Furthermore, superiority taken too far KILLS as well. True spirituality will rise above DUALITY. One can embrace whatever religion their environment or culture offers them without needing to label “all others” as cults or being oppossed to all other religions. The Twin Towers destruction cannot be followed by the kind of responses we were lured into. Our efforts have only killed tens of thousands more and created millions of enemies. The true gospel is anit-war!
It is going to take a critical mass of people who comprehend and practice unconditional love in every religion to break out of our current duality destructiveness. There is no lasting peace when Islam and Christianity both claim to have the only true religion and all who disagree are either going to hell or need to be called infidels and killed.
What good does such arrogance do?
If Jesus shunned even someone calling him GOOD, how can we call ourselves followers of him, and contend we’re not only good, but all who disagree and BAD- going to hell? How can we not see through such a misconceptions?
Why is it so hard to see that there is but ONE GOD, and that he created EVERYONE, and that He LOVES ALL? That someone grew up in the mountains of Tibet and is a Taoist following the Dao De Jing texts didn’t make him any less inferior than one who grew up in India, follows Vishnu, and reads the Bhagavad Gita as his spiritual text. The need to believe that one or their religion is SUPERIOR springs from a false sense of self-worth created by our ego and is highly dualistic. The natural result is fear-based religion.
We must move away from Hezekiah 20:90 says so and so and that can’t be refuted because it’s been canonized! Can you feel the pride that goes with any such declarations? How can one reconcile FREE WILL with God decided what books would be in the Holy Bible? Tell me how one can logically reconcile that argument? If we have FREE WILL then God would not DICTATE which books are authentic, and which ones not so much.
Can we embrace the proverb that pride goes before the fall and proclaims superiority at the same time?
Having moved from a ‘pastor paradigm’ to a ‘spiritual guide’ lifestyle, my main priority is to help people raise their level of consciousness. The key is to divest oneself from the laws of duality. There cannot be horizontal unity between religions (maybe a first step), but rather a vertical one that comprehends that we have ALL come from the same Source, and that we’re ALL return to that Source. and that is……GOOD NEWS!
The egoic mind hates such equality.
But, it really is FABULOUS NEWS! 
Great post! I particularly liked this sentence: “One can embrace whatever religion their environment or culture offers them without needing to label “all others†as cults or being oppossed to all other religions.”
My intention is to observe this one daily.
You said, “How can one reconcile free will with God deciding what books would be in the Holy Bible?” When you consider man’s “free will” is fully encompassed in the sovereignty of God, it makes sense. For example, someone’s mind may be set upon doing a very destructive act, but God protects the person targeted. For us to believe God is our protector (Psalm 91) sometimes means He must restrain the destructive “free will” of certain people.
Daniel 5:35 says, “All the inhabitants of the earth are acounted as nothing. But He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and no one can ward off His hand.” That was true when the Bible was canonized. God was sovereign over those decisions. He uses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. (I Cor. 1:27)
Believing God’s word is not pride; it is humility. Isaiah 66:5 declares, “To this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.” Jesus is our greatest example of humility and He said to the Father, “Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth.” (John 17:17)
Linda- In regard to the last verse quote, John 17:17, do you believe this was referring to the Bible?
This verse, often referred to as the Johannine “Lord’s Prayer”, is an expression of the Johannine community, already a generation removed from Jesus. I don’t believe that is represents or can be traced to anything or style that Jesus actually used anywhere else. It does, however, have all the characteristics used exclusively by the author of the gospel of John, whomever, he or they may have been.
“For us to believe God is our protector (Psalm 91) sometimes means He must restrain the destructive “free will†of certain people.”
I guess you can say this to an extent, although if that protection is conditional, based on your level of belief, this sounds more like conditional Love. Or to rephrase it, God only loves and protects us based on the condition that we acknowledge, believe, and worship him faithfully and properly. That’s not universal love, that’s conditional love. For free will to be completely free it must be given in terms of Universal Love. Of course God would want to protect us out of Love, that is why I (fallible mortal I) believe that connecting with the Source acts as a protection against self-inflicting harm which comes down as Natural or Common Sense Laws.
I don’t believe God protects us from outside harm or why else would the Jews (as well as other minority groups) had to suffer through the Holocaust. Did they really not acknowledge, believe, and worship Him faithfully and properly? That sounds a bit too Conditional.
As for God and the Bible, for God to be God he would know what books would make it into the Bible (one of millions of possible outcomes) but that foreknowledge doesn’t equate with God personally guiding the process. There were other books considered for cannonization that did not make the cut for a variety of reasons (the main reason: it didn’t match their theology) which were mostly political. Do a little reading and find out which books WERE considered scripture by the Early Church (and their Fathers) that aren’t in the Bible now. You’ll be surprised by some of the texts that WERE considered the Holy Inspired Word of God. The Word of God (The Logos/The I AM/Love) may be infallible but anything put into the hands of Man has the potential for fallibility including scripture. This initial realization that we (Global ‘We’) are fallible, that we can make mistakes is one of many baby steps to rising above Duality and returning to our Source.
You hit the nail on the head Eruesso. It’s what I call the Conditional Conundrum. Free will with conditions, unconditional love with conditions. It is simply not intellectually or spiritually plausible. But, many want it both ways. Man is free, EXCEPT. God’s love is unconditonal EXCEPT! Conditions cancel out both; however, the GOOD NEWS is that we do have FREE will and God’s love is UNCONDITIONAL!
Rather than being against anything (war, sin, disease, etc), perhaps the true gospel is all about (for) Love–totally without condition and beyond man’s rational thinking. The world of duality (or as Jesus referred to it–the world of “Caesar”) was created so that we may truly experience the depths of who WE ARE. How else would the Absolute experience Its totality than through a world of seeming “either/or” choices?
So “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s”—live in this world with the knowledge that every breath, every moment, and yes, even every mistake, is an opportunity to experience the core of all Being, the majesty of who I AM. The “either/or” choices are then transformed into beautiful “and/also” experiences. I experience the truth of my being in a world of seeming opposites, and it’s okay!
Don, in answer to your question, yes, I do believe Jesus was referring to the Bible. In Matthew 4:4, Jesus told us to live by every word that proceeds out of God’s mouth. In Mark 13:31, He declared His words would not pass away, so John was not the only writer to show Jesus’ giving credibility to the scriptures.
Eruesso, the Bible gives us many examples of God’s sovereign protection for those who believe Him. The stories of the Passover, Noah’s ark, and Sodom and Gomorrah are examples of God’s protection during a time of judgment for unbelievers. Hebrews 3 speaks about the children of Israel not being able to enter into God’s rest because of unbelief. Verse 12 says, “Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart in falling away from the living God.” Believing God is essential to receiving all the blessings He has for us.
Eruesso, absolutely love what you wrote, excellent!
Linda, when I looked up Strong”s concordance definitions for SC#1697 used in Is. 66:5 and SC#3056 used in Jn. 17:17 that you quoted above, both were referring to the SPOKEN word of God. When interpreting scripture we must keep in mind what was actually meant by the words used. There is a big difference in the written word and the now spoken word! Jesus made it clear that He lived His life according to what He HEARD. I choose to follow His example.
Linda, here’s a link to the online Strong’s, even #3056 (logos) seems to be mainly referring to spoken words just like #4487 (rhema). I was really surprised at the emphasis.
http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G3056&t=KJV
Ellen, what was spoken by God in years past is now written in the Bible. Jesus put a great emphasis upon the fact that much in His life fulfilled the word of God. In Luke 4:21, Jesus said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus was referring to the fact that He quoted Isaiah 61:1,2. The word Jesus used for “scripture” (SC 1124) (graphe) comes from a word that means to describe or write. Jesus used this word about a half dozen times to tell his listeners that the scriptures (written word) MUST be fulfilled.
Linda, do you believe that the words God spoke 2000+years ago are more valid than everything He has spoken and is speaking since then??