Foundationally at its core, religion means to UNITE! Can I get an amen? The problem comes when each denomination or sect decides that “their” ideas about God and religion is what one has to UNITE TO! The fact that there are over 30,000 Christian denominations alone is testament to many FALSE RELIGIONS! Unfortunately, from the perspective of the world’s religions Christianity is the most divisive, exclusive, and imperialistic. It’s their way or the highway (meaning HELL).
But, radical Islam is fast challenging Christianity for being the most divisive!
The English word “religion” comes in it’s earliest version from the Latin word “religare” which means to UNITE or “tie fast”. As Dennis Holtje has written, “The genuine purpose of religion is to unite the soul with the Divine, but the human consciousness has become fertile ground for the mind and the ego to create separateness from the God within. Religion can never improve on God’s design. But, as with Jesus, the teachings of the founder became codified, edited, and misinterpreted as time passed, with rituals and idolatry replacing purity of the original spiritual message.”
One must adopt a spiritual consciousness (embracing the voice within) and a Christ consciousness (unconditional love) in order to make a distinction between the two rails that Jesus journeyed. Jesus was speaking both to the his specific cultural community about their moral codes and also to the whole of humanity about being ONE with the Father.
If I try and adopt his teachings to the people of his day 2,000 years ago (in the literal fundamentalist manner) to how I live today, it’s not going to work. But, if I take the universal message of Jesus as ONENESS with ALL then I no longer demand that an Islamic Arab speak the name of JAY-ZUS (in English of course) in order to not go to an eternal hell.
In like fashion, a Muslim must not think that if others don’t embrace Allah that we’re infidels worthy of death and killing those non Muslims allows one a heavenly reward of numerous virgins. If we don’t lay aside our arrogant and prideful doctrines which only divide, the world will grow in hatred and become an even more dangerous place.
How are two billion Christians and one-plus billion Muslims going to co-exist unless we agree to LOVE one another? Tell me how the future can be anything but dreadful unless LOVE, FORGIVENESS, and MERCY replaces the LAW of SELF (I know and you don’t) paradigm. My job isn’t to convert Muslims to Christianity, but simply to BE the Christos!
One more Holtje quote, “Unless we undertake the divine, inward journey of soul, our spiritual understanding cannot fully mature. Sacred text can transmit knowledge about spiritual matters, but understanding and realizing such knowledge is obtained only through the journey of one’s experience within.”
The I AM presence!
Jesus’ radical message of needing to believe in Him to gain eternal life does divide people. In Matthew 10:32-34 Jesus told His followers that everyone (of any religious backgound) who confesses Him before men, He will confess them before the Father. Likewise, if someone doesn’t confess Him, Jesus denies them before the Father. Gaining eternal life is easy. Simply believe and confess Jesus. His next statement is very interesting. He declares he did not come to bring peace on earth but a sword. “For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the member of his household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is ot worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” Jesus took all the credit for being a person of division.
Jesus also spoke of hell more than any other person in the Bible. He made 16 references of it by name.
When I researched the word “religion”, I was immediately drawn to the part of the definition which stated: “to be bound up”. This struck me as something I did not want to experience. To be bound up in dogma, unreasonable, even silly doctrines in which one has to suspend all reasonable belief to swallow, seemed to me to be exactly what I had just “come out of”. I have come to distrust the word altogether. That has been my experience and certainly is a personal thing which others may not feel. I think for 59 years I was “bound up”; prevented from seeing the reality. Restricted and discouraged from freely exploring my own denomination’s beliefs, which, of course, were supposed to unquestionably be my own beliefs. I realize I may be wrong in how I interpret the definition, but for me, I will continue to avoid using the word “religion” when it comes to things I believe.
Your said: “One must adopt a spiritual consciousness (embracing the voice within) and a Christ consciousness (unconditional love) in order to make a distinction between the two rails that Jesus journeyed”.
Thanks for putting into words exactly what I believe. I don’t think I have ever heard it stated exactly like that. I really resonate with what you said in the above quote.
Linda- You are stuck in the past (the words of the Bible) and have “closed the book” to further revelation. God never in any of his “words” to us said that all he had to say is in the 66 books on the Bible. You continually quote from that source and it’s questionable words. Be open to further revelation of God thru the rhema word and pneuma word.
I agree that all God has to say is not in the 66 books of the Bible. I see God is much bigger than the Bible, any group or denomination. He spoke to and is speaking to and through more people and cultures than those of us who call ourselves Christians or those who are listed in the Bible. He’s GOD, he is ALL and encompasses ALL. We can learn from Buddist, Christians, Taoist, Muslims whoever or as referred to above, we can at leaste accept them for who they are not who we want them to be.
Why would anyone think that God (who is infinite) could be put in a BOX or book (same thing)? God is not dead. The Spirit-Consciousness-Source-Father is still speaking and our lives are a testament to that very fact. Amazing grace that NEVER gives up on that which Presence created. You rockin’ CW- let your LIGHT SHINE!
The “Me” in whom we must believe is our own divine nature. The Bible is not so much a statement of historical fact as it is a window into the hidden, mystical things of God. We are told that the name of God is I AM, and yet irnoically we are afraid to embrace that statement on the literal, pyschological & spiritual levels. If we must believe in “he who has been sent”, we must also take the next step and realize that I AM He.
If there is anything we see about Jesus, it is that each of his statements always represent something more than the literal aspect of the statement itself. His words over and over remind us to embark on that inward journey of the soul, and to forsake all other powers apart from ourselves. This journey, in the words of Jesus, will seemingly “set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law”, etc. Any entrance into a new state of consciousness will appear to destroy the old state in which we abided. But nothing is really destroyed….all is fulfilled, and I AM that fulfillment!
The maturity that I see in you and others makes my heart soar. We ARE breaking FREE. May we not stop short of the journey- of knowing God, I AM, and BEING the CHRISTOS! Let’s DO this THING!
And “this thing” means sharing with and going into the world, inter-acting with ALL, and not staying within SELF and wanting to stay on the “mountain top experiences“, but going back to the valley with the light from mount Transfiguration.
I said several times that I agree God is still speaking. However, He declares that he doesn’t alter His word. (Psalms 89:34) All new “revelation” needs to coincide with the nature of God as revealed in the Bible over the course of thousands of years by many men inspired by God. The word of God stands forever (Isaiah 40:8). Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away.” (Mark 13:31)
Jesus never said He was one with everyone. In John 17:11 where He states he is one with them, He is talking to His disciples. Verse 9 makes it clear He’s not asking the Father to give the spirit on behalf of the world, but only His disciples. Earlier in this same discourse, Jesus tells us the world cannot receive the Spirit of truth. (John 14:17) Once again, the words of Jesus divide, even through they’re truth and life.
I prefer to use my experience on this sometimess confusing journey to comment on todays article. I have only said this once before and it was to a few intimate women who I meet with in the Book Club at LRC. I was born to teach. Everytime I went to the Bible and read that I was not to do this in a religious setting, I would stop and seek God. Everytime I sought God the desire grew inside of me. Finally in anquish I expressed to God. “Why do you continue to push me in a direction that is so obviously contrary to your word?” The answer came, “Did you ever consider that it is not my word”. That was all I needed to set me free. I am not discrediting all of the Bible, but it is the word of God, not the words of God and only the spirit can devulge to us what to take and what to disregard.
Anything that divides will not stand in the days to come. For the people are rising up with open ears to hear what the spirit is saying and acting on it. They are coming out of their homes (the denomination) and speaking to the nieghbor (other denonimations or religions) discovering that they have been being lied to and decieved. Discovering that the plan of seperation in the name of GOD is a complete farce. I know these are strong words but these are critical times. It is just like the story of the Lady cooking the ham for Thanksgiving by cutting of one end because that is how here mother did it and the grandmother before. Until someone ask the grandmother why she cut the end off and found out that it was the only way she could fit it in the pan. Well our pan is big enough to hold the entire thing. So lets stop fighting and get on with this. Your religious dogma will be your dividing factor and your own demiz. Not a sentance placed on anyone by God, but self induced out of pride and arrogance. Love, peace, light.
Right on- the WORD of God (singular) but not the “words of God” (plural). The Bible is a library of sixty six books written by many men and women (some of whom we do not know, but think we do). As I wrote yesterday, the writer of John says Jesus said one thing in chapter 5 and then he quotes Jesus as saying the opposite in Chapter 8. The writer of Matthew 23:35 got it wrong as did Mark in chapter 3:26. These errors don’t detract from the sacredness of the Bible but they surely blow the inerrancy (literal word paradigm) argument to proverbial hell.
Confusing is a word I’ve heard a lot lately. But I Cor. 14:33 declares that God is not the author of confusion. Paul clearly states that in the later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. (I Tim. 4:1).
The Bible does repeatedly state there is a separation from God for unbelievers. Isaiah 59:2 declares, “your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God.” The word for “separation” means to divide or separate. Ephesians 4:18 states that the Gentiles walk in the futility of their minds, darkened in their understanding and excluded from the life of God, because of their hard hearts. Clearly, exclusion is their choice. Jesus Himself told the crowd in Matthew 7:21-23 that not everyone who calls Him Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. There will even be those to whom He will say, “I never knew you; depart form Me, you who practice lawlessness.” Believing God is humility.
God bless you Linda and forgive you for you do not know what you do and are doing.
Linda- You stated: “Jesus never said He was one with everyone. In John 17:11 where He states he is one with them, He is talking to His disciples.”
Here is the context: John 17:1-2
“”Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2For you given him authority over ALL people that he might give eternal life to ALL those you have given him.”
Then, in John 17:11, Jesus talks about those who are one with him just as he and the father are one. It’s not the disciples only he talking to/about. It is the entire human creation.
“11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they (ALL) are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they (ALL)may be one as we are one.
You can make the Bible say whatever you wish it to as you did with Isaiah 59:2. The Prophet Isaiah was speaking to Judah and Jerusalem. Indicating to them how displeased God was with them and what the result of his displeasure would be; destruction and captivity. Kind of a stretch to make these prophecies reach all the way to the 21st century to declare that God is displeased with us and because of that, he will separate himself from them(his own people or us???). How will he do that? Annihilation of them or by sending them to hell for all eternity? THAT IS QUITE A STRETCH! Your quotes often contridict other verses in that book you worship.
Barbara, I know exactly what I’m doing. I’m being lead by God to speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15). Don, the key to John 17 is exactly the phrase you quoted in verse 2–to all God has given Him. He repeated this in verse 9, stressing He wasn’t asking for all mankind. This truth continues in verses 14-18 that Jesus is sending His disciples into the world, but they are not the same as the world. If you’re going to dismiss the truth of Isaiah 59:2, can you dismiss the Jesus words in Matthew 7:21-23 as well as Eph. 4:18?
Linda- Sorry, but the love is not coming through. All you are doing is quoting according to YOUR interpretation and judging the people here becuase you are certain that you are right and we are wrong. I don’t want your condemnation, or your interpretation, when it so obviously is given, not in love, but in condemnation. God did not appoint you to be my Biblical commentator. No one will ever change your mind. No one could possibly show you that you might be wrong, because you’re convinced otherwise. You said: I’m being lead by God to speak the truth in love”. “Even the Bible you so strongly interpret has a name for what you exhibit…..self-righteousness.