semi christian girl interested in hindu guy

God has pointed out to the world what is right and wrong in His Word the Bible.
The Christian can speak with confidence when he has the Word of God backing him up. It is the Christian testimony that has raised the bar of morality. The fact that Americas shouted down the few Christians who tried to turn the tied, when America imbraced sexual freedoms, only stands as a testament to what happens when a nation turns from the truth of God. The flood of sickness, death, and the pratice of abortion was the byproduct of America's great adventure into evil. It is a shame so many had to die or be hurt, because the population did not adhear to the voices, that pointed the way to Gods law of reason, truth, and safety.

 

Actually large sections of the bible were written by differnet saints.

 

Yes Jesus is a Mighty King but in the contex of that passage the Mighty King is a prophecy which refers to Christ second coming. The Jews did not understand that. But they liked that prophecy more, than the one He was actually fulfilling. The man of sorrows. The Bible clearlys states that blessed is the man that reads and understands this prophecy. That is found at the beginning of Revelation. No man will know the day or the hour but God has revealed much, and a lot more than most in the churches realize. And the future is revealed to those who search the scriptures as God has commanded us to do. The reason the church is so dead in America today is because it is asleep. They have not searched the scriptures, and the christians don't know what time it is. Some years ago I told God that I was just kind of a blue collar kind of guy, who did not understand His prophecies. I asked Him if He would show me. Well for a year nothing happened, and I think I even forgot that I had asked Him about the prophecies. But at the end of that year on my wifes uncles farm God started to open my eyes. For three days I could not tear myself away from my Bible, then on the third day it was like my eyes were open and I knew what Revelation 18 was about. This did not come from my thoughts, or my wisdom. All I can say was it was implanted information. Since then, I am finding Christians all over the place who are coming to this same conclusion. The God of the bible is like no one else. He sticks closer than a brother, and when He wants you to know something, you will know it. I know Him, He told me my wife was pregnant 4 hours before she knew it. He is a God of wonder. And I can assure you of this, America is the end time Babylon, and our nations days are truly numbered.

 

AMEN

 

I would not disagree that the USA is well qualified as a candidate for Babylon. But that is also true of the entire edifice of modern industrial capitalism, and there are other correspondences with other places implicated in that. Of course, you could say that America is the leading industrial nation - but I won't dispute this point any further. I say that in time we will see if we stick to God.

 

I disagree, one should not be an 'empty headed imbecile' but that does not mean that we point the finger at everything we don't understand or atleast see our way. One needs a level of wisdom before he goes on and argues that one's way of life is better than the other. That level of wisdom is only achieved by God's grace and that is achieved by developing patience, compassion, streadfastness etc.

 

And when will that be? I mean, when will we have enough wisdom and compassion to be able to judge? Next week? Next year? In ten years? Or never?
I never said we should point the finger at things we don't understand - but we should do so where we see abuses, in line with the wisdom etc. we have.
It's not actually that bad in many cases to tell people that their lifestyles etc are negative. Where green issues are concerned for example, it's not much use to just observe the abuses and yet think 'I can't say anything about this, because it might offend God, or some idea that we have no right to judge'.
Same goes for those who are caught up in narrow or limited views which they often seek to impose on others.
Either exercise judgement, or be swamped in a sea of bullshit. That is the choice.

 

Scholars believe there are over 100 different writers.

 

ha okay you are right , but i don't know, the way campbell here seems to present bible- he just doesn't seem to understand the point of view that hinduism projects. If he was using judgement for himself , he would just ignore us and probably tell christians at hipforums here to ignore us, but the way he projects his point of view, it feels very egotistical to me that he would just come right in and tell us we go to hell if we don't listen to him.

 

Yes, I agree up to a point. But we have to see that people like Campbell are only saying what they believe to be the truth.
We have to see that there is an amazing diversity of human beings, all are on different levels, and understand things differently. Some will only ever look into one particular spiritual path, and then become fixed in that. They will believe that the exact linguistic formulations they have accepted as truth are the whole truth, and are applicable to all people.
I don't know if there is much point in seeking to argue with such people. On the plus side, at least they believe in God, even if the form of belief is a bit limited.
I have encountered many christians before, and they are a varied bunch. Many will tell you right off that if you don't believe exactly what they believe you will go to hell. But we know better than that. Others can actually be quite open minded, spiritual and enlightened.
But the main point I would make is that we are all evolving beings on this level of spiritual awareness. The openess and diversity, the acceptance of different paths to the One Divine is something some are simply not ready for.
I don't, incidentally, judge such people as 'inferior' in some way. I may judge their beliefs to be unsound and limited, but that isn't to judge the person.
It seems it is all too easy for those with spiritual beliefs to become egotistical about it - thus we get people saying things like 'my belief is better than yours' or 'you don't know anything about God'. Let them do it! It only goes to show the fact that they are dominated by reason with it's limitations rather than the true Divine Consciousness. Otherwise, they would accept that although my experience of God may be quite different from yours, it is nonetheless the same God we are experiencing, but seen differently because of our differences of being, our cultural background and the rest.
The particular problem with christianity is that whilst hindus happily accept that Jesus was Divine, many christians won't accept the authenticity of hindu avatars or scriptures. It's because of the narrow and logical way they interpret the Bible.
Sometimes - and I'm not suggesting our Campbell is one of these - they are just bigots who are afraid of other cultures or anything that threatens their fearful and limited beliefs. Generally, they have no spiritual experience, but simply parrot what they've read or been told.

 

My point is that since thew bible was written by an agglomeration of different authors, it can't be considered the word of God, it is the words of men.

 

I would conclude all religious texts are the work of man. I dont believe the word of God can be expressed in mere utterances scribed upon paper. I think it can only convey a tiny portion of the divine. Maybe enough to ensure some will search for the truth themselves.

 

The words of an enlightened person are no different from the words of God. What I said about the bible was only for argument's sake, really. Personally£¬I believe that most scripture has some divine orgin, in the sense that it is the divine instinct within the author and their experience of that that drove them to write it.

 

The Vedic Rishis too were men.

edit: I had missed your last post when I wrote this - and now I guess it's irelevant

 

I agree.

But the fact Sri Ramana Maharishi (the only person I am 100% sure was enlightened) usually only conveyed the devine through his presence suggests to me that words are a very feeble form to experience the devine. I will use it to inspire me in dark times, but to experience and truely know the devine it's pretty useless for me. This is shown by the fact the Bible has never worked. I would suggest it caused more ignorance than enlightenment. Words can so easily be interpreted differently. Whereas I doubt direct experience can be.

 

In the 1600 to the 1800s a number of Christian ministers preached and even wrote books that stated that before Christ would return to this world, the Jews will have to start returning back to Israel and retake Jerusalem. They pointed out that this would create great conflict in the world and this event is certain to happen because it is recorded in the scriptures. They stated that when the armies of the world come to remove them from the land, this would trigger the Second Coming of Christ. I would say these men were far from ignorant, but had a knowledge that was way ahead of their time. To ignore these facts, and the other prophecies that are being fulfilled, is where you will find ignorance.

 

There is a combination of prophecies that must be fulfilled in order to qualify for the end time Babylon. There could be as many as 100. Yet just looking at a few of them, rules out most nations. Only America fulfills all of them. There are a number of sites on line now which go into detail on this, and these people have discovered the same things that I discovered years ago. Most nations donot have a mountain of war, or an inland sea. Most nations cannot be described as the hammer of the whole earth, nor can the be described as a nation that is built on many waters. Most nations do not have an equal number of Jews within their borders that would rival Israels population. The list could go on and on, but if you ever read the list, you will be forced to conclude, that only one nation on earth can fulfill all the prophecies. Some nations can fulfill some of the prophecies, but only America can fulfill all of them.

 

if the future is guaranteed campbell34 why concern yourself about it?

 

The prophecies in the Bible are there to let others know that it was God that authored this Book. Most people and churches no little about the prophecies.
The Bible is a Book that speaks the truth. Just as the prophecies are being fulfilled, the truth of Christ salvation spoken of in the Bible can be believed as well. Jesus Christ is the one who brings salvation to the world. All who become Born Again in Christ will never die. And if there is one Book that can be believed, it is the one that describes history before it happens. I concern myself with this, so that others may see.

 

the Quran says the same thing,