Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Date:         Wed, 30 Sep 1992 14:12:45 CDT
From:         Michael Million <MM24681@UAFSYSB.BITNET>
Subject:      Comments/a personal viewpoint

 Greetings All:   Nancy, thanks for taking the time to respond to my
 questions about the Bible's references to 'future revelations.'  Your
 reply was very informative and contained many of the same conclusions
 at which I have arrived.  I especially like the following:

 >Nancy Tinkham - nlt@gboro.glassboro.edu wrote:
 >...that it is more dangerous to mistakenly treat human thoughts as
 >divine revelation than it it to mistakenly treat divine revelation as
 >human thoughts.

 .. and Leo, I am not sure you intended this specifically for me but to
 me it 'rang true' to the questions and my perception of the biblical
 refs:

 >From:         Leo W <Leo_W@QM.CIRCA.UFL.EDU>
 >Subject:      Scripturette 9/24

 >"Let the teaching of Christ live in you richly.  Use all wisdom to
 >teach and strengthen each other" (Colossians 3:16).

 ---------------comments and notions of a personal viewpoint: ----------
 I know that concerning matters of eternal significance, it is most
 wise to err on the side of caution, rather than be swept away by some
 fanatical misinterpretation.  I have to pause to wonder though, we DO
 know that the OT and the NT were completely written by humans, right?
 Jesus himself left no writings, so we have records of his words based
 on *human* experience and memory and therefore, (at least to some
 degree) human interpretation as well.  I find it easy to believe that
 these words were written by *inspired* humans, and probably often in
 contact with messenger(s) of God.  I find it very difficult to believe
 that the authors understood the whole concept of Deity, cosmology and
 the ascension plan for mortals flawlessly and completely correct (some-
 thing that probably is not possible for humans to completely grasp
 anyway).  And I am not saying that Christ was not the best of teachers.
 But, to interpret and write up their descriptions of Jesus' teachings
 and the details of his life, they had to filter their words/concepts
 through their own minds.  To this day believers tend to split organiza-
 tions/denominations and split again... does this sound like what Christ
 intended?   Ever stopped to think about the apostles' state of emotions
 and mind following seeing their Jesus crucified (without even a finger
 raised on his part to stop it and we all know he could have had legions
 of 'help' had he called for it).  These events could easily have had an
 influence on their message after his physical passing.  I am very
 concerned that for the millions of readers over the centuries who have
 had to interpret the biblical authors' interpretations might have caused
 us some confusion about spiritual matters.  *Inspired* is very different
 from *revealed.*  If a direct work of revelation was manifested on our
 planet, written by the very angels and celestial beings who watched and
 participated in our planet's history -  now THAT would be something to
 watch for....that would be worthy - as is the life of Christ - of being
 called a direct revelation; not an interpretation of revelation (which
 could also be called evolutionary teachings.)

 In my opinion, the basic religious relationship is that of the individ-
 ual mortal and God, whom we approach via the Son.  Talking to the Son
 is, to our perspective, essentially the same as talking to the Father.
 Messengers, priests, churches, books, etc. can all be helpful, but to
 my mind, they are not essential.  With a divine fragment of the
 heavenly Father in our minds/spirits, we have the ability to contact
 the First Source of Divinity (whom I call the Universal Father) at all
 times without 'aid' from any other mortal.  In this fragment, we have
 an unfailing pilot who can guide us through the vast celestial journey,
 back to the Father.  The true religious relationship is that personal
 and intimate one with the Father and needs involve no other (with the
 aforementioned qualification of approach through the Son).  The ring of
 evolutionary universes/worlds rotating around heaven, or paradise, are
 worlds created by the Sons, in co-ordination with their divine mates,
 as *gifts* to the Paradise Trinity.  The Sons create inhabitable worlds
 out of the void, supervise the evolution of life, then further nurture
 the emergence of freewill mortals like ourselves who can self-realize;
 that is, come to know and the Father and choose to do His will.  And
 the endless parade of personalities, who realize their own ascendant
 career in returning to the Father, is the greatest gift the Sons could
 have offered to Him.  An offer of perfected beings would not have been
 nearly the same gift; offering mortals who, through their life exper-
 ience and moral decisions, can recognize God in themselves and in their
 mortal brothers is the greatest gift of the Sons; mortals who can
 recognize and choose their path of return -- increasingly divine and
 decreasingly material.  The divine fragment (or monitor of the Father)
 contains the 'predestined' plan for each and every mortal. Choosing
 survival, can be made in this initial life in which we find ourselves
 or can be made later, during the wonderful career of each ascending
 mortal.  For their must be many, many intervening worlds of celestial
 training where guidance and instruction are received from our advanced
 brothers (of earthly and/or divine origin).  A knowing Deity, who has
 been extant for eternity, must surely have patience and mercy and
 tolerance for their far distant children of animal origin; surely we
 will not be condemned to a hell for an eternity when we have just begun
 our careers as faith sons. Surely, wise celestial administrators would
 not judge us so quickly when they themselves have taken eons to create
 and nurture the physical conditions necessary for the biological evolu-
 tion of our lifeforms.  There must be a much more merciful and wise
 collection of celestial administrators than is entertained by those who
 would have us believe we could be 'made as though we never were' is so
 short a life as the ones we live here on this planet.

                                a brother in Christ,     Michael
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