Faith???

Originally posted by Conrau K
You seem to separate God from religion. I like it!

Of course. The two have very little to do with each other.

This is certainly not a unique idea of course. Consider The book of John in the christian bible where Jesus speaks to the Samaratan woman:

Joh 4:19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

So she sees him as a religious figure, so she naturally starts talking religion:

Joh 4:20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

OK, she wants to know about their religous differences, but Jesus moves the focus away from either religion:

Joh 4:21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.

This is not because Jesus is referring to a 3rd religion, as he next adressess the religious issue seperately:

Joh 4:22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.

So Jesus still identifies himself as a Jew and says the Jews are in the know as far as religion goes. In other words has the more authentic religion, but still he once again emphasises that her question, which effectively is about which religion is correct in relation to worship, is misguided. The worship of the Father bypasses religion:

Joh 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Joh 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

in spirit and in truth NOT in letter and in booth...

Originally posted by Conrau K
What first attracted me to Christianity was the fact that people were doing loving things (hmmm I am trying to exclude innuendo). However, later on I observed this same phenomenon in other religion and even in non-religions. Jesus might be the author of love in Christianity but that does not explain the exorbitant amount of love in other
religions (who at but I do belive in a God (kind of). Hell, maybe i should just be an agnostic. Seems easier.

It is true that you find loving people in other religions. Jesus also recognized this fact. Jesus once said that even sinners, or the unreligious, even know how to love. He once said that even evil men know how to love those who love them back. He then asked an interesting question. He asked them what reward they had for doing so? There is no real effort in doing this. That is because we were created to love because our creator is a God of love. Those that go against the impluse to love therefore suffer as a result because they are attempting to become what they were not designed to become. This is the current state of fallen man to various dergrees and can be seen in a wide range of disorders of physical, emotional, and spiritual proportions.

I think what seperates Christ from all other religious teachers, however, is the fact that he said that his followers must love their enemies and do good to them who despitefully use them. This is what seperates the men from the boys so to speak. This type of love then becomes a supernatural type of love. It is no longer a natural response to hate and abuse suffered by us. No other religious leader before Christ taught this. Where then did it come from? I have concluded that it could only come from the very source of all love and not merely a type of love that comes from mortal men alone.

You may say that love does not have a source although I do not find this to be logical. I think everything has a source. I also find the thought of love in a vacume to be, as you put it, extremely prosaic and uninspiring as well. To simply say that love is God, in my view, is doing so. I find it awe inspiring that I was created because I have a creator that loves me. I have purpose as well as value. This God even lowered himself to my level to sacrifice himself for my otherwise seemingly insignificant existence.

I once heard a christian theologian say that the rise of all other religions were actually men running from God and not the other way around. His point was that the author and finisher of love has only one goal and that is relationship with us. When we run to other man created deities and ritualistic nonsense we are in truth running from relationship with our creator via substitution. This also occurs when we shut him out in our lives to live life just for ourselves.

It is interesting that you refered to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam in your last post. This is because all three are derived from the same God of Abraham. Christianity, however, is the only complete supernatural love message in the world. The other two religions deny the supernatural love of a God who lovingly embraces those who hate him and seek to take his life. As Christ once said, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Originally posted by Conrau K
Assuming it is true. Which you can't garauntee so of requires faith. What I meant before was, why does worship involve reading the bible?

Because its how we learn HOW God wants to be worshipped. Christian worship isn't a ritual, it's a lifestyle. So we read and Bible often and talk about it amongst ourselves because life is complex and we want to be sure we are handling each situation as God would have us to.

DF