From: rpitts@emperor.gatech.edu (Richard Pitts)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: Rich men and Heaven
Date: 13 Oct 92 15:10:06 GMT
Organization: CERL-EE, Georgia Institue of Technology

In article <ksand-121092122008@wintermute.apple.com> ksand@apple.com (Kent Sandvik) writes:
|In article <70908@hydra.gatech.EDU>, rpitts@emperor.gatech.edu (Richard
|Pitts) wrote:
|> In article <ksand-081092215236@wintermute.apple.com> ksand@apple.com (Kent Sandvik) writes:

[ My request for Kent's understanding of the purpose of the parable in
Luke 19 and Kent's response stating his reluctance to speculate - deleted.]

|> |So what has this to do with the earlier statements you made that showed
|> |that Jesus would come back???
|> 
|> It had to do with him being the noble man in the parable.  He was God
|> made flesh - (God would be considered noble, correct?)  Much less in 
|> Luke 2:10-11 (the parable was in Luke 19) the angel said that the baby
|> just born in the city of David (Jerusalem) was Christ (the Anointed One,
|> the Messiah, the Savior) the Lord - again another point to Jesus being
|> a noble man. Here are some more verses to Jesus being the king:
|
|Sigh, these are the things I oppose. Imagination used to create all kinds

You oppose all of these things I mentioned????????

|of hypertext links from one place in the Bible to another. Even worse,

Where did I use imagination to connect these things?????????
Read Luke 2:10-11 and John 1:1-18 (note verses 1 and 14.) and see
who is this Jesus of Nazerath - is he a noble man?

|to use what Jesus said to justify all kinds of strange doctrines. No wonder
|we have so many original Christian sects...

Which words of Jesus do you question as being the reason for there
being so many original Christian sects?  Which original sects?

|> |It seems you need to make all kinds of wishful connections and 
|> |assumtions, and twist the word of Jesus to suit your doctrines,
|> |which I find is a sad situation....
|> 
|> Could it be I have the Spirit and understand some of these things?
|> I didn't use to have the understanding and enlightenment I have now.
|> When I submitted my will to that of God and allowed the Holy Spirit
|> to have control of my life, the scriptures opened up to me!
|
|Could it be I use common sense and look beyond the filters or faith?

Could it be that common sense is blinded to the message?  Paul tells
us that things of the spirit are hidden from those without the spirit.
Jesus told us that he spoke in parables, which fulfilled the prophecy
of people ever hearing, but not understanding - ever seeing, but not
perceiving.

|I could say I allowed my tiny brain to operate fully with no external
|interaction, and I now see the world in a totally different view than
|when I was controlled by external doctrines. Anyway, if the truth is 

I agree - I am controlled by the Holy Spirit, as I submit myself to 
Him, and he leads me into all truth.

|obvious, even people that don't have the Spirit would accept Christianity.

Not if they are blinded, as many are.

|As it is today it seems the use of Spirit is the only way to blindly
|accept a lot of the controversial doctrines. We are not dealing exactly
|with common sense here.

Which doctrines?

|> |It also seems when there's not relevant information, Paul is the one
|> |that clarifies and justifies all kinds of problematic cases. This is
|> |also an intersting observation, and it clearly shows that my own
|> |theory that Paul is the originator of modern Christianity -- not Jesus,
|> |is maybe valid.
|> 
|> Why did Paul preach Jesus as Lord and himself (Paul) as a servant?
|> Why did a zealous attacker of Christianity turn to Christianity, himself?
|
|In my humble opinion Paul was the first and actually the worst twister
|of Jesus' words. As for zealous attacker, ever heard about bad conscience,

Peter said that others (could that be you Kent) twisted Paul's words
as they do the REST of Scripture to thier own destruction.
Peter was a eyewitness and close companion of Jesus, you know - he probably
had some pretty good insights.

   2 Pet 3:15   Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as
      our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.
   2 Pet 3:16   He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of
      these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to
      understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the
      other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

|why do paranoid murders suddenly become like sheep? It's a known
|psychological case, nothing new under the sun. Still, I would never
|believe somebody with visions about Jesus, with no real evidence
|whatsoever.

You read the scriptures about Paul saying he was converted and the
subsequent scriptures (Acts 9) tell of another's vision that confirmed 
Paul's calling.

Paul's conversion was independently confirm by Ananias in Acts 9. 
Ananais had a vision himself from the Lord to GO to meet Paul and
tell Paul (Saul) what he was to do, that he (Paul) was to be the
apostle to the Gentiles and that he was to suffer much for Jesus' sake.

|That's why I didn't believe my father's cousin who had such similar
|visions.

What was your father's cousin's independent confirmation, which you
previously said he had?

For Christ and His Kingdom,
Richard Pitts
-- 
rpitts@cerl.gatech.edu       |    
Atlanta, GA                --|-- 
                        -|-  |  -|-
                         |   |   |
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc