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ClearMiddle's avatar

I think you are on to something.

I'm familiar with "the sons of God" from Gen. 6:2 (בְנֵי־הָֽאֱלֹהִים֙ / οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ θεοῦ), and 1 Enoch 6 ff., and I think I have read some of your material too, but I don't use that as a basis for conclusions about where the disciplines regarding self-attainment originated. I have, however, studied some of those disciplines, and been a practitioner to a small degree, and yes, there is a problem with that approach! I've also considered myself a humanist at times (certainly not now). So you're writing about things that were near and dear to me at one time.

This is what I find interesting: "Now Christianity, the religion that claims the name of the one true God and His Son, Christ Jesus. Christians profess that Jesus dying on the cross saved them but do they actually mean it?"

I like to ask questions like these, and I am reluctant to use the label "Christian" because it is associated with so many unbiblical things, depending on where one looks. And the "eternity in hell" thing drives me nuts because it seems to be based upon such weak evidence. But mostly it's the behavior of certain large groupings of Christians that bothers me. That actually drove me to explore other paths, as I mentioned.

I started out to write a comment about "choice", but it grew and grew as I wrote and I decided to make it into a post on my own blog instead, where size isn't a problem and where typographical amenities are available. It can be found here for anyone interested:

https://open.substack.com/pub/clearmiddle/p/what-choice-do-we-have

I do believe that there are ways we can contribute to what becomes of us, but I agree that "choice" isn't one of them, and neither are "works", although they do have a role. What we can do is "commit", rightly or wrongly. I've tried both, and committing to wrong paths eventually took me full circle, more or less, back to what I had been raised with in the first place, but with corrections, setting aside "traditions of men". I didn't work all this out. There were interventions. I was led back. I couldn't have made my way back on my own.

As big a mess as what I did is, I think there could be something worse. It would be to be "raised in the faith", knowing all the right things to believe and never wavering from them, throughout life. Nor ever understanding what's wrong with some of them.

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Pirate Studebaker's avatar

Thank you so much, Scott. Wonderful and clear and helping me to put into words why I object to the falsity I see in most all human efforts at teaching God's Truth.

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