On Mar 30, 6:35 pm, AJA <ahnem...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> "DKleinecke" <dkleine...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>
> news:Q6YGj.6128$Pc2.2017@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Agreeing with what you say in your post. And this:
>
> > Nowadays wallowing in one's own unworthiness has largely gone out of
> > style. Hence there is less talk about damnation and vengeance. >
>
> Saying that, I don't count as "trendy" to proclaim a loving God who we
are
> assured has the very best interests in mind for all mankind. Helfire
and
> damnation, while one is able to quote chapter and verse about such, is
not
> the Gospel good news. Christ was with God, St. John records, before the
> world (and sin) began. That is the God we wor****p. I'm quite sure that
the
> first time a Christian meets a person who is searching doesn't rail on
about
> sin and damnation on the first meeting. That searcher would run like
fury!
> I grew up on hellfire sermons and thank God the Light has dawned. Best
> leave it to the theologians to work out sin theology. We ordinary
> Christians would do well to reflect as best we can the love that is God.
>
> Blessings,
> Ann
Religions are not as self-sufficient as they like to believe. The
thing that anthropologists call culture (not a simple idea - be sure
you understand it before you jump to any conclusions) has, generally
speaking, a more powerful hold over people's minds than does religion.
In fact, it has been concluded that religion is just another facet of
culture - comparable to language or table manners. Since I am a theist
I feel that there is a "real" (not physically) god out there - but I
can see that the form religion takes is largely a creation of culture.
Paul and Isaiah came from very different cultures and, if you bring no
baggage to the discussion, they had very different religions. But
nobody on soc.religion.christian should doubt that they both followed
the same god. A great deal of theological thinking has been wasted
trying to demonstrate that Paul and Isaiah followed the same religion
(at least before Paul started innovating).
Hence we must make a clear distinction where language (or at least
English) does not provide us the tools. On the one hand there is
"religion" - the Bible and the other books, the churches and the other
buildings, the rituals and rule books - and, on the other hand, there
is union with God.
Union with God is timeless and unchanging. God is outside of time.
Religion is a facet of culture that possess a little bit of knowledge
about the union with God. That is, religion is mostly not God-given.
It is a creation of man.
So fa****ons in religion change.
These days we are into feeling good. So thoughts of our unworthiness
have drifted away. I am inclined to think that the movement toward
self-assurance is part of the general denial that we, mankind, are
headed at top speed toward a disaster that can only be compared to the
destruction of the dinosaurs by the meteor.
But no matter how big a disaster probably not the end of the world.
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