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What Determines Christian Truth.

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posted on May, 4 2005 @ 10:54 AM
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After spending the last 14 years as a born-again believer in Jesus Christ being my Lord and Saviour, I've come to the understanding of differentiating Christian truth from untruth through scripture. I grew up in the Catholic Church(not by choice), went through all the required hoops like infant baptism, 1st Communion, and 8th grade Confirmation. Meeting the then Cardinal Cody at my confirmation was somewhat of a big deal, I guess. The Catholic Church to me as a child, was a very boring and spiritually dead place to go. However, I had a lot of guilt forged into my conscience and dared not miss the irksome appearances. This reminds me of all the times my mother forced me and my brothers and sister to go. My little brother would actually tally in sequential order the body positions:

stand, sit, kneel, stand, kneel, sit, kneel, stand, sit, kneel, go to communion, kneel, stand, get the hell out as quick as possible.

I had to hold back the laughter.

But I never really knew my Creator personally. I took a few hard lessons in life to realize I needed Jesus in my life. So, at about 19 or so I began seeking God out of sheer desparation. The first place I went to go find him was in the Catholic Church. Needles to say, he wasn't there.

When I became an authentic Christian, It was plain to see the apostate state of the so-called Church. I was ALIVE, they were dead. So I'd like to share with you all what determines truth from error in the Christian faith.

I'd like to point to the passage in 1John4 where it admonishes us to test the spirits, for many false apostles are come into the world. In a nutshell, the determining factor of what is true or false lies in the existance of the actual flesh of Jesus Christ. Given that John pointed this out to combat gnosticism, the general test must be applied to all matters of uncertainty in the faith.

Scripture's key to understanding is to correctly place topic's in either one of two categories of interpretation:

Symbolism or Literalism

Now, going back to the Catholic Church in what it teaches, the Eucharist(communion) is believed to be the miraculous transformation of the ACTUAL body of Jesus(head, arms, torso, legs) into the circular wafer of wheat that is passed out at mass. And, moreover, the ACTUAL blood(red liquid containing tiny platelets in plasma) into the wine gulped to wash down his body.

This is one of the foundational beliefs that the RCC teaches. The scripture passages they hold to into claiming this to be accurate lie in John 6:

53Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
54Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
55For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
56He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.


..and Matthew 26:
26And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
27And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;
28For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.


Now the problem with this is that if we really take this literally, then we are condemned to death and will definitely NOT receive eternal life. Because, the actually body of Jesus is not here on the face of the earth. He literally ascended up to heaven.(Acts 1, Matt. 28). We cannot possibly eat or drink him because he is unattainable. (Tank God for 'dat deer You-kerist thingamabob!,)

This was a good opportunity for the ruling class to control the masses. The Catholic priest acts as a magician. He says a few "holy" words like abracadabra and PRESTO!(priest-o), ala caZam, the body of Jesus is transformed right before your very eyes. It happens so fast that you didn't even see it. The spiritually blind embrace such a miracle. All they have to do to inherit eternal life is to eat a wafer and drink some wine! What a DEAL! Easy as it is, it still requires a work-based method. You have to go to mass, eat and drink. Afterwards, you can go get drunk.

But if you actually take the time to read John 6, and possess just a litttle common sense, you might see just a little clearer. Jesus says he is the bread of life, the bread that came down from heaven. He goes on to say that the Jews' forefathers ate the manna in the desert and are now dead, but if they eat him they will live. Just like Nicodemus, they are puzzled. "How can this be? How can we eat him?" It's a metaphor folks. But don't take my word for it, take Jesus' in verse 63 in context, I might add, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."

Well if that there Eucharist thing is not the body of Jesus, where is he?

Where is he? Where'd he go folks? I'm asking you Christians mostly. Why can't you tell me the literal place of his dwelling. You say he went to sit at the right hand of the Father in heaven, huh(psalm110). Good for you. Because he did. But then why do you embrace a universal ideology which cannot attest for his whereabouts? Why do you quote passages trying to prove science when you symbolize passages that should be taken literally?

For example, Job 38:33 says that the ordinances of heaven are IN the earth. Isaiah 44 says that he spread out the earth. Is. 34 says that heaven will unroll like a scroll. Is. 24 says that he will make the earth empty. All throughout the bible there is very descriptive passages describing God's throne(Ezek 1, Ezek 8, Is. 6, Rev.22) We are made in his image, so he must have a body right? Not just Jesus, but his Father as well. There are two distinct bodily dieties. It was not Jesus whose hand covered Moses' body in the cleft of the rock in Ex 33. Jesus' hand is way to small. Small enough for his Father to hold him on HIS right hand(Acts 7:56).
And even tho' Jesus is the image of the invisible God and all the fulness of the godhead, he still has a Father who possesses his very own body.

Ever since childhood kindergarten, we have been fed the lie about the earth and the universe. I know it's a more comfortable position to believe in an esoteric dimension of heaven. But that's simply not the truth. The truth is that Jesus' body is right up in the midst of heaven which is in the midst of earth, only about 3-4,000 miles up.

This takes a lot to accept, but if you're heart is right with God, it won't take much at all. There are some Christians who God really loves, more than others I think. Now I know he is not a respecter of persons, but I think it's safe to say that there are some he loves so much that he chastens severly in order for them to know him better.(Heb 12:6 comes to mind.)

If that's you right now, hold fast and understand that he loves you.
From a personal vantage point, I can attest to this.

Please take the time to really search for truth in the scriptures. If you ask him for guidance and you're desperatly searching, he will reveal himself.(Jer 29:13)

But you must be open.



posted on May, 4 2005 @ 03:21 PM
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I wouldnt try to put a number on anything...but i agree with everything you said



 
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