I admire your wide selection of reading as it relates to the subject matter on this thread. I can niether agree nor disagree with the personal experiences you have had, much less your intrepretaion of those experiences. They are yours. They are subjective experiences which can not be measured and subjected to critical thought by myself or anyone else. Your teaching regarding the means to achieving peace and spiritual presence as being a matter of seeking within yourself ; is certainly not new, and a great many people have taught this down through the centuries. This teaching about which you have tried to explain, and I have tried to understand, is one that you claimed Jesus believed and taught. With all due respect, I fail to see this as a theme in the Bible, though I am aware of a few scriptures which would perhaps lend themselves to such a view if taken from out from the historical, and imediate context of the text. Certainly Jesus taught people to look to God and have faith for reconciliation and peace. The weight of his teaching in no way could be interpreted with any integrity to place such great emphasis on inward searching of the mind. Christ spoke to the people who were trying to kill him for "making himself equal with God" saying: "You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. You dilligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life...If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. John 5:37..."
It is a relatively simple matter to take bits from the weight of a particular compilation of writtings and try to support one's own beliefs by appealing to those writtings.The masses are easilly decieved with such a butchering of the text, and will quite willingly follow the well meaning preacher in a middle class American main stream denomination, or a raving madman like David Koresh. The former, though being less destructive and dangerous to society, is nonetheless dishonest at worst, and at best and careless with the text. An example of dishonesty would be as follows: Jesus clearly taught in many instances, that a prayer in faith will be answered by God and he will provide. There are certain ministers who have taken this teaching out from the greater weight of his teaching and the rest of the scripture, to promote an idea that God intends to make Christians financially wealthy. Unfortunately these ministers provide a mailing adress and a plea for financial support as a prerequisite for the lord's programm of blessing. "Don't you know you reap what you sow?... support our mininstry..blah, blah, blah."
Simple carelessness with the text is not such a sinister deception but in fact can become a deception to the masses weather it be intentional or otherwise. I am sure we have all been guitly of this at some point or another in quoting what we have heard or read. I am not about to quote the Koran or writings on Buhdism to support Jesus teaching that "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." This would be carelessness at best, and at worst dishonest.
I can emerge from an acid trip , meditate, levitate, or emerge from five hours of Yoga to proclaim Jesus Christ as the only saviour of the world and the only one true way to be reconciled to the only one true God. Who can argue with me? Who can invalidate my experience? However, if I begin to quote other prophets and teachers to support my conclusions, then my teaching can and should be carefully weighed and measured against those writtings which I have quoted. Suddenly my teachings and experiences are validated or put into suspect by these very writtings which I myself have used as support for my views. This is precisely what gives the Hebrew prophets (Jesus included) such wonderful credability even though the writings were written centuries apart. Thier teachings and writings weave together to form a central theme which was quite clearly formed by an author not confined to the boundaries of time or humanity. Consider Isaiah 53:5 " he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities: the punishment that brought us peace was apon him,, and by his wounds we are healed." . Not a very remarkable statement if read in a synoguogue in 700 BC . Who is this guy? what does it matter to the average Jew in that century? "For he was cut off from the land of the living...For the transgression of my people he was stricken...After the suffering of his soul he will see the light of life and be satisfied...my righteous servant will justify many" . Indeed this prophetical writing was not clearly understood until Christ's sacraficial
death on the cross some 700 plus years later. Indeed Christ read from another pasage from the scroll of Isaiah and "rolled up the scroll saying"today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing". Luke4:18-21
(Some ancient manuscripts of Isaiah were found in the Middle East in the late 1960's called the dead Sea Scrolls. These manuscripts confirmed the accuracy of translations available today.)
Jesus was always making refference to the fulfillment of prophetical writtings that were written by many different men in many different centuries.This was his invitation to critical analysis and a careful weighing of himself and what he said. He opened himself up to higher criticism and thoughtful examination, rather than hide in the convenience of subjective experience and imeasurable claims.
Even his geneology as carefully documented as being from the line of King David , is an attempt to verify his authenticity as Messiah. His validity and authenticity spans centuries. Any freaked out maniac like you or I could claim to be a savior or great teacher if we wanted to. Many have done so including Charles Manson. Let us be careful with the text. let the egomaniacs, money grubbing preachers, evangelical zealots, and simpletons continue in thier ignorance and evil ways. Let thinking, reasonable and honest men such as yourself , handle the prophetical writings with some integrity.
please excuse my terrible spelling. I am getting tired and I am too lazzy to correct it.
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