>>Well, this is the "Chatter -> Religion" area, so I'll respond accordingly.
>It's nice that there is a religion area in chatter, but "Religion" is a term that is
>used for different things, and can be used differently depending of context.
>For most people "religion" is an umbrella term for anything that is faith-related.
>In a more strictly sense religion means something that we would call today
>"superstition", but also religion can mean the organization of a religious and
>political system. Since I referred to religion in the latter sense I call it "organized
>religion", because any other form of religion would be more of a personal
>faith issue.

It is often referred to that matters of coding styles are "religious arguments." For example, I believe that in XBASE code, and indeed in all code which has similar syntaxes, that it should be like this:

DO CASE
    CASE condition
        * Code goes here

    OTHERWISE
        * Code goes here
ENDCASE

Failure to do so is just wrong. :-) Many believe, myself included, that such is a religious position. However, I also know that I am indeed right in saying that the case conditions themselves should also be indented, with an extra space or two between. LOL! :-)

>>>It is interesting to note that the Bible does not see the government as the enemy,
>>>but religion itself.
>>The Bible sees sin as the enemy. Period.
>I think there is nothing wrong to say that "sin is the enemy" technically, but I feel this
>is too vague and from a more practial standpoint you would have to say that sin is
>the result of evil, and not the opposite.

Sin caused man to die spiritually. We now only operate in our flesh. The enemy, Satan, preys upon our weak flesh, for even Jesus said in the garden on the night He was taken, "the spirit is willing, bu the flesh is weak."

The reason men do bad things is because of sin. Sin caused man to die spiritually, which means we now only hear the voice, pull, and draws of our flesh. We do not hear God's spirit unless the Father draws us to Him and His Son. We have our flesh. And unless we are able to hear God's Spirit, which only leads men to do what is right, to do the truth, then we are only hearing our flesh and we will respond accordingly.

We read the Bible today, and it says very clearly what to do. But unless there is some internal mechanism drawing a man to operate as the Bible says, it will be an exceedingly rare thing that a man does this of his own personal choice. In my case, I was a worldly, sinful man embracing all manner of evil doings. My wife and I had discussed having an "open marriage," and we were both enticed by the excitement there, etc. We were involved with many worldly things on the whole. And we were blind to any of them being wrong.

When Jesus came to me in a dream Halloween night, 2003, and I received Him into my life 9 months later on July 31, 2004, I was changed from the inside out. That man I was is still there inside me, pulling at me continually. But there is now this new voice which speaks and reminds me of the ways of God. It is a powerful realization when you come face to face with God, and how He can change a man so completely.

The Pharisees were blind to what they were doing because of sin. Just as the people of this world are blind to what they're doing because of sin. They listen to society, listen to media, listen to their friend's views, listen to everything except God because the enemy is continually pumping them full of the message of everything contrary to God's desires for man to walk and live a holy life. And because we are responding to our flesh, there it is ... we move, in sin, doing things God commanded us not to, because we don't place value on the written text on a page because it's not operating within us because of sin continually enticing us away from God.

It is a miracle of God that any of us are saved, or can be "born again" of the spirit, that we can then hear the voice of God, which is spiritually discerned, and be changed throughout.

>In the end it was not "sin" (if you can use this word as an impersonated being)
>that crucified Christ, but rather the religious groups of that day that were the
>masterminds of the crucifixion.

It was sin. It was men in rebellion against God through sin. They were embracing falseness. They were glorifying self. They were operating in all ways "in and through sin".

You must remember also that there was Nicodemus (whose name means "people's victory") to whom Jesus said, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God," because he was willing to hear the truth, even though he was still draped in the fearful and mechanical aspects of his religion (coming to Jesus at night, etc.).

>And we can see their method by using the political resources of that day (the Roman
>government). But still the main culprit were the pharisees, and if there would be a
>worldly judgement regarding this crime, the pharisees would get life in prison or
>the death sentence for first degree murder while Rome would get only 10 years
>in prison.

Jesus remained silent during questioning, remained affixed to the cross, because He was on a mission. Everything that happened was going to happen. God used men's hard, sinful hearts for His purposes. Still, it was always and only sin that allowed men to act in the way necessary for Jesus to be crucified. Had Adam never eaten the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Ggood and Evil, then it would not be like this, for through that one man, that one act, sin entered into the world, and with sin came death. And by one act, Jesus sacrificing Himself on the cross and resurrecting on the third day, death's hold on mankind was undone.

It was always sin that is the issue. Men who repent, turn from sin, turn to God, embrace the teachings of Christ, are born again ... they are free from this world. Everyone else will remain as the Pharisees ... blind, and believing in what they are doing until the day they die in the flesh.

>There are many religious people in this world, but that does not mean that they
>are looking for God. In that I fully agree with you. Too bad that when you try to talk
>about faith issues on a more personal level, those problems that are caused
>by some religious people and organizations backfire and people would judge
>someone because of some bad experience they had at another time because of this.

Yes. The enemy is no slouch. He has done well enticing people to seemingly soil the name of Jesus through men's sinful actions. Still, the truth is always there. And nothing about Jesus has been soiled.

An interesting discussion, Christian.