Neil has written so eloquently - and the vast majority of the minority who wrote 'Christian' on the UK 2022 census would agree 100%. From a natural, traditional and even sentimental viewpoint I understand him. We need light in darkness, joy in sadness, warmth in the cold. He's right that it's Christianity which all other 'isms' attack.
But, as Cammie, below, says, 'There is such a thing as the 'Christian RELIGION' that is false; it does NOTHING to unite Almighty God with people; it just gives the false impression that people practising it are 'doing something' that makes them right with God somehow.'
Neither Mothman777, nor the majority of those who follow the Christian 'RELIGION' have seen what Cammie has seen. The Truth has to be personally EXPERIENCED - not passively accepted. My two cents:
I was born in 1964 and brought up a traditional Anglican. Something was missing inside, and I was always longing for God - the 'transcendental', as Neil puts it. I read the Bible as a child and prayed, but the more I did so, the more alone I felt. When I was confirmed, I assumed that when the bishop plonked his hands on my head, I would experience God.
Nothing happened. The disappointment was real, and after seeking for a few more months, I gave up and started looking elsewhere. Hinduism, Buddhism, New Age ideas drew me - I ended up deep in astrology and the esoteric, but nothing could fill the emptiness I felt, nor rid me of my bad conscience, nor the hatred I felt towards myself.
I started studying comparative religion and education at Cambridge. It was the only course I could find which had as little as possible to do with Christianity and Judaism, both of which I rejected. There was one girl on the same course who I noticed was different from anyone else I had ever met. She was joyful, loving and didn't care what others thought of her - all the things I wished I was. One day, she asked me, "Are you a Christian?"
I was inwardly offended by this - and mumbled, "I suppose so."
Her answer shocked me; she said, "Then you can't be."
This got me thinking.
Shortly afterwards I cycled out into the countryside and went into a little church, because I thought God lived in churches - and not knowing what I was doing, shouted up at the ceiling, "God, if you're there, give me FAITH!" Nothing happened, and I left, after writing something trivial in the visitors' book.
Some time later, I had to write an essay on C.G. Jung and his psychology of religion. I read a line in one of his books where he said something like, 'Man doesn't want dogma or empty liturgy - he wants to EXPERIENCE God for himself'. This hit me. I knew that was what I had always been looking for.
Other things happened, not least, my inward sinfulness was becoming more and more obvious to me - I was becoming more and more unhappy. One day, I picked up a book on astrology and was reading it when everything went dark and cold, and I inwardly 'saw' myself as if in a cage, with the bars closing in, and my heart as if it were being crushed in a claw - and heard the words, 'I've got you now, and I'll never let you go.'
Weeks later, I was in my room, miserable, and my friend knocked on the door and came in. She asked me what was wrong, and when I said, I hardly knew, she asked if she could pray for me. I said, "Yes, I suppose so," and she started to speak in a different language - which I 'knew' was speaking in 'tongues'; that which the early church experienced in Acts 2. At the same moment, it was as if God entered the room in all His holiness, righteousness, power and beauty, and I knew I was sinful, lost, and deserved Hell. My friend continued to pray quietly and then left.
Two weeks later, I was visiting another friend who happened to have a book on her bookshelf entitled, 'Death of a Guru', by Rabi Maharaj.
It was the true story of how a Hindu, who had been himself worshiped as an avatar, had met Jesus. I was feeling morbid, had been thinking of suicide not long before, but the title intrigued me. As I read it, it was as if a veil was lifted off my eyes - and I suddenly two things: I 'KNEW' that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life' - there is no other way to God but through Him, and I 'KNEW' that He had literally risen from the dead.
In that split second, I literally felt my sin, like a massive sack of rocks, falling from off my back, and I knew I was forgiven, and free.
On that cold February day in 1984, I walked outside and it was as if I was seeing colours for the first time. My journey since then has been up and down; I make many mistakes, but He told me this; 'I will never leave you nor forsake you, to the end of the age.' He has kept His promise. It's not a religion - it's a relationship with a real Person Who loves me more than I will ever deserve - He was born (not at this time of year, but never mind) to die - to set captives free. I don’t need a tree or twinkly lights – I have the Light Who lives inside me – Jesus, for every day and for all time.
The idea of Light in the Darkness is as old as humanity.
I like the season of Christmas, but I'm not Christian. I see no need to exclude the other religions in the fun, because it's ALL about LIGHT in the DARKNESS, death and the coming re-birth... It comes from NATURE, not from a religion. Christianity stole ALL their holidays from other religions, anyway! LOL
Nature comes first, THEN humans create a stage play around it-- And I'm not complaining, just sayin' it's not JUST Christmas, it's Chanukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice... ALL that is part of the Light in the Darkness. I love it all.
Gruff-voiced 'sensitive' BBC hard man Neil Oliver says; "It’s always Christianity that the nouveau bullies target – in the same that all bullies have always done - which is to say “single out the one that won’t hit you back.” The tolerance of Christianity and Christians has been a red rag to a bull –"
But if you don't join their passive aggressive mind-controlled gang, they say they will burn you alive forever after this life without ever stopping, for the 'crime' of not accepting Jesus' 'love', and then they will tell you that you are doing it to yourself because you had the option to accept Jesus' 'love' but did not accept it.
Burning someone alive constantly for all eternity is criminally insane, I am not sorry to burst Mr Oliver's BBC hard man bubble.
The Jewish Piso family created the Christian religion in its modern form for Emperor Constantine, purportedly as a link religion intended to unite the disparate faiths of all the different Roman Empire nations, with a little vestige of individual traditional national religions craftily encapsulated within the then NWO 1984-type new religion to help to ensure a more seamless but still enforced transition, like Eostre, the Saxon goddess of fertility and rebirth, became Easter, and the 25th December, the traditional celebration time of Sol the Sun God and Mithras, became Christmas day, but little did Constantine realise that the Jews would want vengeance for the Romans having tried to suppress the Jewish cult earlier, so Christianity was essentially designed as a Trojan horse psy-op weapon to destroy any Gentile people, even the Romans themselves, foolish enough to embrace their own suicide by submitting to adopting it.
The entirely objective and truthful work of the Muslim scholar Ahmed Deedat fully and decisively exposes fraud and plagiarism in the Bible, and even in the late 1800's and early 1900's other scholarly works completely exposed the total contradictions throughout the Bible where 'God' says he never does or will never do something, and later says he always has and always will do precisely the same things he said he never ever has done or never ever will do in the future.
The Bible is a Jewish hostile military foreign power imposed psy-op, our British tradition is the Druid tradition that is very closely linked with the vedic Indian tradition in its insights and practices. The Bible is designed to brainwash you, to destroy your objective power of thinking, to turn your brain to complete porridge, to keep you prisoner here in this dimension for as long as possible where you can be constantly picked apart for food by actually godless self-worshipping spiritual parasites who believe they are 'gods walking upon the Earth' as they state they are in the Jewish scriptures while feeding on whatever pranic light you may still have within you.
Anyone who accepts a belief system that anyone who is not a member of the Christian cult must necessarily, inevitably and justifiably be burned alive for all eternity, and not merely metaphorically as some try to assert, merely preclude themselves from ever re-entering the actual spiritual plane for as long as they maintain adherence to such completely malevolent insanity, and they suicidally do that unwittingly under unsuspected ultimate malevolent Jewish influence. There is no Jesus, the Jews made him up, basing elements of his supposed physical existence on individuals possessing genuine historicity such as Apollonius of Tyana, Yeshai Beth Halachmee, and Jehoshua Ben Pandira, and a coin was struck in those times of Edessa wearing a crown of thorns, a non-Jewish revolutionary and powerful leader whose identity they also craftily co-opted for this purpose, and in any case to call him Jesus is completely useless according to the tenets of the fictitious belief system, as his real name is Yeshua, not Jesus.
Whatever someone has done, the pain they may have inflicted on even millions for many years could never ever add up to justifying even the tiniest fraction of a punishment that mathematically must inevitably impose INFINITELY more pain and suffering on them in the infinite course of eternity than they could possibly ever have inflicted on all of their victims, no matter how heinous their crimes like being Stalin or Pol Pot, and on the other hand, the Christian madness is also intended to be mindlessly inflicted on all Buddhist, Hindus and Sikh spiritual aspirants for instance that have the understanding of gaining practice of universal compassion towards all living entities.
And what kind of sadistic maniacs will be carrying out such tortures? Apocrypha from 125 BC and 150 BC state that 'god' and the saints constantly view the sufferings of those being burned alive in hell for ever suspiciously in a manner very much like that expressed in the Koran, that being another Jewish psy-op, with the body of a 'sinner' in hell constantly being replaced once it is burned away for the torture to begin again, and that unless they constantly view this, their 'spiritual joy in heaven' is not complete, and that even a mother in 'heaven' witnessing her own son being punished in hell will similarly joy in the experience with 'god'. What kind of criminally insane sadistic maniac is this 'god', and what kind of criminally insane nutters are those saints in 'heaven'? These head cases are not in any heaven.
Jesus 'love' = Matthew 10 KJV
34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
36 And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Sounds really reasonable does it? Well, that will certainly not keep families very happy together at Christmas or at any other time if they fully contemplate these and similar Bible teachings.
Kids love Christmas I am sure, as I did, I used to wear the red and white cassock and surplice while helping the vicar by holding his incense boat for him that he drew from periodically as he swung his censor around in the air rather enthusiastically like a mace in battle as he walked around my C of E church in procession with other church boys when I was ten years old, it is magic for them, but only as far as they can be kept believing in the nice side of the fairy tale.
While Jesus is revealed in the 1829 book 'The Diegesis' by Rev Robert Taylor (downloadable for free in pdf and other formats) to be a mere psy-op fiction, Jesus is referred to as a rabbi several times in the NT, he was certainly never intending for his blessings to be given to Gentiles, as in the story of the Syrophoenician woman's daughter, in which he says it is not right for blessings that are only meant to be given to the children of Israel to be given to the Gentiles, which he eventually gives in any case reluctantly. Jewish teachings state that if any Gentile might suspect the hatred that Jews actually feel towards Gentiles, in that circumstance, a Jew may actually heal a Gentile and even save the life of a Gentile, otherwise it is forbidden. Jewish teachings forbid any Jew to save the live of a Gentile normally, also stating "Even the best of Gentiles should all be killed". Jews are even instructed to become fake Christians, fake doctors, fake apothecaries (think Pfizer, Moderna etc.), fake Christian clerics, fake politicians (doctrine of perpetual war) in Gentile nations (think Isaiah 19:2, think that there were no two simultaneous kingdoms in any Egyptian nation, Egypt is code word for Gentile), and instead of doing good, such infiltrated Jews were to do harm, to work to shorten the lives of Gentiles to have 'revenge' on them. But Jewish scriptures have always stated that all Gentiles in the entire world are all to be exterminated and ultimately all sent to hell at the end of the world. See https://rense.com/general86/talmd.htm
There is such a thing as the 'Christian RELIGION', that is false; it does NOTHING to unite Almighty God with people; it just gives the false impression that people practicing it are 'doing something' that makes them right with God somehow.
I'm not going to address anything you wrote; I'm just going to tell you that I used to be a mess. I was a chain-smoking; foul-mouthed drunk. I was raised catholic...another false religion...clearly; because practicing it did NOTHING for me; I was still sinning like crazy. Then one day someone told me about Jesus Christ; The Only Begotten Son of God; how He died on a cross to pay the price not only for my sins; but for my sin nature itself. (Anyone who has kids or has been around them for a while KNOWS that you NEVER have to teach a child how to 'sin'...how to do 'wrong'; they do it NATURALLY; because it's what and who we are.)
Though I trusted in my 'religion' of catholicism; when I was told about Jesus; what He had done for me; for all of us; for the first time in my life I was willing to not look to it; I knew in my heart at that moment that IT could not save me; I needed a PERSON...so to speak....NOT a religion or a religious practice...to save me. I repented for my sins and my sin nature; I turned to Christ and asked Him to come into my heart to be my personal Savior and Lord. Now; I didn't expect ANYTHING to 'happen', I had no preconceived ideas since I had never yet heard about what Jesus REALLY did for us; nor had I known any born-again Christians at that time.
But within a week; with NO ONE telling me ANYTHING; no one saying that 'something' would happen to me; my desire to smoke went away. I stopped talking like a pig. I went to drink a beer and it tasted funny. I tried another. It too tasted 'funny'. Within a few days I didn't have the desire for ANY alcohol at all. I couldn't hold my cigarette 'right'; everything was 'off'; but in a good way.
I started dressing differently. (I was a biker chic. Wore leather jacket; chains; knife; pretty tough looking.) I started....GASP...wearing DRESSES. I started wearing my hair differently, and my entire countenance was different. And so it has been for over 38 years. For the first time in my life; after asking Jesus to come into my heart to save me; my mind and my heart and my spirit were filled with peace.
You can nay-say for hours on end; but at the end of the day; all that I have experienced is FAR more convincing to me than the words you have written.
I'm afraid that it's you who have believed a lie my friend. IS there a 'false religion' CALLED 'Christianity'? You bet. There is ALSO One that is ABSOLUTLY TRUE; because it's NOT a RELIGION.
It's CHRIST HIS SELF. I pray God grants you the same precious gift He granted to me; repentance unto Salvation through Jesus Christ; then and ONLY then will your eyes be open to The Truth.
I certainly agree how plastic state Christian religion is. They even made a slave Bible especially for African Negro slaves that contained only cherry-picked parts to keep them mentally numb and submissive with fake religion.
Ephesians 6:5 - New International Version
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.
And according to the AMORC Rosicrucians there have been about 20 different church councils down through the years that have continually altered what is contained in the Bible.
It is true that anyone can experience some pleasant effects mentally, psychically and spiritually with some remarkable personal changes and even 'miracles' after being involved in just about any religion, as the coven effect of the close association of a number of people now in your association and their directed thoughts and intentions enables you to pick up desired new traits and qualities very quickly, as your thoughts are potentiated by theirs and they are already well established in the lifestyle and state of consciousness that you desire.
It is all a matter of degree of what level of spiritual consciousness is actually attainable through each religion, some offer greater potential than others. I am sure you are happier and have a better lifestyle, and I think the real God does not mind what religion people are, only how sincere they are to become more loving and compassionate, and I believe that He lifts anyone up no matter what their outer religion may be if he sees they really wish to reawaken on the actual spiritual plane.
The "real God" and we are waiting for you to tell us who this is? LOL in a merely playful sense, no offense meant at all.
You will get no argument from me about all the abuse of "religion" by false prophets.
"Plastic" is a good word for it. I can think of others.
In some respects it is almost like storm forecasts, they tell you what they feel they need to in order to get you to do what they want, and often it is not necessarily a bad thing. But it is still a LIE! And we know the "father of lies."
But your relationship with God is not a "collective" thing, it is individual in every respect.
Today, some would say I am being "tested" because the person I am caring for is not a true believer, but it is not God who is testing me!
Most religions, including Christianity, have been co-opted.
I just take whatever I like from ALL of 'em, and enjoy the time, because it's really about NATURE, anyway.
I say we just send Good Vibes to everyone we know and toast each other, Eat Drink, and be Merry, for tomorrow the banksters will kick our ass. Now is the time for UNITY, let's just forget all the religion for a while and focus on PEOPLE. yeah? Cheers, m'dear.
Neil has written so eloquently - and the vast majority of the minority who wrote 'Christian' on the UK 2022 census would agree 100%. From a natural, traditional and even sentimental viewpoint I understand him. We need light in darkness, joy in sadness, warmth in the cold. He's right that it's Christianity which all other 'isms' attack.
But, as Cammie, below, says, 'There is such a thing as the 'Christian RELIGION' that is false; it does NOTHING to unite Almighty God with people; it just gives the false impression that people practising it are 'doing something' that makes them right with God somehow.'
Neither Mothman777, nor the majority of those who follow the Christian 'RELIGION' have seen what Cammie has seen. The Truth has to be personally EXPERIENCED - not passively accepted. My two cents:
I was born in 1964 and brought up a traditional Anglican. Something was missing inside, and I was always longing for God - the 'transcendental', as Neil puts it. I read the Bible as a child and prayed, but the more I did so, the more alone I felt. When I was confirmed, I assumed that when the bishop plonked his hands on my head, I would experience God.
Nothing happened. The disappointment was real, and after seeking for a few more months, I gave up and started looking elsewhere. Hinduism, Buddhism, New Age ideas drew me - I ended up deep in astrology and the esoteric, but nothing could fill the emptiness I felt, nor rid me of my bad conscience, nor the hatred I felt towards myself.
I started studying comparative religion and education at Cambridge. It was the only course I could find which had as little as possible to do with Christianity and Judaism, both of which I rejected. There was one girl on the same course who I noticed was different from anyone else I had ever met. She was joyful, loving and didn't care what others thought of her - all the things I wished I was. One day, she asked me, "Are you a Christian?"
I was inwardly offended by this - and mumbled, "I suppose so."
Her answer shocked me; she said, "Then you can't be."
This got me thinking.
Shortly afterwards I cycled out into the countryside and went into a little church, because I thought God lived in churches - and not knowing what I was doing, shouted up at the ceiling, "God, if you're there, give me FAITH!" Nothing happened, and I left, after writing something trivial in the visitors' book.
Some time later, I had to write an essay on C.G. Jung and his psychology of religion. I read a line in one of his books where he said something like, 'Man doesn't want dogma or empty liturgy - he wants to EXPERIENCE God for himself'. This hit me. I knew that was what I had always been looking for.
Other things happened, not least, my inward sinfulness was becoming more and more obvious to me - I was becoming more and more unhappy. One day, I picked up a book on astrology and was reading it when everything went dark and cold, and I inwardly 'saw' myself as if in a cage, with the bars closing in, and my heart as if it were being crushed in a claw - and heard the words, 'I've got you now, and I'll never let you go.'
Weeks later, I was in my room, miserable, and my friend knocked on the door and came in. She asked me what was wrong, and when I said, I hardly knew, she asked if she could pray for me. I said, "Yes, I suppose so," and she started to speak in a different language - which I 'knew' was speaking in 'tongues'; that which the early church experienced in Acts 2. At the same moment, it was as if God entered the room in all His holiness, righteousness, power and beauty, and I knew I was sinful, lost, and deserved Hell. My friend continued to pray quietly and then left.
Two weeks later, I was visiting another friend who happened to have a book on her bookshelf entitled, 'Death of a Guru', by Rabi Maharaj.
It was the true story of how a Hindu, who had been himself worshiped as an avatar, had met Jesus. I was feeling morbid, had been thinking of suicide not long before, but the title intrigued me. As I read it, it was as if a veil was lifted off my eyes - and I suddenly two things: I 'KNEW' that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life' - there is no other way to God but through Him, and I 'KNEW' that He had literally risen from the dead.
In that split second, I literally felt my sin, like a massive sack of rocks, falling from off my back, and I knew I was forgiven, and free.
On that cold February day in 1984, I walked outside and it was as if I was seeing colours for the first time. My journey since then has been up and down; I make many mistakes, but He told me this; 'I will never leave you nor forsake you, to the end of the age.' He has kept His promise. It's not a religion - it's a relationship with a real Person Who loves me more than I will ever deserve - He was born (not at this time of year, but never mind) to die - to set captives free. I don’t need a tree or twinkly lights – I have the Light Who lives inside me – Jesus, for every day and for all time.
Thank you, my Lady.
That was beautiful!
We are blessed by your story of life, eternal life.
"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."
John 1:5
Wishing you and yours a blessed Christmas, Edwin.
Thank you and likewise.
The idea of Light in the Darkness is as old as humanity.
I like the season of Christmas, but I'm not Christian. I see no need to exclude the other religions in the fun, because it's ALL about LIGHT in the DARKNESS, death and the coming re-birth... It comes from NATURE, not from a religion. Christianity stole ALL their holidays from other religions, anyway! LOL
Nature comes first, THEN humans create a stage play around it-- And I'm not complaining, just sayin' it's not JUST Christmas, it's Chanukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice... ALL that is part of the Light in the Darkness. I love it all.
Gruff-voiced 'sensitive' BBC hard man Neil Oliver says; "It’s always Christianity that the nouveau bullies target – in the same that all bullies have always done - which is to say “single out the one that won’t hit you back.” The tolerance of Christianity and Christians has been a red rag to a bull –"
But if you don't join their passive aggressive mind-controlled gang, they say they will burn you alive forever after this life without ever stopping, for the 'crime' of not accepting Jesus' 'love', and then they will tell you that you are doing it to yourself because you had the option to accept Jesus' 'love' but did not accept it.
Burning someone alive constantly for all eternity is criminally insane, I am not sorry to burst Mr Oliver's BBC hard man bubble.
The Jewish Piso family created the Christian religion in its modern form for Emperor Constantine, purportedly as a link religion intended to unite the disparate faiths of all the different Roman Empire nations, with a little vestige of individual traditional national religions craftily encapsulated within the then NWO 1984-type new religion to help to ensure a more seamless but still enforced transition, like Eostre, the Saxon goddess of fertility and rebirth, became Easter, and the 25th December, the traditional celebration time of Sol the Sun God and Mithras, became Christmas day, but little did Constantine realise that the Jews would want vengeance for the Romans having tried to suppress the Jewish cult earlier, so Christianity was essentially designed as a Trojan horse psy-op weapon to destroy any Gentile people, even the Romans themselves, foolish enough to embrace their own suicide by submitting to adopting it.
The entirely objective and truthful work of the Muslim scholar Ahmed Deedat fully and decisively exposes fraud and plagiarism in the Bible, and even in the late 1800's and early 1900's other scholarly works completely exposed the total contradictions throughout the Bible where 'God' says he never does or will never do something, and later says he always has and always will do precisely the same things he said he never ever has done or never ever will do in the future.
The Bible is a Jewish hostile military foreign power imposed psy-op, our British tradition is the Druid tradition that is very closely linked with the vedic Indian tradition in its insights and practices. The Bible is designed to brainwash you, to destroy your objective power of thinking, to turn your brain to complete porridge, to keep you prisoner here in this dimension for as long as possible where you can be constantly picked apart for food by actually godless self-worshipping spiritual parasites who believe they are 'gods walking upon the Earth' as they state they are in the Jewish scriptures while feeding on whatever pranic light you may still have within you.
Anyone who accepts a belief system that anyone who is not a member of the Christian cult must necessarily, inevitably and justifiably be burned alive for all eternity, and not merely metaphorically as some try to assert, merely preclude themselves from ever re-entering the actual spiritual plane for as long as they maintain adherence to such completely malevolent insanity, and they suicidally do that unwittingly under unsuspected ultimate malevolent Jewish influence. There is no Jesus, the Jews made him up, basing elements of his supposed physical existence on individuals possessing genuine historicity such as Apollonius of Tyana, Yeshai Beth Halachmee, and Jehoshua Ben Pandira, and a coin was struck in those times of Edessa wearing a crown of thorns, a non-Jewish revolutionary and powerful leader whose identity they also craftily co-opted for this purpose, and in any case to call him Jesus is completely useless according to the tenets of the fictitious belief system, as his real name is Yeshua, not Jesus.
Whatever someone has done, the pain they may have inflicted on even millions for many years could never ever add up to justifying even the tiniest fraction of a punishment that mathematically must inevitably impose INFINITELY more pain and suffering on them in the infinite course of eternity than they could possibly ever have inflicted on all of their victims, no matter how heinous their crimes like being Stalin or Pol Pot, and on the other hand, the Christian madness is also intended to be mindlessly inflicted on all Buddhist, Hindus and Sikh spiritual aspirants for instance that have the understanding of gaining practice of universal compassion towards all living entities.
And what kind of sadistic maniacs will be carrying out such tortures? Apocrypha from 125 BC and 150 BC state that 'god' and the saints constantly view the sufferings of those being burned alive in hell for ever suspiciously in a manner very much like that expressed in the Koran, that being another Jewish psy-op, with the body of a 'sinner' in hell constantly being replaced once it is burned away for the torture to begin again, and that unless they constantly view this, their 'spiritual joy in heaven' is not complete, and that even a mother in 'heaven' witnessing her own son being punished in hell will similarly joy in the experience with 'god'. What kind of criminally insane sadistic maniac is this 'god', and what kind of criminally insane nutters are those saints in 'heaven'? These head cases are not in any heaven.
Jesus 'love' = Matthew 10 KJV
34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
36 And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Sounds really reasonable does it? Well, that will certainly not keep families very happy together at Christmas or at any other time if they fully contemplate these and similar Bible teachings.
Kids love Christmas I am sure, as I did, I used to wear the red and white cassock and surplice while helping the vicar by holding his incense boat for him that he drew from periodically as he swung his censor around in the air rather enthusiastically like a mace in battle as he walked around my C of E church in procession with other church boys when I was ten years old, it is magic for them, but only as far as they can be kept believing in the nice side of the fairy tale.
While Jesus is revealed in the 1829 book 'The Diegesis' by Rev Robert Taylor (downloadable for free in pdf and other formats) to be a mere psy-op fiction, Jesus is referred to as a rabbi several times in the NT, he was certainly never intending for his blessings to be given to Gentiles, as in the story of the Syrophoenician woman's daughter, in which he says it is not right for blessings that are only meant to be given to the children of Israel to be given to the Gentiles, which he eventually gives in any case reluctantly. Jewish teachings state that if any Gentile might suspect the hatred that Jews actually feel towards Gentiles, in that circumstance, a Jew may actually heal a Gentile and even save the life of a Gentile, otherwise it is forbidden. Jewish teachings forbid any Jew to save the live of a Gentile normally, also stating "Even the best of Gentiles should all be killed". Jews are even instructed to become fake Christians, fake doctors, fake apothecaries (think Pfizer, Moderna etc.), fake Christian clerics, fake politicians (doctrine of perpetual war) in Gentile nations (think Isaiah 19:2, think that there were no two simultaneous kingdoms in any Egyptian nation, Egypt is code word for Gentile), and instead of doing good, such infiltrated Jews were to do harm, to work to shorten the lives of Gentiles to have 'revenge' on them. But Jewish scriptures have always stated that all Gentiles in the entire world are all to be exterminated and ultimately all sent to hell at the end of the world. See https://rense.com/general86/talmd.htm
I have no words. Especially in this Holiday Season!
I'll just let your words speak for themselves.
I think they very clearly and plainly express themselves.
There is such a thing as the 'Christian RELIGION', that is false; it does NOTHING to unite Almighty God with people; it just gives the false impression that people practicing it are 'doing something' that makes them right with God somehow.
I'm not going to address anything you wrote; I'm just going to tell you that I used to be a mess. I was a chain-smoking; foul-mouthed drunk. I was raised catholic...another false religion...clearly; because practicing it did NOTHING for me; I was still sinning like crazy. Then one day someone told me about Jesus Christ; The Only Begotten Son of God; how He died on a cross to pay the price not only for my sins; but for my sin nature itself. (Anyone who has kids or has been around them for a while KNOWS that you NEVER have to teach a child how to 'sin'...how to do 'wrong'; they do it NATURALLY; because it's what and who we are.)
Though I trusted in my 'religion' of catholicism; when I was told about Jesus; what He had done for me; for all of us; for the first time in my life I was willing to not look to it; I knew in my heart at that moment that IT could not save me; I needed a PERSON...so to speak....NOT a religion or a religious practice...to save me. I repented for my sins and my sin nature; I turned to Christ and asked Him to come into my heart to be my personal Savior and Lord. Now; I didn't expect ANYTHING to 'happen', I had no preconceived ideas since I had never yet heard about what Jesus REALLY did for us; nor had I known any born-again Christians at that time.
But within a week; with NO ONE telling me ANYTHING; no one saying that 'something' would happen to me; my desire to smoke went away. I stopped talking like a pig. I went to drink a beer and it tasted funny. I tried another. It too tasted 'funny'. Within a few days I didn't have the desire for ANY alcohol at all. I couldn't hold my cigarette 'right'; everything was 'off'; but in a good way.
I started dressing differently. (I was a biker chic. Wore leather jacket; chains; knife; pretty tough looking.) I started....GASP...wearing DRESSES. I started wearing my hair differently, and my entire countenance was different. And so it has been for over 38 years. For the first time in my life; after asking Jesus to come into my heart to save me; my mind and my heart and my spirit were filled with peace.
You can nay-say for hours on end; but at the end of the day; all that I have experienced is FAR more convincing to me than the words you have written.
I'm afraid that it's you who have believed a lie my friend. IS there a 'false religion' CALLED 'Christianity'? You bet. There is ALSO One that is ABSOLUTLY TRUE; because it's NOT a RELIGION.
It's CHRIST HIS SELF. I pray God grants you the same precious gift He granted to me; repentance unto Salvation through Jesus Christ; then and ONLY then will your eyes be open to The Truth.
Thank you for sharing such an inspiring story, Cammie.
Your joy is ours, all of ours.
Thank you for the love, and the boost to faith.
I certainly agree how plastic state Christian religion is. They even made a slave Bible especially for African Negro slaves that contained only cherry-picked parts to keep them mentally numb and submissive with fake religion.
Ephesians 6:5 - New International Version
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.
And according to the AMORC Rosicrucians there have been about 20 different church councils down through the years that have continually altered what is contained in the Bible.
It is true that anyone can experience some pleasant effects mentally, psychically and spiritually with some remarkable personal changes and even 'miracles' after being involved in just about any religion, as the coven effect of the close association of a number of people now in your association and their directed thoughts and intentions enables you to pick up desired new traits and qualities very quickly, as your thoughts are potentiated by theirs and they are already well established in the lifestyle and state of consciousness that you desire.
It is all a matter of degree of what level of spiritual consciousness is actually attainable through each religion, some offer greater potential than others. I am sure you are happier and have a better lifestyle, and I think the real God does not mind what religion people are, only how sincere they are to become more loving and compassionate, and I believe that He lifts anyone up no matter what their outer religion may be if he sees they really wish to reawaken on the actual spiritual plane.
The "real God" and we are waiting for you to tell us who this is? LOL in a merely playful sense, no offense meant at all.
You will get no argument from me about all the abuse of "religion" by false prophets.
"Plastic" is a good word for it. I can think of others.
In some respects it is almost like storm forecasts, they tell you what they feel they need to in order to get you to do what they want, and often it is not necessarily a bad thing. But it is still a LIE! And we know the "father of lies."
But your relationship with God is not a "collective" thing, it is individual in every respect.
Today, some would say I am being "tested" because the person I am caring for is not a true believer, but it is not God who is testing me!
Good article on American Thinker:
What would the world look like without America?
By Eric Utter
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/12/what_would_the_world_look_like_without_america.html
Most religions, including Christianity, have been co-opted.
I just take whatever I like from ALL of 'em, and enjoy the time, because it's really about NATURE, anyway.
I say we just send Good Vibes to everyone we know and toast each other, Eat Drink, and be Merry, for tomorrow the banksters will kick our ass. Now is the time for UNITY, let's just forget all the religion for a while and focus on PEOPLE. yeah? Cheers, m'dear.
That doesn't mean we can't have fruitcake, lights, hot choc and singing!! :)