The True Meaning of Christianity

Originally Posted by UniversalLove

Greetings everyone. :)

This is just something that I've been contemplating for a while and thought it would be nice to share with open minds.

Christianity is NOT about condemning people to eternal hell or forcing religion on people. It's not about judgement or frightening people. It isn't about being better or more righteous than others.
And please don't think that just because I'm talking about something I feel is good about and central to Christianity, it means that I'm trying to lure you into the religion. It simply isn't true.

The true meaning of Christianity is agape love. It teaches love like any other religion. Agape is the Greek word for a divine, selfless, and unconditional love. It is central to Christianity, as Mahatma Gandhi once said.

Jesus taught and demonstrated agape love. He taught love toward the neighbor, enemy, saint, and "sinner."

Jesus even said that it is agape love that is the mark of a true disciple or Christian.

Remember that Jesus also befriended the outcasts and the oppressed in his society.
Jesus is also known for being crucified, but it isn't the "blood" and "torture" aspects of it that are important. It was the agape love that was behind it. It was Jesus' selfless love for his friends and even his enemies.

I grew up Christian, and the message that the religion speaks to me is to simply love everyone.

So, for those who may believe that Christianity is a bloody or evil religion, please consider looking at it in another way.

Please feel free to share any thoughts.

Thanks. :)

The teachings on which religions are based are never bad. It is only when people interpret the teachings and make dogmas of their interpretations and use fear to impose them on people that religions acquire a bad name with those who use their minds and those whose image of God does not tally with the image presented by the Church.

The Church at one time taught that to enter Heaven you had to be indifferent to the cries of the damned and that to cry when a heretic was burned at the stake was to risk joining him.
They teach that God is omnipotent and everything takes place because of his divine will.

It is not the teachings of Jesus.

When I was very young I wished for a universal religion that everyone could believe in and base their lives. No differences to divide us! How powerful we could all be working together!

However, as time goes by I begin to feel such sameness is only possible where the indiviidual is repressed and all conform. I no longer believe in conformity but in transformation through awareness of God's love for us and our reciprocal love for God and all creation, especially for our fellow human beings. I believe this love is only possible by God's grace. "lest any man should boast."

There are both positive and negative results of the many denominations depending upon whether they foster love or a sense of superiority.

I do not know what people mean by "Christ Consciousness" .

[angels eyes]

Originally Posted by UniversalLove

there are different denominations and traditions within Christianity. To me, that is a sign of having different interpretations and ways of thinking, and I think that's fine.

A perfect statement 'UniversalLove'.
I have always thought the same way. The Bible, I believe, has been interpreted so many different ways because we, as humans are different and we understand words differently.

I might look at a 'rose' and notice the amount of pedals it has and be in awe. You might look at that same rose and only notice the beautiful colour.

Your comments on this thread are very wise UniversalLove. I can tell you have a beautiful soul.

God Bless you.

[Morpheus]

Hi. there are many aspects to Christianity, and evident in many denominations, aren't there. Ultimatly, I feel that no matter what the faith, the Mysitical is the goal, which same transcends the apparent boundaries and comparably petty topical or surface divisions, involving ego of the human animal, and carnal aspect.

In John 10:34, Jesus quoted Psalms 82:6,where God declares,
"ye are gods".

If we are souls, then we too are at our essence apart from time and space, this "physical" is comparitively an illusion, and, we are much more than this present selve...
(Welcome to "The Matrix".)

From nderf.org:
"All of the dogma of various religions just get in the way by infusing a judgmental and egotistical brand of separatism that satisfies man’s archaic and barbaric disposition." (Ego) "In the end, the only things that matter is the people we help and the people we hurt. This revelation is not fully understood until we return to the Plains and examine it under the light of absolute truth." Ron K's NDE.
1Jo 3:2

"Beloved, now are we the sons (children)of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is."

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Morpheus

Ultimately, I feel that no matter what the faith, the Mystical is the goal,...

That is it!!!

That is it!!

That is it!

The up-close and personal, direct experience of the Mystical!

Let us not forget.

Thank you.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Morpheus

From www.nderf.org :
Ron K's NDE.

It's hard for me to believe I missed this one, Morphie.

It's in my favorites now...wow.
A sober, wow.
Thank you.

You save yourself not by how someone else leads you, but from within.

Mayflow

Mayflow, I will assume the "you" you are addressing is merely a sort of generic "you" which you feel applies to everyone. But as for me (Mary Baker) my salvation occurred just as I describe.

It was an act of God that gave me a different heart, instantly! Making me spiritually alive. Born of the Spirit.

I do not have the power to do those things for myself.

Certainly this new life does spring from within as the Holy Spirit dwells within. So that when I am grounded in Love the life I live, I live in Christ. If I do any good it is, "Not I, but Christ who dwelleth in me."

I personally do not believe in salvation by works. I know me too well.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Mary Baker

I do not know what people mean by "Christ Consciousness" .

My take, as to what people and myself mean as best I can, if I may - and
it can be added to in so many other ways...please all do.

Our brains work at different wavelengths - you know, when we sleep, our
everyday 'normal' state - and then there is an Alpha state.

Richard M. Bucke, MD first coined the term Cosmic Consciousness around 1901 - in a book of the same name.
In it he tries to establish by the quotes of many people
that there is such a thing as an altered state of the mind - and there are examples.

Like, what state of mind could have allowed William Blake to write these words?

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

This would be an example of a glimpse into Cosmic Consciousness - also called by many Krishna Consciousness,
Christ Consciousness - a Heightened Awareness - an altered state, Alpha, etc.
It can be registered on doctors instruments now.
Woo-hoo - then it must exist, right?

St. Paul is noted to have had Christ's Consciousness 3 times.
Plotinus, Mohammed, Dante, Buddha, Walt Whitman, Balzac, etc...in Bucke's book.
It changes you forever, of course.

I was there, and I am convinced I was not meditating. Never heard of it.

I was just picking cotton and my last thoughts had nothing to do with anything spiritual whatsoever.

God speaking to me had nothing to do with my will or intention, and why did God speak to the girl beside me at the same instant also changing her inside.

There was no collaboration or communication or any such thing between us about God or any such thing. I went into a trance of some sort, I guess, because for the few minutes of my Experience, I was oblivious of my surroundings and when I returned to awareness of the cotton field and the girl working with me we were both weeping copiously and saying God had spoken to us and we immediately ran to her parents to tell them.

Why should the idea of God's ability to reach down to us meet such resistance?

I did not reach up. I did not meditate nor do anything else to "bring God down" to me.

Paul says (Romans 10)

“But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’(that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’”[ \l (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,”[that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim.....”

and quotes Isaiah saying

“

And Isaiah boldly says,
“I was found by those who did not seek me;
I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me”

So, I firmly believe it was in my case. That is how I experienced it.

However, the rest of Romans 10 concerns the necessity of spreading the Christian message as Paul sees it, saying people cannot believe unless they have heard. True, I think, but sometimes people hear of God from God, directly. Paul himself did. I did. From the NDE stories, many people have.

"Heaven came down and glory filled my soul." (from the hymn.)

[Morpheus]

It's hard for me to believe I missed this one, Morphie.

It's in my favorites now...wow.
A sober, wow.
Thank you.

..but, it's what I am here for Miss Hep.

(low and courteous bow.)


Mary:

I was there, and I am convinced I was not meditating. Never heard of it.

I was just picking cotton and my last thoughts had nothing to do with anything spiritual whatsoever.

God speaking to me had nothing to do with my will or intention, and why did God speak to the girl beside me at the same instant also changing her inside.

The poem
"High Flight"

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent lifting mind I have trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

- Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."

John G. Magee