Not a Believer, But Jesus was a Great Teacher

a reply to: Out6of9Balance

I figure lies need to be believed.

If you listen to Stubby Pringles, you will hear what seems to be lies.
But they are gifts.

Did the dress goods come from a poker game?
No.
But if Stubby had not said that, then Mrs. Henderson would not have accepted them as a gift. And the girl would not have had a dress for Christmas.

Was anyone hurt by that story?
No. And even Stubby didn't seem hurt by it.

Was the poker story meant to be taken as eternal truth?
No. It was for the moment. And then the moment passed.

But if a "white lie" is not a gift, and not meant for the moment, then it is only a lie, nothing white about it.

Then some may say, "Pthena says that some lies are good."
But no, Pthena didn't say that at all.

originally posted by: Out6of9Balance
a reply to: Itisnowagain

Did I do something wrong?

No I gave you a star and 😍.
I liked your answer a lot.

a reply to: pthena
Did your parents buy and wrap and deliver your Christmas presents when you were a young child?

Or did Father Christmas get his elves to make them and Father Christmas then
delivered them with the help from his reindeers?

Do you believe that God is Morgan Freeman because you saw the movies Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty? Lol.

a reply to: Itisnowagain

My sister told me that Santa wasn't real when I was 7.

My dad would be up late, sometimes late as 4:00 AM, setting gifts up.
My siblings and I would watch, waiting,
like cats at a gopher hole
for my dad to drag his tired self to bed.

Then, all heedless of what the cost to him had been,
we would pounce upon the gifts.
I didn't appreciate my dad as I should have.

Bruce Almighty was one of those movies where I couldn't stop screaming at the screen "Dude! You can do something great! And all you can think of is besting your work competitor? What the hell is wrong with you?"

I don't think the movie was about God, more about human compulsion and obsession.

Stubby Pringles is a metaphor of a metaphor. The type of character we could be if we were more thoughtful. That makes Santa Claus real.

so did not the Jesu-its create "Jesus" Jes-us thus this is not The Great IAM?
a reply to: pthena

Possibly The Tetragramaton? a reply to: pthena

a reply to: Node76

Oh Great! This thread has been bumped. And I don't feel like reading everything I've written here to decide what I do or do not agree with.

Current thoughts: I don't think that the Gospel of Luke is very reliable as a source for the sayings of Jesus.

Take Chapter 16 for instance. It contains two stories and one saying which are not found in any of the other Gospels; The Parable of the Shrewd Manager and The Rich Man and Lazarus.

What I think may have happened is the author went around collecting hearsay stories. Some things not told by Jesus got mixed in with legit Jesus sayings.

If you look in a red letter text you notice something in black standing out: Luke 16:14 "The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus."

This thing about Pharisees loving money isn't supported by the other gospels, and isn't supported in other writings.

3. Now for the Pharisees, they live meanly, and despise delicacies in diet; and they follow the contract of reason: and what that prescribes to them as good for them they do: and they think they ought earnestly to strive to observe reason’s dictates for practice. They also pay a respect to such as are in years: nor are they so bold as to contradict them in any thing which they have introduced. And when they determine that all things are done by fate,2 they do not take away the freedom from men of acting as they think fit: since their notion is, that it hath pleased God to make a temperament; whereby what he wills is done; but so that the will of man can act virtuously or viciously. They also believe that souls have an immortal vigour in them: and that under the earth there will be rewards, or punishments; according as they have lived virtuously or viciously in this life: and the latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison; but that the former shall have power to revive and live again. On account of which doctrines they are able greatly to persuade the body of the people: and whatsoever they do about divine worship, prayers, and sacrifices, they perform them according to their direction. Insomuch, that the cities give great attestations to them, on account of their intire virtuous conduct, both in the actions of their lives, and their discourses also.

- Josephus, Antiquities 18

It is altogether possible that the author of Luke heard a Pharisee's version of the Rich Man and Lazarus and wrote it down as a saying of Jesus.

Moreover in the first parable, the moral of the story has to do with people of the light “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light."

The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness, also known as War Rule, Rule of War and the War Scroll, is a manual for military organization and strategy that was discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The manuscript was among the scrolls found in Qumran Cave 1,
-wikipedia

So even the Shrewd Manager story could have been told by a Pharisee talking about the Qumran sect.

Here is one that transcends any religious views, but Jesus said it to religious leaders, the Vatican of their day. I've always liked that.

Matthew 7:5, NIV: "You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

a reply to: GolgothaBridge

Yep. That's a pretty good one, about double standards.

But I don't think that it was addressed to the religious authorities. It's in the Sermon on the Mount sayings which seem to be a teaching to his disciples. See Matt 5:1,2.

That sort of looks different from the image of Jesus talking to a huge crowd. The mountain is a way to get away from the crowd and teach his disciples privately, without a lot of distractions.

a reply to: pthena

Revision, edit time expired.
change "about double standards"
to "about internal and external self awareness"

see:What Self-Awareness Really Is (and How to Cultivate It)

Across the studies we examined, two broad categories of self-awareness kept emerging. The first, which we dubbed internal self-awareness, represents how clearly we see our own values, passions, aspirations, fit with our environment, reactions (including thoughts, feelings, behaviors, strengths, and weaknesses), and impact on others. We’ve found that internal self-awareness is associated with higher job and relationship satisfaction, personal and social control, and happiness; it is negatively related to anxiety, stress, and depression.

The second category, external self-awareness, means understanding how other people view us, in terms of those same factors listed above. Our research shows that people who know how others see them are more skilled at showing empathy and taking others’ perspectives. For leaders who see themselves as their employees do, their employees tend to have a better relationship with them, feel more satisfied with them, and see them as more effective in general.

It’s easy to assume that being high on one type of awareness would mean being high on the other. But our research has found virtually no relationship between them.

originally posted by: BatYah
so did not the Jesu-its create "Jesus" Jes-us thus this is not The Great IAM?
a reply to: pthena

The Jesuit Order founded August 15, 1534 created Jesus that first century authors wrote about? Or did I misunderstand your post?

As I understand it not much about carpentry made it to the final cut of holy book.

Jesus teachings weirdly are the exact same as Buddhism..

Hmm.. was this written... ??

Yes...

a reply to: LastFirst
All religions point to the same.

They point to the place no one ever looks.

Notice how you see what is appearing (including thoughts and sensations).....

The seeing presence is overlooked.

Witness the unfolding of creation from where you really are.....

It’s interesting, One can’t do any serious truth seeing without coming back to the same truth, every time. Follow any rabbit hole through, it always comes down to good vs. evil. The Bible is unavoidable in this research and is a shockingly valid and prophetic work. The issue however, is that it has been altered, and men have put their charms upon it and used this wisdom to justify unspeakable evil… this is the conundrum most people find themselves faced with; accept the horrific things done in the name of religion, or throw the whole thing out…. I think it would be wise of more open minded individuals to actually read Jesus’s quotes, these are gold. Don’t get caught up in the rituals and traditions practiced by whatever denomination, keep it simple. Love above all else, Jesus’s teachings say that you don’t need a church, no tithe, just love. Everything else is some one else’s demand.

I'm not religious but I find the Bible very interesting.


Genesis 32:30, “So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared,” (NIV). Peniel is a place of meeting with God.

Peniel = pineal gland. If you want to meet god you have to meditate and work on and activate your chakras to raise your consciousness and open your third eye.

The Bible is incredibly interesting, some serious amounts of knowledge behind whomever wrote it.

I watched a video today about how the Bible has been taken too literally, and how it actually held knowledge about the universe and it how life is all about waves and vibrations, from DNA to the springs of the oceans. So fascinating!

a reply to: pthena

Why not a believer??! All you have to do is ask with a sincere heart if God is really real and you'll get your answer. 😊

Kneeling at your bedside might help to get it your answer quicker. 😊

a reply to: pthena

The soul of the body is a singular self, if you let yourself be one with the whole, you will experience the light.

But thats just how I hear it.

"The lamp of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light."
Matthew 6:22

a reply to: Komodo

I would never want my child to kneel, beg, or be mastered over.