"Welcome to Interfaith" in the Christianeese language.

[Dream]

First connect the dots, then by the spirit of Christ decode the message!

• 2Ki 2:10 “You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise not.”
• Num 21:9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.
• John 12:32 But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.”
• Num 21:6 And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
• Mat 13:29 ” ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them.
• Col 1:27 To whom God would make known what [is] the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
• Genesis 4:7 But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."
• Hebrews 2:14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-that is, the devil-
• Rev 20:2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
• Rom 8:3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature,* God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.* And so he condemned sin in sinful man,*
• Romans 7:21-23 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body,...
• Eph 4:16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
• Eph 2:12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
• I Corinthians 12:26-27 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
• Eph 2:9-10 ...not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
• Mat 1:23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”–-which means, “God with us.”
• Mat 1:21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."
• Psa 46:10“Be still, and know that I am God;I will be exalted among the nations,I will be exalted in the earth.”
  Psa 46:11 The Lord Almighty is with us;the God of Jacob is our fortress.
• Deu 4:7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?
• Eph 2:12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
• I John 3:10-11 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.

[mee]

Originally Posted by Dream

First connect the dots, then by the spirit of Christ decode the message!

• 2Ki 2:10 “You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise not.”

Not quite sure what your meaning, but for starters


Keep on asking, and it will be given YOU; keep on seeking, and YOU will find; keep on knocking, and it will be opened to YOU. matthew 7;7 then showers of blessings will come our way


And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that, no matter what it is that we ask according to his will, he hears us. 1 john 5;14

[mee]

Originally Posted by Dream

First connect the dots, then by the spirit of Christ decode the message!

• Num 21:9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.
• [

And it must occur that when anyone has been bitten, he then has to look at it and so must keep alive." 9 Moses at once made a serpent of copper and placed it upon the signal pole; and it did occur that if a serpent had bitten a man and he gazed at the copper serpent, he then kept alive. num 21;9


And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone believing in him may have everlasting life.john 3;14-15

Therefore Jesus said: "When once YOU have lifted up the Son of man, then YOU will know that I am [he], and that I do nothing of my own initiative; but just as the Father taught me I speak these things
john 8;28

There is a lesson to learn from this.

All of us are, in a way, like those Israelites who were bitten by those snakes.

We are all in a dying condition. Look around, and you will see that people grow old, get sick, and die. This is because the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, turned away from Jehovah, and we are all their children. But Jehovah has made a way so we can live forever.


Jehovah sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to earth. Jesus was hung on a stake, because many people thought he was bad.

But Jehovah gave Jesus to save us. If we look to him, if we follow him, then we can have everlasting life.

[mee]

Originally Posted by Dream

First connect the dots, then by the spirit of Christ decode the message!

• John 12:32 But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.”

His death is in no way a defeat, for by means of it, he will draw others to himself so that they may enjoy everlasting life.

[wil]

I'm waiting to see your premise.

I know many Christians who are quite interfaith oriented, respecting a variety of religious beliefs as valid ways to spirit.

But I have no idea where you are going with this.

[17th Angel]

Very unlike me, but, I am so totally lost right now...

[seattlegal]

More:

Luke 6:27-36
27 “But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. 29 To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. 30 Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back. 31 And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.
32 “But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. 35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. 36 Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.

Translation into Buddhaeese:

Dhammapada 1:5
5. For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love, this is an old rule.

[Dream]

Originally Posted by Wil

I'm waiting to see your premise.

I know many Christians who are quite interfaith oriented, respecting a variety of religious beliefs as valid ways to spirit.

My premise is that Christianity validates the interfaith movement, but I have not made an argument. I've attempted to make a short list of verses that challenge Bible usages that are inconsistent with interfaith. Its a metalanguage. Could be better but not bad for a first try.

I know that the post was a flop, but to give you an idea one of the verses translates 'Emanuel' as God with us, which is what Christ is, so only that helps us understand why they named Jesus 'Jesus' instead of 'Emanuel'. Emanuel or Christ is the name we all share, yet we call Jesus 'Jesus Christ' or 'Christ Jesus', etc. The multiple verses constrain the meaning, cutting down on the possibility of wrong choices.

[sonoman]

Originally Posted by Dream

My premise is that Christianity validates the interfaith movement, but I have not made an argument. I've attempted to make a short list of verses that challenge Bible usages that are inconsistent with interfaith. Its a metalanguage. Could be better but not bad for a first try.

I know that the post was a flop, but to give you an idea one of the verses translates 'Emanuel' as God with us, which is what Christ is, so only that helps us understand why they named Jesus 'Jesus' instead of 'Emanuel'. Emanuel or Christ is the name we all share, yet we call Jesus 'Jesus Christ' or 'Christ Jesus', etc. The multiple verses constrain the meaning, cutting down on the possibility of wrong choices.

Why do you want to change Christianity? It is not an "interfaith" religion and never was and never will be if practiced as Christianity.

One of the reasons I as a Christian get banned from these forums is that forum owners do not understand my religion and are attempting to create very false Christian discussion venues wherein Christians have to "behave" themselves and not ever cite the teachings of Jesus Christ lest those teachings offend Jewish sensibilities and liberal ecumenicalists sensibilities.

So what is left is what I am calling "Kosher Christianity", a newly developed Christianity that wants to erase Jesus' words in the NT and replace them with,

"oh that's just inter-Jewish sectarian religious warfare and nothing to take seriously" or

"that was added material the Church Fathers put in to distance themselves from the Jewish religious authorities and claim their own authority",

both arguments meant to rewrite Jesus' actual teachings which are not in anyway "ecumenical" and are decidedly hostile to the Jewish faith represented by Pharisees and Phariasic Judaism.

Forum owners and their "regulars", the members who have accepted without protest forum owners manipulation of religious believers ability to talk honestly about their religious beliefs, are out to re-invent Christianity so that it no longer poses a theological threat to Judaism or Buddhism or Baha'i, Christianity's religious competitors among Western intellectuals.

Sad to say but true, if you want to really learn anything new you have to leave these controlled discussions where religious beliefs that run contrary to the forum owner's beliefs are subject to "special" treatment, i.e. banishment if pursued on the forum owner's Internet territory. The regulars, the members who stay, are the forum owners' enforcers to keep forums run their way. That's why you don't see my postings or probably anyone's who bucks the forum owners ego and that of his gang of regular backers.

No need to respond, Dream. I, ego, will do your job for you and you won't have to think or deal with my criticism.

[Dream]

That's great, Sonoman 'cause I sure do hate thinking. I am nothing like SG or Wil who seem to enjoy learning about the different religions but am more like a caged Parrot picking a lock. Not that I'm in a cage -- I'm not in a cage. But if I were. Well, sophistically everyone is sort of, since there are all kinds of cages. Most locks are the things that other people say, and we Parrots just can't seem to grasp what they mean. What good is answering when you don't know what was asked? No good, and that just complicates things. Parrots are funny, too; and I sometimes chuckle when you get yourself thrown out. Not that I'm glad but that it is a learning experience for you.

[sonoman]

Originally Posted by Dream

That's great, Sonoman 'cause I sure do hate thinking. I am nothing like SG or Wil who seem to enjoy learning about the different religions but am more like a caged Parrot picking a lock. Not that I'm in a cage -- I'm not in a cage. But if I were. Well, sophistically everyone is sort of, since there are all kinds of cages. Most locks are the things that other people say, and we Parrots just can't seem to grasp what they mean. What good is answering when you don't know what was asked? No good, and that just complicates things. Parrots are funny, too; and I sometimes chuckle when you get yourself thrown out. Not that I'm glad but that it is a learning experience for you.

Too bad it isn't one for you. There's another word I could have used for members like you who do the bidding of their master forum owners. But do get a chuckle out of being a performing seal for ecumenical equality of beliefs that obliterate the reasons why people hold their beliefs in the first place. No one seriously believes other people's beliefs are equal to their own otherwise why have "beliefs" to begin with? Just be the same..a nice I,Ego, sameness that is acceptable in the I, Ego, belief system dominating this forum to the exclusion of seriously competing beliefs.

[Dream]

[17th Angel]

Originally Posted by sonoman

Why do you want to change Christianity? It is not an "interfaith" religion and never was and never will be if practiced as Christianity.

That seriously depends on what you define as christianity.... Many ways ooze... OOZE with interfaith (i.e "borrowed" from other religions before hand.)

[Dream]

Originally Posted by seattlegal

More:

Luke 6:27-36
27 “But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. 29 To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. 30 Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back. 31 And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.
32 “But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. 35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. 36 Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.

Translation into Buddhaeese:

Dhammapada 1:5
5. For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love, this is an old rule.

A very good point, and thanks for reading my post.

Originally Posted by sonoman

There's another word I could have used for members like you who do the bidding of their master forum owners.

But seriously, my masters bid me to say that the only change I can make to Christianity is to change myself. Anything more than that is delusional thinking. As I change for the better, perhaps I will become holy and my prayers more powerful until at last the world stops turning. Not today, though.

[Bandit]

Originally Posted by sonoman

Forum owners and their "regulars", the members who have accepted without protest forum owners manipulation of religious believers ability to talk honestly about their religious beliefs, are out to re-invent Christianity so that it no longer poses a theological threat to Judaism or Buddhism or Baha'i, Christianity's religious competitors among Western intellectuals.

Sad to say but true, if you want to really learn anything new you have to leave these controlled discussions where religious beliefs that run contrary to the forum owner's beliefs are subject to "special" treatment, i.e. banishment if pursued on the forum owner's Internet territory. The regulars, the members who stay, are the forum owners' enforcers to keep forums run their way. That's why you don't see my postings or probably anyone's who bucks the forum owners ego and that of his gang of regular backers.

That is true about all religion or politic forums.

They all have a bias at the top and have beliefs that they do not want people talking about. If you had a religion forum you would form the same agenda and shaft those who do not conform.