God and religion

I am a Christian. Knowing God is very important to me. My relationship with him helps shape my life and choices. Having said that, I believe most people who claim to be spiritual are not. Their professed belief in God does not impact their choices. Jesus said not everyone who cried out "Lord, Lord" would make it to heaven. Some would lay claim to their "good works" and he will say, "I never knew you. depart from me, you who practice lawlessness".

The word profane means outside of the church. It refers to things that do not belong inside the church. Things that are offensive to God. Someone was discussing the word and as an example they mentioned an adulterer bringing his mistress into the church with him. It hit home because the ex did that with her adulterous partner, both married. She saw no irony in it.

This is not about the ex, it is about faith. Faith is not belief, it is action based on belief. It is living your beliefs. I grew up Catholic, I left the church; but, have many fond memories of nuns and priests that I knew. I left because of a doctrinal issue, I do not believe the Pope speaks the innate word of God. So I left.

For me, spirituality is not about "religion" or a church, it is about faith. It is about how we live. Currently, information has come out about the Pope. It is sad information for many Catholics. The information involves the Pope and his failure to appropriately deal with child molestors who were priests. The information was hid, the activities were secret.

One priest molested 200 deaf children. That is about a low as one can get. I do not consider him a Christian. He is not. He does not do God's work, he does not follow Jesus' teachings. He does evil. All sin and all may be forgiven; but, there is a price tag. It requires repentance and a turning of one's heart away from evil. It also requires the truth.

The lawyer and his evidence.

Not long ago the exorcist for the Vatican said that the Devil was in the Vatican. He said there were Bishops and Cardinals who were satanists and did not believe in Jesus. How then can we call them Christians? If they call themselves chairs, it does not make them chairs.

One might ask how they reconcile their actions with their professed beliefs. One might ask how the Pope could fail so miserably to correct and bring these things to light. The abuse and paedophilia that occurred in Ireland and Germany and the United States is staggering. Some will lose faith in the church and even in God. That is the worst part.

One might also ask why a satanist would choose to join the church. The answer is twofold. Firstly, to learn the rituals. Satanists, Luciferians, whatever, occultists, are very big on ritual. They believe there is power in ritual. If one studies the history of occultism you come across a belief in "sex majik". It is the idea that certain types of sex bring power. Some believe that paedophilia takes the innocence and strength of young boys. It is a very disgusting and corrupt belief set.

The other reason some people become priests is to degrade the church. To turn people away from it. There have been many attempts at this over the decades and often the people were routed out. That appears not to be happening anymore. That is a shame.

There are those in the Christian community that believe the Catholic church is the "whore of Babylon". This is incorrect. The whore of Babylon is the Mystery religion of Babylon, it can be found in many places. A wonderful summary of it's beliefs can be found on You Tube by a man called "Bill Cooper".

Bill Cooper and Myster Babylon

The belief set, in a nutshell, is that we can become Gods. Ahhh, but therein lies the rub. Jesus said that their law said that God called them little Gods. But what did it mean?

One writer said, "Athanasius, in his famous work, On the Incarnation of the Word of God, wrote, "The Word was made man in order that we might be made gods." Athanasius is consider very orthodox." That, my friends, is the teaching of mystery babylon. It is corrupt and foolish.

It misses the most fundamental sayings of Jesus. Paul said, "Have this attitude which was also in Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself taking the form of a bond servant, and being made in the linkeness of men". Phillipians 2:7.

I rarely quote scripture directly preferring to discuss the issues; however, it is necessary in this instance. God created us to have relationship with him, not to become him or like him. There is a movement with some churches which says just the opposite. That movement is the mystery babylon religion.

What is interesting is that none understand what it means to be God. They are just fascinated with the perceived cookies. God referred to himself as "I am". His essence is awareness, consciousness. A seperate and unique being. We are also self aware beings. That is our similarity to God. The differance is that he creates consciousness in new beings, we do not.

When Paul said equality with God was not a thing to be sought, he had his reasons. Prior to creating us, God was alone. An alone consciousness. That is what it is to be like him, complete power over oneself and the absence of relationship with others. An eternity by yourself, apart from God, that is the definition of hell. Solitary confinement of our own choice. It is the result of selfishness, self-centeredness.

This post is probably the most spiritual of any that I have written. I make no apologies, it is my blog and I am free to say what I believe to be true. I welcome comments as always. I am sure may reading this will not be interested, that is okay. I have studied many religions and beliefs and have opinions. They are just mine.

The essence of New Age religions is nothing new. It is the same as it has always been, the belief that we can become perfect, become like God. I do not wish to be God, he is better at it. I do however wish to have relationship with him. That is exciting.

The Catholic church is teaching Deacons that God is dead. The idea is an old gnostic approach. The concept is that God created us and left, he went away and we are on our own. We are to become like him, perfect. That is not what the bible says.

Now I want to talk a little bit about the Devil. A very misunderstood being. Firstly, we know he was an angel who rebelled against God. The Devil was the most beautiful of the angels. Problem was, he thought so too. God created man and the Devil thought itself better than us and that is should not be subjected to being put underneath humans.

Angels have free will. That is clear. Yet they lack something that we have, growth. We are not born perfect; but, we are capable of improving. The angels did not face the same challenges that we face. Perhaps they are immune from chasing cookies. Yet, Satan wished to prove he was more deserving. An interesting dilemma. How does one prove they are better than humans without doing evil?

LOL. That is the joke, it is the issue. Consider Job, that is what God said to Satan. Consider my servant Job. And Satan said Job was only good because God had blessed him. Satan was allowed to take away all that Job had; but, Job still clung to a love of God. That horrified Satan, he proved himself less than Job. Job hated the experience; but, proved himself worthy. That is the purpose of life partly. It is not about becoming perfect, it is about faith and love and heart and endurance. Metal is cured in a fire. Only through challenge can we truly define ourselves.

Satan would no doubt say that he does nothing evil. He merely provides and opportunity to humans, they choose. We blame him, that is incorrect. We must take responsibility for our choices. We can see this in the mortgage scandals. People lied about how much money they made and blamed the mortgage companies. The mortgage lenders would say it was the borrowers fault. They are both corrupt, fault is meaningless.

In the end, it is not about our faults. It is not about being free of fault or sin, it is about the good we do from the heart. If we are loving, it will show itself in our works. We will seek to do good. We may be forgiven our sins; but, that does not excuse us for doing evil or failing to do good.

There are many who claim to be Christian and seek to hide from the evil of this world. They hide their light from the world so as to not be corrupted by it. We are told to do the opposite. We are told to be the light of this world. We cannot do that if we hide from the world.

So much evil in the world. Sometimes it looks as if evil will triumph, it cannot. If evil triumphs it has only evil. What type of win is that? Satan seeks followers that it despises and looks down on. What type of win is that?

Do you remember what the Devil said to Eve? He said that God told Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of knowledge because God did not want them to become like God knowing the differance between good and evil. The same deception, that we can become like God is what Satan tempted Eve with. That is the mystery religion, it is still around, that we can become like God.

Satan always tells just part of the story. That is deception, the great deceiver. The Mystery religion of Babylon was just that. It is played out in many religions and beliefs. The idea that we start out profane and work our way up, above others with less knowledge, and eventually achieve perfection, God status.

We are so willing to be told about our good points, we love flattery. We despise being told how we can improve. We love awards and degrees and bullshit, we claim our greatness because we have been recognized as such. Not unlike the Wizard of Oz, The tin man needed the Wizard to give him a crappy trinket heart to know that he had one.

I have many degrees and awards, I know where some of them are, none are displayed. They are meaningless to me. They do not define me, they are paper, they do not reveal my heart. They do not make me, me.

INTERRUPTION

While I was writing, a very nice young man called me, we had a conversation about spiritual things. I like him, he is a nice and intelligent young man. The conversation, oddly enough, related to what I was writing about. About being us, being truthful.

I have completely lost my train of thought. I have no idea where I was going, that is okay. I said enough for now. I may write more tonight, we shall see. I have Monday off and wine to enjoy. I hope you have a great night. I am facing a challenge today, not spiritual. I cannot discuss it; but, there is a problem, not mine. Someone has a problem and they matter to me. I keep busy and wait. Be well. May God love you.