Although I think of myself as a Christian, I don’t actually give a damn about anything taught outside of the gospels. While debating/discussing theology is fun and interesting, it’s ultimately irrelevant to my personal belief system.
Hear me out here. The whole schtick is that man is inherently bad (original sin) and Christ was sacrificed to atone for original sin. Even if you’re given God’s grace, you’re still flesh and therefore fallible. So the only infallible teachings that came straight from the divine are the words of Christ, and they’re the only ones I can trust to be without err.
In all fairness and agreement, Christ fulfilled the Mosaic Law as prophesied well up to his death on the cross, so followers of Christ really
should always base their beliefs off of his teachings which is what he was hoping the Je
wish people would embrace. But there's still valid reasons we keep reading and still teach the Old Testament and the rest of the New Testament and other scriptures, if not for the history, then only to harken them back to Jesus' teachings since that's the centerpiece of Christianity. Jesus' ministry to fulfill the Mosaic Law is part of the reasons the Pharisees reviled him so much because he did "unthinkable" things like visiting and healing the sick on the Sabbath, told people the sins of the father doesn't pass punishment on to their children, didn't stone an adulteress, showed favor to a widow giving her only two mites compared to the rich man who gave only a portion of his riches, interacted with a Samaritan woman (scandalous! He mingled with unclean non-members!) at the well, amongst other things.
Honestly, one of my time travel wishes (before death, but most likely after death before I venture out into space) is to go witness the Sermon on the Mount in person. It's wonderful on text, but imagine how it must've felt in person, how it must've looked to the common man curious about who this Jesus of Nazareth was that he could draw in a crowd, yet always seemed to look alone. How sad he must be that his words will fall on deaf ears when he truly believes in and lives them. Jesus must've been lonely more times in his life than we might think because he loves everyone and wants us to live together forever, but no one loves him back.
Bit of Baptist, too, but they're not that interesting.
That got an "oof" out of me lol. Though maybe it says something when I keep mistaking Lutherans for Baptists for some reason. But like sects still share enough similarities from the mother religion that if you don't pay attention, I guess they all blend together.
I know us Mormons
(we're asked to be using "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" more, then "Latter-Day Saints" in referring to members, but for brevity's sake...) are oddballs and at times stupidly optimistic, but it's really nice to get non-member insight, especially in a tone of respect no matter your opinions. It's sweet, really, although like all other Christian sects, we just want to teach the Word of God, that all are children of God no matter who you are and where you live. I'm thinking as a mortal, we label ourselves into a religion/cult if only for identity or sense of inclusion, but in the spirit world, especially when all's said and done, that all goes away and we're just ourselves. We take what we learn in this life with us, so I'm sure the habit of saying you're Mormon, or Catholic, or Protestant, or Islamic, or atheist, or a follower of Lain, or whatever will still be there, but it doesn't matter.
So those quotes from people about how disappointed Jesus would be in Christianity, or that he wouldn't call himself a Christian today? Yeah, I think there's truth to it. He doesn't care about what you label yourself, he just wants to know if you'll come follow him and live like him. It's why despite talk of the Millennium after his Second Coming and walking among men again, I believe
all religions will remain under his watchful eye. Everyone will still be free to believe and live how they so choose, but he still would like to be a part of your life so he can help you out when you make a human mistake.
My mind wandered off lol where was I? Oh yeah, wanted to highlight this out of admiration:
And that's what makes it so beautiful to me. It's basically an analogy for the patterns of nature put into the cosmology. Men are like children, gods like adults. The purpose of life is to propagate itself. Men grow into gods, gods make more men, and the universe is constantly expanding as more worlds (whether interpreted as planets or other universes) are brought into existence, and it depends on a Taoist-like interaction between male and female, complementary and completely distinct forces. It also provides an answer for other things. Life is hard because it's meant to improve you. You were born as what you were because you chose to be. It is the most optimistic vision of the world I have ever come across.
That's beautiful, man, I love that.
When Pentecostals worship, they don't sing a dusty old hymn. They have guitars and drums. They don't go one minute and then spend the next hour talking before doing another hymn. It is a thirty-minute concert of continuous, uplifting, rhythmic music. You get tired participating but you can't stop singing. It's a trance, like a Whirling Dervish experiences. And it breaks down your inhibitions, until the mixture of the crowd doing it, and your emotional confusion lead to you succumbing to that mystical part of the brain, which in some men manifests itself as Jesus, but in others can be Allah or Buddha or Thor, depending on whatever the preacher at the front is saying.
And the words they say? They don't really care about them. They know everybody has a distinctive sound to their language of angels, but they don't consider it a mark against its veracity. But the girl who studied French had tongues that sounded like French. The pastor who always went on mission trips to African sounded like African.
And, Lord, one of the funniest experiences I ever had was when I saw a little boy pick up on it. Pastor got in a loop, something screwed up with his tongues, and he got real loud but real repetitive, like the same syllable thirty times in a row. And I see the congregation get a look of worry on their faces, like the veil had been pierced for everybody, and this boy looks over the back of his chair with a big old grin on his face, like he's thinking "Pastor's being silly, isn't he?" And nobody else saw him, but I did.
10/10, I recommend everybody spend a few months with Pentecostals, finest entertainment you can ask for.
I don't think I've ever heard of Pentecostals, least not in person. It sounds like music is extremely important to them though, but is their music distinguishable from other songs of worship by any chance? Like you won't think of it as gospel music should you come across it? Any good examples that can be pulled up, if possible?
Oh I should leave something, trivia or the like. Uhhh well the first that came to mind seeing this thread is that for the sacrament, it's actually stated in the Doctrine & Covenants, "It mattereth not what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink when ye partake of the sacrament, if it so be that ye do it with an eye single to my glory." And "wine" is still listed in the sacrament prayer, so Mormons
can use wine but only if a member made it themselves so as to avoid breaking the Word of Wisdom. It's honestly odd we don't use grape wine like the Catholics do (although I hear stories some pastors use grape juice instead, but that's apparently a bad thing to do), but I think Catholics have actual vineyards and wineries strictly meant to be for the sacrament, and the church is big enough to have that luxury. Makes me wonder if when Jesus turned water into wine that it's the non-alcoholic wine, though I wonder which methods were used for that miracle to happen.
Well water's much more commonly used anyway, though I believe using other beverages is limited to emergencies if one can't find water for the sacrament. Likewise why we use bread, but anything can be used in lack of availability. My family ward years ago actually used crackers once because someone who was in charge of bringing bread over didn't show up, there wasn't any leftover in the kitchen and there wasn't time for anyone to go fetch some bread, but there was a box of crackers in the kitchen cupboard that the bishopric shrugged and allowed it. Was an interesting experience--least it was to me.
Been looking into the Heart Sūtra very recently, but don't have anything to say about it since I'm not at all familiar with Buddhism (specifically Mahāyāna in this case) so I'll leave that up to someone else to get into if needs be since it looks like it has some layers to it. Actually wasn't aware that even Buddhism has sects, but with the world as big as it is, it really shouldn't have come as a surprise.
