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Hey Bogdan,

Thanks for coming by and leaving your Easter comments. I must say that the reading you encouraged folks to read has some major differences with traditional Christianity. One thing that I do know is that Christianity is different from all the other religions. There are common threads of wisdom, yet there are errors in teaching that Christ taught that he, Mohammed, the Budha, & others are coming together in their teachings and intent.

The holy scriptures themselves say something different than that. I believe Christ is unique among the founders of all other religions. Christ was physically resurrected. There were no bones left behind. He has risen from the dead! No bones, just an empty tomb.

Mohammed was buried (or Muhammad, both spellings are seen in many references) in his own house, which had already served as a mosque for some years. The mosque still lies there, and is counted as the second most important mosque in Islam, and Madina the second most holy city. There is no indication that Mohammed's bones have been carried off to another location according to historians and it is commonly accepted that his remains still are where he was originally buried.

Well then how about the Budha? Where is he now? Here is the the answer: Gautama Buddha is not buried. He was Cremated. Relics of fragments of his remains are contained in various Stupas though. No resurrection for Buddha, only cremation of his remains.

What about Confusius? Well, he too died and was buried at his final resting place. Located in the north of Qufu is the Confucian Woods where the tombs of Confucius and most of his descendants are entombed. Confucius passed away in April 479 BC and from then on his descendants were buried with him, and the place gradually grew into a cemetery with over 100000 tombs and 4000 steles.

The point I'm making is that Christ and Christ alone was resurrected from the dead. There are no other religions that can make this claim.

Jesus said of himself, "I am the way, the truth and the life." He also said, "No one comes to the Father except through me."

He was a liar, a lunatic or the Son of God. He couldn't have been all of these. Did he tell the truth or should we say that he didn't really mean what he said?

I choose to believe him. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. If a new prophet arises and says, I am the Christ...Jesus said "don't believe him." If someone says, "the Christ is in the desert come and let us follow him"...don't believe him. Jesus said "As you have seen me ascend into the clouds, you will see me coming in the clouds in the same way."

Yes, we must choose who we follow. We will choose truth or error, so we must choose wisely. Any new revelation from God will always line up with what the scriptures say.

"I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation."


Cheryl

Hello Cheryl,

Thanks for the long explanation.

I have read the scripture many times over in recent years. I wished some who consider themselves Christians read it at least ones throughly and with understanding as opposed to listening to fragments of it and interpreted by people who have some agenda.

Keep in mind that what we call scripture has been written 2000 years ago by people who were of Jewish religion and one of them has written more than half of it and never saw Christ with his own eyes.

Also it is a fallacy to believe that God stopped talking to people since Christ was on earth. Today there are many more enlighten people on earth than there were 2000 years ago when level of spirituality has been very low and understanding of God in Old Testament didn't encourage spirituality at all.

We are all children of God, and Jesus himself was calling himself Son of Man.

When you read scripture carefully and with understanding, never you will find there that Jesus is saying that you have to die physically in order to enter Kingdom of Heaven. This is what scripture writers assumed and interpreted 2000 years ago. Jesus many times says that you have to stop worrying about earthly things and leave all what earthly to enter Kingdom of Heaven.

Also he never says that Kingdom of Heaven can be found above you in the sky or clouds.
He says multiple times that Kingdom of Heaven is within yourselves.

When you see this part of scripture this way, the resurrection has different meaning. You don't need your phiscal body in Kingdom of Heaven, because Kingdom of Heaven is not on earth anymore.

Also Jesus didn't create the religion. People did.
God doesn't need the religion, people need it.

Bogdan Fiedur

Hi Bogdan,

Bogdan and Cheryl,

This is wonderful to find the differences believed in God's church.

All of the time that we search and discuss the faith retains it's integrity.

When we all agree then there is a chance that we all have it wrong. That would be a tradgedy.

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Hi Bogdan,

As I read your responses to the topic we are talking about I realize that you and I have some major differences in our understanding of Christianity and faith.

This is quite alright though and I appreciate your willingness to state your perspective. I enjoy this kind of dialogue and wish that more people would express their views without trying to verbally beat someone up when that person disagrees.

I could write a counter-point to every point that you have posted here, but I think that I will just say that the main point that I was trying to make as I posted my response to your encouraging everyone to read the information from the link you posted is this: "If what you or I or anyone says doesn't line up with revealed scripture, then I believe that we can know that this new revelation is not of God, & if it does line up with scripture then we can know that it is of God." This is an important point in my view and I believe that we are given an imperitive to follow this model.

There are so many things that we could discuss about your view or my view of who Jesus was and what he was about. Really though, I believe that the most important question that anyone can ever answer is contained in the following bible verses from Matthew 16: 13-17.

¹³When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"

¹⁴They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

¹⁵"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

¹⁶Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ,^[a] the Son of the living God."

¹⁷Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.

"But what about you?" Jesus asks... "Who do you say I am?"

My own response to Jesus' probing question is....

"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Yes, in the quiet room of everyone's own heart....they will be asked the question. "Who do you say that I am?"

Respectfully,

Cheryl

Hi Cheryl,

What I will concentrate on in my response is the statement that if people think exactly how scripture says this must be the truth about God and anything else is not.

What about those cases when Jesus was asked by Jews in regards to old testament? In fact any question Jesus was asked by contemporary Jews was answered opposing to current believes. Which part then of the scripture is true for you?
The one which was before Jesus or the one after him?

If old testament was written by God and Jesus denied some parts of it (in fact any part which he was asked of), is it possible that entire old testament was wrong. If old testament was right, than was there anything true, Jesus said.

Which part is true?

Keep also in mind that Jesus was the one questioning status quo of the existing believes in God. If we should follow him, we should question things which we have suspicions that something about the status quo is wrong.

Should we blindly accept all the facts of the scripture and assume that world was created 4000 years ago, that God was causing thunders and lightnings?
That God needed offerings in form of killed animals and that woman should be stoned if she was unfaithful? I could go on.

Are you sure that all the contradicting statements in the scripture are correct even if they exclude each other? We should love each other, but we don't accept gays in our neighborhood. Were not gays created by God?

If scripture is all what there is, why not all parts of it are included in the official version of it?
Why there are parts of it erased when Jesus prophesied about Mohammad?

Why the entire gnostic part of early Christan world is not included in the scripture, around 400 yeas of it where they talk about reincarnation and more spiritual vision of Christ's mission?

The reason is simple, people couldn't understand that part in those early years of Christianity and were not buying it. You couldn't get people to come to church and make to do offerings if they would not be afraid of not being accepted in Kingdom of Heaven.
To this date the church has built greatest real estate venture in the world selling this concept. Not bad considering the fact, that they sell something, which nobody can verify it is true. Keep also in mind that when church has discarded all other alternative Christian views, and went with that which we know today, it was run through the state religion called Roman Empire. Soon after that it went on crusades against those who had different ideas about God and killed them in the name of God.

If you believe that Christ said that you need to physically die to enter Kingdom of Haven, find this part of it in the scripture and write it here. I will tell you what I believe he is saying there.

Yes I agree that a way to Kingdom of Heaven is through Christ, but it is not enough to believe in him, this would be too easy. Of course this is enough for the church dogma as it justifies and supports its existence for promise of something which you can't make them accountable for.

If you want to follow the Christ, than I will tell you, he is not any more in any church than he is where you are right now. Nobody needs the church to follow Christ's teachings.

You can enter Kingdom of Heaven while still on this earth, but the condition is that you have to give up everything which is earthly.

Any person who lives in this part of the world can be considered as rich by the standards of 2000 years ago or people living in the third world.

And Christ said

"Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

As long as you have more than poorest person on this earth, just believing in Christ and scripture might be not enough to enter Kingdom of Heaven.

Also it is worth to point out, that Jesus didn't teach about 10 commandments at all.

I encourage you to join the movement which although not spiritual, it is closer to Jesus' teachings than any church and religion I know of.




Bogdan Fiedur

Hi Roger,