Read this part 1. get back to basics

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The Fundamental Conception of Christianity "Do you accept the Lord Jesus as your personal savior?" Can the answer to one question be the total sum of salvation? Not one answer, nor one definition of so many paradoxes can be fundamentally defined. Faith in Christ and agape love of our fellowman, knowing in our silence Gods presence, walking by His Spirit, having compassion towards other people can only be found in our interior selves Spirituality is sharing charity and forgiveness with everyone we touch. No amount of preaching, condemnation or judgment fits into unconditional love, meaning we have let our egos go, to the way of our inner self, working on humility and finding the peace St. Paul speaks of as the "peace of God that excels all thoughts, " accepting the shortcomings of others unconditionally and seeing all as equal children of God, simultaneously. (1 Cor 3:16; Phil 4:7,13)

True Christianity is about love, agape love. It is about faith in a divine man that gave his life for mankind, opening the way for acceptance to God's family. This faith can only be reflected in the way we treat our fellow man, at the same time, our compassion and agape love can only be exhibited with our willingness to both know ourselves and see God deep within us, in our nothingness, through our faith. This is because our faith in Christ, is our awareness of God within us, in turn we gain the ability to detach ourselves from others, reliant on God alone. It is with this detachment, that enables us to see the Christ in all others. It is to see beyond the doctrines and creeds of men and scripture to the Spirit behind the letter. It is to see that faith in God is simply our awareness of God within us and the entire realm of humanity, including all those outside of the Christian religious persuasion. Christ is our ability to see him in the Hindu, Buddhist, Jew and every human alike. This is the difference between the fundamentalist, bible literalist and the mystic or univeralist. One needing clear cut simplistic answers with certainty and security, seeking to save the world, sending out missionaries, literalizing men's words as Gods, while the other travels to the higher consciousness, recognizing the ambiguous nature of God, seeing the mystery of His Spirit, His energy, the indescribable life force of unconditional love and acceptance, an acceptance that is inclusive to all, black/white, male/female, gay/straight. When we literalize the words of men, words slanted by culture, society, ancient values, perceptions, ideas, tribal codes and prejudices, words compromised by human interpretation, human language and human fallibility, we immediately fail to walk with God's objective truth and in most cases fail to carry out the meaning of agape love towards the people we meet. Our faith is null and void. Sadly, many church goers solely rely on this docrinal view of faith, limiting it to the literalization of text, applying their sacrifice and knowledge for personal salvation, relying on creeds, dogmas, traditions and the percception of the bible as the "inerrant word of God," containing objective truth, uncompromised by human transmission, translation, and interpretation, in turn, putting this far ahead, crowding out, and even completely lacking, the forgiveness, mercy and agape love to all the people they meet. While some fundamentalists are only mildly lost in either in scripture, religion, culture or tradition and are not far from being balanced, kind and just individuals, many others, regardless of their faith, continue to walk in the flesh, being radically lost in a self righteous and smug satisfaction of themselves, assured of being "saved," resulting in both a judgmental assessment of others and a total lack of mercy and love for the people they meet, including other Christians and those considered to be non-Christians, who are all Christ's brothers. To them, a man from the inside may fail to follow all the rules, refuses to walk the precise Christian subculture walk and talk, and for this he cannot live up to their mental requirements, looked on with contempt. While the man on the outside, lacking faith, non-believing in doctrines, creeds and traditions, is viewed as a "sinner" and is therefore condemned as "not saved." Fundamentalists can blindly follow all of their literal interpretations of laws, rules and words, yet to fail to know love, is to not know the essence of God and oneself, the place of his inhabitation. "Any man that says, I love God, but hates his brother, is a liar." 1 John 4:20 Perceiving scripture beyond God's literal words of objective truth, permit us to acknowledge each author's inspiration as spritual and valuable works, of which their is no substitue, yet men's fallible words of subjectivity, allowing ourselves to gain freedom from the fundamental walls of security and certainty with clear cut answers into the freedom of the uncertain, insecure and ambigious nature of God's awesome mystery, His indwelling brings us a certainty of a knowing presence, yet paradoxically enter us into the indistinct uncertainty, with no simple clear answers, no Big Daddy God Cop in the sky, ruling as a King, to bless the good and execute judgment on the bad. Yet fundamentalists, limit their views to the literalization of men's words, seeing only the letter. They know the writings, they have faith in their docrinal view of Christ, knowing their Christian religion, church and religious organizational doctrines, creeds, dogmas and interpretations, knowing what men have interpreted and wrote as his commands. They in turn, scrupulously attempt to perform all of the so called required sacrifices, but mistakenly, their knowing is not of love and therefore not of Christ. Judging and condemning the Muslim, the Hindu, the Jew and those outside doctrinev as "unsaved," failing in ability to see Christ residing in them, for they have never found God within their very selves. Looking at the man on the street, who in their eyes, is a drunkard, fornicating sinner and judging him as a lost soul, who will either burn in a fiery hell or die, as to them, he no doubt, is separated from God. And yet this so called sinner lives with kindness, empathy and agape love to those he or she encounters in their daily existence. Yet the bible literalists, who have this faith in "the inerrant word of God" and their perception of Christ, who in turn, attempt to walk the walk and talk the talk, fail to perceive the meaning of true kindness, empathy and consideration towards their fellow man, "considering all others to be superior to them" (Philippians 2). They cannot see the Christ in all others for they have never found him within themselves. The man on the street, who they cannot not tolerate as a child of God, has no faith in men's interpretive words of who Christ failing to follow many religious teachings, breaking many laws, with total absence of external sacrifice. Yet this man or woman is not only more righteous than they are, but is acceptable by God in their treatment of others. Where as they, the faithful fundamental Christians and fundamental followers of almost any faith - my way or the highway- who have a superficial faith in Christ, are blinded by their obedience to sacrifices, legalism, scriptures and religion, having no idea that they don't even know God and that their faith is not internal but an external display, which will perhaps put them in shock one day if this is revealed to them. (Matt 7:21-23) Look around and you will see that those who are visibly seen as zealots, missionaries, preachers and teachers, are the blatantly obvious ones who have lack love, mercy and kindness to the unimportant, unknown and socially "incompetent," who fail to live up to their unique world of Christian subculture. While the older, slower and wiser ones, the nobodies in the background, have the compassion of Christ. The missionaries life to save others is sadly a lower form of spirituality that fails to see God in all others, who separates God from man, only allowing a doctrine of men's words to allow them a bridge between them and God, always believing they are inside a sinner. Worthless and unworthy, yet thankful for the free gift God has given them, failing to recognize that all men have God deep within them, to be found with faith, love and mercy towards all others. Walking with God is sharing charity and forgiveness with everyone you touch. No amount of preaching, condemnation or judgment fits into an unconditional love, meaning you have let your ego go, your own self power and strength subordinated to the way of God's Spirit power "dwelling inside," working longer on humility and finding the "peace of God that excels all thoughts, " accepting the shortcomings of others unconditionally and seeing them as equal children of God, simultaneously. (1 Cor 3:16; Phil 4:7,13) The Real Spirit of Agape Love Is True Balance, The Very Opposite Of Fundamentalism If taken for face value, as the "inerrant word of God," here is a man who was from the top. Jesus, a divine man from God himself. And what did he do? He didn't hang out with the theologically educated persons, who in addition to being righteous, also followed all the sacrifices almost perfectly. The Pharisees were orthodox followers and loyal subjects of God's commandments and laws as so many fundamentalists in all religious cultures are. Yet their lack of agape, mercy and forgiveness voided out all of their hard, fine and outstanding works. Jesus in turn, rejected them, befriending and associating with those considered to be outcasts, the poor, crippled, sick and those looked down upon, those considered to be known sinners, such as tax collectors, who extorted money, prostitutes and others of that caliber. These persons obviously spoke harsh language around Jesus, spoke of their entertainment preferences and hobbies that Jesus may or may not have agreed with, but he did not get bent out of shape and offended, with a fundamentalist, restrictive, self righteous viewpoint. On the contrary, he ate with these people, had compassion for them and in an understanding, kind and respectful way taught God's view, his unconditional love, in all matters, including those views that agreed and disagreed with their lifestyle. This way of teaching had such an impact, that one tax collector, the chief tax collector Zach-chae'us, publicly stated he would give back all that he extorted from people and then some fourfold, including half of his belongings to the poor. No doubt, Jesus was there to bring forth an inclusive community. Those considered outcasts were to be taken in. No longer would the Gentiles, the Samaritans, women, blacks and homosexuals be considered as inherently unclean and despicable people, but rather they would be accepted as God's children, those loved by Him, as "in Christ, there is no slave or freeman, no male or female, for all are one in Christ. (Gal 4:16-19; Matthew 11:19; 2:15-16; Luke 19-10)

Many Christian Fundamentalists, who may do amazing things from the spirit, and attempt to painstakingly follow all the scriptures just so perfectly, do not have trust in the real spirit of God, the spirit that lives deep within us all. Interior solitude is not something to be found with an entertainment of various miracles. Putting our restrictive rules on others, with the pressure to conform to our religious perception of God, is the spirit of legalism, the same external spirit that the fundamental Pharisees and bible literalists had in Jesus day. The Pharisees were not all bad people. They were righteous and perfect in both orthodoxy and sacrifice, however they, like today, followed man's written words, interpretive words, subjected and slanted by culture, politics, society and fallibility. These words were allowed to dictate to them what and who God is just as they are allowed to do so today by fundamentalists and bible literalists. This is the letter that blocks the spirit, that of Love and mercy. To know God is to be a balanced person. A person who can sit and eat with prostitutes and extortionists, not getting offended by the TV shows they watch, the speech they use, the clothes they wear or the many disagreeable actions they may take that are not hurtful towards others. On the contrary, the unconditional love, the spirit of God, does not get bent out of shape and offended at this, but allows others to speak words in their slang language and socially unacceptable etiquette styles.

-- (@@@@@.Ilove you.com), September 04, 2002

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