quote:

Originally posted by embroiderer:
The scriptures was written by Jews!! Jesus was a Jew. The apostles were Jews. How Jewish-eyes do you want?

As they say in the Roman Church - bingo! This is exactly why we need to read them with Jewish eyes.

Forgot if it was a friend, I read it somewhere, or some such, that asked a Jewish youth connected with the synagogue, why the rejected Jesus. Of course they, does not mean all of them. The Jews for Jesus is a large movement for instance.
http://www.jews-for-jesus.org/
His answer was, that Jesus did not do enough. That wasn't an inspired answer, but it pretty much answers some of the questions based on a total ignorance of why Jesus was here. If you went to see the motion picture The Chosen, a gentile likely didn't cry in the movie. Many Jews did however. If some Jews went to the movie Passion of the Christ, they were offended in a number of ways, unaware that each blow of the whip brought tears to a Christian as well as a 'completed Jew,' one of accepts Christ. One is reminded that by his each blow ..."by His stripes we are healed."

By reading scripture by unredeemed Jewish eyes, or even Gentile eyes, the fundamental issue is that you need to read scripture by the eyes of the Holy Spirit. That is how and why it was written and that is how you are to read them. If I read them with atheists eyes, I'll get nowhere. If I read them by Darwinian eyes, I'll get nowhere. And etc etc etc.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Phil Knox,

quote:

Originally posted by embroiderer:

quote:

Originally posted by theoctobercountry:
We are talking about serious accusations that witches curse Halloween candy as it is being manufactured in candy factories---said curses are then carried by demons to all children who eat the candy. Seriously, doesn't anyone comprehend the insanity of such statements?

Hey, Pal, where have you been hiding? This has been an ongoing thing longs as I remember. That's what witches do. I don't get it? You never listen to what witches talk about? Gawds. You got the internet now. Before it was local stuff, on radio programs. Today you got gobs of groups: the Kemetic, Wicca, Earth Religion, Golden Dawn, and others by descriptive names.

Demons carried by objects is as old as history. And, of course, you think it's a fabrication of someone's imbalance. Go explain that one away in scripture when all those money making swine took off off the cliff because they became possessed.

Are you frakkin' serious? This explanation is a joke, right?

quote:

Originally posted by embroiderer:
Maybe Hell doesn't really exist. Maybe God doesn't really care about the intimate details of our conduct.

Well, at least we agree on something

quote:

Originally posted by BillSmithBooks:

quote:

Originally posted by embroiderer:
Maybe Hell doesn't really exist. Maybe God doesn't really care about the intimate details of our conduct.

Well, at least we agree on something

Boy, this is really called taking something out of context. There is a whole lot of hell on earth. If you think you just appeared out of nothing and will disappear into nothing, then you haven't taken time to penetrate the inside of your soul. Or maybe you just think you don't have one.

quote:

Originally posted by embroiderer:

quote:

Originally posted by BillSmithBooks:

quote:

Originally posted by embroiderer:
Maybe Hell doesn't really exist. Maybe God doesn't really care about the intimate details of our conduct.

Well, at least we agree on something

Boy, this is really called taking something out of context.

Hence the smiley.

quote:

Originally posted by embroiderer:

There is a whole lot of hell on earth. If you think you just appeared out of nothing and will disappear into nothing, then you haven't taken time to penetrate the inside of your soul. Or maybe you just think you don't have one.

Interesting that it's assumed that I am an atheist because I profess a disbelief in hell.

(At least, "hell" as most of the fear-based sects of organized religion define it.)

I firmly believe in souls and God, a loving, compassionate God who will forgive us our failings if only we allow him/her/it to, who will hold us up when we are weak, who will heal us when we are wounded...who only asks that we do the same with our brothers and sisters, regardless of whether they call themselves Christian, Muslim, Hindu or Pagan.

The framework (faith) through which we find the Creator and love matters far less than the realization that love and compassion, peace, humility, thankfulness and forgiveness are what matter most.

There are people of good and evil spirit in all faiths and cultures. God created each of us with a purpose and each of us must found the unique path that God has set before us--even though the answers to those questions may offend those who are so certain that their particular answers and paths must rigidly apply to all.

Yes, sadly, there is a whole lot of hell on Earth. Most of it of our own creation, too.

And far too much of it which people choose to justify--tragically, often in the name of faith or nationality or culture--or blame on some external force rather than looking into their own souls.

To paraphrase Carl Sagan in Cosmos, we are capable of such beautiful dreams and such terrible nightmares.

We can be much more than we choose to be. That is the shame of it.

quote:

Originally posted by BillSmithBooks:
Interesting that it's assumed that I am an atheist because I profess a disbelief in hell.

(At least, "hell" as most of the fear-based sects of organized religion define it.)

Most moderate, forward-thinking sects don't believe in a literal hell. Mostly it's the right-wing sects who do. Mormons don't either.

Wow, Bill Smith - you said a lot of good words above. Good job!

Demons do.

By the way, make the Sign of The Cross over your Hallowe'en candy...and anything else you ingest for that matter.

An interesting article:

http://saintsilouan.org/2009/10/halloween/

quote:

Originally posted by Braling II:
Demons do.

Most moderate, forward-thinking sects don't believe in demons either.

The Devil - an invention of the church of the Dark Ages to frighten the masses into submission. Looks like the story stuck.

quote:

Originally posted by Braling II:
By the way, make the Sign of The Cross over your Hallowe'en candy...and anything else you ingest for that matter.

Why?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Doug Spaulding,

quote:

Originally posted by Doug Spaulding:
sects don't believe in demons either.

The Devil - an invention of the church of the Dark Ages to frighten the masses into submission. Looks like the story stuck.

Interesting info, Doug. Unfortunately, not true. I was troubled by a demon(s) for years. To cut the story short, they still comes around but haven't any room anymore in my soul. I recall the afternoon when they left my body and soul, and it was like all the air of your lungs and all the energy of your body and soul gushing out at once. And in the same instant, a knowledge of where the demons went and also an awareness that there was no place for them to return.

It took years of prayer and understanding of what God could do that brought me to a pivotal moment when this occurred. It's funny that Christ knew about demons but Doug Spaulding doesn't. Is it that your quiet demons keep you in ignorance of their presence?

Yup.
I pity those supercilious folk who think labels like "progressive" and "forward-thinking" will do anything for them except make themselves feel superior to others.

Some of the most brilliant folks I've ever met are professors and students at Orthodox seminaries. Not to mention those whom I would like to have met like Fr. Seraphim Rose and Fr. John Maximovich, who have much to say (as do the earlier Orthodox writers) about demons.
These folks can think, speak, write, and argue circles around these "forward-thinkers".
But, you have to find them.
They rarely seek an audience.

quote:

Originally posted by Braling II:
Some of the most brilliant folks I've ever met are professors and students at Orthodox seminaries.

Sure, there are brilliant folks all over.

quote:

Originally posted by embroiderer:
Interesting info, Doug. Unfortunately, not true. I was troubled by a demon(s) for years.

Yes it is. It's the least of my intentions to appear to make light of your affliction, and I do not, but what used to be seen as demons is now, in the light of modern medicine, regarded as psychiatric issues.

quote:

Originally posted by Doug Spaulding:
now regarded as psychiatric issues.

You made mention that brilliant folks are all over, according to your response to Braling II. Unfortunately, you don't seem to be one of them. In fact, more than seem.

You reject the physical resurrection of Christ, as does Bradbury. You reject, likely, Hell, if you don't believe in demons. You must think this universe is awfully small, just enough room for Doug Spaulding. But the creation by God is made up of vast empires, with enormous legions of intellect, angels, arch-angels, including all those angels that didn't fall in the beginning. And the physical universe is so vast that our most powerful telescopes can't see an end, and yet scripture says it'll all vanish and roll away and be replaced with the new. And yet amidst all this vastness, there also is heaven without bounds where only the perfect in morality dwell.

I know what a devil and I know what a demon looks like, and devils and demons spring nowadays from the vast pornographies of this world culture, the Hugh Hefners, the Hustler empires, the immoral and lewd. Scripture is full of explanations of where and how demons live and thrive. But Spaulding has another interpretation. According to The Christian Gospel of Doug Spaulding, it's mostlyl nonsense this talk about a resurrection of Christ, or demons, or devils. It really doesn't mean what most of it says. It's greatly mis-understood, this Jesus Christ and his life.

You're world is very small, Doug Spaulding. So small that you have suffocated yourself and can't breathe. You are in a box that somehow seems vast to you. Oh so BIG!

I should need a psychiatrist instead, you say? Oh, but certainly, a Christian psychiatrist would have a field day with you.

quote:

Originally posted by embroiderer:
I should need a psychiatrist instead, you say?

No, I didn't. I said what used to be seen as demons are now seen as psychological issues in the light of modern medicine.