Posted by giveawayboy on March 25, 2003 at 11:46:27:
In Reply to: Pastor Steve, John, Cari and Bill posted by Rob on March 25, 2003 at 10:41:30:
Just so you know Rob, we DO study the Bible. We are getting better at it too. Steve even gives us 'homework' which people are starting to bite into. Still, as long as you realize that, it's always good to encourage us to study the Bible. I'm with you there. I will say this too. Alot of the things you are bringing up like Jesus being the only way etc. Well, bthese are complex and engaging issues, and although I do not deny that there are truths in Christianity, I feel that over the history of the church we Christians have put so many nasty spins on revealed truths that we isolate whole generations and groups of people. By asserting a 'truth' which we find easy to believe as Christians in a way that closes off discussion or interaction w non-believers, we misrepresent God to them. This is not good practice. I'm not accusing you of doing this Rob. Man, I really want to know who you are. This is killing me. You seem like such a nice guy. Anyway, I am learning this now w some of my friends. For instance I was having lunch w a guy named Pradesh the other day. He goes to a temple where they worship Hanuman, a Hindu god. If I sat there and insisted that Jesus quite simply is the way then our conversation would not have gone too far, but the neat thing was that I was able to talk to him about why he believes in Hanuman and Rama and other Hindu gods. Hanuman and Rama are both related to Visnu worship. Visnu is one of the main Hindu gods. Well, we talked about his religion for a long time and then all of a sudden he asked if I was Hindu and I told him that I was a shabbily practicing Catholic who just believed in Jesus. He told me that he loved the Ten Commandments and esp. the Golden Rule. He said if everyone just followed Jesus teachings, no matter what religion, then we would all progress spiritually closer to God. It was amazing. Here I was not even talking about my faith and he got our number one LAW: LOVE of God and Neighbor. So, does this mean he's saved, not saved? whatever? Well, I'm thankfully not the judge of Pradesh' soul, but I will say that I love him and that we had a loving community in Christ over some broken bread at a Subway. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you shall do it. We were eating broken bread and talking about our memories of what Jesus had taught us. I could go on and on about stories like this. I know one Buddhist who would meditate and he would always see images of Jesus and he began to incorporate more study of Jesus' teachings and life into his understanding of the world. Does this mean he's saved or not saved? Could I push a button to save this man's soul. The man is falling in love w Jesus. And I'm not about to trash his religion to impose my own conceptions of Jesus on him. Let him go to the source. Rob, I'm saying all this not to preach at you. Really, I just feel like you and I are sitting on the backporch maybe sipping some lemonade and throwing stuff out. Really. I want this dialogue about serious topics to continue in an atmosphere of friendship and mutual interest. So, let's see where this can go. Like I said I'm not denying specific truths of Christianity. I'm just not going to advance them forcefully. I'm going for the Samaritan woman approach. I just want to talk to people where they are at. I don't want to be the Christian posterboy. Yuck!
Hope to hear more from you, Bill