Summations Only

CL Stam explains it best. No need to read the book...browse it and you will see a basic pattern.The flavors of nature. We build smiles. - I want Destroy global warming before it destroys you and I want it now.

Thats why I brought the book up, since you said you had heard of several Dispensationalist teachings...I didn't mean to imply that you were to read it. I keep forgetting that you are not wanting to learn this stuff for ministry purposes...Basically the Bible is divided into two eras...Prophecy and Mystery. Its not simply Old and New Testaments.... You asked for scriptural support. The book is full of scriptural support...i didnt expect you to read it...simply open it and anywhere you look you will see scriptural support for that particular theory of Dispensationalism. sheesh. I need to add something to this topic, however. My point is that Jesus needs to be more than "real" simply as a great human example of what to do. Jesus being real implies that the resurrection has and had a power to change peoples lives.Some would argue that anyone can be spiritual by and of their own power. I would argue that walking "in the Spirit" implies grace...not self works alone.

also Looks like Black and White thinking...either I need to mean something or my words are meaningless. Quite a taskmaster you are.Lets ask ourselves a few preliminary questions:1) How are words and sentences and paragraphs given meaning?2) Can emotions be inferred through the descriptive ability of the chosen words.

Giving your heart does involve doing something, but the Matthew sheep/goats scripture is addressed to Jews who need to do good works (and obey the Law perfectly..or as near as can be done) in order to be righteous. People make the mistake of assuming that the Gospel of Grace preached by the Apostle Paul is some sort of cheap substitute and marketing gimmick, but the point of giving your heart is that you allow the Holy Spirit to empower you to joyfully do good works---not as an effort towards salvation but as a cheerful result of surrendering to God. You cant simply go do good works and have a callous indifference to God. It wont work.Edited by Phat, : No reason given.

Im assuming that you believe that you yourself give meanings that you choose to words that you either say or read. Either that or you assume some sort of secular consensus...which is rubbish. Here, tell me what you think the following words mean...to you. Then tell me what you think the author intended the meaning to be.

quote:

---

John 6:63-64
63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.

---

Who is His audience?

You know me. I seek honesty and the Spirit.You may argue that I have historically preferred fantasy over reality, but I would respond by saying that it is an unresolved matter what proportion and distribution of each is.(fantasy & reality)

Do good works cheerfully yet not of necessity. You should in theory want to do them. God never changes. Good works are always a good thing. The point is that they are not the road to salvation. We are not judged merely by what we do. I might add that a person whom counts faith as righteousness would quite naturlally do good works anyway, at least in theory. ---people often make the mistake of assuming that if they feel better about themselves, providence will smile upon them.Edited by Phat, : edit

I might accuse you of being in and/or believing in a cult of good works. Christianity is not just about what you do. Its about why you do it and its about your relationship with the living God...if people do good works out of ignorance that there is a living God, I suppose He would deal with them as they are. Too many critical thinkers have shoved the relationship out of their realm of possibility. Logic and Reason are often enemies of faith.

No...all that I see is that human understanding of who God is and how He is changes. Who was Jesus talking to?If He tells you that you personally need to do good works, I would listen. He has, in fact, told me to do good works from time to time. What God says to us is based on our interpretation of our prayers, conscience, and peers. As you have said before, it is wise to always question when someone claims to hear directly from God.

It all depends whether you have more of a reverence for common sense than you do for faith. It may be possible to accept that our logic will steer us one way and our faith will steer us another.

What if you believed that humans were by nature competitive and selfish and thus believed that your thinking would inevitably lead you away from God and closer to self deification?

I dont think you have really read the Bible either. Your idea of a God of logic, reason, and reality is...in reality...your own intellect attempting to explain scripture the way YOU think that it is.

I believe that there is a difference between what may actually exist versus what humans make up. In other words, I am well aware that humans can imagine all sorts of possibilities and invent science fiction and other fables...I just don't believe that the religious mythos is one of them. (to some extent it likely is, but not totally)The tricky part is determining which is which. While I don't believe that all stories are made up by humans to entertain/convince/control other humans, I will admit that it is not easy to tell which is which.Perhaps it is better to live as if we were the deciding characters in a cosmic play, or perhaps not. Belief in such concepts as spiritual warfare between angelic/demonic hosts (a battle in which the outcome is already decided, by the way) is probably not going to cause much harm in a daily reality sense unless and until we have incidents llike a mother who claims God told her to kill her children, or a president who labels a war in Afghanistan as a battle between good and evil. the real battle between good and evil is in everyones individual conscience. We all know what actions we could take that are more evil than other,better choices. No belief in any Deities is required to make these daily choices...and we can't blame the bad guy if we fall short. I suppose we need not be required to give credit to God, either...comments?

Saying that the stories are made up is only based on the idea that evidence is required. My basis for belief is based on experiences that I have had which were unexplainable. It is true that I have a confirmation bias towards faith/belief, and it is true that I would prefer that it be true. The idea of a God that has my back is compelling.