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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Date:         Wed, 8 Apr 1992 13:40:00 EDT
From:         The List Minor <VCHAI@SMITH.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Poverty

 Jeff Sinatra, in response to my questions:
>To me, sin is what another list member called "missing the mark."  I agree
>that poverty is the "(direct and inderect)" result of sin, however, sin
>is derived from mortality--from the belief that life is intelligent and alive,

   From the belief...etc.  Isn't life alive, and isn't some life (ie.
   humans) intelligent?  What do you mean?

>and that man is mortal and seperate from God.  God would not create a sense
>of lack in any of His children, and that is why understanding that God does
>not create poverty frees people from pverty--they realize that they have
>dominion over this horrid human limitation through God.

   Just because they may realize it, doesn't mean it'll change things.
   People need *real* opportunities to improve their standards of
   living.  What I'm getting from what you're saying is that once
   poor people (to put it simply) realize that poverty is not of
   God, their poverty becomes non-existent.

>Death is the number one weapon of sin and mortality, and without this
>most convincing illusion mortality will eventually vanish, and the kingdom of
>heaven will come on earth.

   I'm sorry if I'm repeating something here, but if death is an
   illusion, then Jesus did not really die.  What kind of implications
   will that have for our faith?

>>Death being real has nothing to do with it being Truth.
>
>On the contrary, If death was real, then it would be a part of Truth,

   This might be tricky, but please define "Truth."

> and it would be immortal.

   You equate Truth with immortality, why?

> Mary Baker Eddy writes, "If sickness is real, it belongs to
>immortality; it true, it is a part of Truth. Would you attempt with drugs, or
>without, to destroy a quality of condition of Truth? But if sickness and sin
>are illusions, the awakening from this mortal dream, or illusion, will bring us
>into health, holiness, and immortality." _Science_and_Health_ P. 230

   I thought the Bible clearly talks about the mortality of Man, because
   of the Original sin.  Sin wrought physical death (in addition to
   spiritual death) on mankind.  Christ came that we might have eternal
   life.  What Mary Baker Eddy claims is that we have *always* been
   immortal, it's just that we don't realize it.  To me, these two
   things (for lack of a better word) are incompatible.  (I realize
   however that if you attempt to explain why they _are_ compatible,
   we'd go into the whole discussion of illusions again, and that
   won't get us any where.)

>>...can I say that since you understand that mortality is also an illusion...
>
>I never claimed that I fully understood my own immortality, and if that is the
>immpression I left I am very sorry.

   You never answered my question.  :-)

>To be perfect and immortal is the ideal that Jesus
>demonstrated, and that ideal is what I am aiming for.

   Did Jesus teach that we are all immortals?  Scripture references?

   In Christ,
   Vicky
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