If you read "The Christ Conspiracy, the Greatest Story ever Sold" you might see that in order to pull the many religions together under the power of Rome, the practice of the pagan ritual sacrifice for "sins" was added to the mix so that they could get the pagans to convert over easier.

They also took the ancient myth of a savior god dieing for the sins of mankind, as the ultimate sacrifice and reworked it, it into the new religion of Rome.

They attached the story to a real person, who had been a Jewish Rabi teaching his own form of "love they neighbor." They renamed him "Jesus." Then the new Church declared that this savior, was the "son of God" and a deity in his own right. The ultimate sacrifice of this deity was supposed to end all other blood sacrifices of animals and children, which is something many of the other religions practiced.

The intentions were good, as it would draw converts, and it would end the blood sacrifices. The majority of Jews and other faiths did not accept this decree and rejected the idea that this new savior was a God. The following battles were bloody and many of these non-believers were slaughtered.

Then the scriptures were written and re-written to reflect this story. Any scripture that conflicted with their chosen story was rejected. In the battle to choose what scripture was to be included many people were killed.

Hence the birth of the Roman Catholic Church and Christianity.

Hi Jeannie,

I agree. ODD?

Churchianity is what it is called.

The Gospel, is what it was originally being shared, and that in the power of the Spirit. That is still true today.

The Holy Bible is a recantation of the Gospel, and yes, it was a democratically instituted canonization of selective letters and scrolls of ancient and historical origin.

There were many different versions of the Gospel being shared in the world up until that time.

The Gospel message is still shared, and the Holy Spirit is the power of the message.

Though the Holy Bible is called upon as the authoritative Word of God, it, and "churchianity" have never completely replaced the work of the Holy Spirit.

OUCH!! That has to hurt somebody, somewhere!

The best that the Holy Bible can do is encourage the reader to seek God, in the name of Jesus, for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

An individual's faith is what moves the Holy Spirit into response.

The Holy Spirit is the personal teacher of the faithful.

The man based doctrines of churchianity and theological seminaries is to "equip the believer." But what are they equipping the believer with? And who gave them the criteria for establishing what is the equipment?

The vote that canonized scripture into its present form was no more universal and unanimous than anything our Congress can muster. A near stalemate, a mere simple and close majority ballot determined the outcome. A mere 1000 or so individuals in a church, whose leaders have been murdered, poisoned, internally couped and deposed on and off in nefarious and suspect manner over the larger course of history during its own existence.

Not a secret. Not even a hidden indiscretion, (but quite openly and rightly so), can be kept from being discovered by the light of day wherein God himself is being depicted as involved.

The only thing I can say from my experience , in defence of the Holy Bible, is that man does not know what to change within its pages to subvert God getting the intended message across to each generation without thoroughly being polluted by self serving men who would hold themselves in advantageous regard over the hearts and minds of free men ecverywhere that love truth and will not settle for being lied to and deceived their whole lifetime.

There is truth in the pages, but it is proved by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and its' guidance and leading in the individual that has received that gift from God directly.

The Holy Bible has established itself as sufficient to bring anyone to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and his message, but beyond that has become an idol to more than it has benefitted.

It has become an excuse,a rationalization, a myth, a delusion, and whatever other negative thing that can be said about it.

But God does honor the truth in its pages and does act on the faith of the reader that engages the promises contained in its pages. Sufficiently so that many have purposed to devote their lives, talent and treasure to reprinting its contents in every concievable language in existence upon the face of the earth with the desired intention of reaching the entire world within any one generation with its message.

That it has stopped changing its content, and that the content has reached a consensus of its intended , or basic, meaning is a good thing. It is beyond further machinations that benefit the few and distort its efficacy as an inspirational source of the Gospel.

One thing that can be assured to all is that there are always Holy Spirit filled believers on the face of the earth at anytime that are truly living epistles of its words and the Gosplel message that declares the Lordship of Jesus Christ over the promises of God to man, including the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is the only evidence of the truth contained within its pages. This legacy is handed down personally by the saints themselves.

Were it to be banned from the face of the earth tomorrow, the message would continue to reach souls unabated.

The true church will never die, no matter the obstacles thrown in its path. No matter the laws written or the consensus against it. No matter, the will of a simple majority that would outlaw its desemination. No matter how it is maligned.

No matter how foolish it is.

No matter that the foolishness of preaching is still wiser than the wisdom of man.

No matter what.

It is what it is.

The bolded line is where you break off from Christianity.

Jesus is the Word. Jesus is also God. But God is not the Word. Word only applies to Jesus, not to the Father or the Holy Spirit.

Abracadabra,

I don't believe in "Hell" per se. I have said that many many times. The reason I don't believe in hell is because no such place is ever described in the Bible. The various words that are translated as "hell" are all described differently. I believe that a terrible fate awaits the unsaved, but it's not a firey pit where people are tortured by demons.

The supposed afterlife of the unbeliever- "Hell"- was frequently described as such in the baptist (= sect of christianity) churches I attended as a child:

the endless fires of hell where horrible birds would pluck at my eyes and flames would burn me eternally.

Spider, what is the "terrible fate" you believe awaits the "unbeliever"?

I don't know, I could only guess. I choose to not discuss the issue of hell, because I haven't had time to study the subject fully. I am still looking into the story of Jonah and the events in 1 Corinthians 5 and various things that Jesus said, which I believe could all have relavance on the subject of hell.

A rose is a rose by any other name.

The same holds true for a thorn.

That does not make sense mathematically.


Jesus = the word
and Jesus = God
then God = the word

If Jesus is only the word, and God is NOT the word,
then Jesus is not God, because he is ONLY the word.
Jesus cannot be God and the word ` if God is not also the word.

If my father's name is John and my mother's name is Jane, then John would only apply to my father, but they would both still be my parents.

God is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It's equally true to call all three God, but each has their own individual names.

Expand that a little and you have pantheism.

With regards to the OP:

"OH MY GOD" she exclaimed as she read.


OH PLEASE, let's make sure to inundate all of society with these stories.

IN FACT, there are so many, someone can make millions creating a whole new series of

"LITTLE GOLDEN BOOKS" Great bedtime stories to instill the necessity of believing in god.

In this way we can be sure to SCARE every kid into believing.
Who needs hell, all we need are stories of those who made it out alive (and swear it was god's doing).

Proselytizing via intimidation. Whatever works.

Ethics not required.



Actually if the authors of the Bible had stuck to that theme they might have had something. I think they really outdid themselves when they went overboard and said, “Oh and by the way, if the rapist doesn’t get you the devil will!”

It’s the same story either way I guess. If you don’t buy into this religion your doomed.

It’s all about a God who will hate you if you don’t love him.

And that’s the persona that causes the God to become demonic.

A God who hates anyone who doesn’t love him.

When humans behave like that we think they are despicable.

But for some strange reason if you are all-powerful then it’s ok to be like that.

It must be the fear factor.

It just makes my skin crawl to think that I might have been created by a self-centered demon.

Oh well, never mind. Clearly someone’s wrong.

There has to be a misunderstanding somewhere in the mud.

God can’t really be like that.

WOW that is so wrong ... that just ruined the storys good points for me. how can you be so bitter ... no body desurves that .. god grow a heart ... god is the only one whom can judge so what makes you think you have the right to act this way

I think the person was being sarcastic silly. What they were trying to say is that the story implies that if you are a "good Christian girl" and you pray for help, God might send his angels to protect you.


(I say "might" because I am sure someone will come up with some story to the contrary about some good Christian girl who prayed and prayed but still got into a heap of trouble.)

The next girl, who did get raped, who passed down that dark alley obviously didn't pray or wasn't a good Christian girl or something. Of course those facts were left out, so we can't assume anything, but that was not the point of the story, was it?

What are these girls doing walking down dark alleys anyway?
Anyway, it seems like a pretty busy alley, the rapist probably had a lot to choose from.

JB

It's always lost

Hitler was an occultist. His only interest in Christianity was his search for their artifacts - The Holy Grail, Spear of destiny, ark of the covenant... etc. As to his "allegence" to the Catholic church - read up on Bonnhoffer. That should settle that confusion.

I agree with you 100% Eljay.

It was never my intent to imply that Christians supported Hitler. My only point is that Hitler used Christianity to support his madness.

Feral is always arguing that God would not have allowed Christianity to survive for over 2000 years if it wasn’t from him, etc.

Well, the fact that so many people used the religion to support evil cults pretty much flies in the face that God is in any way guiding the fate of Christianity.

Christianity has, and continues to be, use be men for their own egotistical purposes. It’s a dangerous religion because of the fact that the doctrine is claimed to be the ‘word of God’ and can be used to back even the most evil destructive forces.

Look at Feral! She’s chomping at the bit to cast everyone into hell who dares to contest that the book is the word of the almighty King of the universe!

It’s a dangerous doctrine and just causes animosity everywhere it goes.

And religion that causes people to tell other people that they are rejecting God and will be left out of his divine grace if they don’t believe in a book is nothing but trouble. It’s just serves to divide people into two opposing groups. Those who believe the book is the word of God, and those who don’t.

It’s a religion that divides men instead of bringing them together.

That’s how Hitler used it. To justify a division between cultures.

All I have are conspiracy theories and possible propaganda about how the Catholic Church or some members of the Church helped to smuggle a lot of Hitlers loot and some of Hitlers top inner circle out of Germany. Many of these men came to the U.S and were hired by our own government and given new identities. (This part is proven fact.)

Some say that Hitler had so many doubles, (look-a-likes) that to believe the reports that he died the way history tells it is ridiculous. It was never proven by more than one authority, and that authority did not live long and was not reliable. The report was simply taken as fact.

Some even say that Hitler and some of his top aids were given plastic surgery (to look more Jewish) and were smuggled to South America long before the war was over, where Hitler lived as priest to a ripe old age, dieing in 1985 or 1995 .. I can't remember what date... doesn't matter anyway.

In the face of all the other even more outrageous things I have discovered, (ghoulish experiments conducted by our own government like Tuskegee syphilis experiments on Black men.) this story of Hitler seems to be very possible. (Most history is a lie anyway.)

Nothing at all would surprise me.