>>>>>Men who do not behave as Jesus did, are not Christians, no matter what they call themselves. A person who is born again is literally rewired. The entirety of their life will be changed. Forever.
>>>>
>>>>Then christians do not exist, as nobody really knows how Jesus did behave, the best we can do is guess. The information has been lost, corrupted, bended for political purposes. The best prove of that is what is written in the dead sae scrolls.
>>>
>>>>If you think that christ did not have any children, then your definition is flawed as if we all don't get any children there won't be any christians left in a few decades. We can't be all leaders and we are not all able to ressurrect from death.
>>>>
>>>>Better is, as the Genesis popgroup sings: "Do as I say, don't do as I do". But then again, nobody knows what exactly he did say, only what has been written down by others and what has not been removed over the centuries.
>>>
>>>If "They" have bended the information about Jesus for political purposes, "they" have done an awfully bad job indeed! So many people repeat this idea, that I often wonder to which group "they" belong and what agenda "they" are following, nobody ever could really explain that. Although it is intriguing that with the large wealth of ancient manuscripts that are still available today, you won't find any proof of that accusation, so in my book "They" are innocent until proven guilty.
>>
>>Again, please read
http://www.skiens.com/truth/truth.htm. and it becomes clear what likely happened.
>>
>>>I must say, I am amazed the four gospels did not get censured early on by the political and religious powers. Everything that Jesus did expose and criticize were those political and religious powers, and he defended the poor and less fortunate.
>>
>>He was asking for support from everyone he could get to get in power. The best way of doing that is to unite people.
>>
>>>it is written in the gospel of Matthew for instance "Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."
>>
>>>Still very much to the point today, but of course they don't teach that in school, do they?
>>
>>Those are lessons that cannot (only) be learned from paper or teachings. Without experience in life itself, it's meaningless and worse, subject to misinterpretation and abuse.
>>
>>These lessons nowersdays are being learned by the majority from other sources than the bible. The latter does not hold an exclusive right to wisdom. Times have changed. In this time where media and other information is never more than one click away, we do not need an ancient book to tell us how to live a honest and meaningfull life. Examples of how not to live reaches uw every moment of our lives.
>>
>>One can only find peace within themselves if they accept who they are. Some need religion, others have other means. One has to respect that, but that is not what has been practised by religious powers over the course of centuries.
>>
>
>Walter, I broadly agree with you but think it is inaccurate to dismiss the Bible as an ancient book. It has stood the test of time, a very long time.
Perhaps longer then most people believe;
I found somewhere that most of bible content (and other religions main books) has it's roots all the way back to ancient Egypt. Something like 3-4k BC
Do not remember what was the Egypt Deity name (had something to do with Sun,Moon,River,Aliens whatever) but author was pointing out striking similarities
between that content and content of the Old/New testament.
As it appear, early Christianity Religion Marketeers ( and others religions early marketeers {g} ) borrowed heavily from those ancient texts.
They also borrowed heavily from each other, customized it to suit various political purposes, accommodate for local customs, saints, deities etc.
Then it came branching with new re-writes etc.
If you make simple content cross examination/comparison we see more or less the same things in every religion.
It almost looks like it is possible to assemble franchise/textbook for establishing new religion!
Given enough uneducated/desperate/gullible people (as it was case some centuries back) we could have easily had 10-15 religions by now!
However, coin collection 'market' became saturated very soon, and after many, many, many long and bloody wars for that very market
(in the name of God, Love, Peace {g}) it is more or less all 'settled' between few major 'corporations' (Vatican, Mecca, Constantinople etc)
and we have what we have today.
However, I do like and respect ideas/message/values of early Christianity. (And as it appear other religions as well)
Despite the fact that I go to Orthodox Church only once a year (Easter with my kids), I do consider myself good 'Christian'.
When you look at it all, it is hard to determine whether Religion brought us more good or bad. From one side you have all power&politics part with wars and millions and millions of dead people, fundamentalists, bible thumpers etc. and from the other side you have
real good that is being done.
Like for instance those small poor communities in South America where local Priest indeed keeps people together and gives them some hope and at least once-a-week make them feel dignified human. That alone makes it all worthy. Or local Rabbi in ... , Or local Mufti in ... There are good and bad sides to it.
If nothing else, by declaring it 'sin' religion sure made sex lot more exciting then it would have been!
Cheers :)
