tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1633184610062276774.post7443203813259734808..comments2024-03-16T09:06:44.210-07:00Comments on I Dream of the Ocean: Are you a Christian? Gandhi, Jesus and Professor DawkinsRevDanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13569349958868233578noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1633184610062276774.post-7570456673001759432012-03-28T12:37:41.382-07:002012-03-28T12:37:41.382-07:00As an outsider I have collected bits and pieces of...As an outsider I have collected bits and pieces of spiritual knowledge over the years and being an artist or creative person have used my intuition as a tool to guide me in my quest to find the truth. I became convinced of the reality of God over time as the pieces of my puzzle fell into place doing my own investigating in order to find peace of mind I suppose.<br /><br />The plan of God as I see it is to bring a Truth into the material world that cannot be understood otherwise because it is from the spiritual world as in Jesus is the bread of spiritual knowledge come from above that feeds a spiritual hunger and allows us to create a spiritual body distinct from our material bodies. God says that He sent His Word into the world to accomplish the task He sent it for and that it will do.<br /><br />God had told Moses that He was going to sent a Prophet from among the people and that we should listen to Him and pay attention. This Prophet was Jesus and He showed us what God would be like if He were one of us. Emanuel (God with us). Most of the world is deceived by God’s adversary and follow him without realizing it but God did not leave us without a Champion, a Good Shepherd who would tell the Truth and love the sheep.<br /><br />The world hates God; our leaders and the businessmen have a vested interest in keeping God out of the picture because He gets in their way, if God is real their corruption and oppression are abhorrent to Him so they do their best to ignore and belittle Him. But God knows their evil intentions and says that He will eventually at the proper time come from behind the curtain and give us all what we deserve.<br /><br />So God has allowed us to pursue our own interests ignoring His advise so that we can see just where that will get us and it is a world at war with savagery and injustice as a result. We are destroying the earth with our foolish ways and are being forced to reap what we have sown as a lesson made manifest.<br /><br />Mans leadership has proven to be a disaster of self interest, greed, and violence as God knew it would but He has drawn some to Himself through the Holy Spirit of Truth that exists in His creation; those who love the Truth are rewarded by this Comforter.<br /><br />God says that He will not leave us alone and without protection in this dark world of man’s devising and that one day He will come and set things right with a Mighty Shout that all will hear.<br /><br />When that day comes the mighty and the violent and the oppressors of the good will be eliminated by the conquering Lion of Zion God’s chosen King and the earth will be renewed and become God’s Kingdom. Then the meek, the kind and the just and the humble will inherit the land and live in harmony with a Righteous King to lead them.<br /><br />So this is my understanding of the plan and time will tell soon enough it seems whether I am correct or not. God is great and I trust in Him because I have nowhere else to go that makes any better sense. Amen!oldtombloodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02982148079178430867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1633184610062276774.post-5275426596126710782012-02-26T15:14:06.414-08:002012-02-26T15:14:06.414-08:00Great blog post Danny.
I like and admire some thi...Great blog post Danny.<br /><br />I like and admire some things about Jesus, but do not like some of the other stuff he is supposed to have said. And as you have said above, there are other figures to admire too. My current favourite is Carl Gustav Jung. And I have always admired Gandhi, and Rammohun Roy (whose book <em>Precepts of Jesus</em> inspired both Gandhi and Martin Luther King, and whose translations of the Upanishads inspired most of Ralph Waldo Emerson's ideas).<br /><br />Gandhi is also meant to have said that he was a Christian and a Hindu and a Muslim and a Jew (and I expect he meant to include other faiths too) because he had found the mystical place where all these traditions converge. I think seeing the film <em>Gandhi</em> when it came out was probably what started my lifelong interest in interfaith and comparative religion.<br /><br />As you say, it depends what you mean by Christianity. I admire people who want to reclaim the word Christian for liberal and inclusive understandings of the word. For me personally, the word just does not fit, however much I admire aspects of Christian mystical and heretical traditions.Yewtreehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02028699564003381058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1633184610062276774.post-44958780688968158212012-02-26T10:54:39.543-08:002012-02-26T10:54:39.543-08:00I'm with you all the way here Angela re the vi...I'm with you all the way here Angela re the view as to whether you can beleive in God if there is enough evidence etc...I was an atheistically inclined agnostic for most of my life. There seemed no evidence of God. My view changed a few years ago as my experiences changed. Today I have expereince of a transcendent reality that has transformed my life and I see this in the lives of many others...so you can say I came to believe...that said that's just how I understand things today...no one really knows...for me it is beyond my human capacity to truly know...ewhat i do know is that since I found this something that is more than me, my life has been transformed in ways that were unimaginable...thanks for your thoughts...Re Jesus i've noticed the longer I am in ministry the more I identify with the figure of Jesus...when I joined my first Unitarian congregation just 7 years ago I would have called myself a none Christian Theist, i knew God but wasn't interested in Christianity, over the years I've becoming increasingly inspired by what I beleive to be his message...that said I am a Universalist i identify with message as it manifest itself in the man and woman in the street as much as the figure from 2,000 yearsa goRevDanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13569349958868233578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1633184610062276774.post-72744287273240884502012-02-26T09:41:37.140-08:002012-02-26T09:41:37.140-08:00Dawkins' position on whether he believes in Go...Dawkins' position on whether he believes in God or not is well-documented. It's essentially the position of Bertrarnd Russsell, which is that they believe in God if enough evidence of God's existence turns up. Otherwise, not so much. Whilst you may not agree with them, I find it a very honest approach to God's existence, and I am more comfortable with theists who accept some level of doubt (no matter how small) into their theism. Absolute certainty either way just seems a little arrogant.<br /><br />Back on topic, I think the way you've described on defining Christianity is interesting. Jesus isn't one of my personal heroes. Don't get me wrong, he probably was on to something (most of the time). I just happen to find very little of it directly inspiring. I guess that makes me not a Christian in either sense?<br /><br />On the other hand, I do Lent for cultural reasons. I think that it's good to have a season of 'giving up and trying harder'. I use Lent to do so (rather than e.g. Ramadan, or January) simply because I have always done so and I see no special reason not to.Angela @ liveunitarianly.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01649104351697750851noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1633184610062276774.post-21405086198324615502012-02-25T15:35:41.927-08:002012-02-25T15:35:41.927-08:00I agreeI agreeRevDanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13569349958868233578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1633184610062276774.post-44944901499046073752012-02-25T10:50:58.880-08:002012-02-25T10:50:58.880-08:00a wonderfully clear and helpful piece, which comes...a wonderfully clear and helpful piece, which comes very close to being an exact match to my current position, both in what you say and in what Gandhi said.<br /><br />The areas of difference are much less important than the areas of agreement.Barry Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04847007443755081472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1633184610062276774.post-83263043054349113232012-02-25T10:13:58.635-08:002012-02-25T10:13:58.635-08:00Thank you.Thank you.Wadehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02670659823413878915noreply@blogger.com