Not a fan of the Abrahamic 'god'..

That verse is just peachy IF you think that YOU are GOOD. But what is good? Look at the Pharisees. If you would have asked them, they would have told you they were good. They followed each and every one of the OT laws. But Jesus thought they were sons of Satan. Did you ever wonder why?

The answer lies in your own heart...that heart that thinks he/she is good. You are not GOOD. You have deceit in your heart, just like the Pharisees. You think you are better than most everyone alive, just like the Pharisees. You easily see the sin in others but fail to see that big log floating around in your own eye, just like the Pharisees. You have a huge ego and too much pride, just like the Pharisees. You probably look so righteous, but God will see this as self-righteousness, just like the Pharisees. They looked good on the outside but the inside was filthy. They judged others as unworthy but thought they were fit for the kingdom. I think you could be just like them.

You seem so sure you are good and righteous and perfect. Think again. Anyone who thinks that his fellow man is worthy of being tormented forever, IS NOT A GOOD PERSON. That is the end of the story. If you judge a person to be worthy of forever torment, Jesus would tell you that this judgment will be turned back upon you. I think Jesus was all about love but you are siding with evil.

That's the fact, jack!

Christ is the law now...

new sherif in town, new laws in effect...

that's why it is so important to read the new testament...

:)

Christ said that He never came to do away with the OTs, but to give them their full meanings.

the funny thing is if you are too smart about it, you can over-think life...

The Lord's prayer is a good baseline and likely the reason Christ gave it to us...

this seems like the key... that and loving God and
.doing so by loving and respecting each other and creation...

Lords prayer adds in the forgiveness part and is very powerful for daily use... like changing the oil in the car... sometimes I will say it a few times a day... just to keep it real...

:)

this is an argument that can go on for a while...

and one of the reasons I choose to honor the OT as much as possible... to glorify God more...

but Lord's prayer and love for God and each other is the key... IMO

not supposed to do a lot of things... rules rules rules and then you never connect w God... this is the problem Christ rails against the Pharisees for ...

:)

Prayer is such a beautiful thing. I feel completely safe and warm and calm when I speak to my Holy Father and my Holy Brother. I haven't experienced anything that matches or betters it.

well said--following rules can lead to separation from God and ego building...

think about how much a song pleases you or anything you make might...

this is our goal: to please our creator by how we live...

:)

If you believe that your god created EVERYTHING, then you have to believe that he created wickedness/evil. You cannot argue that. If you consider your magical sky goon "divine", then yes, according to all you religitards: WICKEDNESS is DIVINE.

Ugh.

that is avery interesting symbol.

cause and effect; above even self-ordainment.

A direct quote from Jesus:

Matthew 25:46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

you misrepresent yourself. aka lie.

Jesus said THAT? How do you know? was there someone writting it all down?

ok. love your neighbor. thats it.

so much for threat and phantom authority.

Why would a GOD need the methods of men?

i.e. fear, worship, control?

explain that please.

Bowman--2001 is one of my favorite films, if not my favorite...

ever seen the analysis where they show how HAL is really IBM?

every letter in IBM is preceded by HAL...

Kubrick, in addition to being an incredible genius, according to some was always putting subliminals in his films...

to me, the technology is a luciferian trap... eventually chipping us and controlling us--- totally opposite the free will sovereign spirit beings God intended...

tptb have to trick us... and they are worshipping a supernatural element that follows the spiritual laws and knows things not meant for this creation...

lucifer, like HAL, was created as perfect and yet he chose to rebel... Kubrick seems to imply a bigger game going on...

God chose to keep lucifer here to act as a sort of challenge and filter for His creations... the ones that do not learn to glorify Him will be destroyed...

again, the beekeeping metaphor... makes sense... just in terms of energy, you might not want rebellious creations running around your creation... distorted egoic energy is not preserved... it will not be useful to God in eternity...

I did not come to this understanding out of fear--I could care less if there was an eternity or not when I didn't know what was going on...

I came to this from research and life experience... lots and lots of both...

:)

The Mayan 2012 Fail is one more good reason why people should believe in this Abrahamic God, and more importantly, obey.

Because whatever was spoken about in the Bible concerning the state of this world and mankind's sins/fallen nature is the source of all the problems in the world, rings so very true to this very day. And whatever the Bible predicted has also come true, unlike all the bullshit predictions we have been getting.

If you believe in aliens or cosmic alignments or ascension without any moral figurehead, you are setting yourself up for complete fail. There is a reason why the human psyche needs to have a God. Of course, most of this world has rejected God. That is why we see stupidity increasing everywhere, and almost complete lawlessness now.

The winds of time I will break
for when the 10th hour of the 11th month comes
The One true great God Zeus the almighty
will bear a child and he will light mankind and unite the world he will bear the power of me and will never die. You will call him Ichar meaning "God of all"

no no... you have to think energetically... and be honest w yourself...

we all think bad or selfish thoughts... these build up in our consciousness... and distort our spirit energy...
at least this is how I see it now...

you must seek forgiveness to keep the slate clean and glorify God..

do not think there are no rules, there are and they are important... and I find them kind of fun...

:)

Many scholars now think that Matthew my well have taken down these sayings of Jesus verbatim and as they happened, in his shorthand, only including them in his Gospel account at a later date, after the churches spread over the Mediterranean area where passing on stories by word-of-mouth would be impractical. Therefore, Matthew may well be the key to writing about Jesus when he was on the earth.
[link to wiki.answers.com]

Don't worry about it, OP. The Old Testament is just Jewish mythology. You are probably not a fan of other mythological gods, like Zeus, Jupiter, Ra or Thor.

how can we fear God and Love him at the same time?

Eternal Punishment not eternal punishing meaning you are destroyed

A person who is destroyed, is then no longer eternally punished.

Nothing scares me more than to live in a world full of grown adults who actually believe in these magical fairytale desert myths. It makes me sick. Humanity has absolutely no chance.

IMO, we are closer to God than we think and bible says we are created in His image... to glorify Him... I don't think of God as some bearded dude in the sky, but as a profound and unimaginable being... in his image to me says more about the ability to think and have a free will... than appearances... but He may look bi-pedal and we may reflect this too... it doesn't matter...

these things you are talking about simply reflect our consciousness and how we make choices as sovereign spirit beings...

and they reflect spiritual laws of how God creates us...

:)

Yes, that quote is true. Jesus actually invented the idea of hell. In the OT, death meant death. Death was the grave.

My question is this: "Who are the righteous?" Who are the people Jesus sees as righteous? It wasn't the Pharisees, who followed all the laws. They looked good on the outside, but the inside was filthy.

I remember that Jesus said that MANY people will stand before him on judgment day. He first mentioned people who did MIRACLES in his name. THen he talks about people who drive out demons. And he mentions people who speak prophecy. Do they sound like religious people? I think they do.

Let's face it. If you thought you drove out a demon (like a priest does) in Jesus name, you would be pretty sure you would go to heaven. If you did a miracle (like praying that someone would be healed) you would think you were worthy of heaven. BUT...Jesus tells ALL of these people to get away from him because he never knew them. Jesus sends them ALL to hell.

Then Jesus said it would be easier for prostitutes and sinners to get into heaven than for Pharisees. BUt then Jesus said that OUR righteousness must be greater than that of the Pharisees or we will not see the kingdom of heaven.

A good man stood before Jesus and told him that he followed all the laws and commandments. He had done this since childhood. He wanted to know what else he should do. Jesus told him that he had to SELL everything he owned and give it all to the poor. He was not joking. He told people that the road was narrow and only a few get in. Most people are just walking along that wide road.

So maybe none of us are going to heaven. Maybe only those 144,000 or something like that. Jesus told people to be perfect, as his father was perfect. I guess it is considered perfect to kill everyone who doesn't follow all the laws and commandments exactly, and remain humble, and put God first, and live a destitute life while giving everything to the poor. This is the only way we could ever be more righteous than a Pharisee. So maybe Jesus wasn't telling lies. Maybe only a very few go to heaven, the perfect ones.

What a confusing bag of garbage the Bible is. This is why I am an atheist.

That's a great summary AC.

At this point I don't really care so much if I'm good enough to get through some filtering system though, and be accepted into some group that I have no knowledge about whatsoever. I have done the best that I could with what was presented to me and that's what I do feel good about.

And, I'm just about done with my own sharing and expressiveness, for now anyways. I could always be inspired in the future I suppose but there are more life experiences that I look forward to and seeing that the world didn't end today I can't wait to get started with some "real world" fun as the "cyber world" has, save for the novel bits of information that come up from time to time, has become boring and repetitive.


------

I would suggest looking into NDE cases, in which veridical info is found.

For example, a person has an NDE. Meets the deceased in a heavenly location. Then finds out information about them that was impossible to know about.

After the experience, the information discovered, is researched and verified to be true down to the exact details.

Proving that the experience was not based on the imagination, subconscious beliefs and expectations.

Psychologists, neuroscientists, nor atheists can not explain these types of NDEs in which veridical information is associated.

and nothing pleases TPTB and the supernatural more than to hear you say it...

I told my mom about how Wilhelm Reich made it rain and saved the blueberry harvest in Maine...

she didn't believe me...

then when we were in car driving through Rangely, Maine, where the Reich museum is, I stopped and asked the first person I saw if they knew about it:

"Oh, yeah, everyone knows about that."

think about your bias, yo... you weren't born with one...

:)

I had an NDE and uncovered veridical information and I saw no Jesus no kingdom of God I did see others though and I felt at peace