>>For example, I seem to remember that in several cases, Jesus Christ said something like: you have heard such-and-such, but now I tell you such-and-such.
>>
>>To me, this means, among others, that humanity is progressing (or at least, is expected to progress!). For example, in the Old Testament, revenge was (more or less?) a law; Jesus teaches us that now (i.e., 2000 years ago) is the time to advance one step further, and pardon the offender.
>
>The verses you refer to, ironically, are from the same Sermon (on the Mount) and appear shortly after Mt 5:18 that I referred to. Here, Jesus is giving deeper understanding of the law. He repeatedly says "you have heard" (as opposed to "it is written") to emphasize his opposition to the Pharisees, who were applying the laws inappropriately. And specifically, "eye for an eye" was never intended to be used to excuse personal revenge. Rather, it was to give the courts guidelines in determining proper punishment.
>
>>I should add, lest you get a wrong impression, that I have this belief from the teachings of the Bahá'í Faith. I do not consider myself a Christian, although I do accept the Bible as Holy Scripture, and that Christ was sent by God.
>
>I am not familiar with your faith, but your comments make me curious. If you consider the Bible to be Holy Scripture and Christ sent by God, yet do not consider yourself a Christian, then what is your understanding of Acts 4:12? It states (referring to Jesus), "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved."

Yes Hilmar is very interesting person indeed. :)
He could mean that we're all God's childern.

FWIW... from my brief seminary days DTS (Dallas Theological Seminary), before Christ, people did all kinds of crazy things for salvation because there was no way for redemption for their sin and no one worthy to take away there sin. So they sacrificed animals and went to war and such. But when Christ came as a sacrificial lamb to die for all the sins of the world, it made up for all the "craziness" of the old testament, in essence made the old covent "obsolete". He became the last revelation of God's word "... that who so every believes in Him, will not die, but have everlasting life".