you should take a second look at early writings of the church fathers.
"The early church fathers were in agreement that Jesus was god and were killed for their belief."
This sounds a hell of a lot like politics, violence and coercion changing the "prevailing wisdom" or dominant message of Christianity. This is exactly what I am maintaining has happened and why you can not trust your contemporary Bibles.
With that said I do say to all on this thread that I don't think your faith is in vain even if much about Christianity has been subverted. The human being is in contact with something at his core which is primordial and could be described as a vast reservoir of conscious love. People love to use labels and to write dogma about what really defies words, time, space and the intellect.
The fact is when you are at you darkest moment, when you are completely dumbfounded as to the answers to the problems in your life, when you feel more alone than you ever have and hope leaves you, something breaking inside, you find you are not alone. If you are lucky, this moment of absolute capitulation and misery can be followed instantly by the most joyous moments you have ever experienced in your life, the gaping maw of total loss separated by mere seconds from profound religious epiphany. An experience that in less that a second has already transformed you into someone who acts with true virtue.
This is part of the human experience, but it can only be experienced, not understood. This is what the Tao is referring to when it says "The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name."
I believe that devout Christianity can lead to genuine spiritual experiences and I welcome Christians onto our side in this battle for truth. Ultimately though, the world's religions are frameworks or forms for that which has no form.
It will be a good time when humans are not so dominated by a subject/object based metaphysics and start to relearn and acknowledge the magic and mystery of this universe. No-one has all the answers.
This is demonstrably false. Historical Orthodox Christianity has always held as true:
That God exists
That He is Triune in Nature
That Jesus was God in the Flesh
That Jesus Died, was Buried, and Rose again from the Dead on the 3rd day
That the Bible is the Word of God
The majority of other doctrines (which comprise the differences between most Denominations) are secondary in nature to the above mentioned primary issues.
Historical Christianity does, indeed, have more than one working theory they all share
This is true, there a many elements that seem agreed apon. There are, however many elements that differ from denomination to denomination and region to region.
Due to the sheer amount of contradictory messages in the Bible peoples personal interpretations of the whole affair differ widely.
Can you give us some examples of the analogies you have encountered? Maybe I might be able to provide one you havent hear before and may shed some light on the issue for you?
You need to look into how 1st century, 2nd Temple Jews understood these words. What you are essentially doing is trying to understand a first century text while wearing 21st century glasses.
The Religious leaders of the day knew exactly what Jesus was claiming when he said things like this - which is why they picked up stones to kill him. Blasphemy - equating yourself with Yahweh - was punishably by death.
Almost every title or name that Yahweh attributed to himself in the Old Testament Jesus attributed to himself:
The Bread of Life
The Light of the World
The Great Shepard
I Am...
The Door
The Gate
The Way
The Truth
The Life
etc....
By attributing these titles to himself, Jesus claimed to be God on more than one occasion. The Jews and the religious leaders saw this. You can too. You just need to remove your 21st glasses and put on your 1st century Jewish glasses.
Jesus was actually quoting the first verse of Psalms 22 while on the Cross:
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
~ Psalms22:1
When Jesus cries out this phrase, it is a reference to Psalm 22. This Psalm is held to be a messianic psalm and one where the author (King David) appears to be sharing in some vision of what will happen to the Lord’s Messiah. Jesus only shares the first verse of the Psalm, but because of the scriptural literacy of Jesus’ day, most people would have assumed he was referring to the entire Psalm. We can examine it and find tie-ins to the crucifixion narrative.
In Psalm 22:6-8, it says that David’s enemies are mocking him, specifically because he trusts in the Lord that the Lord would rescue him. Matthew 27:35-44 and Mark 15:29-32 both say that the people mocking Jesus claimed that if God loved him so much, then God should save him in that moment.
Psalm 22:18 states that the clothing of the author was divided up and the oppressors were “casting lots” (a game of chance) for the possession of it. Matthew 27:35 tells us that Jesus’ garments were divided up and the new owners were decided by casting lots. How amazing is it that across the approximately 1,000 years difference between King David’s vision—recorded in Psalm 22—and the recorded actions of the death of Jesus, should be so similar?
Historical Orthodox Christianity holds that Jesus was both 100% God and 100% Man. Fully Human, yet fully God. He had two natures - the Hypostatic Union. So Jesus, as a man, could experience pain and suffering, like us. He could also heal the blind, walk on water, control weather, bring dead people back to life (Lazarus), and resurrect from the Dead himself - as only God can do.
Historical Orthodox Christianity also hold to the teaching of the Trinity. God is a triune being with three persons in One nature. The 2nd person of the Trinity is speaking to the 1st person of the Trinity. There is similar language found in the Creation account (and the account of the Tower of Babel) pointing to this plurality within the Godhead:
~ Gen 1:26
Nice response, respect for the depth of your knowledge and the effort of your post.
Interesting list of names both Yahweh and Jesus used.
I would argue that you are painting a picture of a man and a religion already under political persecution by a regime that sought to maintain control over it's subjects.
This is the very definition of the organ that rewrites history and perpetrates Orwellian crimes against it's populace.
The fact is, like the Q drops that no longer have the entire thread attached or link to working videos Christianity has lost context and meaning over the centuries. It is not possible to know what was and was not changed either, particularly the New Testament for this very reason.
I would be willing to accept that maybe that human consciousness is comprised of three parts and the Holy Trinity is an attempt to describe them. These are just labels but for arguments sake lets say :- (the observer), the mind and the soul.
Whenever I have read Jesus words they always made more sense to me through the lens of Eastern Mysticism, Taoist or Zen philosophies. He sounded enlightened. He sounded like every single thing ever said sailed clean over everyone's heads not schooled in the fore mentioned philosophies.