Why are you still a Christian?

I make a very sharp distinction between Jesus and Christ. I think what is meant in the Bible is that "Christ" is the Way. Jesus lived as an example for us to follow... not as someone to unduly focus on or to worship.

Why would you read more into it than what is there?

I thought they were brothers.

Look Out!!!



Momma--

So you don't agree, then, that Jesus became Christ?

Why stop in the middle of the road? Why would you believe just part of Jesus and not all?

What does being saved mean to me? Ok, it means I will not die a spiritual death. It means I am forgiven for my sins and I will spend eternity with God. It means I am a different person because of Jesus Christ. Because of my faith in and love for Him, I try to do what He wants me to do. All His ways are perfect. Mine, unfortunately, are not. FreeDuck, it's hard to describe to someone how it actually feels. When I accepted Christ into my heart, the whole world lifted from my shoulders. I mean I literally felt it being remove from me.

I have learned that Jesus will take care of me because He loves me. It doesn't give me license to do what I want. I think a relationship with Jesus kind of fine tune's one's life.

I lean on Jesus every day. I do it better some days than others. Whenever I let what I want get in the way, I get into trouble.

I hope that helps explain it.

Well, there's one, then... a fundamental dispute.


I don't know where to start.

I think (assuming the story is true) that Jesus was born a regular person, then became Christ (one with God, in spirit), then taught others to follow His example.

BTW, does it offend you when pronouns referring to Jesus or God are in lower case?

For me it's more a question of understanding than of belief. When someone asks me to believe something it implies that I already understand it.

Well, that was a pretty good explanation. I see two things here. One is the eternal life angle and the other is what I call the path. Is it not possible that someone might feel the exact same things you describe when they pray to Allah, or meditate, or look for spiritual guidance elsewhere?

(I made a mistake in deciding to capitalize the pronouns. I did it to facilitate our conversation. But doing so misrepresents my beliefs to everyone on this board.)

. . . What does being saved mean to me? Ok, it means I will not die a spiritual death. It means I am forgiven for my sins and I will spend eternity with God. It means I am a different person because of Jesus Christ. Because of my faith in and love for Him, I try to do what He wants me to do. All His ways are perfect. Mine, unfortunately, are not. FreeDuck, it's hard to describe to someone how it actually feels. When I accepted Christ into my heart, the whole world lifted from my shoulders. I mean I literally felt it being remove from me.

I have learned that Jesus will take care of me because He loves me. It doesn't give me license to do what I want. I think a relationship with Jesus kind of fine tune's one's life. . .

CAMPBELL: The reference of the metaphor in religious traditions is to something transcendent that is not literally any thing. If you think that the metaphor is itself the reference, it would be like going to a restaurant, asking for the menu, seeing beefsteak written there, and starting to eat the menu.

For example, Jesus ascended to heaven. The denotation would seem to be that somebody ascended to the sky. That’s literally what is being said. But if that were really the meaning of the message, then we have to throw it away, because there would have been no such place for Jesus literally to go. We know that Jesus could not have ascended to heaven because there is no physical heaven anywhere in the universe. Even ascending at the speed of light, Jesus would still be in the galaxy, Astronomy and physics have simply eliminated that as a literal, physical possibility, But if you read "Jesus ascended to heaven" in terms of its metaphoric connotation, you see that he has gone inward – not into outer space but into inward space, to the place from which all being comes, into the consciousness that is the source of all things, the kingdom of heaven within. The images are outward, but their reflection is inward. The point is that we should ascend with him by going inward. It is a metaphor of returning to the source, alpha and omega, of leaving the fixation on the body behind and going to the body’s dynamic source.

MOYERS: Aren’t you undermining one of the great traditional doctrines of the classic Christian faith – that the burial and the resurrection of Jesus prefigures our own?

CAMPBELL: That would be a mistake in the reading of the symbol. That is reading the words in terms of prose instead of in terms of poetry, reading the metaphor in terms of the denotation instead of the connotation.