Make life-changing New Year's resolutions and Objectives
I grew up in the Presbyterian church and I do not think I ever heard anyone use the word "truth" when talking about his faith. It was only faith. You know, the ones that have been handed down from generation to generation and Presbyterian, none of the local church would ever think to question any of it. It did not matter. Behind the scenes, one can believe what they wanted and it was so general and nice that I can honestly say I never remember an issue comes up that might need to be reviewed, or heard the words "new truth." Old Truth was fine and who cared. When I discovered, as a teenager, the real true Church of God, which seemed to me to be concerned with truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, that's all we ever heard of. People ask each new member, "So how or where did you find out the truth?" It was a nice way to say, ask how long they had been to church and from what wrong they had come. The word "truth" was thrown around a lot of the church. Everything had to do with "truth". We kept the true Sabbath, the true holydays, understood the truth about being born again and the truth about unclean meats and how to have a happy marriage. It was true seven ways to be happy or be a leader or study your Bible. You may be called to the truth and you could be maimed for falling away from truth. It was the truth about tithing and the truth about not tithing. It was the truth about who God has chosen and that he had not chosen and that he loved and that he was cursed with. It was the truth about the last time, which of course we were living in and Jesus second coming simply must in the very near future. In my lifetime indeed! We evern knew the simple truth about everything from trade to war crimes and queer men. Never heard much about the truth of queer women anyway. If you wanted to know the truth, just ask the church, preferably at the local level in the form of a minister, who knew all the truths that existed. We knew the truth about evolution and the truth of the River. Often, we knew that the "simple truth", the truth is stripped down to the really fundamental truth about the truth and was so easy to understand. Can be simple as the truth is to understand, God still had to open your mind to the truth, or you will never understand or know the truth. But it was easy after that. I later found out that "God has to open your mind," meant that the one who came to the same conclusions as the church and the leadership really has had his mind opened by God. Those who disagreed or just watched some of it still in the clutches of Satan, or at best had a bad attitude. Gosh, we knew the truth about life and death. No one knew how consciousness or quantum physics worked, but all God, just ask! We know where you've been and where you went. We knew when you went there you were going and how to get there and who was not going along with you because they had not yet discovered the truth. We knew when they would find out the truth, while not as good as when I discovered the truth, it was not bad at all. What is a thousand years difference in comparison with eternity? Nuttin! We knew who was in the right church, which would be us, and that would be in the wrong church who were all not us. We knew the truth about God in the Old Testament and why he was so freaking mean and loved to kill both animals and humans. We knew the truth about the New Testament and the Son in the Old Testament God was the nicer of the two and canceled all the stuff Dad liked. We knew that the truth was that this bachelor son lived alone with his Father, after all who loved him the week before killing him. We knew that they lived somewhere and Father never had a wife or female to keep him company. But it was just the truth. God was a he, and if you were a she, then you still have to be a "son of God" just the same as it was the truth. Of course, I was uncomfy with me, a male, as the Bride of Christ, ewwww, but it was the truth also, so I had to smile about it. Wow, we knew everything. Just ask! But once in a great while, we discovered the "new truth." I can not tell you how amazing truth is new to discover. Now I might have hoped that we would have discovered a new truth about the real causes of man and the development of life over millions of years as opposed to the truth of all that is about 6,000 years old, the story of Noah's Ark and the Tower of Babel, but it was not discussed. I thought there were some new truth about why so many of the stories in the Old and New Testament are either scientifically or historically impossible unbelievable and unprovable, but no luck there either. I thought maybe some new truth may have to do with how the Gospels are not harmonious eyewitness accounts of Jesus' life, not written by the men appearing in the books. But no banana either. I thought we would get some new truth about why Paul never mentions Jesus' life, teaching, miracles, life events, birth or other similar things, including why he never quote him, but no, wrong again. What really would have been nice to have some new truth about how the local priest was only one guy and also do not know everything and it was ok, but nope, nothing like that either. And it really would have been nice if, as a minister, I could suspect that there was no such thing as "new truth" out there that perhaps those responsible had missed, but whoa children, not even thinking about it! New truth must come from above and only agreement came from the bottom up. It is so all area churches really. From top to bottom, not bottom up. Bottom uppers are an endangered species in any church. Recently a friend of mine told me that the guy on top of his church did a really good point in her church. Seems minister fired music director 25 years without permission from the people. He said he was the guy at the top and it was his call. A guy in the bottom of the floor and got permission to do so. He reminded the Minister that it is now how things are done and that he was wrong to do this shoot on your own. When the really good part is coming up. The son of the minister goes to the island and the tire guy opposed his father's actions. Police are called and it's all good! The bottom uppers won for decking the Trustee never pays. I love the truth! Once in a great while New Truth came to the church "the whole truth all the time." But alas, there was always something like "the new truth about the make-up" or "the new truth about divorce and remarriage." I learned these truths come from God when management was being given a hard time on makeup through God's guidance wives or any of God's guidance wives left their leading men and the leading man wanted a new leader's wife. We had New Truth About Healing and older leaders, needed health care that they need when younger and reviewed the idea to rely solely on God for healing, etc. I'm glad that was the old truth for me but I managed to keep it to myself and members of the my care who asked. But everywhere, the New Truth just does not make its way into the churches so often. They love not to tell the old old story for nothing! As Mark Smith says in "Damn the truth." "Christians, unlike scientists, hates everyone and all evidence that goes against their theories Theologians have a very hostile and often times irrational attitude to any evidence that would even suggest to their theories need to be modified to fit the facts of a Christian .. , Is a mistaken theory that an old family member whose mind has seen better days, a warm embrace and protect from all criticism. Christians, rather than to disinterested truth seekers as they often times pretend to be, therefore appears instead to be preachers of the established dogma, the opinions set in concrete, with their minds already made up for those two thousand years ago by a jew rabbi. At Fundy Christian, there is no "new truth" to seek or be discovered. So rather than looking for new truth, instead they just look for new ways to defend their old "truths". This is why you never see a "research and development department of a school of theology. It is also why, in defense of Christianity, is not an argument for circular, no appeal feelings are avoided and no straw men are left unconstructed. "He goes on to question whether a genuine new gospel of Jesus ever found, it would be added to the current New Testament? The answer is obviously "NO", because all truth is, is already in the Bible. In addition, they have already found great new gospel tracts, but they say the disciples got miffed at Jesus to kiss Maria too often on the lips. When they asked Jesus why he loved her more than them, he came back with, "why does she love me more than you?" Good answer! PalTalk gospel. You will never hear it in church. One of the other problems out there in terms of "truth" is that it will be suppressed a lot when someone who knows find it. After all, it took the Catholic Church 450 years to apologize to Galileo to note that the sun was the center of the solar system and Earth revolved around it, not the Earth. I personally think that 450 years of learning the truth and apply the truth is too long and too long between excuses. Now the Catholic Church is not so sure unsaved children go to Limbo, and can actually, get to go to heaven as baptized children. Cool huh? As they know, but is not so amazing how something that was so much "truth" to millions in the past, now is probably not, after all ... oh well.? This is good news for babies, on the retrospective, which I guess it is, or at least we can hope. Now those who thought a thing can think of anything more comforting. Gosh, I hope that this new truth only apply after a certain date. Bummer! All kidding aside, is this kind of truth only opinion because of questions about the state of certain categories of people who die in some states to be under the church. Do not mistake any of this for the truth. We must not forget that the church fathers of the past was not above adjusting the truth to fit a real need. As Gibbon noted, "The most serious of the ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius himself, indirectly confesses that he has a connection regardless of which redound to the glory, and that he has suppressed all that could tend to the disgrace, of religion ... (He is) so openly fought one of the fundamental laws of history. "(On Christianity, Edward Gibbon, Prometheus, Buffalo, New York, 1991 p. 131, 132) Although Paul made a big deal about being duplistic. He would be a Jew to a Jew, a non-Jew to a non-Jew, etc., always left me wondering just what and who Paul really was. He said so often in the New Testament that he had not lied, I wonder why he felt he had to say that so often? Sounds like a lot of people thought he was. So ask yourself, when was the last time my church found out that there were more truths to understand than the ones they have in all his books and writings? And I do not mean the simple truth about eating out after church! I bet that you have to say never. The church is not really the truth as much as tradition and control of how these traditions are defended and apologized for. Church apologetics is really that you know. They are excuses for the fact that there are those times when we can see that something about the Bible or a "truth" as explained by a church just does not fit the facts as we know them in these times, but we will not examine them . Unfortunately, the old truth, truth, and we simply can not let in any new right now. Churches do not new truth, but is good at making new ways to defend the ancient truths, that may not really be true. This attitude of all churches and religions should really be your first hint that something is very wrong with it and maybe it really is all about tradition, not making waves, money, testing and updating of old age, but inaccurate history alive as we feel any better. Most are afraid that they or others will be disappointed if "New Truth" rears it ugly head, but when it comes right down to it, would you live your life based on illusions? Actually, many do it because they never question anything ...
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