Jesus:  >     "This is the verdict:  Light has come into the world, but >     men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds >     are evil.  Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will >     not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be  >     exposed."  Kent Sandvik says:  >It seems we are dealing with a black-and-white interpretation. >Brian, are you subtly accusing me of evil things because I never >saw the light? However, this is even more confusing because >I even admit that I don't like the situation where I'm not  >informed.  Black and white.  A spade is a spade.  There is no hidden agenda behind this, so stop trying to look for one.   It is an easy and as straight forward as it reads.  Kent, I am not accusing you of evil things.  Jesus is accusing you. And it is not only you that He is accusing.  He is accusing everyone. Me, you and everyone in the world is guilty.  Whether one sees the light or does not seen the light has nothing to do with  whether we do evil things.  We do them regardless.    Jesus uses the word "men".  I am included.  Jesus is not soloing you out. Jesus is making a general statement about out the sad state of man. Christians are not immuned from doing evil things.  A Christian  is just a person in whom the Holy Spirit indwells.  A Christian  can see the evil he is doing--because his evil has been brought out into the light.  Jesus is not saying that just because evil has been exposed, that the Christian will stop doing evil.  If you haven't seen Jesus's light, your evil deeds simply haven't been exposed to the His light.  You may shed some light on your own.  Your human spirit shines at perhaps 1 candela.  But the Holy Spirit shines at a Megacandela.  The Holy Spirit can shine light into places inside us where we didn't even know existed.   So do you see Jesus's point?  Christians are not perfect.  Nonchristians are not perfect.  Nonchristians do not want to come into the Light of Jesus because they will see all the problems in their lives, and they will not like the sight.  It is an ugly thing to see how far we have fallen from Jesus's perspective.  Do you think you want to know how really ignorant you are?  Do you think Brian Kendig wants to know?  Do you think I want to know?  Ego verses the truth, which do you choose?  >I'm watching the news about a man who saw the light, and made >sure that the 19 children burned to death as part of his insight >into the light. I don't think the world is that simple. And if  >you act in such ways when you are enlighted, then I'm a happy >man and I pray I will never receive such 'light'.  And I watched Koresh too, an imposter who thought he saw the light,  who made sure that the 19 children burned to death, sadly, as part of his delusion.  It is even sadder that the people who died with him chose to die with them, and that ignorance was their downfall to death.   And Kent, don't you bury yourself underneath a rock with an excuse like bringing up Koresh--as if Koresh actually had truth in him. David Koresh was no light and no excuse for you to stay away from the real Jesus Christ.  David Koresh, who claimed to be Jesus, was a fraud.  It was obvious.  David Koresh was born in America. Jesus was born in Bethlehem.  Koresh wasn't even a good imposter having missed an obvious point as that.  Jesus warned of such imposters in the end-times.  David Koresh wasn't anything new to Jesus.  Jesus told us to be aware of imposters 2000 years ago.    So the next time an imposter makes a scene and claims to be Jesus.  Ask the obvious.  Where were you born?  Was your mother's name Mary?  If the Branch Davidians asked that simple question, they would have labeled Koresh a liar right from the start.  The wouldn't have followed Koresh. They wouldn't have died.  But look what happened.  Their ignorance cost them their lives.  Their choice to be ignorant cost them a lot.  Kent, since you studied the Bible under Lutheranism, do you not remember what tactic Satan used to try to tempt Jesus?   Did not Satan quote the Bible out of context?  Do you remember what tactic the serpent of Genesis used to tempt Eve?  Did he not misquote God?  What Satan used on Eve and succeeded,  was the same ploy he tried on Jesus.  But in Jesus's case, Jesus rebuked Satan back with the Bible _in_ context.  It didn't work with Jesus.    Does what Satan did to Eve in the Garden and what Satan tried to do with Jesus in the desert remind you of what Koresh did to his followers?  Who did Koresh emulate? Who was Koresh's teacher?  Koresh did to his followers what Satan did to Eve.  Did not Koresh kill his followersr?  Did not Satan cause Adam and Eve to die as well?  Did not the cult followers believe Koresh even though they knew the real Christ was born in Bethlehem?   Did not Eve choose to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil despite knowing that it would cause her death?  God held them all responsible--deceiver and the rebeller.  None  of them had an excuse.