Christ not the only way to God

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dayage
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Re: Christ not the only way to God

Post by dayage »

Buddhawarrior,
The Universe was created by Something. And that Something was also created by what preceeded it. The Universe created planets and suns, and human life. There is a creative force in the Universe. The universe creates.

God is not any "created" thing. God is the creative force itself.
No, God is not part of the universe, God created it. Space-time was brought into existence. God is not a force, He is a personal being. Planets and suns are made by the laws of physics that God put in place (Jer 33:25).
This is what the LORD says: 'If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed laws of heaven and earth,...
Humans were directly created by God. The universe can not created life, much less humans.
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Re: Christ not the only way to God

Post by B. W. »

buddhawarrior wrote:I believe in practicing Bakti to all the world. Though I am not a push over or a softy. I practice Bakti to my own needs as well. If I need sleep, I sleep a divine sleep. If I am hungry I eat a divine meal. If I don't want to interact with a person, I simply let them know. I'm not perfect in any way shape or form. But by placing Bakti yoga high on my priority list, it's improved my life immensely.
We need to be point blank here - are you phishing for converts?
buddhawarrior wrote:
B. W. wrote:
buddhawarrior wrote:...If we are to have any discussion in philosophy I must first state that referencing the bible as fact because the bible says so is a basic logical fallacy, begging the question. And if are to use philosophy or Logic to deduce God, then the Bible has to be thrown out on fallacious grounds. But that does not mean the bible isn't a good and useful book, and has provided soul food for so many over vast time. But as a vehicle for producing Proof of an "EXCLUSIVE" God, it is awful.

I would also keep this discussion confined to a just one topic, whether or not Christians have the EXCLUSIVE way to God....
...If we are to have any discussion in philosophy I must first state that referencing the ancient Hindu tradition called Bakti Yoga as fact because Bakti yoga/ Devotional Yoga says so is a basic logical fallacy, begging the question. And if are to use philosophy or Logic to deduce God, then Bakti yoga/ Devotional Yoga has to be thrown out on fallacious grounds. But that does not mean the Bakti yoga/ Devotional Yoga isn't a good and useful book, and has provided soul food for so many over vast time. But as a vehicle for producing Proof of an "EXCLUSIVE" God, it is awful. I would also keep this discussion confined to a just one topic, whether or not Christians have the EXCLUSIVE way to God...
wow, that's funny, looks like you didn't even try here. Are you playing games or having a serious disgussion? I think I played this game with my 4 year old cousin once. Real logical on your part. From your original post, i thought you would be the one who could reason this out with me, but it seems you rather like to take it personally and make it into a childish game.

well played, sir..
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Re: Christ not the only way to God

Post by CallMeDave »

buddhawarrior wrote:Hi. I'll just give a little background about myself and why I'm asking this question.

I was a devote Christian in my teens. Then left the church Senior year and haven't been back since. I have since studied on my own, many world religions and more practically have practiced on my own with methods from Buddhism, Hinduism, Kaballah, Native American Shamans, Modern Psychology, Neuro linguistic programing, and use of psychedelic sacraments and astral projection and lucid dreaming. I have seen God on several occasions and have had a near death experience as well. I am not of any religion, and quite frankly my definition of GOD makes me more of an atheist to most people. I don't like religion, but I love what they have to offer to the honest seeker of the HIGHEST truth.

my discussions with Christians often ends like this. They tell me, "that's nice. We'll pray for you." and I'll probe deeper and I end up finding that they do not think that my way to God is valid, and that only their way is valid because the Bible says so. But I feel the other way too. I feel that Christianity is great for building local community, keeping kids out of trouble, develops ethical and moral behavior in it's members, but does nothing for the person who REALLY wants to KNOW and EXPERIENCE God. In order to put your soul on a rocket ship to visit and hang with God and to learn to become the Messiah yourself, there are so many methods available, and Jesus used them to become who he is.

First of all, the Bible does not say Jesus is the only way. It often says Jesus is the Best way, or a great way, or a way, but never the only way. The verse most often quoted, John 14:4 is so misread. But only because Christians have not taken a look at other Messiahs living amongst us today of other religions. Jesus taught in the Hindu tradition of Bakti Yoga, or loosely translated as devotional Yoga. Hundreds, if not thousands of Saints and Gurus (before and after Jesus) decide to go this route. Devotional yoga is simply this, I am the closest thing to God you will ever come across, worship me like a God, and you will get a sense of what God is like. And as you get familiar with that sense, drop me, and go straight to God himself. Use me as training wheels until you can do it yourself. And Jesus often spoke in this manor. And any student of Hinduism and Buddhism and Seikism knows that Jesus was just another saint who taught through Bakti Yoga. But because Christians get so caught up in the, “he’s the one and ONLY way” they never study under any other methods and don’t realize the bigger picture. There are many living Gurus today who have performed as many, if not more miracles than Jesus. I know some, and I have witnessed the miracles. And when I witnessed for myself, I asked myself, “if Jesus was alive today, and I saw him perform miracles, would I believe?” and the answer is “YES”. So then I must believe in the Gurus I have met and know that Jesus is just but One of the Many who have come to show us the way.

The First three commandments, 1. I am your God. 2. do not worship other Gods, 3. don't use my name in vain. These too are incredibly misread, simply because of the old christian Dogma.

My reading of it is this. God, the creator of all things can not possibly be a thing itself, because a thing is created and God is the creator. So all material things, all measurable things. All the things one can see and think and imagine, any thoughts, ideas, etc are all part of the material realm, which is created by God. Do not worship any created thing, any idols, any graven images, etc. That means all sorts of things, basically everything you can think of or imagine, or see, or hear, anything in this reality should not be worshiped like you worship God the creator. But that means also the bible, Jesus, Christianity, dogma, etc. These are all created things, which should take less importance than the creator, The creator can not have a will, or personality, or desires or judgment because those are all created things, and the creator does not have the attributes of created things. Jesus was created and also creates. I was created and also create. We are all in the image of God and have God in us and are performing God's work all the time. All material and immaterial things in the known universe are created by God and perform God's work all the time. That is the nature of our physical universe.

If someone tells me that my methods are incorrect and that only his book and his imaginary hero has the right method, then he is violating commandment number three. He is taking the lords name in vain, calling something God when it isn't at all.

God is the creative force, like gravity. You can not worship gravity. gravity does not care when you die that you did not worship it.

the Creative force is beyond language, beyond time, beyond dimensionality, beyond human ego and sensory perceptions. Any attempt at making it into a thing, a dogma, a set of rules to govern, is an attempt at population control and not at all a way to God.

So my question is this. I would like to know why you think the Christian God is the only way to God. Please speak from personal experience, and quote from the bible as little as possible. I'm not a biblical scholar and do not want to spend my time researching the pre-translated Aramaic and Latin versions to check translational errors.
Hello. Thanks for expressing your faith . Id just like to give you some food for thought on the nature and character of God if i may ; God is not 'a force' . No 'Force' has inherent personal qualities which we have ... non material personality only comes from a like personal Source. Same for intelligence which we see in the 150+ LIfe Enabling Constants and Physics Constants that are all needed simultaneously so earth can be just the way it is for us to have a suitable home . Further, no Force gives a Soul which has a Mind and Conscience to it ... only that too can come from a like Source which has them. No Force gives incredibly highly complex messages to construct , as we find in the DNA Molecule which is touted as THE most complex thing known to man in the universe. Lastly, no Force is capable of sustaining an entire universe to the immensely accurate precision that is required such as the Cosmological Constant to the 120th decimal place critical tolerance ...combined with other simular incredibly precise entities. Based on what we do have, the Creator must be highly personal, eternal for making something finite, extremely intelligent beyond comprehension, extremely loving and caring for how he crafted our Cosmos/ our Solar System /and our human anatomy, powerful like we cannot fathom, and infinitely moral and perfect in his character and all he does. This of course is just a smattering of Gods qualities which no force has. The greatest thing for us, is to embark on a real personal relationship with this Creator who has made himself self evident thru creation, thru the BIble, and thru Christ who himself claimed and proved to be this Creator who chose to visit the earth he created so marvelously. It is had by first getting your sins removed via Christ crucified . Regards.
"I never asserted such an absurd proposition, that something could arise without a Cause" -- staunch atheist Philosopher David Hume.

"What this world now needs is Christian love or compassion" -- staunch atheist Bertrand Russell.
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Re: Christ not the only way to God

Post by buddhawarrior »

Hi callmedave, thank you for your added info.

I hate to beat a dead horse, nor do I mean to offend, so please do not take anything I say personally. But what you have described is called in the Hindu tradition, bakti yoga to a bhagavan. Or roughly translated as devotional practice to a personalized God. Or in Christian language, worshiping Christ.

Which is an amazing way to know God, but it does not make the christian "bhagavan" any more correct than the bhagavan of another religion.

I'm only usig the Hindu vocabulary because there are no real english concept for it. So it's simply easier to borrow words from another culture to express a concept tha is foreign to most people in the west.

Like the analogy of the 3 blind men feeling up an elephant and each insisting that they know he truth about the elephant. One insists it's just like a snake, one insists it's just like a wall, and the last one insists it's a tree trunk. Well, none are right, yet all are right from their perspective. A bhagavan is like the blind man saying "it's like a snake" making the unknown object into something familiar so that an understanding can be had. In science we call that modeling. The model is not the thing itself. But represents what is knowable abou the unknowable. Of course what I've presented is also a model and not the real deal. I do not hold my believes as fixed because I know it does not represent the real thing.
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Re: Christ not the only way to God

Post by MarcusOfLycia »

buddhawarrior wrote:Which is an amazing way to know God, but it does not make the christian "bhagavan" any more correct than the bhagavan of another religion.
When there are contradictions, you think everyone can be 'just as correct'?
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Re: Christ not the only way to God

Post by wrain62 »

The Elephant analogy feels decepyively condecending.
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Re: Christ not the only way to God

Post by Canuckster1127 »

The elephant analogy is pretty much a standard one that is used or adapted by most traditions. The irony in this case is that while it can be used to show that perspective impacts understanding, it still relies upon the assumption that there is a real elephant by which all perceptions can be measured and compared as to their accuracy. When you take it the next step and argue that every perspective has equal validity because there is not a real elephant or the real elephant cannot be known, then you've cut off reason from reality.
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Re: Christ not the only way to God

Post by Kurieuo »

How does one see the elephant to know which part a religion is touching? I think those who take this analogy seriously are talking from the back end of the elephant if I'm to be frank. :stirthepot:
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Re: Christ not the only way to God

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Kurieuo » Thu Feb 09, 2012 4:13 pm

How does one see the elephant to know which part a religion is touching? I think those who take this analogy seriously are talking from the back end of the elephant if I'm to be frank.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: Christ not the only way to God

Post by jlay »

Ravi deals with that poor elephant example. Thanks for pointing out the problems with that argument Bart. It is one that lights its own fuse, which of course blows it up.

Kind of like the Dali Lama calling to free Tibet. Buddhism is about elimnating desire. Desire is the source of suffering. Yet why do Buddhist desire things such as Tibetan liberation?
Why does one desire to prove their point on an internet forum> And make exclusive truth claims to say there are no exclusive truth claims.
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Re: Christ not the only way to God

Post by CallMeDave »

buddhawarrior wrote:Hi callmedave, thank you for your added info.

I hate to beat a dead horse, nor do I mean to offend, so please do not take anything I say personally. But what you have described is called in the Hindu tradition, bakti yoga to a bhagavan. Or roughly translated as devotional practice to a personalized God. Or in Christian language, worshiping Christ.

Which is an amazing way to know God, but it does not make the christian "bhagavan" any more correct than the bhagavan of another religion.

I'm only usig the Hindu vocabulary because there are no real english concept for it. So it's simply easier to borrow words from another culture to express a concept tha is foreign to most people in the west.

Like the analogy of the 3 blind men feeling up an elephant and each insisting that they know he truth about the elephant. One insists it's just like a snake, one insists it's just like a wall, and the last one insists it's a tree trunk. Well, none are right, yet all are right from their perspective. A bhagavan is like the blind man saying "it's like a snake" making the unknown object into something familiar so that an understanding can be had. In science we call that modeling. The model is not the thing itself. But represents what is knowable abou the unknowable. Of course what I've presented is also a model and not the real deal. I do not hold my believes as fixed because I know it does not represent the real thing.
The major thing which seperates worship of a personal theistic Creator of other Religions versus Christianity , is that the actual Creator chose to enter time and space in a human body to die for the sins of mankind while directly showing us what God is like . No other religion can claim that . Therefore if Christ can be validated for whom he said he was, then this would make Christ the One to follow and no other. All other Religious Leaders only claimed to be spokespersons for God ..and while they may have demonstrated wisdom and moral teachings....they could not claim and prove anything beyond that.
"I never asserted such an absurd proposition, that something could arise without a Cause" -- staunch atheist Philosopher David Hume.

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Re: Christ not the only way to God

Post by buddhawarrior »

Interesting, is the problem with the elephant analogy that Christians think they know the entirety ofthe elephant and that all others are blind?
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Re: Christ not the only way to God

Post by buddhawarrior »

jlay wrote: Kind of like the Dali Lama calling to free Tibet. Buddhism is about elimnating desire. Desire is the source of suffering. Yet why do Buddhist desire things such as Tibetan liberation?
Why does one desire to prove their point on an internet forum> And make exclusive truth claims to say there are no exclusive truth claims.
Jlay, a very enlightened perspective you point to. Congratulations, you have just graduated from the first step, the illusion of desire. Even your God had the desire to create. Desire is a fundamental truth of the universe. It is only by the practice of trying to transcend desire that the aspirant realizes and experiences for himself the truth of desire. Now that you've realized that you cannot escape desire, you must see into the nature of desire inorder to understand it. And by understanding your own nature of desire, you understand the nature desire in all beings. This is the beginning of the path to Christ consciousness.

I do not practice Buddhism to become a Buddhist, I practice it to to be Buddha. I did not practice the teachings of Jesus to be Christian, I did it be Christ. Even Buddha wasn't buddhist, nor Jesus a Christian. They Were road signs pointing the way, don't stop at the road sign to praise and worship it, instead go to where the sign points. by did not teach for us to be followers, they taught so we can attain the kingdom of heaven for ourselves.
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Re: Christ not the only way to God

Post by CallMeDave »

buddhawarrior wrote:Interesting, is the problem with the elephant analogy that Christians think they know the entirety ofthe elephant and that all others are blind?
Well, lets examine this rationally ; if a religious Leader comes along and declares he is going to die the way that was predicted he would some 600 years prior (before his method of death was even invented) along with having performed bonified miracles and living a sinless life...then proceeds to die and rises from the death after 3 days as validated by eye witnesses of the account (over 500 total) and of which some wrote specifically about which is further validated by NON-christian historians from that time period....then unless a religious Leader has done something greater and more miraculous since or in the past...why shouldnt THAT person be viewed as the one to follow and why wouldnt THAT person be the one with the real ultimate truth about God and how to be completely reconciled to him ? Has Buddha done anything remotely miraculous ? Has any other world religious Teacher ?
"I never asserted such an absurd proposition, that something could arise without a Cause" -- staunch atheist Philosopher David Hume.

"What this world now needs is Christian love or compassion" -- staunch atheist Bertrand Russell.
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Re: Christ not the only way to God

Post by Kurieuo »

Sounds like you too believe you se ethe whole elephant.
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