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what is Christ?
I believe that the man was Yeshua, a Jew who preached mainly in Galilee.
He preached Christ.
Christ is a concept.
"As lightning shineth from east to west, so shall the coming of the son of man be." (or something like that)
Lightning is a localized phenomenon -- yet its glow will spread across the entire sky.
That is the Christ concept.
The son of man shall come into his own, the son of man being humankind.
Christ is the concept of salvation (I think it is universal, others don't). Salvation is, "I'm all right. There is no condemnation. Looking at the basic precepts of love and treating others properly, I can see that I fall fall short of the ideal. Yet I'm all right. There is no condemnation. I try (or don't try) every day to understand myself in relation to others and to improve my relationships with others. Even if I don't try sometimes, I'm all right. There is no condemnation. Because I know I will continue to seek how best to treat others."
And I'm sure this in incomplete.
You see where it puts the responsibility?
ON the individual.
The book of Hebrews explains that we need no intercessor such as a priest or other clerical type.
We have immediate contact with the Holy of Holies. The vail is rent.
Within the original Holy of Holies, there was only the Ark of the Covenant. There was no representation of God (YHVH). There was only the "presence" of YHVH.
It is up to each individual to define what all these terms mean to that individual.
There's more, lots more. Each of us is a stone (lively stones) -- building blocks of the temple of spiritual understanding.
I'm trying to explain something that is really unexplainable. Sometimes, like the "presence", the only thing each of us can do is feel.
posted by
Xeno-x
on June 14, 2004 at 9:24 AM
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You are so right fat-guy.
Faith is what it is. You cannot prove God by any means known. I tried to trick God into revealing his presence to me in my juvenile need for proof, but I have lived long enough to know now that simple faith is what it takes. We have to burn off a whole bunch of desire to get there though. I envy those who could live well by faith from a young age . Their lives seemed so much simpler. I have absolutely no problem with people who want to keep their understanding simple ie. narrow as long as they don't impose that narrow view upon those who have struggled for a deeper and more personally meaningful vision of what it means to be human. I don't believe I am wrong in not counseling others to accept Christ and Christ only as their Savior. Even though at one point I did go that route. I would expect that if I turn out to have made a huge mistake and I have caused others to not take the step of accepting Biblical Christianity that I would forfeit my own salvation. But I harbor little fear of that. When I first realized the scope of the nature of the forgiveness before me I was astonished. I was truly enabled to fully inhabit an infinite cosmos. This body is my learner vehicle. We shall transcend to greater things.
Sorry westwend! Didn't mean to start a new blog here in your site! Bye for now.
posted by
man-boy
on June 13, 2004 at 4:22 PM
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Your post was like magic
to my soul. I think a lot (maybe too much) about the kinds of things in your post. Yes, we fail to question enough. However, if we truly want to be more "eastern" in our thinking and living of the christian faith, then we must allow God's way of reaching us to be what it is. Just because it is part of our past, or just because it is based upon the past, doesn't mean it isn't part of God's personal way of reaching us. And it also doesnt mean it isnt part of Gods way of showing us the error of our ways. The point is that it is part of our journey, our "quest" as you so nicely pointed out.
And to those who constantly seek proof, I will simply say that we humans sometimes arrogantly assume that our small little truth-deciphering tool called "proof" is the highest, most powerful form of determining whether or not a thing is true in the universe. And the fact is it may not be all that accurate or poweful at all. Compared to the infinite nature of God, it may be ridiculously innaccurate, in fact. I mean, just consider this...
If God does exist, and the universe, planets, life really ARE proof of His existence, the atheists still win the argument based on the one single rule that you can't use what exists to prove God came before.
So the fact is that even if our existence IS evidence of God, the argument rules dont allow it to be used that way. So God cant be proven using our tools. Perhaps this is why faith is necessary.
posted by
Fat_Guy
on June 13, 2004 at 3:56 PM
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One of the most valuable assets. . .
I have acquired from maintaining a questioning attitude is focus. It has also provided me with the ability to change my attitude towards the world(a world view as some call it). It is so important, just to maintain your independence as an individual. It is a lazy or terribly frightened person who wants to be told what to believe.
posted by
Budmannomore
on June 13, 2004 at 1:31 PM
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