Jesus Christ is the Bridge between Human Death and Eternal Life

Not all believe Jesus Christ as the primary provider of Eternal Life among people who have lived on Earth. Michael Hart wrote a book on the religious affiliation of the world's 100 most influential people. Check out:

www.adherents.com/adh_influ.html

Jesus Christ was listed third????????? Muhammad was listed first and Isaac Newton second????????? Personally, I would have listed the top 100 spots to Jesus Christ.

Top 100 spots?

How can there be but one spot on that list?

A spot already filled to completion?!?!

Those are my thoughts, anyway.

queenannie38, thank you for your reply. Do you mean that Jesus Christ is God or "only" the Son of God? Sometimes I think I sin when I only believe the latter.

I love Jesus Christ's teachings with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength!!!

Originally posted by GreatTech
queenannie38, thank you for your reply. Do you mean that Jesus Christ is God or "only" the Son of God? Sometimes I think I sin when I only believe the latter.

Neither one, when looking at the options from a human oriented linear view.

Regarding the latter, do you mean as in
when we forget, sometimes
that he was,
in every way, shape, and form,
fully human, mortal, and frail--just like us?

If so, then I am certain this must be more of an issue for the human race than what seems to be the driving force of most christian platoons--which is pinning someone down about whether or not they think Christ is God. That's never been an issue, from what I read in the bible. There seems to be a near hysteria about proving the point that Jesus Christ was God before he died and ascended--and some will even go so far as to say the bible says such. Which it does not.

Something inside me tells me the first person to rebuke such a no-no would be Christ, Himself. I'm also certain that is the nature of 'Lucifer's' condemnation in Isaiah--and we are not told the truth about that passage--that sin is man's not any other being's. It is human pride which is the most evil thing there is--leading to greed and selfishness which lead to a list of things I can't even do justice to.

Unity and identity are two different concepts and identity is nothing while unity is everything.

And on the other hand, there is certainly a problem with religion on the other side of things, for they seem to worship Christ as Jesus the man which is just as wrong as saying Christ IS God instead of
Christ is one with God the Father.
He is his right hand, his first born, his apointed heir, his certified authority over us, and on and on, but as in Him being God, yes He is our God. But He is not God the Father.

He is the bridge, as you said. But he is neither this side nor that side although he compasses everything both sides are about....but without a span between, what would it matter for this side that there was an other side? We'd truly be totally ignorant of its existence.

All in all, the whole thing is really a mess and it is rarely understood that we must not be proud or elevate ourselves but yet we must not resist God's hand when He reaches down to pull us up. One at a time. According to His schedule and decision, not ours. And to say that we are not to believe promises about future sonship is to deny God's power and pretend to know His mind. It is to let pride mislead us to the point that we work against that which is making things right again, which our pride sent askew in the first place. Remember what He said in Matthew 23:13. Things don't change nor is anything new for our present generation.

We would all still have stone and wood effigies on our hearths that we prayed to if not for Christ. Any unseen invisible force of divinity that man believes in as a source of life and love can only be the Living God. Who is invisible. How can we see what is invisible and we don't know we are not seeing unless we are shown???? We cannot.

But even now, after Christ, this is something unseen and trusted in as such. Not tangible or provable to the masses. Yet many things are around that we can see and know to be true and actual circumstances.

It has been a long time and history fades---but I truly think that life was impacted by that light.

I can cite a couple of examples:

Think about how tyrannnical most kings were in the iron age and before--even at the time Jesus lived. Those Herods are good examples, especially. They would kill their own son (whom supposedly they sired for the purpose of regnal succession) out of sheer paranoid jealousy because they loved their power more than their own children! And Herod even killed his most beloved wife! Whom he then grieved over!!!

How messed up is that?

Another one is the fact of human sacrifice (a weapon used often in argument against believing in the OT for many yet is not researched by most) in human history. Supposedly it was very bad for God to ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. But my question is this: how come Abraham was so ready to do so? I know Abraham had faith, because I know 'he was God's friend.' He was the first to know, out of present humanity, that God was not made of wood. But yet he didn't seem to think anything wierd about being asked to give up his son. I think that says a lot more than we realize--obviously it wasn't an outlandish request from a God to a man. And Abraham certainly might have been justified in following the ways he knew to be the accepted workings of the world yet he knew his God was real, so it was not such a gamble. Everyone else died because of a request made by wooden gods given voice by human imagination.

I fear I am not making my point clearly. Human sacrifice was not so atrocious to the people of those days--they all did it! Every religion, every part of the world. Looking simply at excavated ruins of temples with a willing mind will show a common thing to all those places: a big flat slab or table. What was it for? Well, it wasn't for the choir, I can tell you that. And the people ate their livestock. They appeased their gods with one another. The miracle of Mt Moriah is the fact that God said 'Hey, I'm not like them...I won't do that.' But Abraham was willing to trust and serve the Living God, so the whole world received a blessing that is mostly both unreceived and despised.

Yet, it doesn't matter! We are still blessed beyond our understanding, IMO.

The world of BC was a far different place as far as interpersonal relationships and customs, from what I can tell by my reading and self-education...we don't realize it but it was a barbaric and scary place, I am certain. There was little if any true pleasure of any enduring sort, little or no enjoyment of good health, no prosperity except for kings and their ever-targeted family members, and fear was more prevalent than intelligence...

All the good things that help our lives to be less grueling and painfully brief, today--look into their histories and see when and how they sprung up. Not with the wheel, but with just a brief flicker of light in absolute darkness...

Have you ever heard the saying, 'It only takes just one person to bring about big change?'

Just one person. One human being.

I love Jesus Christ's teachings with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength!!!

Yes, I feel that is truth. I have read maybe one other of your posts, but I can't recall what the subject was. I felt that, then, too, even though it wasn't something fruitful for me to discuss, so I really didn't get involved enough to feel your spirit. But I do now and I think it's great.

It makes me very happy about the whole situation!

Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the only way to heaven is faith in the One that paid the price for the sins of all.

The Bible is very clear in both the Old and New Testament about this. The Old Testament prophesies the coming of this Messiah and the New Testament points to Jesus being the fulfillment of the prophesies.

queenannie38, you have a high verbal intelligence. I frequently lack this. Under pressure, I tend to think in mathematical terms. It might be genetic.

Given your great understanding of certain things, I wanted to ask you a question: What 5 statements (sentences) would you make about Jesus Christ?

What 5 statements (sentences) would you make about Jesus Christ?

1) Jew - no such thing as christians back then.

2) 16 others before him - Yep, his story has been told many time's thousands of years before he was ever born.

3) India - eastern philosophy at it's best.

4) Mythicized - I don't dispute a historical rabbi whom went by the name jesus. Truth be told, many, many, many historical event's and people have been mythicized. Just look at where the chinese dragon mythology come's from.

5) Hypocrits - not so much jesus himself, but rather, his followers. Not all, but roughly 99% of them.

Originally posted by GreatTech
queenannie38, you have a high verbal intelligence. I frequently lack this. Under pressure, I tend to think in mathematical terms. It might be genetic.

Given your great understanding of certain things, I wanted to ask you a question: What 5 statements (sentences) would you make about Jesus Christ?

Well.....besides just LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE

I will say:

1. Because of Christ, there is something besides nothing after we die.
2. Because of Christ, we can love each other without trying to make ourselves or one another into something we can never be. (perfect)
3. Because of Christ, we sense there is light at the end of the tunnel, and like moths we can't help ourselves from wanting that light.
4. Because of Christ, we know there is an Invisible God, pure Spirit (which is love) and the source of both energy and light.
5. Because of Christ, nothing will be done in vain--He is conforming the world to The Father's purpose, which is unity and perpetual life.

Originally posted by Prot0n
5) Hypocrits - not so much jesus himself, but rather, his followers. Not all, but roughly 99% of them.

Well, then maybe what seems to be, say 100 followers of Christ is really just 1 amidst a whole lot of self-deluded fearful men?

Don't blame Christ for what man pretends to be. A rose is a rose is a rose. And a swine smells like a pig. The nose knows.

Ya' know?

Originally posted by GreatTech
queenannie38, you have a high verbal intelligence. I frequently lack this. Under pressure, I tend to think in mathematical terms.

Actually however you think is good. God is the ultimate Mathematician, anyway--and the foundation of creation is built upon such ideas.

As far as my verbal abilities--according to worldly standards that was probably true. But these days my words aren't coming from personal agenda....and that is what you hear. Not me but Christ in me. I can take no credit for any good impressions I might make. Just know whose name I come in so you will know who to credit with such praise.

It might be genetic.

The second time around, I guess it was!!

Great is your wisdom queenannie38. Thank you for your reply.

Great is God's wisdom. I am a fool!

But I sure don't mind a bit!!!

I really dont understand where the argument was.
Should there've been a question mark on the original post?
Sorry...just lost...

Hi, Annie. Haven't posted anything in response to you before, but I've appreciated and admired your writing on this forum. Still, I found a few points to take issue with in your post (#2 above), and one thing to applaud. Applause first.

Originally posted by queenannie38
Unity and identity are two different concepts and identity is nothing while unity is everything.

Absolutely agree. And what's more, I would say the confusion between the two lies near the heart of the Christian trajedy.

We would all still have stone and wood effigies on our hearths that we prayed to if not for Christ.

I'm sorry, but that is simply untrue. It is a complete misunderstanding of ancient pagan practices to think that the ancients believed the statues of deities in their temples WERE, themselves, the deities, any more than Christians believe the crucifix behind the altar in a church IS Jesus. The Romans, for example, addressed prayers to Jupiter Optimus Maximus "if that is the name by which You wish to be known, otherwise we address You by whatever name You choose," and in other language acknowledged that the God's supposed human form, masculinity, etc. might be flaws of limited human understanding.

Even the idea of monotheism is far, far older than Christ, whether one thinks of that as a separate deity denying the reality of others (as in post-Captivity Judaism), or as a unity underlying the apparent diversity of the gods (as in Hinduism or in Greek pagan theology).

"The heathen in his blindness bows down to wood and stone," is a caricature, not a truth. The ancients had far more sophisticated theological ideas than many Christians seem to understand.

Think about how tyrannnical most kings were in the iron age and before--even at the time Jesus lived.

I honestly can't see much difference between the tyrannical Iron Age kings, and the tyrannical Medieval kings and barons, or for that matter the remaining tyrannical modern dictators. All right, Herod, or even Augustus, compares unfavorably with modern democracies, but democracy and republics were not unknown in the ancient world, either, although not the norm.

Surely the industrial revolution has done far more to change our society on a more basic level than the mere introduction of a new religion. That is what has caused the great transition from monarchy to democratic republic as the norm of government, and also sped the emancipation of the slaves and serfs and the liberation of women. I will grant you the utterly revolutionary character of Jesus (and the Reality of which Jesus is a symbol or a metaphor) on an individual level -- but I don't see it historically.

Another one is the fact of human sacrifice . . . Human sacrifice was not so atrocious to the people of those days--they all did it! Every religion, every part of the world.

In Abraham's time, that might have been close to true, but by Jesus' time, it had long since ceased to be true. All of the societies around the Mediterranean Sea had stopped practicing human sacrifice centuries before.

There seems to be a phase that cultures go through in their transition from foraging and hunting to agrarian societies in which they practice human sacrifice, sometimes on a truly gruesome and amazing scale (e.g. the Aztec), but to some extent it seems to be near-universal. But at some point the practice is given up. It isn't entirely clear why, because other acts of inhumanity continued, but the fact is observable, and does not even remotely coincide with the birth of Christ.

The world of BC was a far different place as far as interpersonal relationships and customs, from what I can tell by my reading and self-education...we don't realize it but it was a barbaric and scary place, I am certain. There was little if any true pleasure of any enduring sort, little or no enjoyment of good health, no prosperity except for kings and their ever-targeted family members, and fear was more prevalent than intelligence...

All the good things that help our lives to be less grueling and painfully brief, today--look into their histories and see when and how they sprung up. Not with the wheel, but with just a brief flicker of light in absolute darkness...

I just don't see it, Annie. If you compare pre-Christian pagan societies with Christian but pre-industrial ones, I just don't see the latter as all that much of an improvement. Or, since you seem to be positing a magical effect, one of Christ rather than Christianity, then I don't see much improvement in pre-industrial society worldwide, Christian or no, before and after Christ's arrival.

Let me suggest here that what you are presenting, the idea of Christ as a historical (rather than a personal) transformer, is not unlike the error you cited above, confusing unity and identity.