Christianity is not politically correct.

Originally Posted by sky123

Do all Christians accept the bible?

You will find that it's sometimes pick and choose
Whatever makes sense you will use and the silliness is ignored, unless of course you are totally ' Brainwashed ' .

Yes, us pesky heretics do pick and choose, and always have. Even though the heretic hunters spent many a century tracking us down and killing us for doing so. The Roman bishops were supposed to have pretty much settled this by 400. Yet no matter how many people the church burned alive for refusing to accept that what they say about God is the one and only truth, opposing opinions still keep creeping up like more moles to be whacked down.

Growing up, we had something called the Apostle’s Creed. Only later did I learn that it was actually the Nicene creed under a different name. I expect they changed the name because thinking it was associated with the 12 Apostles carried more clout then if one realized it actually originated from a council of Roman Bishops called to order by one of the most narcissistic rulers of all time, because he wanted to use Christianity to unite his empire for his own vain human purposes.

https://www.learnreligions.com/the-nicene-creed-700366

Christians have always had their own versions of what it was to be "politically correct", but instead of just making others feel stupid, they torched them. So you can see why when today's Christians go around saying our way is the only way, some people get a little upset if they don't agree.

[Altair]

That's just the funny thing isn't it...

For many centuries, and still, in many countries today you are very much politically correct if you are a Christian..
As a Christian you're not at all a small minority, your views are the mainstream in many countries and you are PC...

It totally is /Irony. Ketzer, your point kills the thread, IMO..

Originally Posted by django

Necessary but not sufficient ingredient - care to enlarge on this?

What I mean is that coming to know, understand, and accept the central message of Jesus’s teachings, and perhaps more importantly, the massage of his life, I believe, has been essential to growing the holiness of my spirit.
Even though I grew up steeped in the teachings of Christianity, I never really understood Jesus. As a young adult I began to actually question what the Church was teaching and started to look at the Bible myself. What I found shocked and horrified me and I turned away from Christianity because of it. The God of the Old Testament is often depicted as a cruel narcissistic tyrannical king. The Bible is touted as the one and only true word of God, yet it is just a collection of religious texts selected (from 100s of different teachings and writings) by the roman empire some 3 to 400 years after Jesus walked the earth.
As I explored other teachings, faiths, and religions, and experienced life, I came to develop my own understanding good and evil. Only then was I able to look back at Jesus and recognize the central message of his teachings and the message of the story of his life for what they are. As I have said in other posts, I am amazed that even after 2000 plus years of humanity heaping their own vain purposes onto that story, and putting words into the mouth of Jesus to suit their own vain lust for power and control, that message and its moral still comes through.
For me, Jesus and his message are essential, but it was only when I rejected the idea that Christianinty was the one and only true path to understand them, was I then able to understand them for what they are. A follower of Jesus and a follower of Christianity are not necessarily the same thing, and IMO often quite different.

There is a Christ in each of us waiting to be recognized and brought forth, but perhaps it can be hard to recognize if we are looking for it using the description put forth by what has become commonly known as “Christianity”.

“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
― Gospel of Thomas

I believe I have been destroyed and recreated many times. Hopefully each time, I come a bit closer to bringing forth from within me, that which will eventually save me.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to”

Like all religions, Christianity has it's own set of Scribes and Pharisees, just like Judaism had in the time of Jesus.

[Morpheus]

Originally Posted by ketzer

What I mean is that coming to know, understand, and accept the central message of Jesus’s teachings, and perhaps more importantly, the massage of his life, I believe, has been essential to growing the holiness of my spirit.
Even though I grew up steeped in the teachings of Christianity, I never really understood Jesus. As a young adult I began to actually question what the Church was teaching and started to look at the Bible myself. What I found shocked and horrified me and I turned away from Christianity because of it. The God of the Old Testament is often depicted as a cruel narcissistic tyrannical king. The Bible is touted as the one and only true word of God, yet it is just a collection of religious texts selected (from 100s of different teachings and writings) by the roman empire some 3 to 400 years after Jesus walked the earth.
As I explored other teachings, faiths, and religions, and experienced life, I came to develop my own understanding good and evil. Only then was I able to look back at Jesus and recognize the central message of his teachings and the message of the story of his life for what they are. As I have said in other posts, I am amazed that even after 2000 plus years of humanity heaping their own vain purposes onto that story, and putting words into the mouth of Jesus to suit their own vain lust for power and control, that message and its moral still comes through.
For me, Jesus and his message are essential, but it was only when I rejected the idea that Christianinty was the one and only true path to understand them, was I then able to understand them for what they are. A follower of Jesus and a follower of Christianity are not necessarily the same thing, and IMO often quite different.

There is a Christ in each of us waiting to be recognized and brought forth, but perhaps it can be hard to recognize if we are looking for it using the description put forth by what has become commonly known as “Christianity”.

“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
― Gospel of Thomas

I believe I have been destroyed and recreated many times. Hopefully each time, I come a bit closer to bringing forth from within me, that which will eventually save me.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to”

Like all religions, Christianity has it's own set of Scribes and Pharisees, just like Judaism had in the time of Jesus.

Perspectives are everything, and you don't know what your talking about.
You believe this temporary life is real, compared with the true reality involving eternity.
The Gospel of Thomas is homily, without any significant foundation.

[soulforce]

Originally Posted by django

I don't see "No one comes to the Father except through me" as a way to exclude people who don't believe in him, but as an exhortation to say 'come this way, because it's the way through, it's the only way, I happen to know that, and I want as many people to find their way through as possible.

I should add that I think Jesus is the doorkeeper in the deepest recesses of the heart, and he's the way through because it is his gift to humanity's evolution to have been the first to open this particular spiritual/energy door.

It's not an insult to anyone else to say 'I know the way', but people have made it into an insult because of 'religion' and human twisting of meaning.

I think you missed the point I was trying to make. Jesus never said that "I" is quantified as just as a single person. He is omnipresent as He is omnipotent as he's omniscient. So what does this mean when we talk about the narrow road. The narrow road is basically the only road that exists.

It means we must use more than just our eyes or our intellect to capture His true nature. I guess the most prudent question I would like you to answer is, why do you feel the need to defend Christianity as the only avenue one could come through Jesus to the Father?

No one would consider it an insult to disagree with a Christian that Christianity doesn't have a monopoly on our connection to Source. Christians on the other hand might feel offended that people won't let them evangelize without resistance. For me that's a double standard.

Originally Posted by Morpheus

Perspectives are everything, and you don't know what your talking about.
You believe this temporary life is real, compared with the true reality involving eternity.
The Gospel of Thomas is homily, without any significant foundation.

Yes Morpheus, this matrix is temporary, but it is as real as anything else you and I have ever or will ever create.

If one considers the blessing of some 4th and 5th century Roman Bishops the foundation on which they will build their truth, then I would not want to spend a night in any house built upon it.

"By wisdom a house is built, And by understanding it is established"

[neil]

Originally Posted by ketzer

Yes Morpheus, this matrix is temporary, but it is as real as anything else you and I have ever or will ever create.
.

Quite correct...the earth was constructed by the almighty for a purpose & it is constructed from the very same spiritual matter that the holy kingdoms are created of, & it is not illusory nor less real, just different.

& the purpose of which the earth had been created for, is for the first parents & all other lineage related to the first parents, to be able of creating their own children here.

For the almighty deemed it only possible for his creation to be capable of creating children of their own & in their own image, via a combination of their very own DNA, & the process the entire pregnancy & birth. & that entire process can only be achieved in an organic situation..."EARTH"...as the almighty designed & constructed it.

The almighty placed his first creation on Earth, clothed in flesh, because they require the flesh & Earth for the process of creating children & of which can not be achieved in the full spiritual, without the non sentient, non conscious & non intelligent fleshly form/body.

It was not because of a fall, that the first parents were placed here & clothed in flesh, it was the almighty entities design that all life does start in & amongst the organic.

I am smiling because i am aware of the truth & of which it is backed up by the word of spirit.

[FallingLeaves]

Originally Posted by ketzer

As I have said in other posts, I am amazed that even after 2000 plus years of humanity heaping their own vain purposes onto that story, and putting words into the mouth of Jesus to suit their own vain lust for power and control, that message and its moral still comes through.

I always wondered why people have so little faith in the words told. As if mere men could indeed void the will of god with simple speeches?

isn't it amazing how god can do things even when we say those things aren't possible?

[django]

Originally Posted by soulforce

I think you missed the point I was trying to make. Jesus never said that "I" is quantified as just as a single person. He is omnipresent as He is omnipotent as he's omniscient. So what does this mean when we talk about the narrow road. The narrow road is basically the only road that exists.

It means we must use more than just our eyes or our intellect to capture His true nature. I guess the most prudent question I would like you to answer is, why do you feel the need to defend Christianity as the only avenue one could come through Jesus to the Father?

No one would consider it an insult to disagree with a Christian that Christianity doesn't have a monopoly on our connection to Source. Christians on the other hand might feel offended that people won't let them evangelize without resistance. For me that's a double standard.

Well I didn't come to my interest in Jesus via Christianity, I was happily following my own way and just came to a point where I could not pass, and thinking of his name allowed me to get past the point where "I" could go no further.

So I have taken on the mantle of Christianity, but are you asking why I need to be pro-Christian when being pro-Jesus would be enough, and a simpler task?