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.
