@XXSpadeMasterXX,
Quote:XXSpadeMasterXX wrote:
because if one accepts that psychological relationship with God offered by Jesus, then it is totally open ended... how is this so?
In the sense that going through the formalities get you to fulfill your obligation, but Jesus stepped back to the fundamentals as we know them of the law, the Ten Commandments and the possitive reduction of it as stated below... Some of the sins listed in the ten commandments were purely psychological, coveting, for example, and Jesus clearly recognized that in the mind was were sin began... But in the mind is where salvation begins as well because once the rules of formal conduct of a formal relationship were set aside people could have an informal relationship with God, and all informal relationships have no other end but themselves... And within such a relationship one gives as one is called upon to give and is able... In such an instance the Sameritin was superior to the priestly class whose ministering to the injured would have made necessary their ritual purification, a formality that would have cost them a month's income... The Sameratin, though technically a Jew was not bound by the same social formalities of retual and worship... Jesus said he had fulfilled the law... He had crossed all the formal Ts... What he said of the priestly class was that people should do as they said, which was correct according to the law, but should not do as they do because the law was their reward just as for the rich man making a large donation to the temple... The form can get to be an impediment to salvation just as much as sin, no different in fact because it is practiced out of vanity rather than with a view to something beyond it: The Higher Relationship with God...
Quote:Second most important commandment: Love EVERYone as you love youself treat others as you would want to be treated? (self explanitory to me)
Most Important: Love God above all things (again self explanitory)
then the deeper you go into the religion the more you are held accountable to follow because you know right from wrong...you have no excuse. And it stated one who doesn't believe then does and only to end up falling in the end and be entangled is worse off then they were in the beginning. a true wolf in sheeps clothing...how is this open ended? these should be the starting point for ANY Christian and the baby steps we take to enrich ourselves with more knowledge...it is not the other way around where Any (human beings) is born with all knowledge...and again not a contradiction because Jesus was more than a man...
I don't offer myself as an expert on any religion or phase of religion... All I know is I don't know... Neither do I wish to put words in the mouth of a historical Jesus, or see him for what he was not... People knew the correct way to behave, but they had in many instances made a money machine out of being priests, and they defended their prerogatives with blood and violence... When Jeruselem was taken by the Romans they shook enough wealth out of that town to build the colloseum, and that was an immense building project... Judea in the days of Jesus was dirt poor... People would sue each other for their tunic for Christ's sake.. Money was a constant theme of the Parables, and yet that single class had most of it, and the whole of the people were forced to squabble over the rest... In three of the Gospel Jesus ends his carreer contesting the money changers on the temple steps... Was it not obvious where those people were getting their money, the money of Judea, which was the only money that could be offered in the temple... The money would go in, and be exchanged for discounted money time and again on the steps so only coin of the kingdom was accepted, and the whole people were made poor... Every body got their cut except the people who needed that wealth for the conduct of their daily lives... It is no different today... The administration of churches gobbles up 95% of every dollar given, and yet it is all called a charity... It is nonsense... If a person has the heart to give he does not need to support some church to do so.. The need is there... Save yourself from your guilt and your grief and save another from his pain in the process... To help others is impossible without the willingness to form relationships with them, but that is the very thing many Christians want to avoid... Sure, give some money and think you are giving it to some one and then wonder why their lives are not improved... Find out how much of every dollar is reaching them... Go and get to know them, and find out what they really need, even when thay may be to find they are beyond help... Go and smell their stink, and wash them, and bind up their wounds, and care for them... Caring is so beyond us; and me too, because it hurts... But that is why Christians are so angry and frustrated... They are asked to care, and they can care not, so they do what they feel is the next best thing which is to give what they care most for: Money, and wonder why it does no good... The money should be just the beginning...
