Dear Opinionated2,
What do you make of these words of Jesus translated to modern usage "Can't you see that what you eat won't harm your soul.
For food doesn't come in contact heart, but only passes through the digestive system. It is the thought-life that pollutes. For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts of lust, theft, murder, adultery, wanting what belongs to others, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, pride, and all other folly. All these vile things come from within; they are what polutes you and makes you unfit for God."
My understanding is that when Adam CHOSE to trust the devil instead of God the communication lines with God were broken and God gave the law to unspiritual earthy man to as a guide to live by.
BUT they didn't save him for only God creates Life. O T.
N T Jesus came to restore the lines of communication for man John 3:16. Without John 3:5 there is no restoration of the spirit. You can sit in a church all your life and hear the word of God and never become a child of God { christian} for you MUST be born from above,
God iniated not the will of man.
No Unregenerated man can hear Gods word or understand it because God is Spirit and without the Holy Spirit we are only a handfull of dust waiting to go back to the ground from where we came.

Richie 10 wrote: You can sit in a church all your life and hear the word of God and never become a child of God { christian} for you MUST be born from above,

Dear Richie 10,

That God you describe is a narrow bigot who only considers people his children if they accept a particular Christian mumbo-jumbo.

The Talmud is the Jewish commentary on the Bible. Midrashim are little stories in the Talmud which make clearer parts of the Bible.

There is a midrash about the drowning of the Egyptians in the Red Sea as they pursued the Jews. The story tells that angels cheered as the Egyptians drowned. God wept and told the angels, "Do not rejoice. The Egyptians are also my children."

A God who considers only Jews or Christians his children is not worthy of worship.

We have free will. We have the ability to think. We may not choose to use these attributes but we have them.

Under these circumstances a 'master/servant' relationship between man and God is impossible. The early OT God may have tried to force us back into a master/servant relationship but it had to fail.

Christianity (Judaism and Islam) seeks to re-impose that master/servant relationship. It cannot work for anyone who chooses to use their ability to think or assert their free will.

The only valid relationship a thinking person can have with God is a one to one relationship between two thinking entities. How we relate to God is a personal relationship. Everyone's relationship will be different to everyone else's because we are individuals and relate to God in a different way.

Hence, as Jesus said, the Kingdom of God is within. If we want to know God we can only look to ourselves to find our unique relationship.

A thinking person can look at a document like the Bible and decide for themselves what is of value to them and what is not. The Christian assertion of the divinity of the Bible is an attempt to crush thinking and free will and impose a master/servant relationship.

From this and other threads I am slowly moving to the position that their probably is a God, but it is not Christian. It could be Taoist. That seems like it could be a religion/philosophy for a thinking person.

Dear Davidf
As the creator Jesus said "The Gateway to Life is small and the road is narrow, and only few ever find it"
His words not mine. If he is a narrowminded bigot in your opinion all I can say is you do not know him.
As the creator he has the authority to back his word. Do you have the authority to back your word.

Dear Daviy,
Was your relationship with your own father/servant. I would chose Gods will ahead of my own every time for he is a loving Father and wants only the very best for his children which is sonship not serventhood.

Dear Daviy, Your post is interesting. I agree that we can look at the Bible and decide what is of value and what is not. That really seems to me to be the only reasonable way to look at the Bible.
If there is a God that deity cannot be the God of the Bible as that deity is unreasonable, inconsistent and sometimes cruel. However, there is wisdom in the Bible, and a thinking person can absorb the wisdom while discounting the miracles and other improbable happenings.
If we regard a relationship with God as a one to one relationship between two thinking entities we assume that God thinks like us and that it communicates with us. I relate to you as a thinking entity because you will answer my post if you think it worth answering. However, God does not express its thoughts to us so there can be no relationship. In fact I look upon those who tell me what God wants or thinks with great suspicion. They cannot know.
If there is a God, God exists whether or not we think it exists. A God we can relate to is a particular kind of God, and I see no reason to accept that God if it exists is that particular kind of God.
A Taoist God is a contradiction since Taoism is nondualistic, nontheistic naturalism.
Dear Richie 10,
Certainly I do not know Jesus. If he ever existed he has been dead for a long time so I can’t know him. Neither can you. It is absolute nonsense to refer to him as the Creator.

Since I am alive and real, and Jesus is dead and his problematic existence shrouded in myth I have more authority to back up my words.