The thief on the cross

Originally posted by @romans1009
And how would you know this? You don’t acknowledge God exists and a spiritual realm exists so how could you possibly understand matters pertaining to them? Your mind is closed and your heart is stone; to understand God and the spiritual realm, you need to humble yourself, open your mind and open your heart.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Originally posted by @romans1009
This is all opinion - and very uninformed opinion at that.

Well, this is the Spirituality Forum; all that ever goes on here is the sharing and comparing of opinions, analysis, speculations, aspirations and other similar perspectives by a diverse group of people with different beliefs and experiences.

Originally posted by @fmf
Your religious beliefs haven't created a different level of human consciousness. It is simply stuff that you have rote-learned, internalized and that you propagate with earnestness and conviction.

People who rote-learned your dogma and propagated it accurately could so so without believing it. They might even end up with more knowledge than you about the do ...[text shortened]... stence. Nor does it grant you access to supernatural information that is inaccessible to others.

In concluding all of that, you’re claiming to know how Philokalia perceives and understands life, and you’ve never met him in real life and, I’d wager, know next to nothing about his background, environment and experiences.

Your arrogance is breathtaking.

Originally posted by @philokalia
Some people, at the end of the day, even though they may be entirely functional and even intelligent, just don't have the wisdom necessary to grasp these things and are foolish. We can only consider it a fundamental failure.

Thanks for this ineffective ad hominem. When it boils right down to it, the propagation of your beliefs relies quite heavily on such 'debating points'. I do not question your sincerity however.

Originally posted by @fmf
Well, this is the Spirituality Forum; all that ever goes on here is the sharing and comparing of opinions, analysis, speculations, aspirations and other similar perspectives by a diverse group of people with different beliefs and experiences.

You’re a blind man who claims colors don’t exist because you can’t see them.

Originally posted by @romans1009
You’re a blind man who claims colors don’t exist because you can’t see them.

In case you missed it through all the flotsam, I responded to you on page 4

Originally posted by @fmf
Well, this is the Spirituality Forum; all that ever goes on here is the sharing and comparing of opinions, analysis, speculations, aspirations and other similar perspectives by a diverse group of people with different beliefs and experiences.

God’s existence is not an opinion, much as you might prefer it was.

Originally posted by @fmf
Your religious beliefs haven't created a different level of human consciousness. It is simply stuff that you have rote-learned, internalized and that you propagate with earnestness and conviction.

People who rote-learned your dogma and propagated it accurately could so so without believing it. They might even end up with more knowledge than you about the do ...[text shortened]... stence. Nor does it grant you access to supernatural information that is inaccessible to others.

Obviously, this information is accessible to anyone.

However, without faith in Christ, you will not have an animated understanding of the dogma. Keep in mind as well, my friend, dogma, to me, is not a bad word at all. My mind is not inclined to some need toward vainglorious independence and freedom from constraint. I only mention this because I am sure that you find this aspect of Christendom and religion annoying...

What I am saying is that, on a fundamental level,[ you do not understand the spiritual truth of God and the existence of the soul. It is beyond your grasp. This isn't actually a sign of un-intelligence, because surely there are many very smart and intelligent atheists. Indeed, surely there are many here smarter than me, believe it or not, FMF, I know you think so highly of me...

There is a belief among Apostolic Christians. You can see it int he prayers of our Saints and it is hinted at in Ephesians 4:18. I wish I could conjure up the exact morning Christian prayer that I have in mind but I can't... But the traditionalist Catholic Fr. Chad Ripperger states it beautifully in many of his homilies that

Sins darken the mind.

That does not mean necessarily that the faculties of the mind are less intelligent via sin, though this is also often true, but that the mind is incapable of seeing the truth of things. As my catechist taught me, we are permanently looking at the reality through the foggy window of anthropocentrism and sinfulness.

Thus, FMF, when you hear about the wisdom of Christ and His Teachings, you are doubtful of a whole lot of it and do not see how it is Salvific in nature. WHen you hear about God, when you look at the actions of Christ, when you hear the story, you are going to be far more critical and use your remaining intellectual faculties only to heap criticisms upon it because this is the direction that you want to go.

I think that is what the darkened mind refers to.

I thinkt hat every person has the capacity to pursue these truths but only Saints can begin to pursue them to their final ends.

When I say that your mind is too darkened to understand some of these aspects or access them, don't reallyw orry about that. I am well aware that my mind is too dark to see the fullness of much of this myself.

We're both sharing rpetty foggy views of the world, chappy.

Originally posted by @romans1009
In concluding all of that, you’re claiming to know how Philokalia perceives and understands life, and you’ve never met him in real life and, I’d wager, know next to nothing about his background, environment and experiences.

His "background, environment and experiences" do not make supernatural beings and phenomena real nor does they turn his assertions about such things into material which affects the reality in which I live.

Originally posted by @thinkofone
In case you missed it, I responded to you on page 4

I saw it but was waiting for you to address the other points so I could respond to everything in full instead of piece meal.

Originally posted by @romans1009
God’s existence is not an opinion, much as you might prefer it was.

I realize this is your viewpoint.

Originally posted by @philokalia
Obviously, this information is accessible to anyone.

However, without faith in Christ, you will not have an animated understanding of the dogma. Keep in mind as well, my friend, dogma, to me, is not a bad word at all. My mind is not inclined to some need toward vainglorious independence and freedom from constraint. I only mention this because I am su ...[text shortened]... fullness of much of this myself.

We're both sharing rpetty foggy views of the world, chappy.

None of what you are saying sounds like you are on a "different plane" of human consciousness. You are simply regurgitating "information [that] is accessible to anyone" and then asserting that this information has had some kind of supernatural effect on you.

Originally posted by @romans1009
I saw it but was waiting for you to address the other points so I could respond to everything in full instead of piece meal.

You asked the following:
<<If the New Covenant was not Jesus Christ’s blood sacrifice on the cross for the remission of sins and instead was only His ministry, how do you explain these verses?>>

I provide a lengthy cogent answer.

You followed up with the following assertion:
<<And in this verse from John 6, Jesus identifies the bread as His body, not His words:

“I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

(John 6:51)

I think the bread reference is made due to God providing manna from heaven after the Jews fled Egypt in the Old Testament. Just as God sustained the Jews with bread then, so is Jesus, by giving His life, sustaining the Jews (and Gentiles) of the 1st century (and obviously subsequent centuries.)>>

I provided another lengthy cogent answer.

Your other observations had nothing to do with this line of inquiry.

Of you're not interested in continuing this line of inquiry, that's okay. But stop complaining about not getting substantive responses.

Originally posted by @romans1009
You’re a blind man who claims colors don’t exist because you can’t see them.

Your apparent discursive need to use the word "blind" here in making your assertion is basically what is being discussed. And I have already addressed why I think you frame your assertion this way.

Originally posted by @fmf
It's the same kind of psychological note-to-self that creates the partisan and excluding 'special knowledge' that makes Scientology work for its adherents.

As I said, this is a new low. But for someone who apparently willfully doesn't "get" it, or anything, really, I'm not surprised.