I have alot of respect for Miles, he makes sense to me and I dont tend to see him demanding of anyone what they should believe.

As to God, I believe what the Bible says. I believe it as a historical reference to what men during that period of time did and said and treated each other, as a historical reference to the laws that men of that time had for each other, as a historical reference of Jesus walk in the flesh and his activities and lessons, and as a Guide(inspired of God) of how we are to live our life if we are choosing to walk in Gods favor.

I believe in a Heaven, a Paradise, and I believe that however large the sacrifice might be required to get there , however 'insane' or 'unreasonable' it seems by our mortal priorities, it is still a small price to pay,,,,,like paying ten cents for a trip to the bahamas,,,and I am grateful for the opportunity to come up with the fare,,,


thats just my belief, and not a demand on anyone else to believe as I do


much respect to Miles, I am one who is admiring your studiousness and faith.

Maybe to you.. but the scriptures are true. Study to shew yourself approved. Study what?

The scriptures.. So if you do not understand something what do you do:?

You do not lean to your understanding you again search the scriptures for answers.

If you are in the field of Electronics and have a brain warp and can not remember Ohms law do you just guess at trouble shooting something? this would not be wise. The wise thing to do is search where ever for ohms law and refresh yourself.. How hard is that to understand.. We tell our children with thier homework this all the time.. Blessings...Miles

Miles this example simply says that we learn from others, that we consult books for our knowledge etc. I totally agree with that and understand that.

I am lost without a good library and when I moved out of the larger city with the good libraries, I depended on the Internet and Amazon books to find information.

But you have limited your sources to a single Book or "scriptures" as if that is the only source of information on the planet. This is not logical or even smart.

The scriptures may have some wisdom, but they are not the end all to knowing everything.

Now I do when it comes to my faith.. But I studied every religion I could think of for at least 10 years and when I found the one i could not deny I accepted it.. I still search and read.. Mainly Persion History and Zorastrism. a small sect still stay true to it in Iran. They are very interesting and keep to themselves because Iran has strayed and will not tolorate thier preachings you might say.. But at one time it was the Persian religion. The Empire that The Roman Empire would not mess with. History and even the Bible speaks of them accepting the new believers in Babylon as Mark was in Babylon and the believers could flee persicussion by fleeing to Babylon Iraq because of a Treaty they had with the Roman Empire. Thier writings speak of the Israelites.., what do thier writings say of them.. They are a very wise people. They called them Yahwism short for Yahweh's wisdom.. My brethern call themselves Yahwists which also means Yahweh's wisdom.. which we seek.. Blessings of Shalom..Miles

I totally agree.

In terms of spirituality some of the greatest knowledge and information I've ever come across came from sources far removed from the Mediterranean views of "God".

I've learned far more valuable information from the Eastern Mystical philosophies, as well as from the traditions of Wicca or Witchcraft, and of the Faery Teachings. They have some wonderful information and paradigms that are far more intelligent and useful than anything I've ever found in the biblical scriptures.

I only wish that I had been born into a family that understood these spiritual philosophies and had taught them to me quite seriously when I was a very young child. I think I could have easily fallen in love with the Moon Goddess and the Sun God of Wicca, and that would have brought me far closer to God than Christianity ever possibly could have.

Currently in my life I have "created" a spiritual paradigm that consists of four "Goddesses", four Archangels, four spiritual Mentors, four elemental fae, and even three facets of "God".

That may sound like "polytheism" to many people but it's not. Not in the slightest. These are separate "Gods and Goddesses" in competition with each other. These are just facets of a single underlying cosmic consciousness that gives rise to all of reality (God) if you need to put a name on it.

And these spiritual traditions have FAR MORE to offer in terms of constructive and productive guidance, mentoring and education than could ever be found from any single culture like the ancient Hebrews.

It's simply too beautiful, too intelligent, too positive, and too constructive to not be "divine".

Even the Hebrew scriptures themselves demand that divinity cannot come from something that is not divine. An evil tree cannot bear good fruit. Therefore even by the Hebrew teachings themselves, Wicca, the Faery Teachings, and Buddhism must necessarily be an emanation of the divine. Otherwise it would be impossible for them to be as good as they are.

It's that simple.

Somehow the Abrahamic picture of God got grossly derailed and came off the tracks. Now instead of it being about divinity, it's become nothing more than an obsession about religious bigotry. Either believe in this religion or you're be SORRY!

That very mentality is not "good fruit" and therefore it must have come from a "corrupt tree". Something went horribly wrong with the Hebrew scriptures and they became corrupt. And now all that emanates from that source is no longer "divine", but instead all we see is religious bigotry being spread toward everyone who doesn't worship those scriptures in some specific verbatim way.

That's not 'divine', that a derailed train wreck.

It got horribly off track and there doesn't seem to be any hope to ever get it back on the tracks of divinity ever again.

We're better off just letting it die out.