When I started this blog, I was going through some pretty serious questions about my faith. I had come to a point where I was questioning God, questioning his reality, questioning my own faith (Christianity,) wondering and using this more for my own benefit as I sifted. I haven't posted in awhile, because I have come across an awesome group of people who have also questioned and come to similar conclusions as I have, and have been basking in and bouncing ideas off of their faiths. But as that group has grown, my own inclusive beliefs have come up and it occurs to me that I have never really written out how I came to those beliefs nor thought out how it is that they have affected where I am.
I was going through some serious questioning, as I said, and in discussions with atheists had realized that I could not deny the work of God in my life, how He brought me back from the edge of insanity. I'm not writing about that now, if you've been through the confusion of religion and taken it serious, you likely have an idea of what I'm talking about. I had to filter God through what I had been through, though, and what I knew of him was from Christianity, and it was real. But did that mean Christianity was the one true world's religion? I really couldn't come to that conclusion considering the evidence for it. God is God of all, not just the Jewish people and those who were grafted in to their views of God. This idea doesn't sit well with most Christians...understandably since their view of scripture is that it was written to them, now, and the words that were spoken to the Jewish people (Christ was sent to the Jews, not the gentiles) aren't taken in that context.
There is an OT story about the Tower of Babel, most everybody has heard it. God split the languages of man, divided us and sent us away from each other. I'm sure it's metaphorical of an event in our history...but it can't be denied that man has grown in separate paths with languages that are completely different from each other. The earliest known written language is the Chinese language, and it is written using characters that represent ideas. Most words use multiple characters combined to represent different ideas. Within the characters, are stories. The story of Noah's Ark, or of creation, are there in words that combine other words such as water, boats, etc. My point is...the stories in the OT are often told in other civilizations in one form or another, and leads me to believe that if the story of the Tower of Babel is true in any form, the stories in the Word of God went out in all these different languages as well. God did not send out people with different languages and stick his own story (our story) strictly within one. I have to believe that God did not ignore the rest of humanity and just pay attention to the Jewish race.
The Jewish people knew this. In scripture they referred to themselves right alongside of Egypt and Assyria. What we have is the Jewish story in Christianity, but God is God of all, not just a select group. Yes, he chose certain people for certain reasons...in the OT the Jewish people are set apart for the purpose of showing God to the rest of mankind. It appears however, that they got caught up in a legal system that wasn't what God was after, and so he plowed that under. It cropped back up again...man is always wanting something more tangible for their law and order of society than each following their own conscience. Unfortunately, it cropped up in the very name of the one who was sent to put an end to it. I can only assume there is a purpose for this too, perhaps to bring the rest of us to the same point of realizing law doesn't bring us relationship, but is there to govern us until we're ready for that.
So my understanding of God evolved to include all who seek him out within the brotherhood of his people. It mattered not what faith to me, as long as his fruits were manifest in the person's character, I would not deny God's work in their life. There were plenty of Christians I figured were on the road to destruction, most actually, but I could also see plenty who weren't Christian who seemed to me to be honest and show the fruits of peace, joy, mercy, and love that we in the faith are told to look for. Views of God are so wide ranging, it's hard to say really that one is more right than another. It's all based on beliefs...there is no proof today of even the basic tenets of Christianity. We believe...not because we know one thing to be true and another false, but because we have reasoned it out within the perimeters of what we've been taught. We filter our beliefs through the writings of Paul, John, James, and the gospels. We base everything on what the authors of these books wrote, even though many or most of them we don't even know who the real authors were. Most Christians hold these writings as the very Word of God, even though the writings themselves say otherwise. I am personally way past that...they are the writings of men's understandings of God and their scriptures. There are doctrinal differences in these writings depending on who wrote them and when. If that can't be understood, then the writings themselves will be misunderstood.
Christian and Jewish scripture is what I know...I have spent my whole life learning them, and live by their teachings. But my beliefs are what I'm talking about, and maybe I filter scripture through those eyes. If so, I am no different than any of the writers of them, who all filtered the words and beliefs about God through their own understanding. Preachers will use a statement like that as an accusation...that's what satan does. Accuse. I am just being honest, and letting the chips fall where they may. If you judge me for reasoning thus, so be it. Christ died to save us from our sins, not our minds. (An anonymous quote I happen to love.) I realize this paragraph will turn away readers, but I'm not writing for them, I'm writing for myself, and trying to be as honest as I can in sorting out how I have gotten where I am.
I can make the case for inclusionist belief from scripture, but there is really no point...if you don't see Christ in all of creation, you won't see it from any proofs I offer. I will only say, if a person is to believe in a God at all, then that God by definition almost has to be God over every living creature. All beliefs about him/her must be filtered from this viewpoint...and it is unacceptable to say He is only the God of one faith...especially when that faith is so divided as to have tens of thousands of factions, each claiming to be correct, each claiming the others are wrong. The human race is coming out of the dark ages of religions past...and we need to come to a realization that we are all living in this world together, because we are running out of space to divide ourselves away from each other. I proudly align myself with the Christian faith, but not with the Christian religions of any form. In the faith I see, God is all in all, and we are all his children. I see the chosen in every denomination, those called the true church, within all those walls. I would like someone to tell me why I shouldn't also see the chosen within the walls of other faiths, who have different ideas of God, who nonetheless come to a point of peace with God and show love to their fellow man. Scripture will not cut it...because for every scripture I am shown that says Christ is the only way...I can show a scripture that says God is all in all, and point out that those words weren't written to you and I, but to the world being preached to before the judgment on Jerusalem.
I no longer believe any man or woman's soul will die. I certainly can't abide by the belief that God will send unbelievers to some eternal torture chamber...it's so ridiculous a thought to me now that I've grown in his grace, love, and mercy. I can be put in the camp with those whose belief is in Universal Reconciliation. I see it all through scripture, in virtually every book, and in language so plain as to be undeniable to anyone who is willing to be honest, except for the most die-hard of those who have been harmed so bad they just can't conceive forgiving the ones who hurt them. I don't have to back up that belief here, there are plenty of websites one can research the subject on. Perhaps the best I have come across is tentmaker.org, but I haven't really needed to research it through sites like this myself to see it. I have been shown. At least that is what I believe.
YOU can learn directly from God.
If you're religion is confusing to you, there's a reason. Get a red letter Bible, and read the words of Jesus to the priests and preachers of His day. Then understand this: There's no difference between them and the priests and preachers of our day. Why would there be? Just as there was in His day, there are some with good intent, but even they are learning from a corrupted system. Want the truth? Throw out everything you've learned from them, pick up the Bible, and read it for yourself. Not by chapter and verse as you were taught. Particularly in the New Testament, read the way they were written, as letters. And unless you're well versed in Old English, get a modern translation. One you can read and understand. Stick to the New Testament at first, so as not to be overwhelmed. And know this, it isn't the word of God the way you were taught. It's the word of God as understood by those who wrote it. Try to understand it from the point of view of those it was written to...we were taught to read it as if it was written to us!
The problem with that is, those the New Testament was written to were going through the transition from one Covenant to another. They were awaiting an event in their time. To learn about that event, one needs to consult historians, such as Josephus and his account of it in "Wars of the Jews."
The problem with that is, those the New Testament was written to were going through the transition from one Covenant to another. They were awaiting an event in their time. To learn about that event, one needs to consult historians, such as Josephus and his account of it in "Wars of the Jews."
Questioning the established theologies. The church teaches the law, just as it did when Jesus railed against it in His day. A discussion on the freedoms He gave us, and why true followers might want to operate on the outside. The truth is out there, but where?
Friday, April 1, 2011
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