Religion

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Shakespeare (Hamlet)

And I believe Frederick Chopin said this through the direct voice medium, Leslie Flint:
"We may not agree with all the dogma of their religion, but if that religion helps them become a better person, then that is the right religion for them."

Religion is a thorny subject because it evokes a lot of passion in many people. To many, if not most, 'religious' people, their own religion is the only one and all others are at best second rate or at worst evil. I remember when I was in my 20s, a questionnaire went round the church that I used to attend, and one of the questions was: do you see it as your duty to convert people of other religions to Christianity? I said yes. But of course, I don't believe that any more. You don't have to be a Spiritualist to understand a little more of the truth, and in fact there is some 'dogma' in Spiritualism that I don't like. It's mainly in the 7 Principals of the Spiritualists National Union', which use outdated languauge such as 'the Fatherhood of God'. So I hesitate to call myself a Spiritualist, even though that is the closest 'religion' to what I believe. I sit in 'circles' (ie. a group of people who meet at regular intervals for spirit communication.) to listen to messages from the spirit world - which is what Spiritualists do - and also try myself to connect with spirit and bring through messages for others. I'm learning, but for me it is not easy and will take a lot of time and perseverance. After all, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it and we wouldn't need websites like these - or religions, come to think of it!! (Cue for a song: Imagine)

I am not going to discuss the merits or otherwise of different religions because I am not knowledgable enough about religions other than Christianity to do so and anyway, that is not the point of this website. In the overall scheme of things it doesn't really matter what you believe - it's what you do that is important. So I do not think all religion is bad. We are all on our own journey, and all have different backgrounds, cultures, needs and outlooks on life. But personally, I feel freed from the "made-up" dogma part, as I would put it, of so-called Christianity. I can't believe a lot of what is said in the Bible and I don't believe Jesus wanted all the extra theology to be created around his simple message of unselfish and un-judgmental love for all. The dogma just gets in the way, and it has ended up being more important than the original message.

In fact I have become fed-up with guilt-based religion generally. I do not believe that we should beat ourselves up because we are unworthy, because we are sinners, or because we have fallen short of the 'grace of God'. Sure, we can and should try to be more loving in the truest sense of the word, but we do that best by being positive about changing ourselves, not negative. For example, when you get up in the morning, say to yourself:
"I am so thankful for being alive and for being me. Today is an opportunity to continue my journey. Even if things don't go how I planned them, I will try to learn from them." Contrast that with this:
"O God, I pray that today I will not fall into sin. Please forgive me my faults, many as they are, and lead me to a better life, unworthy though I be."

This web site puts this point very well: Yeshua's (Jesus') teachings and the church, though I think the author needs to realise that not all priests are bad(!) and that there are many good things about churches - perhaps more so these days than in the past, even the fairly recent past. It would be nice to think that the church is progressing along with the rest of mankind! lol. But it won't progress very much until it stops preaching the message that all outside it are doomed. And that is a message from the spirit of a former bishop - I'm sorry, I can't remember in which book it was reported, although it might have been from the spirit Meslom.

You know, the Gospel is supposed to be Good News, but actually if you take it, as presented in the Bible, to its logical conclusion, it is BAD News! Why? Because all the good stuff about Heaven for the 'righteous' implies that it's Hell - literally - for actually the majority of people (ie. non-Christians), including many of our loved ones. Like the author of the site mentioned above, I believe that some, maybe much, of what Jesus said has been misreported and is 'fake news' - of course, that never happens nowadays with our modern press, does it?

How do you think the Bible (or any other holy book) was originally written?

(a) Did words miraculously appear on pages in a book?
(b) Did someone hold a pen and it moved 'by itself' and wrote the words?
(c) Did someone hold a pen, words come into his/her head and they wrote them down? (Without really knowing until afterwards what had come through.)
(d) Did someone get an idea (message?) and write it down using their own words?
(e) Completely or mostly made up to control people.

I think those are the only options. If it was (a), then either God DID write the Bible, in which case every word (of the original) has to be true, or some other very powerful spirit (good or bad!!?) wrote it. Assuming the latter idea is wrong, the conclusion is that if the real original can be found, we would have God's word, but if, as seems almost inevitable, the original was altered by other people before it became adopted as the Bible that has been handed down to us, then we are no better off because it will be a mixture of true and false, or at least not-so-true. Why is this inevitable? Because through copying and especially through word of mouth, it would have been altered. There are also many contradictions in the Bible which there wouldn't be if it were God's actual, actual words. Neither would one expect there to be any room for misinterpretation.

If (b) or (c), then ok, the basic ideas would be God's, but some errors would have crept in, maybe more with (c) than (b), because of the MEDIUM'S mind doing the 'translation'. I put MEDIUM in capitals because fundamentalist Christians don't like the idea of mediums - the work of the devil! - but if this isn't mediumship, what is it??? Today we call (b) automatic writing, (c) chanelled writing and (d) inspired writing. Incidently, (c) is how the phrases on my From Spirit page were received.

If (d) then the room for error and distortion as above is greater because the writer would be using their own mind more and therefore have more influence over any message that was coming through.

What do I think? Mostly (c) and (d).
You could substitute any other holy book for the Bible and come to the same conclusions - and of course each religion will claim that theirs is the only true word of God. Which kind of negates the whole thing anyway!!! lol

BUT WAIT! Aren't we forgetting something?? Even if the Bible was originally written in one of those ways, how do we know that the version(s) we have today are in any way, shape or form the same? For a start the early church decided which scriptures to include and which to leave out. Moreover, we know that they altered the ones they did include. They altered them because they wanted to angle the message the way they saw it, including the words (supposedly) spoken by Jesus. They also wanted control over the people. I'm not the only one who believes this happened. Scholars and even some 'Saints' for centuries have acknowledged this, at least in part - yet today most Christians still simply accept what they read as Gospel. (Pun intended.)

Contradictions in the Bible

Punishment by God?

1 John 4, v.18
"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.
For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love."
So if God punishes, 'He' cannot be perfect...

Romans 2, v.6
He will render to each one according to his works

Psalm 103, v.10:
He does not punish us as we deserve or repay us according to our sins.

'Saved' by faith or good works?

Romans 5, v.1
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 8, v.1
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2, v.8-9
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves.

James 2, v.24
You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

John 5, v.29
And (they) shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

2 Corinthians 5, v.10
...and each of us will get what he deserves for the things he did in the body, good or bad.

Revelation 2, v.23
... and I will reward each one of you according to his deeds

The parable of the sheep and the goats
As this parable is rather long to quote on this page, click on the link, which will open in a separate window. An explanation of the parable follows it.

God changes his mind

Exodus 20, v.13
Thou shalt not kill

Leviticus 20, v.1,2,3,4,5 etc!!!
The Lord spoke to Moses... (various people) shall be put to death

Numbers 31, v.17
Now kill every male dependant, and kill every woman who has had intercourse with a man - but spare for yourselves every virgin (!!!)

God Lies?

Proverbs 30, v.5
Every word of God is pure...

Chronicles 18, v.22
Now therefore, behold the Lord hath put a lying spirit into the mouth of these prophets...