Exposé on Christianity!
Flo says...
Christianity was founded by the "followers" of Jesus of Nazareth, a brown skin, black eye Jew. He set the requirements for participation in the kingdom of God as a change of heart, love of God and neighbor, and concern for justice.
It was after his death that his followers came to believe in him as the "Christ" which is a Greek word which means the "Messiah"(messenger).
The apostle Paul helped spread the new faith in his missionary travels and all other religions eventually became suppressed.
In its first two centuries, Christianity took shape as an organization, developed distinctive doctrine, liturgy, and ministry.
In A.D.325 (Nicaea).
Important doctrines were defined concerning the Trinity, that there is one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Constantinople, A.D. 381), and the nature of Christ as both divine and human (Chalcedon, A.D. 541).
Christians came to accept both Hebrew Scripture and the New Testament as authoritative.
The New Testament comprises four Gospels (narratives of Jesus' life), 21 Epistles, The Acts of the Apostles, and Revelation.
Jesus public career was no more than "THREE YEARS and he WROTE no book." The participants in Nicaea agreed that "the only begotten Son of God, very God of very God being of one substance with the Father, came down from heaven, and was made flesh.
(There you have it European men made Jesus a God).
The words "Original Sin" don't exist in the Bible or Jewish writings.
The FALL OF ADAM was an interpretation formed sometime after the Exile and return of the Jews to Judea.
This is the heart of Christian theology as taught by Paul. Jesus was some kind of human/deity sacrificed to make up for the alleged "sin" of Adam where mankind became mortal as punishment for Adam(Quoting Paul).
Rom. 5:12, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned "Rom. 5:19, "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners" 1 Cor. 15:22 "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." No amount of theological DOUBLE-TALK changes the fact this whole concept "is immoral and unjust".
Punishing millions of people for the acts of one is irrational.
The concept of Original Sin is UNSUPPORTED in the Jewish scriptures: Deut. 24:16, "The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin." Also in Kings 14:6".
Many Christian theologians regard the Garden of Eden story in Genesis as describing the first sin, and the consequent "ruin" or the "Fall" of man. Adam and Eve disobeyed the command of God, "Of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die." (Genesis 2:17).
Although the character Satan does not appear as such in the Biblical text, by the time that the New Testament was canonized, the serpent mentioned in Genesis became identified with Satan; this identification is so strong that many believers interpret the Biblical story as Eve being tempted by Satan.
The "knowledge of good and evil" was a tree that they were told to stay away from in order to maintain this perfect world.
"On the day you eat from the tree you will become mortal" The concept of original sin is the invention of mainly Paul. "Paul was a man who NEVER EVEN MET JESUS." In Romans and First Corinthians, in the New Testament, Paul placed special emphasis on this by stressing that belief in Jesus would allow Christians to overcome death, by earning salvation in the hereafter.
The New Testament teaches that rejection of Jesus as the path to salvation must be viewed as willful disobedience, and a rebellion against God. This choice then compels a just God to enforce that person's separation from Him, causing such a person to be sentenced to Hell. Only the belief in Jesus, as a savior and son of God, could rescue a person from this fate. PAUL was a man who NEVER EVEN MET JESUS." In Augustine's modern Western formulation of original sin: he taught that the taint of Adam's original sin was inherited by all people at birth, and that nothing a person does in their life can get rid of this taint.
This doctrine took on special prominence in Catholic Christianity and in many Protestant Christian denominations.
Augustine included the notion that sin is transmitted from generation to generation by the act of procreation.
He took this idea from 2nd-century theologian Tertullian, who actually coined the phrase original sin. The Gospels and the Old Testament have nothing to say about the original sin, and there is not a word from Jesus.
Thomas Aquinas is best known for his encyclopedic Summa Theologica.
He has the audacity to blame Eve for believing a lie--a lie that came from the Devil.'The sin came to the man through the woman's blandishments." The man was "not seduced as the woman was." In his intent to absolve the man, Aquinas says the man did not believe the devil, ignoring the fact that the devil did not approach him. Aquinas also ignored Genesis 1:28, where God says to be fruitful and multiply.
Aquinas also said that the man was drawn by the Devil's promise to an undue desire of excellence and knowledge and ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree. Church dogmas are contradictory and say mostly nothing about God but talk mostly about Jesus.
The DOCTRINE OF SIN stands out as one of the most effective MANIPULATIVE DEVICES ever invented.
It has a subtle terrorizing effect which intimidates believers into accepting the Church's view that there is an almighty deity who takes interest in their affairs.
If he was only a creator, he would leave us alone to go about our business.
But if he is a personal God who takes issue with our behavior, then we have cause to be mindful of his will. God do not have a GENDER, God do not have HUMAN characteristics, God do not prefer one group of people over another.
There are many roads to the divine.
Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhist, Hinduist etc. etc. God is more grandiose and complex than the human mind can ever imagine! There is certainly no God in trois personne! ASK YOURSERLF how many people have been killed and continue to be killed by religious zealots in the name of God?
A little advice from me: Never confuse GOD with RELIGION!
Posted by Flo on October 8 2007 at 6:12 PM