As I was pondering some of the orthodoxy of my Christian faith, this rainy Sunday, I wondered what my life would have been like had there not been such an emphasis on a patriarchial deity. Would I have been a better husband? What is gnosticism had won out the day 2,000 years ago: how would things be today? And with the discoveries at Nag Hammadi, how have the gnostic gospels changed some of our thinking, if at all? After all gnostic religion is greatly different than orthodox religion as we know it. Continue reading ‘Gnostic Religion’
Monthly Archive for November, 2007
Let me begin with the disclaimer that I don’t profess to understand the trinity! It’s more than apparent that those who attended the earaly church councils like Nicea and Chalcedon were struggling as well. And, we still are. What words could define God? What concepts, that we as mortal and finite beings could come up with, can adequately explain infinite God? At best, the trinitarian concepts that the early councils came up with were their meager intellectual attempts to explain their experiences (or lack thereof) with God. And then there’s this problem. Continue reading ‘God Spirit’
By putting the adjective in front of the noun, I’ve automatically made a distinction many will miss. Jesus was a spiritual son, like all of us are to our spiritual, Abba Father, Daddy God! A spiritual son (or daughter) in nature and function, not in derivation or procreation.
I believe we are in more safe company when we respond to events or people verses reacting to the same. Fundamentalism was a basically a REACTION to early 20th century modernism. In trying to stem the tide toward Biblical criticism (which isn’t) and scientific advances that were applying pressure to many “literal interpretations” of the Bible”, fundamentalists put their feet in wet concrete and refused to be moved by facts! Even though there are many errors in the Bible, they stood their ground on the “inerrancy of the Bible”, among other things. Continue reading ‘Religious Fundamentalism’
Jesus said on several occasions- Follow Me! Paul affirmed that it would be a good thing to do by writing to us in I Corinthians 11:1 that we should only follow him (Paul) as he was following Jesus. While this all sounds good, maybe even easy to do, have you ever asked yourself what was in a person’s mind when they told you that they were just following JAY-ZUS? What’s it mean to follow Jesus, the Christ? Continue reading ‘Following Jesus’
This is a follow up comment on yesterday’s post on God Is Love- Hell Is Not post. I received several emails on the unique title “Heaven’s Guardian Gate“: most misunderstanding it. A paradigm shift will do that! The title comes from an insight that Christopher Bache had that resembles my “divine judgment” approach to hell. Christians seldom see an association of heaven with the gates of hell. In fact, those are opposites in most people’s minds. If there is an astral hell, (and I so comprehend such), then it is not so much about DAMNATION as it is about spiritual transformation. Ponder that one as you prepare to read more. Continue reading ‘Gates Of Hell’
We cannot separate ourselves from the divine garment or tapestry of life. We didn’t make the world, let alone even our own soul, or being. The highly complex and detailed aspects of our lives are being over-stimulated and we’re about to discover that we are not only not alone, we’re not separate! As Christopher Bache said, “The beginning and end of one’s individual life become extremely completely unretrievable, and one realizes that one’s life never existed as a separate ‘thing‘ even for a moment.” Continue reading ‘Divine Matrix’
I’ve had lots of ideas about the concept of heave and hell. I grew up with HELL being a PLACE- a very, very bad place. It was a place where fires burned continually and where suffering never ended. A person would spend eternity there for not giving God glory, for being bad, for not repenting, or whatever the “Thou shall NOT” happened to be on the LIST for whatever denomination one belonged to. And I was then told that God was LOVE. Strange rationalization indeed. Continue reading ‘Heaven’s Guardian Gate!’
Religion needs some sort of a nobel prize. The Nobel Religious Progressive Prize maybe? Nobel Tolerance & Love Prize? Oh, here’s a good one: The Nobel Prize for Spiritual Innovation in Church Life. The Nobel Prize (Swedish: Nobelpriset), as designated in Alfred Nobel’s will in 1895, is awarded in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace! An underlying theme is recognition for breaking the eggs of normalcy and discovering truth beneath what we think we already know. Continue reading ‘Nobel Prize’
Religious Pluralism
If we don’t start being tolerant of the various religions, what hope is there for world peace? How much longer can even factions within the same religion continue to kill each other? Sunni vs. Shiite. Muslims vs. Jews. Christians vs. Muslims. What is it that caused Arnold Toynbee to say, “Christians are the most arrogant imperialists of all the world’s religions”? We need more efforts like last weeks The Amazing Faiths Project” held in 70+ homes here in Houston. Religious pluralism is foundational to Christianity, so why aren’t we practicing it more? Continue reading ‘Religious Pluralism’