A request for help from the Board

[loCAtek]

1) How is faith best cultivated?

2) How do you overcome physiology/psychology to achieve it?

3) How do you be open-hearted/egoless?

[MajGenl.Meade]

Those are good questions Lo - but I'm looking for questions about the Bible, Christianity, Jesus - the God of that faith.

But here are some answers

1. evidently not in a Garden of Eden

2. wine

3. clutch handgrenade to chest; pull pin

[AndyH]

Pre Trib.?

Mid Trib.?

Post Trib.?

Chicago?
Pittsburgh?
Salt Lake?

[MajGenl.Meade]

Spring hope?
Awful feeling of doom?
Look forward to football or suicide?

Oh sorry - though it said "Tribe"

[Sue U]

Spring hope?
Awful feeling of doom?
Look forward to football or suicide?

Oh sorry - though it said "Tribe"

You've just got the wrong tribe.

[loCAtek]

Those are good questions Lo - but I'm looking for questions about the Bible, Christianity, Jesus - the God of that faith.

But here are some answers

1. evidently not in a Garden of Eden

2. wine

3. clutch handgrenade to chest; pull pin

Oh, well, forget it then...

[MajGenl.Meade]

Sue - I hope you find this!


1. What do Christians mean by "salvation"?

Deliverance from the punishment, power and presence of sin; redemption. That is, because we are all inheritors of a sin-nature we are separated from God and subject to death, which is the punishment for sin because it ensures our separation from God forever. What changes is that we are convicted of sin, repent of it and believe (trust absolutely) that Jesus (i.e. God) paid the price and accepted in Himself the punishment for sin. Jesus has redeemed us from sin. Believers are therefore under the power of Christ and not the power of sin. Salvation is completed when we die on this earth and are translated to heaven where there is no presence of sin. (I think that's what Christians mean by salvation but I wonder if others have a different idea?)

2. What does belief in God/Jesus do for you, in terms of daily life?

Well it took me from Twinsburg Oh to Bloemfontein SA so there’s a daily consequence to that! I’m back to playing guitar as Lynn and I are 66% / 50% / 40% of a trio, quad, quintet at church on Sunday a.m. and p.m. a couple of times a week. I am back to writing, sermons and short stories (two examples of the latter under All Our Own Work). All that we do is, or should be, to the glory of God – so it’s not really all my own work because of the recognition that gifts come from Him. It stabilizes my marriage as we both know our duties toward each other and to God which do not include selfishness, divorce (you know for some people it’s a background option which shapes what goes on). It brings Lynn and I closer to each other. It enables us to serve others, even when it appears hopeless. We know beyond doubt, every day, that no matter what comes God is in charge and He is to be trusted. In a way it’s like asking what does having legs do for you in terms of daily life – there’s so much it cannot be quantified.


3. What makes Christianity (and this form of Christianity) preferable to you
over other belief systems?

Well Sue, I didn’t go shopping for belief systems and pick one. I didn’t go to church in the UK; refused to be godfather to my baby cousin because I didn’t believe babies were “conceived in sin” (I didn’t understand what they meant); went a long time in the USA without church and then got into the habit of occasionally attending a Unitarian gathering (they had a good library) and it was that minister who married Lynn and I. In Twinsburg there wasn’t an ashram, a mosque or even a synagogue and as Lynn’s business was insurance we attended the little UCC on the square (very pretty) as did many of “old Twinsburg” people (her clients). We sang in the choir because we like singing. I became a deacon because someone asked me to. After the abortion I realised this church was not speaking to me one little bit and it could not address a growing conviction in me that most of the things I believed were wrong – that I was wrong. But compared to what? I had no idea. I said out loud “I can never be forgiven for this”. And I heard a voice “You are already forgiven”. And at that moment I knew what the God-thing was all about; just had no idea of the details. Once I started attending Parkside Church I heard for the first time what Christ is all about. Trusting in Jesus and following his commands means, among other things, accepting and believing that the scriptures are the word of God, His clear and enduring and only revelation of all that is needed for salvation. Jesus said it and he is the Master. Any other belief is Christianity light and lighter and non-existent. So I would say that I did not “prefer” one thing over another but that God did it all.

Appendix
I don’t know “why me?” because I certainly didn’t deserve it. Perhaps it’s to do with reaching a place where there is nowhere to go and no way to get out. I remember when I became a smoker who just doesn’t happen to smoke I got pissed off (Dec 11 2001) at my repeated attempts to quit smoking for God and I put the pack down on the table on the porch and said aloud “Well you have to do it then because I never will – I don’t want to”. And that was the last time I smoked; had no cold turkey, no problems, no temper tantrums. My wife was amazed because she’d suffered my “quitting” before. I say this because perhaps it’s something to do with what belief does in my daily life. See I stopped trusting me and tossed the ball to Him (not really thinking anything would happen – I gave up my pretences, and that seems integral somehow).

Anyhoo… that’s it. Thanks for asking
Meade

[Gob]

Deliverance from the punishment, power and presence of sin; redemption.

Why should sin exist in the after life? Just askin...

[Rick]

Deliverance from the punishment, power and presence of sin; redemption.

Why should sin exist in the after life? Just askin...

Sin doesn't exist in the after life.

Punishment is payment for the sin of the present...

[Gob]

Ok, I think I get that, if you are "delivered," you don't have to spend your time dead with people who have sinned?

What if you like them, say your wife had sinned?

[MajGenl.Meade]

Ok, I think I get that, if you are "delivered," you don't have to spend your time dead with people who have sinned?

What if you like them, say your wife had sinned?

OK. Your wife had sinned. (waits to see what happens)

Nope, me 'n Lynn are still OK

But on a serious note.... one is not dead but alive. But everyone there alive has sinned (past tense). One spends eternity with people who sinned but are forgiven. People who are not forgiven spend eternity somewhere else. That's their choice; they get what they want. Relationships on earth don't count - there's no bonus for having been married to a believer. What heaven is like is almost all speculation. I think we know for sure there is no marriage in heaven because Jesus said it; and it's paradise (whatever that may be but it sounds better than the alternative). There's no sorrow in hell. No regrets.

So I'm sorry Gob - before I die I'll be sad if it appears you are not going to be there but after I'm there I won't notice. Except you might be....

Meade

[Gob]

How do you define alive in this sense Meade? Biologically?

So me and Hen will end up in the same place, neat! We can carry on sinning...

[Rick]

How do you define alive in this sense Meade? Biologically?

Physical death; ashes to ashes, corporal.

Spiritual death everlasting, temporal, no biology.

As for the other comment I doubt even fence straddling will get one out of the latter...

[MajGenl.Meade]

How do you define alive in this sense Meade? Biologically?

So me and Hen will end up in the same place, neat! We can carry on sinning...

Nope there's no sin in the everlasting life. Just endless Leonard Cohen

[Rick]

Nope there's no sin in the everlasting life. Just endless Leonard Cohen

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah

[MajGenl.Meade]

Now I doesn't care what anyone sez. That there is funny

[Gob]

Spiritual death everlasting, temporal, no biology.

"If death was indeed a eternal dreamless sleep then hope for anything else is merely a forlorn hope."

It is a regular conceit of the religious that they, due to their adherence to what they, (and normally only they and those of the same cult,) “know” to be the right way to behave in gods eyes, that they will survive after this life.

I suppose it stops them shitting the bed each night at their terror that this may be “it”, and that after three score years and ten they, the most important person alive, may exist no more.

It’s the way that religion has terrified the stupid, fooled the gullible, given false hope to the sick and ill, and kept the poor from revolting, and all coughing up cash, so that those in the Church’s higher echelons can live well. Always bloody "jam tomorrow," with no proof of payment.

[MajGenl.Meade]

It is a regular conceit of the religious that they, due to their adherence to what they, (and normally only they and those of the same cult,) “know” to be the right way to behave in gods eyes, that they will survive after this life.

Whew! I'm glad that's not the Christian faith or it would be pretty grim! Thank God (literally) that we know that we cannot and do not earn our way to salvation. It it came down to earning it all by good behaviour we'd all be destined to the stripey hole. At least we'd get to shake hands with Carl though. There is that.

"May exist no more" - well that might be a bearable thought. The problem is that Christianity declares that everyone lives for ever more - it's just a question of where. That might exude a poopette.... but at three score and ten that tends to happen with a strong fart (they tell me)

I guess you speak of the Roman church and televangelists; that kind of thing. Many of the pastors I know are pretty much dirt poor and can't get a congregation to pay their salaries on time. But I don't think it's fear keeps them going so much as it is love. If you read the Bible you'll see that's the way it should be.

Keep at it - you'll get there!
Love and hugs
Meade

PS one of us must go to bed and I volunteer because it's almost 2 am here. Besides, you need to get to work I'd guess

[Rick]

It is a regular conceit of the religious that they, due to their adherence to what they, (and normally only they and those of the same cult,) “know” to be the right way to behave in gods eyes, that they will survive after this life.

Not MY conceit, I didn't make the rules. Unlike most I don't think one's ticket is punched just because "ONE" believes in God, I'm certain Satan believes in God.

I suppose it stops them shitting the bed each night at their terror that this may be “it”, and that after three score years and ten they, the most important person alive, may exist no more.

It’s the way that religion has terrified the stupid, fooled the gullible, given false hope to the sick and ill, and kept the poor from revolting, and all coughing up cash, so that those in the Church’s higher echelons can live well. Always bloody "jam tomorrow," with no proof of payment.

I ain't skeert...

[Gob]

I'm at work Meade, wasting taxpayers dollars,.

Sleep well mate.

Not MY conceit, I didn't make the rules. Unlike most I don't think one's ticket is punched just because "ONE" believes in God, I'm certain Satan believes in God.

It is your conceit Keld, as you choose to believe you know what the rules are..