Q repeatedly points out that UNITY is our most important weapon against the Cabal. United we win; divided we remain under the thumb of an Evil that is working to replace benevolent forms of Civilization with a permanent global tyranny.
A UNITED MANKIND is Kryptonite to the Cabal because, as Q puts it (in drop #2526 for instance), PEOPLE ARE INHERENTLY GOOD.
If they weren't, unity would do little to improve the world.
Here's the TL:DR on this essay:
- EVERYONE who follows Jesus' commandment to "Love one another" is part of a SINGLE FAMILY that, UNITED, will END the Cabal of Evil -- REGARDLESS of what formal religion, if any, they follow. LOVE and UNITY are far more important here than THEOLOGY, in part because theology is an attempt to describe a reality beyond human comprehension, and there will never be universal agreement on the topic.
Even as a tree has a single trunk but many branches and leaves, there is one religion -- human religion -- but any number of faiths. -- M. K. Gandhi
I believe that EVERY True Religion (more detail follows) is, at least in part, an attempt to teach and foster emotional health (AKA love) and social harmony -- to, in other words, support the side of Good and to diminish Evil.
Q -- being an American-centric, US-military-aligned, and probably US-military created and run operation (see Drops #3854 and #4438, for instance. 126 drops include the term "military") -- is naturally Christian-centric. The terms "God" (265 drops) and "Christian" (8 drops) are well represented in the Q drops, while "Satanic" or "Satan" -- Satan being the prime Christian adversary -- is mentioned in 14 drops.
"Buddhism" and "Buddhist", on the other hand, are not mentioned at all, anywhere in the Q oeuvre. Nor are "Hinduism", "Jainism", or "Taoism". ("Islam" and "Muslim" are mentioned several times, and often with negative implications. More on this, perhaps, in another essay).
Do other religions than Christianity -- the ones I am calling "True Religions", including several not mentioned above -- make good allies? Are they compatible with the Earthly goals of Christians and do they fit well with the objectives of the Great Awakening?
They do. Judge for yourself:
First, I'll quote Jesus on HIS definition of "Christian" and what He called a new commandment -- which, in my unpopular opinion, encapsulates the essence of His ministry:
John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
13:35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
In HIS OWN WORDS (as reported by John and later translated into English), Jesus told us that "if ye have love one to another", you are His disciple -- WITHOUT ANY FURTHER QUALIFICATIONS. Whether you had ever met Him, or heard of Him, or consciously followed Him, He considered that you and He were both living as God intended.
Encouraging people to have love in their hearts was at the CORE of Jesus' ministry. He elevated LOVE and thus COMPASSION to an important, CORE principle. That makes perfect sense, because love is the foundation of healthy, appropriate behavior. As Romans 13:10 puts it:
Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Do practicing Buddhists qualify as "Christian" under THAT definition? That is, under JESUS' OWN DEFINITION?
Yes, absolutely.
Buddhism does not include belief in a creator God, although Buddhism DOES include belief in a type of afterlife (re-incarnation) and other supernatural entities and realities.
Yet practicing Buddhists fit Jesus' own definition of His disciples: they "have love one to another".
There are billions of people who were raised in religions other than Christianity or who have never HEARD of Christianity; some Christians will tell you those people are going to Hell because they "don't believe in Christ."
I do not believe that either Jesus or our Creator is so cruel or senseless.
When Jesus talks about "little ones which believe in me", I am certain He isn't speaking about children who had met or heard about Him and "believed" in Him intellectually but rather Children who had LOVE IN THEIR HEARTS -- who believed and LIVED Jesus' core teaching even if they lived in a faraway land where the name "Jesus" had never been spoken.
Matthew 18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. [KJV]
Side note: Jesus' clearly expressed concern for the loving, compassionate, and respectful treatment of CHILDREN is a critically important element of His ministry, because proper treatment early in life creates adults who NATURALLY have love for others, while sufficient trauma can mute access to that love or even over-ride it with anger and hatred. I believe Jesus' teachings in this regard have often been ignored or misinterpreted, sometimes widely and destructively (see the Spanish Inqusition, for example). END of side note.
Despite having no belief in a Christian-type creator God or any formal belief in Jesus, Buddhism IS, in my opinion, a worthy ally to Christianity because it teaches -- nay, insists on -- treating others with love and respect. Practicing Buddhists follow the "new commandment" that Jesus gave us, to "love one another."
Evidence for that includes the Eightfold Path, a central tenet in Buddhism: (from https://spice.fsi.stanford.edu/docs/introduction_to_buddhism -- emphasis added below)
The Eightfold Path consists of three categories: moral conduct, concentration, and wisdom:
Moral conduct consists of:
1 right speech (refraining from falsehood, malicious talk, and abusive language)
2 right action (refraining from stealing, killing, and unchastity)
3 right livelihood (earning a living through proper means, not killing living beings, making astrological forecasts, or practicing fortune-telling)5
Concentration consists of:
4 right effort (energetic will to prevent or get rid of evil and promote goodness)
5 right mindfulness (to be diligently aware, mindful, and attentive)
6 right concentration (to rid oneself of unwholesome thoughts and achieve pure equanimity and awareness)6
Wisdom consists of:
7 right thought (selflessness and detachment, universal thoughts of love and nonviolence)
8 right understanding (understanding of things as they are, a full understanding of the Four Noble Truths)
There are similar teachings in many other religions. For instance (from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucianism, emphasis added below),
The worldly concern of Confucianism rests upon the belief that human beings are fundamentally good, and teachable, improvable, and perfectible through personal and communal endeavor, especially self-cultivation and self-creation. Confucian thought focuses on the cultivation of virtue in a morally organised world.[13] Some of the basic Confucian ethical concepts and practices include ren, yi, li, and zhi. Ren is the essence of the human being which manifests as compassion. It is the virtue-form of Heaven.[14] Yi is the upholding of righteousness and the moral disposition to do good. Li is a system of ritual norms and propriety that determines how a person should properly act in everyday life in harmony with the law of Heaven. Zhi (智; zhì) is the ability to see what is right and fair, or the converse, in the behaviors exhibited by others. Confucianism holds one in contempt, either passively or actively, for failure to uphold the cardinal moral values of ren and yi.
Traditionally, cultures and countries in the Chinese cultural sphere are strongly influenced by Confucianism, including China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, as well as various territories settled predominantly by Han Chinese people, such as Singapore.
Any self-described religion that does NOT unreservedly support emotional health (AKA love), social harmony, and, in general, The Good, is a fraud and a danger to mankind. Certainly, any religion that advocates human sacrifice or forcible domination or mass-murder of "non-believers" is not a True Religion.
Of course, many groups and social movements that don't claim to be religions (e.g., Communism) are also dangers to mankind.
Likewise, any non-religious group that supports emotional health (AKA love), social harmony, and The Good is a positive element in the world.
Anything from a single person to a two-person friendship, to a family, to a global movement with millions of people can be a force for good.
Q qualifies in spades. Here's hoping that never changes ("Trust, but verify" -- that is a necessary on-going function, not just a saying from Ronald Reagan).
EARTHLY elements vs. OTHER elements
I am deliberating drawing a line between what I call the positive, Earthly elements of a religion and any other elements it may contain, typically including what I will call the supernatural, or rather the specific supernatural schema that members of the religion often consider the main and defining element.
Note that I am not taking a position on the correctness of any of these schemas; it's just that I don't consider them important in terms of fostering the unity of mankind that we need if we are to overcome the Cabal and to set the world right. -- which is exactly what we are trying to do. Without a high level of UNITY the job will never get done.
BEYOND HUMAN COMPREHENSION (and hence not amenable to universal agreement)
I believe ALL the supernatural schemas in the True Religions -- God, the Great Spirit, the various pantheons of gods and spirits, the Tao, etc. -- are attempts to describe a reality beyond human comprehension which can only be grasped partially and metaphorically. Different cultures will have honestly created different schemas and metaphors attempting to describe the same truths, and many of those elements are described symbolically (for example: how long is a "day" in Genesis? Perhaps it is "24 hours" but many believe the term is used as a symbol for much longer periods of time).
EARTHLY CONCERNS MATTER (more than supernatural schemas and creation myths)
Regardless of the schema used for supernatural and world-creation myths, many religions (and other organizations) teach and support emotional health (AKA love), social harmony, and The Good generally -- they foster love for others, as Jesus taught His disciples -- despite differing elements in other areas.
Does it REALLY matter (to the state of the world) whether someone believes one world-creation story or another? Whether their view of the afterlife (or no afterlife) is the same as yours?
Because while most of us might want every person on Earth to have the same religion or paradigm we embrace, that's not going to happen -- nor should it. We aren't social insects, and where universally agreed upon facts are not available, differences in opinion are inevitable. (Even when facts ARE available and agreed upon, interpretation of what those facts MEAN can be all over the map: consider the absolute circus of quantum physics, for example. Multiple universes, or everything just probabilistic unless and until observed? etc.)
https://search.brave.com/search?q=multiple+universe+theories&source=web
https://search.brave.com/search?q=Probabilistic+Universe+Theories&source=web
The particular paradigm or religion someone embraces as a guide to life and an understanding of the world is far less important than whether that paradigm or religion strongly fosters emotional health, clear thinking, honest behavior, and love and respect for the rights of all.
And THAT is the essence of why UNITY is both possible and highly desirable, even aside from it being necessary in our fight to clean the Satanic and other Evil from this world.
FINIS
The most anti religious man that ever walked the earth was Jesus. Whatever one professes, there is only One Way to God and that is through Jesus. We can worship God without a priest or a pastor. We have direct fellowship with God through Jesus.
I agree with you that organized religion has serious downsides, although I believe that without organized Christianity, Christ's message would have been lost forever. I also believe that the supernatural elements, which I've never been able to embrace, were a major draw, bringing people to the Church, although at the same time those portions of Christian dogma overshadowed and somewhat minimized the importance of and adherence to the MORE important (in my opinion) Earthly teachings that Jesus bequeathed to us.
Even if someone believes the afterlife is more important than THIS life, Christ is clear that the road TO heaven instead of hell involves following His "new commandment" to love one another.
When you follow the two commandments of the New Covenant, one is clearly put before the other:
Matthew 22:37-39 : Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
When you follow these two commandments, you cannot break any of the original 10 in the Old Covenant. Jesus did not abolish the law but came to fulfill it. This is clearly stated in Matthew 5:17-18:
When Christians make Jesus the Lord of their life, they are to deny themselves and their flesh, pick up their cross, and follow Him daily. The Holy Spirit should have transformed their minds and hearts towards Christ. (Romans 12:2, Ephesians 4:23-24) As Jesus lived a sin-free life, we should aspire for the same knowing full well we can, and will, NEVER do it. (Romans 6:1-2) Faith and belief in Him, and our love of Him, are shown through reverence, obedience, and selfless, unconditional love.
There is no life for those outside the body of Christ; only death and eternal separation from God. Nobody gets to the Father but through Christ. It's more than just being nice to strangers, which we should all be doing anyway. Jesus Christ is King; the way, the truth, and the life. John 14:6
You and I have different interpretations of what that means.
Your interpretation (correct me if I'm wrong) means that EVERY single soul who lived and died in the many centuries before Jesus is writhing in Hell, now and forever.
Every person who lived in a place where the name and teachings of Jesus was unknown, is also suffering eternally in Hell.
Every skeptic and person born into a different religion than Christianity is likewise doomed to an eternity in Hell.
My idea of a "loving God" does not include anything like that.
More on this another time.
My God is a jealous God.
Exodus 34:14 - “For you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”
Deuteronomy 4:24 - “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”
Deuteronomy 6:15 - “(For the Lord your God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth.”
If you're not with God, you're against Him, regardless of your personal virtues and good deeds.
Nahum 1:2 - “God is jealous, and the Lord avenges; the Lord avenges and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies.”
Paul spoke of this divine jealousy in his writing to the Corinthians:
2 Corinthians 11:2 - “For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”
God’s jealousy is not human envy but divine zeal for exclusive love, faithfulness, and holiness. It reflects His passionate commitment to His people and His intolerance of idolatry or spiritual unfaithfulness.
I can't speak for before Christ and how God will or will not judge them. The law was the law and there's written and physical evidence of hellfire in the Middle East. God's judgment is as just as the wrath it can bring. Such wrath can be expected without Christ being the Lord of their life.
There's even self-proclaimed Christians that open themselves up for judgment, falling victim to false teachings:
Hebrews 10:26-27 - “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.”
Jesus laid it down on the Mount for His followers:
Matthew 7:13-14 - “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
Matthew 7:17-21 - “Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”
Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Believe in Him and His sacrifice of His life on the cross, atoning for all sin. If you confess your sin, repent, and believe in Him, carrying your cross daily, and spreading the Good News of Salvation through Him, you will have eternal life and not have to face eternity separated from Him.
Free will. You can choose life with Him or without Him. He loves you and wants you to choose Him. He loves you so much, He makes it your choice. But, if you don't choose him, you oppose Him. You're His enemy. And His enemies have been warned of their pending righteous destruction.
Deuteronomy 32:39 - “Now see that I, even I, am He, and there is no God besides Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; nor is there any who can deliver from My hand.”
Luke 13:3 - “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”
Press on. People like to forget the Fall of Man and what resulted from that: death and Hell. But it is a mistake to think of it as a punishment. Consider a man who, having been warned, grips bare electrical cables and is electrocuted. Was that "punishment"? No, it was the inevitable outcome of his folly and the laws of reality. Man's folly was to sin. Think of it as a terminal form of corruption that leads us spiritually away from God, where in after life, we are tormented by that separation.
God warned Man not to taste of the forbidden fruit and Man disobeyed, failing to love God. He was thereby fatally poisoned by sin. Like a kind of spiritual radioactivity, deadly to all innocence. God tried all through the Old Testament to find ways of salvation for Man, but they never resulted well. The final effort was to love Man so much, he gave his own Son to suffer death and Hell in place of Man. Thereafter, all Man needs do is love and cling to Christ for eternal protection.
This is why evangelists are so busy. They want to provide the Word to all, that all would have the opportunity to be saved. It is NOT a matter of being nice. It is NOT a matter of human good works at all, to be saved. The logic is this: If you love and obey Christ, good works will arise naturally from that loving obedience. Doing good works of themselves, does not bring you closer to Christ. It may, at worst, bring you closer to self-satisfaction and complacency, which is the sin of Pride.
But anyone who thinks we can organize a world-wide movement to extirpate evil is foolish. Sin is in our nature, from birth onward. The Founding Fathers understood this, and devised a government accordingly, not to govern angels, but to abate the problems of sin in government. As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn put it so well: "The line between good and evil passes through every person's heart."
Buddhists don't believe in God so they don't worship another God. Jews & Muslims would say they worship the same God. (BTW 'Allah' is the Arabic word for God in Arabic speaking Christian churches.) Hinduism could be a bit of a stretch but some Hindis will say that all the different Hindi 'gods' are more like aspects of God & yes, I have heard some Hindus say there is just one God & I believe Brahmin is that one supreme God. There are forms of Hinduism older that Judaism, in other words, there were aspects of Hinduism before Abraham was born. If Abraham was thought to be a man of God before there was even a set god in that area they would probably borrow the name of God from a nearby place, right? Or somehow that would would get heard.
So he just might have been known as the man from God, or of God or something like that. In the sematic tongues that preposition is just the sound: 'a' so if there was a man in a sematic speaking area who was considered to be from God but the only concept of an all powerful God at the time was Brahmin then they might call him: a'Brahmin, which in time might just sound like Abraham
So yes, you could say that none of these faiths actually worship any God other than the God of Abraham.
Note: This is just an argument I am making. I can't say for certain - no moral can. I have, on the other hand, often felt that Mohammed was the false prophet who led many people astray. Of course, Mohammed came after Jesus while all the others mentioned here were before Jesus....
Great comment, inspoken. I mostly agree.
I have, after many years, come around to thinking that "God" = "Nature" = "the universe" -- which is a low-level but omnipresent consciousness. A bit of that universal consciousness is trapped in each of our brains, by the highly recursive and other characteristics of brain architecture and of the elements (neurons etc) of which it is constructed. This trapped bit of consciousness is dissociated from the overall universal consciousness and from other individual, trapped portions of consciousness in other individual brains.
That's the soul, or so I believe (for now at least). And yes, it means your soul and mine are PART OF the Universal Consciousness, AKA "God." Or as Jesus put it:
That all would have sounded laughable to me even a few years ago, but the mental, non-material foundation of the universe (i.e., sub-atomic particles are point disturbances in various types of waves -- photons are point disturbances in light waves, for example; thus the results of the double-split experiment) -- is beyond dispute at this point. The beginnings of Quantum Wave Theory go back to the 1920s. Even most physicists ignore the implications, apparently, because the math -- quantification -- for particle physics works so well.
Note that consciousness cannot be quantified. The material world is precisely quantifiable, but experience is not. The components of a food item can be broken down to specifics including the percentage of each, the TASTE of that food cannot be.
See Bernardo Kastrup for more (I've barely touched the surface here) --
The Idea of the World: A Multi-Disciplinary Argument for the Mental Nature of Reality
Analytic Idealism in a Nutshell: A straightforward summary of the 21st century’s only plausible metaphysics
Universal Consciousness or collective unconscious, for sure. That's how my mother knew what I was doing when there was no possible way she could have but she would call, when I was a young adults and say "I have a funny feeling that....." She just somehow knew. Or the last time I talked to my cousin, when we seemed to just cap off & review our whole relationship of 40+ years, when it would have been impossible for either of us to know he would die in an accident 6 mouths later, etc etc
But there's more to it than that. This 'low-level' consciousness maybe has a soul as well. If individual organisms made of many cells have a soul then maybe collectives of souls have soul, an over soul if you will. And this can go ad infinitum, However you look at it, this low level consciousness may also have a very high level consciousness as well. We can call this God. What would God want to do? God might want to grow & for all the aspects of God to grow.
Now if this human aspect of God keeps building empires and fighting each other that's a kinda yucky feeling for this low level consciousness everywhere & so the high level aspect of that same soul (over soul ie God) maybe decides to incarnate as human, dwell amongst them & teach them that the only way to end this barrage of empires is with unconditional love, non violence & passive resistance. It's interesting that Jesus was born in the Jewish community sired the Christian community but then it was a member of the Hindi community to 1st implement these methods to free his nation. (Gandhi read a book by Tolstoy based on Christ, which gave him the idea of non violence & passive resistance)
Now, with all this history behind us it is now the anon movement which is about to do what Gandhi did but in a much larger scale & more permanently, because we are being guided by Q, whoever they are, who has the plan thought out & gave us the info that we need to spread in clever, loving & non violent ways. As long as we remain non violent & loving in our dissemination of what Q enlighten us of, there is no way the cabal can stop us. Their every attempt only hastens their own doom.
But yes, a new dawn for humanity awaits & it is only natural that this universal consciousness would have embodied the 1st paradigm to start the process.
I know nothing about physics but within this post somehow there is the answer to a profound " God experience I had as a child of 5 or 6. It had to do with infinitesimally small particles that were somehow simultaneously massive beyond comprehension
Narg I totally agree. I do not buy that God is up in Heaven waiting to send lighting bolts to punish for mistakes.
People definition of sin is screwed up also. To some its a sin to come home after working hard in the sun or on the factory floor and have a beer or three and sit back and listen to MTV or something. That isn't sin. Sin is directly going against the 10 commandments. Sin is going directly in the opposite direction of Christ. Making mistakes is not a sin either.
Yes. "Shit happens", if you'll pardon my language. Or "to err is human."
If there's neither malice nor harm from egregious incompetence, there's no sin.
What do you have against the supernatural? Many people accept it and understand it despite the inability to measure and bottle it, or to document it on a spreadsheet.
One reason Jesus spoke in parables seems to be an effort to make unseen spiritual phenomena understandable to all of us who share this common material experience.
Love itself is indefinable without the concept of existence beyond the material. I see the supernatural in the bible, and in other religions, as necessary deeper explanation for why love is important to begin with. If you think self-interested altruism is an end in itself, I suggest opening yourself to the possibility of spirit and the supernatural being both true and useful in our life's path.
With regard to Buddhism, to my knowledge it does not preclude a belief in God, although most Buddhists I know strive to be content without worrying about God's existence.
Nothing at all.
I just have a different view of it. A different paradigm, if you will. As I say in the post, I don't believe "the supernatural" -- the basic truth of what the universe IS -- can be comprehended by human brains, any more than I think we (or at least I) can visualize a 5-dimensional object. I agree with you that Jesus used parables to help people understand what he was saying, and the reason for that is because some of what he was talking about could only be perceived implicitly, not explicitly, because, again, human brains are not adequate for some perceptions and understandings.
I started to write about what my view IS but it'll take an essay about as long as this one, I think (and I doubt that most people would care about it). I've got other things I need to do now, so maybe later.
I really like your note about the unknowable being less important than the core message of Love.
There are SOOOO many divisions and backbitings in the church over theological things, many of which can’t be proven. Is some of it important? Yes!! Some theological issues are salvific! Just don’t neglect the roots to work solely on the fruits.
Even if someone is on the wrong salvific side, just like, don’t send your children or friends to that place’s service.
👍 Sounded like you were advocating for stripping all supernatural references from the bible, because it detracted from the utility of God's instruction manual for life. Glad to hear I read it wrong. Blessings,
His name Is JESUS the name Above all other Names. Jesus is Lord. Folk running around with this Christ is King mantra are suspect.
Baldeagle 'Christ is King' is a political statement. sure the Bible says he's King of Kings but that's a title, as you pointed out he is Lord, but more importantly is literally our brother, friend, and Savior.
That's True Narg. The Kingdom of Heaven is open to all that will believe. Why settle for less? In all your getting, get understanding. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. Christians are called to share this liberty with all who will receive it that they will be saved in the last days of evil. It is written, We are the head not the tail. ALL of creation knows this even Lucifer. Fear not.
Thank you for opening the door for this discussion Narg.
Ummm no, God is sovereign over everything including (actually especially) carrying his word through history.
Do you think loving each other his Christ's / Gods only commandment? Christ told us that all of the law hangs on loving God and loving neighbor. What that means is God's law is HOW we are supposed to love one another. It's the blueprint. Because of jesus's sacrifice we're no longer justified by the law but under the covenant of grace but God's law is still good and perfect and should be our model.
Our founding fathers understood this so well that Our Constitution and Bill of Rights was drawn directly out of the general equity of God's law in Scripture. And not just any scripture or any religion, the Bible.
Listen bud I know you mean well but the nature of truth is either all religions or false or one is true. Those are the only two possibilities since
Let me suggest a little thought experiment....
If you're a liar and a cheat and you want to counterfeit something to fool people do you counterfeit something that's worth something or something that's worthless?
Obviously you would only counterfeit something of value.
Now with that in mind.... Which major religion has the most "counterfeits" if you will?
Christianity by far. There's no contest. And all of the cults and offshoots of it always differ on one or more salvific issue that are essential to the faith.
I'll also remind you that Q hasn't quoted any other religion besides the Bible.
This isn't a difficult puzzle to work out.
Repent and believe the Gospels.
I do, for the most part, "believe the Gospels", but I don't interpret them as you do. For that matter, there are many interpretations in "official" forms of Christianity, thus all the differing denominations. And what, for instance, does Jesus mean in Luke: 17:21 --
I'm pretty sure I have a different interpretation of that than you do.
And I'm fine with that -- I'm not trying to change the way you interpret the Gospels at all. For that matter, it doesn't bother me that you think I'm "damned to hell" (if indeed that's what you think). Think of me what you will.
The whole POINT of my essay is that people with (some) different religions can be ALLIES AGAINST THE CABAL.
Russia isn't America and doesn't have completely similar traditions and beliefs as America (although it IS a mostly Christian nation) -- but we allied with Russia to take down the Axis nations in WWII.
Allies don't have to share identical belief systems: they just have to have compatible Earthly goals.
That's either a strawman fallacy or ignorance. That part completely depends on your level of understanding. But if you're speaking on the subject you should have a grasp of this.
There's not an "official“ denomination of Christianity. There are Lots of non salvific differences like styles of worship, infant baptism, how communions done, and none essential differences like that. There are many other churches and sects of Christianity that I would fully consider my brothers and sisters in Christ even though we have some slight differences. (I'll list some of the core beliefs towards the end of this comment that are essential and anyone that disagrees with those I would not consider them Christians.)
I was specifically bringing up the counterfeits of Christianity with salvific issues. Things that make you not a Christian like denying the Trinity, denying salvation through faith apart from works, denying that Jesus is God or eternal, and other core foundational Christian beliefs. Some examples of these distortions would be Mormons, Jehovah's witnesses, oneness Pentecostals, Christian science, Unitarians, & the NAR to name a few.
Biblical Christianity is defined by essential doctrines such as:
One eternal, triune God (Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19).
Jesus as fully God and fully man (John 1:1, 14; Colossians 2:9).
Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Jesus' bodily resurrection (Luke 24:39; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
The sufficiency and authority of Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Groups that alter the nature of God, Jesus, salvation, or Scripture have departed from biblical Christianity and preach a different gospel (Galatians 1:8-9).
As for your question on that verse, why didn't you include the context? (That's very intellectually dishonest to take a single sentence out of context) What was asked of Jesus and who was asking? Who is the audience? That matters. Instead you plucked a single verse out of context in order to support your position.
But I'll explain what it means. It's quite simple.
Jesus is responding to the Pharisees, who had asked when the Kingdom of God would come. They were expecting a political or military kingdom that would overthrow Roman rule and restore Israel’s earthly power. However, Jesus corrects their understanding by teaching that God's kingdom is not something that arrives with visible signs or physical boundaries.
With the phrase "the kingdom of God is within you" (Greek: ἐντὸς ὑμῶν, entos humōn) Jesus is saying the kingdom is already present because He, the King, is in their midst. The kingdom is not a future political event but is present wherever Christ is reigning.
I understand the point of your post, but I was replying to a specific comment and offering you correction.
God doesn't call for strategic or careful men, he calls for faithful men. God gives the victory to the faithful men in ways that show the victory came from God. This happens again and again in the Bible.
The careful and strategic men come later, writing the biographies of the faithful men, lauding them for their courage and obedience to God.
But that's another discussion entirely. I'm not going to rabbit trail into it.
There is no unity for Christians with other religions. Jesus was exclusive and said that “NO ONE comes to the Father but through me.” John 14:6
There is only 1 True Religion. Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, etc do not believe in the same God that Christians believe in. Any religion apart from Christianity is from Satan, and those religions are evil because they deceive and destroy people. Good vs. Evil
However, there should be unity among Christians across denominations. And Christians can and should love people of other religions without uniting with them.
How do these scriptures fit in with your hypothesis?
Matthew 10:34-36:
"Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to turn 'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A person's enemies will be the members of his own household'".
Luke 12:51-53:
"Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three".
Jesus lived in a time of incredible cruelty (public crucifixion for even minor crimes in some cases; death by stoning for infidelity; whipping and scourging and other tortures, etc) and corruption. Many people grew up with enough trauma to make today's emotionally-damaged sheep seem healthy, and people's beliefs and behaviors were all over the map. You'll recall that a large group of the public cheered Jesus' crucifixion on -- an entertaining spectacle!
I don't doubt that divisions even among family members often included people who were seriously evil in their beliefs and behaviors.
We are fighting evil today. So was Jesus, in an even more barbarous time.
Yes, and his crucifixion was actually prophesied.
EDIT: it was prophesied 400 years before crucifixion was even invented.
“Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked— But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.”
Isaiah 53:1-12 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/isa.53.1-12.NKJV
(oddly enough this is the chapter of the Bible the Jews are not allowed to read) 🧐
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
John 14:6 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/jhn.14.6.NKJV
That scripture alone is very exclusive.
i'm pretty sure God prophesied the crucifixion of Christ in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned and He removed them from the Garden of Eden.
he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" (Genesis 3:15
i've heard different preachers mention that Eve thought that Seth would be the Savior (i don't know where it's at in the Bible). So this means to me that both Adam and Eve knew God promised a Savior to come and restore His perfect world, just no one ever knew, except God when that Savior would arrive.
Oh, I agree with you. There’s many prophecies regarding Christ coming and his death and resurrection. It’s really interesting because our women Bible study this week was in the book of Matthew. We were reading through the crucifixion and the topic of Christ’s heal came up. You’re spot on about that. 🙏
Matthew 27:1-66 (crucifixion)
“And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”” Genesis 3:15 NKJV https://bible.com/bible/114/gen.3.15.NKJV
The counter to John 14:6 resides in the fact that Jesus often referred to himself as the Son of Man and other times as the Son of God, and for what reason? To distinguish between his physical embodiment (named Jesus) and his spiritual essence (God, encased in earthly flesh for His purpose to redeem man at that snapshot in time). Believing in and acknowledging God's spirit is a necessary prerequisite to redemption (thereby reaching the Father "through Him"), but the mere concession of belief in a man named Jesus is insufficient in and of itself ... and immaterial, especially if belief in the flesh is acknowledged but belief in his holy spiritual nature is denied.
At any rate, that interpretation is worth considering.
Yes, exactly.
And as it happens, that fits perfectly well with Bernardo Kastrup's theory of Idealism, which posits (with much to back it up) that the human soul is a blocked-off piece of the Universal Consciousness, dissociated (separated from and out of direct contact with) each other person's trapped bit of consciousness and from the greater, Universal Consciousness that underlies the universe as a whole.
IDK if that's the actual way things are, but then I don't imagine I ever WILL know for certain what the nature of the universe is. For now, I've pretty much embraced most of Kastrup's paradigm as part of my own, and I see it as a good alternative interpretation of much in Christianity and some other religions.
Oh yes, I agree with you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit - 3 in one 🙏
Calling attention to OP u/narg.
Unfortunately, OP is very lost in his ideas and I will be praying for his salvation. His views couldn’t be any more worldly. Saddens me. 🙏 he’s literally preaching the end times one world religion. Weird.
I appreciate your expressed compassionate for me, ThisIsHowItStarts (no sarcasm; I feel actual concern from you in your response). But, while my post is specifically ABOUT the worldly problem of defeating the Cabal and the worldly need to engender as much Unity on that score as possible, I disagree that my "views couldn't be any more worldly."
For example, from the post itself (I've added the italics here):
Some of my comments below the post also make the point that I don't think in just worldly terms. I that you may be responding to a comment I posted a little above this one in which I say --
Which is to say, your soul is a little piece of God.
You probably also have seen that I quoted Luke on that topic as well:
Honestly: can you say that verse doesn't fit with what I said about consciousness?
I may be weird, but I'm being honest about how I see things. I think for myself and can't turn that off. As it happens, science (physics in particular) brought me to a belief in God (or the Universal Consciousness, as I think of it) after decades of not believing in anything beyond the physical.
I understand that people can only see things in a way that makes sense to humans (no surprise, really). That includes me, of course. I honestly don't believe any human can really comprehend the nature of God or the Universe. Do you?
So we tell and believe stories and paradigms that feel right on the subject of God and the nature of the Universe, and we use metaphor because that's all we have.
Thank you for your heartfelt reply. Also, the scripture that you used is perfect, however, when reading the Bible, there has to be context that before, and the after a specific verse. Here is the context in its entirety:
Luke 17:20-37 NKJV
“Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”
Then He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, ‘Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them. For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day. But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. “In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. Two women will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left.” And they answered and said to Him, “Where, Lord?” So He said to them, “Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.””
https://bible.com/bible/114/luk.17.37.NKJV
As per Ushe - the Pharisees were always asking him questions to trip him up. So he didn’t answer them, but then he starts speaking to the disciples because he knows the Pharisees aren’t gonna listen. The Pharisees never asked one question to get a real answer. They asked questions to trip him up so they could persecute him.
That being said, what did Jesus say to the disciples after the Pharisees asked their question. This is huge because he starts to explain to them that people will be looking for that kingdom that the Pharisees asked about. They’ll be looking here and there, but they should be looking towards the Son Jesus Christ. Then you continues to say that is coming will be quickly, and he gives you several examples. People will be living their lives, and many will be left behind. He’s literally talking about the rapture. The entire scriptures listed above are a warning to people.
So in my heart of heart, and because I do believe that God’s word is inherent, I would respectfully warn you. Not because I want to be right, but because I actually do believe God’s word and if I do, wouldn’t I want others to be in heaven for eternity?
God’s word is clear about salvation throughout. I’m hoping that this interaction will be a small seed for you to ponder on these thoughts.
Here are only a few references. But as I said, standalone scriptures, still need context if you would like to read before and after the scriptures.
Ephesians 2:8-9:
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—not by works, so that no one can boast." This verse highlights that salvation is a gift from God, not something earned through good deeds, emphasizing God's grace and the role of faith.
Romans 10:9-10:
"If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are justified, and it is by declaring with your mouth that you are saved." This passage underscores the importance of both faith and confession of Jesus as Lord for salvation.
John 3:16:
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." This verse is perhaps the most well-known verse about salvation, emphasizing God's love and the gift of eternal life through faith in Jesus.
Acts 4:12:
"And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." This verse emphasizes that salvation is found only through Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:8:
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." This verse highlights the selfless love of God, who sent Jesus to die for sinners, offering salvation even to those who are not yet righteous.
May God bless you today, and thank you for your thoughtful post and allowing others to provide their own points of view and share with you Christ crucified. 🙏
Jesus will not unite with the evil hearts of unbelief and dead religions. The wise thing to is to get with Jesus.
I AM with Jesus, or did you not understand that?
You think you have the ONE and ONLY interpretation of Jesus' teachings.
You are almost certainly wrong.
There are many versions of Christianity. I grew up in the Methodist church. What say you: is THAT the proper interpretation? Or not?
Some bible translations (most, actually) say in essence that "anger is bad" (in various wordings. Others say "Thou shalt not be anger with another WITHOUT CAUSE" (or the like). Which is right?
And how do you know?
I am not angry, just saying the truth. Stop lying. How is the living gonna unite with the dead? Makes no sense.
What the hell are you talking about? I wrote a column about working to end the Cabal, pointing out that the more allies we have IN THAT TASK, the more likely we are to succeed.
I don't care what your, or anyone else's, spiritual beliefs are as long as you are not malicious, and at least sincerely TRY to follow Jesus' commandment to "love one another."
I'm certainly not suggesting Christianity MERGE with other religions (or that the living "unite with the dead).
I'm suggesting that here in the material world, people of good will make for good neighbors, regardless of whether they were raised in and/or believe in one religion or another, as long as the religion isn't malicious, doesn't advocate cheating, stealing from, or killing non-believers, and actually supports love (AKA emotional health). I'm suggesting that Christians consider other good people, including Buddhists, Taoists, Confucionists, Jains, and others -- whose religion supports love, compassion, honest dealing, common sense, and other "Christian values" -- as ALLIES IN BRINGING DOWN THE CABAL.
That's it.
There are billions of people all over the world who want the evil and corruption of the Cabal GONE. Do you really think that Christians should carry that task alone?
Christians been carrying it alone since Antioch and will continue until JESUS RETURNS. Christian strength is in the Power of GOD, the Name of Jesus and The Holy Spirit who guides us into ALL THE TRUTH. All other belief systems lack these assets and are subject to satanic influence.
Uniting a dead branch to a LIVING BRANCH is not productive. Christians don't fear the cabal. They fear us.
Cabal is behind this religious unity farce.Christ is King mantra is an attempt to facilitate the one world religion Jesus is Lord is what every demon dreads.
Very good question. You are allowed to be angry at evil. God is angry at evil. God is your daddy. You take after your Father. It is always a good thing to refresh your self in a Red letter Bible reading the Gospels it grows as you grow. Observe the Who, What, Where When and How of His Words. it's pretty eye opening.
Very interesting. Thank you.
Whom ever provided the 6-8 years of perfect future information, beyond the ability of known String/Game Theories, is of divine intelligence, being able to gain intel well beyond current time dilation. I’m 100% sure its God or Christ, because Romans 8:31. 😉
Luke 11:14-12:34
14 One day Jesus cast out a demon from a man who couldn’t speak, and when the demon was gone, the man began to speak. The crowds were amazed, 15 but some of them said, “No wonder he can cast out demons. He gets his power from Satan,[a] the prince of demons.” 16 Others, trying to test Jesus, demanded that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority.
17 He knew their thoughts, so he said, “Any kingdom divided by civil war is doomed. A family splintered by feuding will fall apart. 18 You say I am empowered by Satan. But if Satan is divided and fighting against himself, how can his kingdom survive? 19 And if I am empowered by Satan, what about your own exorcists? They cast out demons, too, so they will condemn you for what you have said. 20 But if I am casting out demons by the power of God,[b] then the Kingdom of God has arrived among you. 21 For when a strong man is fully armed and guards his palace, his possessions are safe— 22 until someone even stronger attacks and overpowers him, strips him of his weapons, and carries off his belongings.
23 “Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.
24 “When an evil[c] spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, searching for rest. But when it finds none, it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ 25 So it returns and finds that its former home is all swept and in order. 26 Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before.”
27 As he was speaking, a woman in the crowd called out, “God bless your mother—the womb from which you came, and the breasts that nursed you!”
28 Jesus replied, “But even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice.”
Q is Jesus using a group of men in such a beautiful way. It's truly beautiful to watch play out. God is on the move. Hallelujah We love you Jesus
Unfortunately, it is a lie that all or even most people are "inherently good." We are inherently inclined to do continuous evil to each other. However, there are always a few good people born with God's law written in their hearts, and others that seek God to do His will, and others that are taught to do His will, and that is all that is needed to create a giant force for good, to bring the Light into the world. I agree that differences need to be put aside in this fight.
I disagree with that completely.
Sociopaths -- neurotics who are damaged enough in certain ways -- have damaged views of life and damaged attitudes towards others -- they are cut off to some extent from the sense of connection to and love for others, blocking or dimming empathy -- and are generally harmful in their behavior.
Psychopaths -- people with certain frontal-lobe deficits -- are also cut off from the sense of connection to others, which must be somewhat akin to spending life in solitary confinement, seeing and sensing others without connecting with them. Psychopaths who are also sociopaths are exceptionally dangerous, and even psychopaths who are not emotionally damaged (to the extent THAT is possible) are somewhat dangerous because (like AI, btw) they don't experience much or any empathy.
Emotionally HEALTHY people, on the other hand, are NOT evil and do NOT typically hurt their fellow man -- or even animals, at least unnecessarily. And, thank goodness, most humans on Earth are not so terribly damaged as to be sociopathic.
A good early life usually prevents sociopathic damage, and Jesus was absolutely right in his teachings about "not offending children" and otherwise treating them well.
Pregnant women, newborns, infants, and children: if they were all treated properly, with love, compassion, and common sense, the world would very quickly (in a few decades) become the heaven on Earth that we all expect at birth.
I agree. Most folks are people that make mistakes and all of us have sinned, but most people try to do good. Is up to God's standards? That's on him to decide.
Crimes against children will unite humanity.
This would include biblical Judaism, as well, as the Golden Rule first appears in Leviticus 19:18
Yes, there's a lot of good in the Old Testament. Plenty of not-so-good also, imo. Jesus' genius was to bring the need for love and compassion to the fore, tempering the OT, and actually teaching the need to have love for others "a new commandment."
A display of MAGA common sense. With a Q twist. Thanks for the (AKA) LOVE.
Beautiful and thoughtful post. Thank you.
"There are billions of people who were raised in religions other than Christianity or who have never HEARD of Christianity; some Christians will tell you those people are going to Hell because they "don't believe in Christ."
I do not believe that either Jesus or our Creator is so cruel or senseless."
this is very on Q and something I wish people realized. Problem is most Christianity is based on protestantism these days so it is cucked by nature.
It would do the average Christian a lot of good to actually read up on other religions, because it really does reaffirm faith to see people across entirely different lands and time periods almost come to the exact same conclusions. Like we say in Q, how many times can it be a coincidence before it isn't?
I love this post. Many years ago I fell in with a group of "Tradional Catholics" whose battle cry was Extra Ecclesiam Nula Salas. I asked my pastor at the time about it. He said, "Don't talk about it." Later I asked Rt Rev Robert J Taft SJ about it. I wish I could remember his exact response but essentially he said that without the Church ( Christ) there could be no salvation. Christ ushered in a new age in which love is the law.
YES! That was the entire purpose of Jesus' ministry, as I understand it. But the world wasn't ready for it -- and Christianity, along with EVERY OTHER religion and movement that also taught the need for LOVE, has been repeatedly attacked and followers imprisoned, massacred and otherwise mistreated.
It often feels pollyanna-ish to me, but I wonder if we're not ACTUALLY entering a time when Jesus' vision of an emotionally healthy world where love and compassion are powerfully present in ever-more of us.
Treatment of pregnant women, infants, and children is the key. Decent treatment of ALL is the goal, but we won't get there if more new, incoming lives aren't treated well.
This smacks of the one world religion that the cabal is attempting to herd humanity to accept. Christians have already overcome evil. We are just walking the prophecy to its conclusion.
Why would Jesus unite with dead man made religion?
Your statement is exactly why we have the Separation of Church and State and State and Church. We don't want the other running the other. Does this preclude people morals/integrity from being in the government. Don't need religion for morals or integrity. Matter of fact run away from organized religion if want you morals and integrity intact.
I made a similar post about Sikhs after the prayer in the RNC.
https://greatawakening.win/p/17teNsCSbi/x/c/4ZCbpTzSMYC
Thanks for the Sikh mention, it got me to do some more reading on them. They're an interesting group.
Never met one that wasn’t awesome.
In Christianity we tend to call God, “God”, and that’s it, but that’s not His Name.
“Waheguru” is the Sikh god, and Sikhs, basically seem to follow Christianity, where if you look over the principles of their religion, it lines up as a match on many issues.
I thought that Waheguru was Hindu, but “Waheguru” actually means “Wonderful Lord” and they’re monotheistic.
“Guru” specifically means “Counselor”.
Monotheists worshipping a “Wonderful counselor”, while protecting widows and orphans and seeking Justice, you say? Interesting. I wouldn’t convert to Sikhism, but how far are they off from proper biblical faith? Closer than Christians in some ways, potentially. Are they a remnant that just forgot some details about where they came from?
Interesting details, thanks.
You already know my my feelings about whether they believe in every specific in the Bible regarding God, heaven, and other non-worldly teachings:
As long as they teach and follow (as best they can) Jesus' teachings on Earthly matters, in particular on loving others including compassionate treatment of children, I'm good with however they imagine God and the afterlife. I actually believe that most of the Founding Fathers had a similar view; thus, freedom of religion.
Define "love", because your whole thesis revolves around what you interpret as Christ's meaning when he said those things.
What is love? OK -- interesting and insightful question.
People know "love" because they FEEL it; as an experience, it is knowable by it's very nature. Conscious experience is all we CAN know directly. So the question becomes, do different people experience love differently? In fact, EACH PERSON experiences love differently at different times and in regards to different loved ones (including pets, for instance).
Like any experience, love cannot be quantified or broken down into parts. Life, and by that I mean all life-forms and all conscious experience, is ever-changing, never static (although sometimes it appears so), and only a whole, not a mere collection of pieces. It can thus only be hinted at by words, which fix things into categories and re-present what is real rather than replicating it.
Iain McGilchrist puts it this way in The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World:
Love is a conscious experience. Is there another experience we can compare it to? Because nothing else but another type of conscious experience would allow for a meaningful comparison, and indeed: every experience, including the moment-by-moment changes in your conscious experience right NOW, with your left hand in one position and your right hand in another, with perhaps a small itch starting on your neck or a speck on your glasses annoying you as you read this and with the smell of dinner fading but still in the air, and so on -- THAT whole experience is unique, different from every other you have ever had or ever will have, and we can only assume different from MY experience, now or at any time in my life. Similar, perhaps, but never identical.
Where LOVE is involved, experience is even more varied, and emotional health plays a huge role in the character of the experience.
People who are not badly traumatized and who are treated from birth with love, respect, and common sense naturally feel a warm connection with others. They have a strong sense of connection to other people and to all life; this sense of connection is positive, warm, profound, generous, and calming. (And there's my definition of love, to the extent I can find words that may point in the right direction -- which is about all I think can be done for a definition of an experience).
People who are emotionally healthy literally love others as a matter of course. They naturally and habitually have the experience that Jesus tells us to strive for. This is why His teachings about treatment of children are so important.
But many people carry enough trauma (threatening/painful experience that has been repressed and never fully experienced, and which continually strives to reach full consciousness, as every sequestered emotional or physical pain or danger MUST DO for survival reasons), and defending against this constant push of PAIN to the fore requires WALLING OFF experience to some degree -- not just particular traumas but, as the load increases, whole categories of experience begin to dim. People become selectively numb, walled off from the feeling of connection to others and with real reactions to old events spilling over into the present, dumped on unlucky others.
Do you see why some people must experience a diminished level of love in their lives, and often with toxic overtones -- some to the point that life for them is essentially loveless, or, as I would say, literally Hell?
Even popular music knows the truth, and these lyrics ARE true, if a bit metaphorical:
"Love is all you need."
"Love is the answer."
This is a very good post. It reminds me of a book I'm reading, "living Buddah, living Christ", by Thich Nhat Hanh, as well as the necessary unity in love we must have as a species to throw of the shackles of the cabal. Thanks
You're welcome, and thank YOU for the book recommendation. I'll check it out.
I trust only in Jesus and that makes most other religions and cults want me dead, so you'll understand if I'm reluctant to team up...
I totally forgot to address this:
Mark 10:17-18 (ESV): And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him,“Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”
No one is good? (Except God alone?)
Well then, Q is full of shit and we're all sociopaths who should probably be in prison. After you, bob_a_bouy.
Or maybe Jesus was making the point that no one is perfect (except God), while Q was using the term "good" in the common sense of basically decent and kind-hearted. There are many definitions for the word "Good" in English; the term was many meanings. Here are two:
When it comes to the Holy Bible, whatever Q said is meaningless if it doesn't coincide with the Word of God. The Bible consistently teaches that mankind is inherently evil due to the fallen, sinful nature inherited from Adam. While humans are capable of doing good deeds, their nature is corrupted by sin, making them inclined toward evil rather than good. I know you want to believe you're good but you're not. Neither am I.
What Q said was: Focus. FOCUS. Ascend.
IDK what you mean here. Q said a lot of things, a few of which I quoted here. In any case, I'm not saying we shouldn't focus on what's important. I'm saying that what's important is UNITY (and THAT'S quoting Q) and that UNITY in our opposition to the Cabal cannot be achieved if we (that is, some sizable percentage of us) sees people who are not professing Christians as the enemy, or even as unworthy of working with to defeat the Cabal and put an end to the overwhelming Evil in this world.
Well, I just contributed all that I knew that Q had to say about religion. I think focus is good advice too.
That's why we have a secular society as opposed to theocracy or divine right monarchy.