From: c9037395@jupiter.newcastle.edu.au (Helen Lee)
Subject: Xianity & 'Xianity' (was: Changing nature of God)
Organization: Uni of Newcastle, Australia
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 06:23:51 GMT

>>      * God & man have many similarities, but also many diffrences; be careful
>>of your assumptions.
>>
>Now, you having mentioned assumptions, will you be willing to play the game
>and look at your own assumptions? Such as there exists free will in the universe
>and that human beings have this free will. That you have actually got the 
>correct information about God, indeed that there is a God anyway?

Oo, should I take the bait? :)
(see below)


>>>judge a tree by its fruit" in the bible, and when one looks at the fruit of the
>>>god of the christians, at least i am inclined to scratch my head when dealing
>>>with questions of justice. 
>>
>>No one can blame you for this, Chris. It is indeed a difficult set of concepts
>>to understand; even the intellectual Athenians couldn't grasp it. 

>Couldn't grasp what?
Well, this 'Just God'.
Perhaps I should have written it this way instead: "I'm not going to flame you
cos it took me a long long time to grasp this, and I believe the Bible & in
the book of Acts it says that almost all of the Athenians had a problem with
this God I'm talking about, & they were pretty smart people, so I don't look
down on you at all about this."

>The athenians had their own sets of concepts as to what consituted Diety.
>Socrates challanged them, and was put to death for that fact. Socrates own
>concepts of Deity were challanged and modified by thinkers after him, from
>the gods to Aristotle's Prime Mover to the virtual identity of Deity with
>Nature of the Stoics and the Epicurean's belief that the Deities were 
>effectively causally impotent in terms of the present world.

>In fact, the christian understanding of Deity is phrased in terms of hellenistic
>philosophy. It would appear that YHWH got a hellenistic face-lift when being
>taken over into the christian churches. 

Yes, sadly,many outside influences have seeped in to the New Testament Xianity
over the centuries & formed many non-truths/misconceptions/etc that exist in
the popular traditional Xian denominations we see today.
Personally, I don't believe in the doctrines of the Trinity, the immortal
soul, that one goes to heaven or hell when one dies, that JC died on Friday
& rose on Sunday, + ; I do believe that there is a God & that free will exists
& that man has free will, that there are angels, demons, the devil, that
the Xian Sabbath day is Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, that JC will
return, that there will be resurrections of the dead, that everyone will
have an opportunity for salvation (a few now; most later), +.
Aw! NOW look wot u made me do! Bet I'm gonna get flamed for this! ;)

Yes, some - whether Xian, Jewish, Atheist, etc - do NOT think (& continue to
think) about their choice with a good degree of thoroughness & logic;
and some do. I try to be of the latter.

Cheers,
Helen
--
My .sig by H. Lee. Brackets Miss, brackets. This .sig goes as follows and
begins now. All VAXes are thin at one end, much much thicker in the middle
and then thin again at the far end. That is my .sig, it is mine, and belongs
to me and I own it, and what it is too.            c9037395@cs.newcastle.edu.au
Newsgroups: aus.religion