Overcoming a Christian fundamentalist upbringing

reply to post by autowrench


Christ's coffin? If a coffin bears the name of "Jesus" it's only a name - if it said something like "Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Messiah," then I might, might be impressed. Mary Magdalene is buried in Avalon, BTW.

For myself, I was raised a Southern Baptist, but became an athiest at the tender age of 15 after reading Ayn Rand. In time I deprogrammed myself from the entire Randian and Libertarian mindset, but that took another ten years. My father prayed for me without results for all those years, but as he told me later, nothing happened until he got himself right with God. Then things began to happen in my life, which I can not explain except to say that God had His Hand on me. I got interested in creationism, I got involved with a Christian campus groiup, I got baptised in a duck pond in a local park. Lately, I have attended Methodist, Baptist, and even Episcopal churches, but I gravitate toward the primitive Christianity of the Book of Acts. So there's Laz - twice deprogrammed, once saved.

Originally posted by hudsonhawk69

Originally posted by sacgamer25
reply to post by hudsonhawk69

 

There is a narrow path that leads to life, and a wide road that leads to destruction. Many people on the wide path will believe they are happy, but they have only justified there existence. If one finds the narrow path it is God that will justify your existence. I am not lying to the boy, Christ holds the key to the narrow road and you hold the key to the wide path. He can take either road but the burden of Christ is light. :-)

Spoken like a TRUE believer... You would make my father proud.

Christianity certianly does teach a narrow minded approach to god and life... That way there is less chance of followers seeing the truth.

If your road and your god are a BURDEN? Than perhaps your need to reevaluate your religion.

I seriously doubt that I would make your father proud and here is why. The narrow Gate to life is how to enter the Kingdome of Heaven before you die.

Mathew 7:13-14 13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

The fundamental view of this passage is there is a narrow gate that leads to heaven and a wide gate that leads to hell. Now if I believe that than I am forced to judge you. Now I know that I am not to judge you so I also know that this cannot be the correct interpretation.

The way I read this is some people will find a narrow path; down this path is God’s will. Anyone who chooses the narrow path is filled with love and joy from the father because they have chosen love and righteousness over lust and selfishness.

Anyone who chooses lust and selfishness will live a hard life. They will constantly be looking to fulfill the next lustful desire. They become slaves to sexual desire and the material possessions of this world. In becoming a slave to these things they can be assured that they will not find the Joy that comes from righteous living.

I believe that both roads, in most cases, lead to the same place. But the first road will get you there a lot faster and without the torment of the self imposed judgment of fire.

So you see I believe that both you and I end up with our father so I am no longer your judge. I am simply your loving brother who sees that there is a better path to go down that leads to joy and happiness. I would be a sinner if I didn’t try and share this with you.

Since my interpretation leads to loving my brother and not judging him it must be correct because it is the only interpretation that agrees with the commands of Christ Jesus.

With love your brother

reply to post by sacgamer25

Since my interpretation leads to loving my brother and not judging him it must be correct because it is the only interpretation that agrees with the commands of Christ Jesus.

How about this verse?

"I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber"

Do you think Jesus is being judgmental?

reply to post by Lazarus Short

If a coffin bears the name of "Jesus" it's only a name - if it said something like "Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Messiah,"

Know anything about the Hebrew language, friend? There are no vowels in Hebrew, so that leaves out the "e," and the "u." The letter "j" has only been in common language use for 500 years or so, check Websters. So that leaves "ss."
Further, "Nazareth" did not exit in Jesus time.

Although Nazareth exists today as a thriving Arab city of 65,000 in northern Israel, some scholars have believed it didn't exist during Jesus' lifetime. For example, the Encyclopedia Biblica in 1899 stated, "It is very doubtful whether the beautiful mountain village of Nazareth was really the dwelling-place of Jesus."

Source

Nazareth is not mentioned even once in the entire Old Testament. The Book of Joshua (19.10,16) – in what it claims is the process of settlement by the tribe of Zebulon in the area – records twelve towns and six villages and yet omits any 'Nazareth' from its list.

• The Talmud, although it names 63 Galilean towns, knows nothing of Nazareth, nor does early rabbinic literature.

• St Paul knows nothing of 'Nazareth'. Rabbi Solly's epistles (real and fake) mention Jesus 221 times, Nazareth not at all.

• No ancient historian or geographer mentions Nazareth. It is first noted at the beginning of the 4th century.

Source
Now for the "Messiah."

Jesus Did Not Fulfill the Messianic Prophecies

What is the Messiah supposed to accomplish? The Bible says that he will:

Build the Third Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28).
Gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6).
Usher in an era of world peace, and end all hatred, oppression, suffering and disease. As it says: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall man learn war anymore." (Isaiah 2:4)
Spread universal knowledge of the God of Israel, which will unite humanity as one. As it says: "God will be King over all the world ― on that day, God will be One and His Name will be One" (Zechariah 14:9).

Source
So, to answer you, the word "Jesus" would not be on the ossuary, nor would the name of a non existent city, nor the word "Messiah," because to his own people, he is not. Don't feel bad here, most people do not know these things.

reply to post by sacgamer25


Here's an Idea for you...


I AM GOD and whatever I choose to do is gods will because it is my will.

I'm sorry to hear that beliefs were so forced upon you during your childhood. I have had quite the opposite upbringing. Being from the UK my family were not religious at all nor were they particularly
atheist (apart from my dad) just nothing at all was ever mentioned about God. In fact I can think of two occasions were God was brought up in my family and one was my dad saying it was all rubbish and the other was my nan who had some sort of belief in it and was asking me why I didn't.

At primary school we prayed during assembly and sung a few songs, but that was it. Christianity was never pushed on me at all, no religion nor God was. By secondary school, (11-16 Years old) we did nothing religious other than R.E where we looked at all religions separately and as unbiased as possible. In fact it was sort of a given in secondary school that God was out of the picture for students and teachers. Unless you were from an Indian background then it was likely they might be Sikh, Hindu or even more likely to be a Christian than White British people.There were also a few Jehovas Witnesses.

Yet through out my life I have looked for some sort of spirituality. When I was about 7 I would read the children's bible that I had from somewhere or other , and my mom would think it was a bit odd. But I loved reading it. When I was about 14 I was wiccan/ pagan and loved all of that spirituality side of things. When I was about 18 i started looking into Buddhism. Around 20 I was an atheist! Then I went to university and met for the first time REALLY religious people, I had never experienced that before, one was Christian and one was Muslim and through our discussions I was intrigued and started researching things again.

Safe to say now I know more about religions than ever before and looking as open mindedly as I can, I no longer have hate for religious people ( as I once did and it wasn't healthy) and I am no longer certain that I know everything. This is all probably down to the fact that it was never pushed on my as a child and so I have never had any set beliefs but instead researched a lot of beliefs. I even went to church with my friend (who has received the brunt of my animosity towards Christians) the other day out of curiosity and to say to her I have grown up and will take on board your beliefs.

Sorry to go on, just thought I would share that with you.

reply to post by eyesdown


And this is the way it SHOULD be taught. "Here are the different things that groups believe, or individuals believe. You may choose to agree with them and join their group, or not."

Kudos to your parents for allowing you to explore freely, to decide for yourself the best course of action.
I did that with my kids, too....and I think it is the best policy.

Teaching a child who is at the 'magical thinking' stage ("I wish my little brother would go away," is a typical youngster's feeling about a usurping new sibling in the family who gets all the attention now. If the child then actually does "go away" for whatever reason, the child may very well believe it was because they WISHED it) the adult concepts that are presented through religion is a mistake, in my opinion.

reply to post by autowrench


"I was just saying, dude, so chill." No, seriously, I think you protest too much, as when you cite a source that mentions "some scholars," and then you go on as if it is proved. I think you just came here for an argument.

Of course, it would have been in Hebrew, on the coffin, but you want to make something of it. Your learning is not my learning, and we probably do not have common ground beyond the English language.