words

I believe that words are one of the few ways we can communicate without anger and misunderstanding if we are willing to start with the fundamental statement that all ideas are worth examining but not all ideas are beneficial for all people. In the context of that statement I would like to say that we all have ideas and we all have questions that we hope will give us the insight to make a foundationally safe premise as to what ideas are viable and under what conditions.


My subject of discussion today is religion. Let me start by saying I have no respect for any organized religions that I have studied under and the reason is that very few of them ever ATTEMPT to deal in 100% truth. I remember my first years in The Catholic church and the disillusion that came with the continued daily practices that as far as I could see had little to do with GOD. I won’t go through all the others that I immersed myself in from time to time but I will say none of them faired any better. In time I discovered others who claimed they were not a religion but rather a new way of life. That phrase itself scared me off. The one thing I was NOT looking for was a new way. Finally I started to connect with small groups who came pretty close to having it all together. Not completely but pretty close.

A lot of the misconceptions I think were from the semantics of what we discussed. If you had ten people it became obvious that you could have that many varieties of understanding and that made no sense at all. As an example I will lay out a point of discussion and then let you state what it means to you and why. Then I would like you to give me references for your answers: I.E. Bible, Internet, Minister, Pastor, Friend, Teacher and so on!

POINT ONE



1. GOD created all humans so HE has the same feelings toward all regardless of the degree of their sin nature/

Well that seems pretty reasonable and I would have to use John 3:16 as the reason for that answer. But then I have to quickly adjust because this is a conditional statement on GOD’S part so it may actually turn us away from the point. Now we start to reconsider so we return to the statement from GOD himself

“God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in HIM shall not perish but have everlasting life”

Here is where it starts to get sticky. There is a condition but the problem with the condition is that no man may come to the Father except through Jesus or so HE tells us yet no man can do anything unless he is called by GOD or to use the proper word drawn by GOD. If that is the case then all men must be drawn to the SON by the FATHER. ALL MEN!!

If all are called then why would any perish? If you ask the destinationists (my word creation and it is used to describe fundamentalist who do not believe we have any choice) they will tell you because their fate was sealed before the world even began. The problem with this answer is that GOD himself included any and all who would accept HIS SON as their Lord and Savior. With that section we have to realize that all men have a choice to make.

So much for the pristine fundamentalists.

I am going to leave off on point one until I get some of your feedback.

Have fun but remember the truth is the only security we have