Originally Posted by
David Merrill
Being that §501(c)(3) is not the ecclesia, I have been prompted just today to form the church - the true church at that. Furthermore I have been attending Bible Study, unwittingly preparing myself for just that.
Sunday night in the Bible Study, the leader/pastor and a couple others were preaching to me about the Christian doctrine of sacrifice, futurism and several other folly arguments. Understand that this is in the same breath as the Prodigal Son parable. - Emphasis on the unconditional and consistent love of the Father being representing of God's love.
Now what that does is gets me thinking, If I were in a position to preach the correct rendition of God's Word, and be ministering to the Christians about their folly what exactly would I say to be convincing? Well, I should start when I asked the Holy Spirit for guidance during my lecture; excuse me, the sermon.
I like this method - my Bible fell open to Acts, Chapter 22. Somehow it seems to me that I have never had a Red Ink rendition with Jesus speaking in red font for this particular chapter before. Paul is recounting his early journey to Rome and says that while in a trance Jesus spoke to him and warned him, Get out of Jerusalem. Well, if Paul was obedient to Jesus then he would not have been convicted of treason and had to run to Felix to hide from the Sanhedrin in jail, eventually ending up in Rome under that same protective custody, living on the Roman taxpayer dole...
But that is how it happened folks! Paul wrote the epistles forming the Christian religious formula simply because he disobeyed Jesus!
The reason I requested guidance in the first place is that through gossip behind my back (mostly from Christianity Explored - a program at that church) these guys knew I am not a fan of sacrifice, and born-in-sin guilt trips. So they were battering me with Paul's teachings about being cleansed in Jesus' shed blood; which to me is just a continuation of the sacrificial laws but with the Substitution of Jesus as the Perfect Sacrificial Lamb. So imagine my (NOT) surprise when the Holy Spirit opens my Bible to see that - Paul created Christianity as it is through disobedience to Jesus!!
There is another author who wrote though - most Bible historians proclaim that The Book of Hebrews was written by another author, more like two authors, neither one was Paul. Here we learn a ministry of Remembrance. - Not sacrifice, but remembrance.
We get distinct reference to Melchizedek, rather than the function of the Priests from Levi - appointed for the blood sacrifice. If I was to start a cult tomorrow, I think that might be where I would start.
The other item I found offensive about the Original Sin doctrine was the idea that God is angered - much less wrathful. What this does is project lower dimensional attributes like fear and anger on to a supernatural super-being - God. This is contrary to God being unending perpetual Love. The Father in the Prodigal Son parable was never angry. Even to the son who remained at home and "faithful" - the Father went out to find him, missing the party for the prodigal son, to see what was wrong. The Father did not send a servant to go summon the other son and he met the angered resentful son with the same unconditional love that he had for the returning prodigal son! There was never a lapse in the Father's Love.
I am not saying that God is pleased by sin, or even complacent. What I am saying is the suffering we feel due to our sins is a consequence of law - not because the Creator of the Universe feels anger. We project that "anger" upon God as we feel fear ourselves, as an ego-driven emotion.
Then moving on, the Christians were affirming to one another that God does not need us for ANYTHING!
I beg to differ. God needs us to have any meaning. Think this through though please. To have meaning one must be attributing the existence of that - meaning - into the conscious cognizance of another. So without us, for God to have any meaning He would have to create another cognizant being beside you and me. So without the Created, the Creator has no meaning by definition of meaning.
Perhaps I am over thinking things but I figure that is why I have a brain.
P.S. Paul's excuse for staying in Jerusalem and facing trial by the Sanhedrin was a guilt trip he had for his involvement stoning Stephen. You have therefore a major religion promoting blood sacrifice, even a surrogate human blood sacrifice caused by disobedience to Jesus because of a self-imposed guilt trip!