MadMax1's Posts
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 Christianity Etc › Re: Who Can Correctly Say Which Christians Properly Interpret The Bible? by MadMax1(f): 4:30pm On Aug 07, 2010 |
Er. Because he's an atheist? That's like someone telling you to ask Allah (about whom you are an atheist) to interprete the bible for you. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 3:59pm On Aug 07, 2010 |
Hmmm. Until your own thinking processes kicked in. Lucky you. That doesn't happen for everbody. A few don't think what they believe should make sense to their brain. They think whatever they believe should have 'mystery' and parts that can't be 'explained', or else it doesn't feel like religion. Ironically, all religions are man-made. There isn't a single one God invented. So you have the things men have made amd when you get to the parts that makes no sense, like three Gods in one in Christianity, you say it's a 'mystery'. Sometimes they make a break for freedom and all, but their own minds short-circuits the process because the indoctrination is too deep. They may try but conditioning merely returns them to their original religious positions. It's safer. They simply return to their irrational beliefs and rationalize later. @nuclear, Hi bobo. Well, it's all pretty much up there. God made other worlds in this universe and intelligent beings like us inhabit them in untold numbers. They look different from us biologically, but they're just as smart, and just as spiritually lost and in need of Christ and God. Some societies are far, far better than the ones we have. Some may be worse. Christ told Storm (his book encouraged my research) that he'd been on every single physical world in existence. On some there were no problems and he was welcomed. On others, like ours, the reception was hostile. But the inquantifiable love and compassion of Christ is the salvation of all of God's children, flung across many worlds in many galaxies in the universe. Isn't it exciting to think that, on some world right now, some 'alien' may be bored out of his skull in some equivalent of 'church' or 'temple' and wishes his parents would stop making him go. You're made in the image of God. You're an immortal spirit being, though not an immortal physical one. You're older than the planet you're squatting on, nuc. Maybe you should try asking God all that has happened to you between the instant of 'time' you were created, and August 2010. You've been a very busy nuclear. You won't remember anything because you're inhabiting flesh and you can't function here if you remember. You don't remember now because that's how you wanted it, and for a good reaon. When you leave the world of flesh, you'll gradually remember, of course. Ask God to show you, if you can handle it, what you have done and where you have been and all the realities you've occupied, since He made you. This life isn't the beginning, and it's not the end either. This place is a dream, an illusion of sorts, and isn't meant to be taken too seriously. The true reality is beyond here, with God; your Father, Your Friend, your Maker. Believe me, you don't need anyone to tell you anything about God or How He/She/IT works. Never mind our vanity, no man is qualified to teach another anything. They just go about confusing each other with their own ideas. God is ALIVE and so eager to talk to you. YOU. He answers all sorts of questions, not just 'Give me a new car' or 'keep my family safe', but 'What's the answer to Drake's equation?' and 'Is there reincarnation? How does it work?' God is the ONLY authority there is on Himself and the work of His own hands. If you ask men the things that you should ask God He will not stop you. It's your choice and that choice is respected: whatever answers you get and the paths it takes you are of your own making.But if you ask God the things you should ask God, He WILL answer you. Ask Him to take your spiritual education in Hand. Imagine all He knows, nuclear. You already have the conection. You may as well use it. There can be no better teacher. |
| Fashion › Re: Product Reviews: Stop Wasting Money! Beauty Products That Actually Work by MadMax1(op): 10:40am On Aug 06, 2010 |
It sort of depends on what you want to do, jovi. No single salon is great at everything. You're welcome Angelloven. No research involved. Everyone's been posting stuff they've used, and that works for them. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: Is The Holy Spirit A Personal Sentient Being? by MadMax1(f): 10:08am On Aug 05, 2010 |
Nuclear you're a riot, I swear.  |
| Christianity Etc › Re: Is The Holy Spirit A Personal Sentient Being? by MadMax1(f): 8:15am On Aug 05, 2010 |
Lol at toba and nopu. Please don't stop there. nopu you ran? Why na? You've let Deep Sight off the hook, nuclear. Lol, weren't you waiting for his thesis? Look how fast he skeddadled! Must have gone on his knees thanking the Holy Spirit when he saw that post. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 8:00am On Aug 05, 2010 |
Lol. How do you know you and all those truckloads of girlie magazines aren't headed for the cosmic incinerator? I've been meaning to ask: How did you make the journey to your belief system? Does it have a holy book? I know the basics but it must have taken more than that to hook you. How come deism? |
| Christianity Etc › Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 3:50pm On Aug 04, 2010 |
There's nothing in my responses to indicate I didn't think you meant well, M_Nwankwo. I know you do, your point was taken. I criticise Christianity because I'm a Christian, and because I'm free to. I'm really not on some spiritual pedestal from which I may reach down and gently lead others to my own truth, patient with their stumblings or whatever. I'm in there among the seeking masses, as are we all. What I think may change over time as new evidence comes in, but I am free to say what I think. MyJoe,I'm laughing my head off at your conversation with your friend, including all the parts you didn't put in. What's WOF? You know how the world is. Few people are rational about their beliefs, and those beliefs don't even have to be religious ones. Look at slavery and supremacy and racism and ethnicism and caste systems, for instance. Someone was telling me they still take the osu caste sytem seriously in some parts of Igboland.We don't live in a thinking world at all. Everyone having an open mind is one of those utopian thingies we're never going to have. I was reading an American Catholic PhD who saw nothing wrong with the conduct of RCC in the past and wished those things were still here with us, but said people might not stand for it now. Imagine that. The furor his comment caused made the RCC replace him in whatever office he was serving them in, to quieten the noise. But those are the man's honest opinions and the noise won't change that. A PhD. If only we can all keep an open mind. If only. Some need a little truth and some need a lot. Many Christians are content with dogma and indoctrinated ritualised religion when God is all they need. We say we're serving God, who is alive and eager to speak, but we cannot go and ask Him to clarify dogma that is supposedly about Him. The 'bible' and religious titles and religious rituals and doctrines weigh higher on some people's scales than God Himself, and the sum of all those things is actually their God. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 11:51am On Aug 04, 2010 |
I got what you're saying but the last post baffled me a little. I don't think the question is about my own love and compassion for others. That's private, and I'm not required to demonstrate or prove anything here. And yes, there are things I hate and will continue to do so until it goes away of its own accord, if ever. I shall always hate evil, be it indocrination or murdering the innocent or war or fraud or deceiving others to enrich yourself. It's not judgement, but I can have feelings about certain things, and I have no one to impress or prove anything to. I am occasionally free to say what I really think. There's no reason why I shouldn't. If you've ever been in bondage you want others out of there and you won't accomplish that by playing to the gallery or keeping mum. But all that is not in play here. There is no agenda on this thread, just a discussion with others of like mind where I can say what I really think, and that is going to continue. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 10:46am On Aug 04, 2010 |
Mr Nwankwo, how are you? You know you're right, of course. And there are other things apart from reincarnation. I'd come across reincarnation before and only believed it this year because the evidence was solid. It was taught in the biblical scrolls until some overzealous priests decided it was best if such things were removed. So they removed it and substituted invented doctrines of their own. But if you search the NT it's there, if you know what you're searching for. Reincarnation,as Christ taught it, is not the Buddhist or popular idea of reincarnation. It doesn't happen automatically, and is a little complicated, because there are other worlds in this universe than this one you can have a biological life in. When you're born there you won't remember a planet called 'earth'; your reality will be different. You might even be there wondering if there is any intelligent life in the universe apart from your planet, just as we who are here now wonder the same. It's not the common idea of reincarnation at all, in that there's an incredible range of possibilites, because the works of God's hand are so vast and numerous. And not everyone reincarnates. They may decide to stay as non-physical beings, having had enough of biological life. To be honest, for me, it's never been a matter of not being ready for the truth, but how solid the evidence is. It simply isn't enough for anyone to tell me 'This is so'. I have to investigate and come to my own conclusions. When the evidence is in and it's corroborated, I simply change my mind. The problem isn't that Christians believe different things. It can hardly be otherwise, given its history. What I can't stand is that many Christians are not looking at all. We're satisfied with so little and stick to what's false, however absurd, because it's what we're used to and we don't want to stray from our comfort zones. It angers me to see people telling others they will spend an eternity in hellfire, when it's false, and worse, they don't care whether it's true or not. They have never cared to go beyond what they've been indoctrinated in. Nothing about God is that simple or that black and white. They were given a brain in their skulls for a reason: to use it. I understand indoctrintion because I've been indoctrinated. I've said it before and mean it when I say religious indocrination is a mental illness and enervating mental bondage and one of the worst things that could happen to one. Christianity is about little else but indoctrination and having recovered, my hatred for indoctrination and thoughtless religiousity is implacable. You're right. I should be patient. I'm not, but I try to be, with everyone I actually interact with. I'm still learning and there are Christians and people of other faiths from whom I learn, I'm in touch with as many as possible. To get different views and perpectives. There are many Christian and Buddhists and others who've gone far in their walk with God and have learned incredibly valuable things and I hound them till they spill the beans. But here I feel free to say what's on my mind, what I think, and don't censor it, because there's no reason to. It's like waking up from a dream and seeing things as clear as day. How lost we are, wandering about, thinking we're in light when we're in darkness. How great that darkness is! It is surpassed only by the love and compassion of Christ is for us. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 7:47am On Aug 04, 2010 |
Could be because it doesn't jell with what he's been taught in Sunday School. Different Christian deniminations believe different things happen after you die. Jehovah's Witnesses believe, based on Ecclesiates (which are just the thoughts of Solomon, who has never died himself and so can't say for sure) that when you die your consciousness ends. If you've played nice you wake up after Judgement with a new physical body on this planet, which would be turned into an Eden. You live on this planet forever. Isn't the lack of imagination dreadful? Catholics believe in a purgatory, from which prayer from people on earth can spring you. They were selling these prayers to the relatives of the dead as indulgences in the Middle Ages. You pay to have the Church release your loved one from hell. I think other denominations believe people 'sleep', and wake up to a Judgement Day. If you have said a verbal prayer asking 'Jesus to be your lord and savior', you go to heaven. What you do doesn't matter as long as you've said this prayer, engage in a lot of religious ritual and come in once or twice to tell God you've been bad. If you were born into a different religion and culture and did not manage to say this verbal prayer, you are kicked into hellfire forevermore. Your 'eternity' is determined by the petty things you spend a paltry 10, 15, 20, 40, 50, 80 years of earthly life doing. That crude and thoughtless absurdity doesn't need comment. The mental torment you issue people whose loved ones have died without saying a verbal prayer, who believe those they love are burning forever in hellfire, is unimaginably cruel, and hideously more so because it's such a lie. Such Christians never think but are content to believe whatever they have been told to believe, as if how long and deeply you believe a lie can somehow make it true. In this scenario they who happened to be born into Christianity are heaven-bound. They thank their stars for their luck (and unconsciously suspect they were born into Christianity because they are 'special' or 'chosen') and feel sorry for all those people, the 90 to 99% of humanity not in their denomination. Naturally it is only their brand of Christianity that is correct, all other brands are hellbound too. Modern Christianity, specially its fundamentalist version, has to be by far the worst religion on this planet. So smug and unreasoning and complacent and paranoid, full of its own man-made virtue. This is not what Christ taught, it's not what the early years of genunine Christianity, where there was no bible, was about. Christians did not have a bible because they did not need a bible. They had the truth. They had Christ. They had power. It wasn't even called Christianity. I don't mind the bible because original Christianity has long been lost and it gives a few helpful pointers, and it helped to break the evil and tyranny the Roman Catholic Church had sunk to, but there is nothing holy or infallible about it. It is the word of men, a human creation. It has created all sorts of little Christianities based on which parts its founder likes. Truth and untruth co-mingle in it, side by side, endlessly tampered with to further religious and political agendas in antiquity. God 'inspired' the writers, and yet He managed to not 'inspire' anything beyond the knowledge of the writers themselves. Why didn't He dictate the cure for caner or the plague, or make them write a list of all the natural disasters that would happen and where, so people can skeddadle when the time comes? Why isn't there anything they didn't understand at the time issued them by 'inspiration' to them, so they wouldn't know what they were writing but future generations would decode it? Even if they weren't told arcana as God isn't obligated to do things the way we think He should, why is their 'inspiration' so banal and boringly human, so entrenched in the values and agendas and ignorance of those times? All you need to do to know the Bible is man-made is to read it. The OT is especially guilty. The only places I find things beyond its time are in some of the words of Christ, and they are always spiritual things, and you marvel at what He was telling them. But we know even those records were tampered with. When people decide to take the reports of human beings as the word of God because they have been told to, nothing good can result.Is it any wonder Christianity now is not what Christ taught or the apostles and early Church practised? Is it any wonder the spiritual world is being shown to millions of people and it bears no resemblance whatsoever to the man-made dogma in modern Christianity? Catholism removed its doctrine of 'limbo' only a few years ago. This is a doctrine that has been there for centuries and millions have to gone to their graves believing in. They sit there believing in a Judgement Day for humanity, as if time exists anywhere else but here. Your judgement day is the day you die. Look at the measures and scales God works with. This visible part of our universe is 900 billion trillion miles across. That's less than 20 zeros. The unseen part, the meta or entire universe, is so large there are no human words for the number, because it would be written with millions of zeros. And our universe isn't the only one. There are creations even larger, even grander, made of things we have never seen and cannot imagine. And this is the God they have pitifully reduced to their own human stature, and assign the daft thoughts and words and works of human hands. 'He will recreate the earth and we will live here forever'. 'He will send you to an eternity in hellfire if you don't believe as I do'. Dogma is so easy, finding the truth is too much work. Easier to sit on your lazy, daft, spiritually irresponsible behind and be spoonfed nonsense for the rest of your life. Allow me to be God for five minutes and see if I won't destroy humanity, myself included, and put the dolphins in charge. Animals do their Maker greater credit than we. Thank God that God is God, because the impossibly tiny bits of truth about this world and beyond is truly grand and worthy of Him. |
| Family › Re: My Wedding Was Stoped By My Husband Because Of His Friend's Death by MadMax1(f): 2:59pm On Aug 03, 2010 |
'Probably the deceased made the man who he is'. You have to clutch at straws to 'justify' the inexcusable? It's easy to sit there when your own marriage went without a hitch and call her inconsiderate without showing how she is so, without being there yourself to witness this 'inconsideration'. What the guy did was so wrong it doesn't even bear jaw-jawing about. Even the man knows enough to go begging for forgiveness, so he doesn't agree with you his wife was the one at fault. By doing that he has told his own side of the story, though I don't know what nonsensical story he has to excuse beating a pregnant bride on their wedding day. He knew he was wrong, admitted his guilt and went to beg forgiveness. Blaming the woman must mean you were there when it happened and know something the man himself does not. |
| Family › Re: My Wedding Was Stoped By My Husband Because Of His Friend's Death by MadMax1(f): 2:23pm On Aug 03, 2010 |
Ujujoan:I'm married. Don't care what anyone says, the man was just incredibly thoughtless and short-sighted. He must have done something with his time that day. He must have lay down, talked with people, maybe even gone out. All the wedding required would have been the same motions. Keep the service brief, no dancing or the rest, Photos at the reception and they leave. That's it. But he opted to dishonour his wife and ruin that day, just one day in the thousands of days in their lives, a day they won't have again. Others may forget after a while but that man and the lady will remember the incident for life. And he's not only self-involved and incapable of discharging his obligations like a man just when he was needed the most, he had so taken his 'wife' for granted he felt free to hit her in her pregnant state. Extremely unfair to lay the blame on her head when it's the man that's guilty and he knew it. |
| Family › Re: My Wedding Was Stoped By My Husband Because Of His Friend's Death by MadMax1(f): 5:27am On Aug 03, 2010 |
How did people know the bride didn't commiserate with the man? When she heard his friend had died, do people assume she started dancing or something? The death was sad, but it wasn't broken to him on the wedding day, but the day before. She must have been just as shocked as he was and mourned the loss. The man must have been devastated but he'd had an entire day to pull himself together. He should have gone ahead with the wedding like a man. Where's the sense in losing a friend and allowing the most special day in your life to be wrecked as well? The husband ruined the wedding, not the girl and her family. Why hit her, and punish her for the friend's death? Did she kill him? What was her family expected to do when he beat a pregnant woman on her wedding day, jubilate? She's their daughter and sister and that won't change because she was marrying him. He started the whole thing and ruined the wedding. Anyone with a brain cell knows what a wedding means to the lady. Some women have been dreaming about it since adolescence. He had no right to take that away from her. The lady chose a man who can't see anything beyond the effect it has on him alone. None of us here have planned a wedding, have your spouse hit you on your wedding day, and the whole thing ruined, so why call her names for just being human and enduring something you've never endured? She must have been deeply hurt, and probably hasn't gotten over the hurt of that awful day. Other brides have their weddings go without a glitch, why should she be robbed of that? Is it so hard so put yourself in her shoes? We've all lost friends and family, but still do what needs to be done. I don't care who died, any man who hits a woman is an animal and an im.be.cile. If he had refrained from doing that, the whole thing wouldn't have gone out of control. 'His friend died and you were nagging him', 'You didn't sympathise with him' 'you were only thinking of yourself'. Bull. Were you there when it happened? It's completely silly to blame the woman for the actions of the man. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 2:35am On Aug 03, 2010 |
Hey there 49. I don't think I mentioned 'the Virgin Mary' once as a religious persona. Mary is a human being like anybody else. I'm aware she's practically worshipped in Catholism; interesting you should believe a dead Catholic, who's a Christian, should see 'the Virgin Mary' instead of Christ. But each to his own. I take it you don't like people venturing explanations for things beyond the physical. Ir's beyond our finite mind. It apparently wasn't beyond the finite minds of the millions of people vouchsafed these experiences though. We have brains and spirits, and I don't think we would have been issued both if they were useless to our understanding. We cannot comprehend it all, but we can comprehend a little and knock heads together and see what emerges. You're right that God is infinitely complex and beyond us, as we are. But I'm not sure I agree with an attitude that wants people to fold their hands and not seek to understand how the spiritual works because 'God is infinite'. It's not a stance that works for everybody, but you're certainly welcome to it. We shouldn't all believe or think alike. But I retreated to a thread of people who share a high similarity in thought for a reason.  |
| Christianity Etc › Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 8:11pm On Aug 02, 2010 |
Lol. Really sorry. I just thought it too long and beyond the scope of the observation. |
| Fashion › Re: Product Reviews: Stop Wasting Money! Beauty Products That Actually Work by MadMax1(op): 8:58am On Aug 02, 2010 |
Well, I sort of don't buy my beauty products here. They're overpriced, for one thing, and others are elusive here. Someone mentioned she saw Olay Regenerist in Lagos for N8000. I bought two at $19 each. I don't mind high prices but it should be worth it, at least. It's annoying how they inflate some prices here and act like you're either too dumb to know better or too flush to care. With hair products I confess scent is my first consideration lol. I want great-smelling hair. I've been loving Morrocan Oil since last year but hair isn't as needy as skin. It just needs excellent protein products, moisturisers and twice monthly deep conditioning. I used a hair care compete pack at $79, and later bought a N950 product in Lagos and both worked just about the same. With cosmetics, forget brand names and just look for how much of the great ingredients a product has. Looks like some posts are missing up there. |
| Fashion › Re: Product Reviews: Stop Wasting Money! Beauty Products That Actually Work by MadMax1(op): 5:34am On Aug 01, 2010 |
Yes teetee2, it's sunscreen you need. It's one of the most important parts of skincare. And you especially need it in the tropics. The Neutrogena Helioplex sunscreens are the best. Not greasy or shiny. Steaming, what are SA looks? If you were in Lagos I might recommend some stylists. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 10:33am On Jul 25, 2010 |
remvd |
| Christianity Etc › Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 10:02am On Jul 25, 2010 |
removed |
| Christianity Etc › Re: Oyakhilome, Oyedepo, Ashimolowo, Adeboye Et Al Should be Ashamed!!! by MadMax1(f): 6:38am On Jul 24, 2010 |
Tonye-t: Actually, paris10 quoted Matthew 23:23 from the King James Version of the bible. It's the first, best and most exquisite bible on the planet, the one from which all other translations derive. It's also the most accurate, as far as accuracy goes when it comes to biblical translation. But here you are presenting the 'same' verse with a completely different meaning. It's not the first time you've brought forward that fraudulently twisted version of Matthew 23 to 'support' tithing. Obviously the translators have gone from accuracy to pure fabrication and ought to be reported. From which bible translation did you get your own version of Matthew 23:23? Please state the bible version you're using so others can look it up. Thanks. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: What Happened When I Converted From Catholic To Christian. by MadMax1(f): 7:29pm On Jul 23, 2010 |
Everything made good reading, except the exhortation to buy Mary Baxter's book: A Divine Revelation of Heaven and Hell.That woman's book is a lie. You clearly see her describe someone that bears no resemblance whatsoever to the Christ in the bible, but because she uses the word 'God' and 'divine' in the title, her ridiculous book overrides the NT! The woman has serious mental issues and all her deepest fears are realised in some nightmarish encounter she generated herself or was deceived into, and this she takes to be a divine revelation? So many lies and mistakes have been pointed out in the book it's embarrassing. In biblical text, the original Greek meanings differ in some places from the English, but she didn't know that. So you have her 'Jesus' quoting 'himself' from the bible using, not the original meaning which he would have known, but the erroneous mistranslation that the woman knew! Imagine. The woman seemed sincere but there is deception here. This book will not make any reasonable person embrace Christ but will drive them away. The only people who will turn God are those of a fundamentalist bent who will turn to God out of fear of undergoing the punishment she described. Turning to God out of fear! The gospel is the good news, and Christ is the sheep, and it is out of free, uncoerced will and love that we turn to Him and that He accepts us. She herself is more compassionate than the monster she conjured up that is taking her on a 'divine' revelation of hell. The woman is either sincerely deluded, or a deliberate deceiver. There's not a shred of truth in the book. I will bet the remainder of my life that her 'Jesus' is not Christ. A psychiatrist would have a field day with that book of hers and what it reveals about her psyche. All a person has to do is use a few magic words and quote the bible, and whatever they say is accepted as Gospel truth. Are Christians insane? Reject the stupid book, and pay attention only to the New Testament. Flawed as it is, the truth is there. Baxter's book is a horrible deception, a confirmation of all her own secret fears. She belongs to a particular church denomination, I think it's called 'Church of God' or something, and it came as no surprise that her 'Jesus' upheld all the doctrines of her particular denomination. So people were spending an 'eternity in hellfire' for things like 'Not receiving healing', 'not speaking in tongues', not 'being baptised', etc. What a sick, sick, sick woman, feeding her paranoia and delusion and church doctrines to others. Thankfully, not all Christians took her seriously.The bible is still where Jesus is to be found, not a sick woman's book, even of she calls it 'divine'. The moment it started contradicting the bible, one's eyes should have opened. So incredibly daft is this book, she even claims demons have a 'fun Centre' in hell where they ostensibly relax, and that hell is shaped like a human body. People should stop buying into her illness. Seriously. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 6:14pm On Jul 23, 2010 |
Lol. Did you like George's NDE so much cos he says God is both light and darkness? Darkness, not evil. They're two different things. He created darkness and light. We get darkness when the moon comes between our planet and the sun. Outer space is full of dark, empty void. It is also full of light. And He made it all. But He didn't create evil and it isn't a part of Him and any spirit with that quality cannot be attracted to Him after death, but to others of similar quality- evil beings like himself. There was an interesting answer to why there are so many diverse experiences when people die. The answer wasn't in response to NDEs at all, but it answered it. It makes one marvel at how much God loves us individually. Here's the thing in a nutshell: When people die, they find themselves in a different realm from anything they've ever known. It bears no resemblance whatsoever to the life they've left behind. It's bad enough they're dead, and so the new experience may be terrifying. A welcoming point is generated for them, a scenario that will calm them and get them accustomed to the strangeness. So everything familiar to them is thrown in to make them comfortable and ease the transition from the life they left behind to the new and bizarre one: familiar cultural or religious motifs, meadows and music, a house that looks like the one they grew up in or were happiest in when they got married, loved ones that are dead, a beloved pet, their own thoughts and desires are put to work. Each welcoming point is designed for just that individual, unless he died with other people, in which case they may share welcoming points. That's just for everyday people. For evil people, it's different. Their spirits are not attracted to God's, and so their welcoming points and afterlife experiences are at the mercy of evil beings in opposition to God, and of their own evil as well. Nevertheless God is near and they are not abandoned. I read somewhere that occasionally an evil person may be in such intense and horrifying suffering for so long that a drastic measure is taken to end it. A universe may be birthed and run down, and he would still be in indescribable suffering, brought on by himself and his own choices. After all avenues to get him to call to God for help has been exhausted, every effort to open his eyes has failed, all hopes to get him to choose is lost, such a spirit is annihilated to end his suffering. He simply ceases to exist forevermore. That's the powerful and terrible thing about freewill. It is permanent and you cannot be coerced into anything, not even into choosing God. You're free to choose evil, good, kindness, cruelty, murder, hate, whatever you want. It isn't child's play. That may be why Christ said in Matthew 6, to store up treasures in heaven where it counts and not on earth. Money is good and life is meant to be enjoyed. But earthly things have no inherent value and we leave it all behind when we die. A life spent solely in the pursuit of power and goods and money, to be held temporarily and then released at death, is a wasted and tragic life. Storm asked Christ a question about people who kill and do evil in His name. You know what He said? That they would be very sorry they had done that. You can't be stopped from doing anything you want to do: rob, kill, cheat, lie or defraud in the name of God or Christ. You have free will. You can do absolutely anything you want and no one will stop you. But the thing these people don't see while they're alive in the flesh is this: There will be consequences. Will get off NDEs and post those questions in a few days. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 3:31am On Jul 21, 2010 |
Seems everyone pretty much filter experiences through preconceived ideas. Like the Jewish lady, who likely had a true reality encounter but thought the being she was taken to was God. No one has seen God. And come back to tell about it. It's the point of no return, in the best possible way. So the guy who says we're God is just filtering. Or maybe it's the best way he can explain things we have no words for here. Like when Christ says He's the Son of God. It's the NDE-ers who put labels and name tags to whoever they encounter. I've questions. Will post them later. ladej: |
| Christianity Etc › Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 9:46am On Jul 17, 2010 |
Hey there. We're not talking of 'soul travel' and 'astral projection' and other occult stuff here. It is what happens to everyday people who die, irrespective of belief or religion, that is under discussion. Thanks. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 6:47pm On Jul 16, 2010 |
I don't believe I dismissed the alien abduction stories. I said it wasn't something external but likely internal, and has been going on for a long time, with the scenarious changing according to the motifs of the times. In the middle ages they were taken to 'castles', in the space age we're now in it's 'space ships' they're taken to. NDEs are a universal phenonemon, UFO abductions are not, but are mostly an American/European thing. And the 'aliens' that abduct them tend to resemble whatever alien models Hollywood is churning out in movies. The complex crop circle hoax that went on for decades before the hoaxers confessed, which spawned a huge alien culture on two continents, should serve as a warning for the gullible. Something may be going on but it has nothing to do with physical aliens or UFO ships here. UFOs are not a matter of belief or religion, but of science and hard evidence. You can't seriously ask anyone to 'believe' in UFOs without any hard physical evidence, the way people would believe in God without empirical evidence. It is simply not the same thing. I told you the US military were using sophisticated weather balloons with all sorts of gadgetry to spy on others, and it's these that many people saw. They used weather balloons because it gave them an excuse to be wherever the wanted. They're often spotted near military installations and the homes and offices of diplomats. Ten dozen things have been called UFOs, including a farmer's silo, a car coming down a hilly road and clouds. The US military encouraged these alien UFO scenarios because it was great misdirection for their activities. When they first heard of UFOs they couldn't at first make the connection with their own spycrafts and were alarmed because they thought it was the Russians. I'll take UFOs seriously when someone completely unacquainted with American movies and the mass suggestion from an alien abduction culture, reports a UFO abduction b aliens. From his description we'll get what he's saying and know it's an alien abduction. Say, an Igbo farmer on his way to his farm. Anyone in a village with no American movies, television or magazines. But no, no such thing has ever happened. So, people dead for hours or days and returning is the same as being physically 'abducted by aliens.'? Were the 'alien abductees' dead? Was it their spirits that were abducted? Did they leave this world? NO, NO, and er, NO.We went over this at length and I'm not getting into it again. When hard evidence is in I'll review my opinions but without evidence they remain unchanged. It's not religious phenomena and doesn't transform into religious phenomena because we're discussing it in the religion section. Oh, the blue thing. A habit I picked up. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: Images From The Christian Inquisition by MadMax1(f): 5:51pm On Jul 16, 2010 |
I like your 2 cents. It makes sense. However the verses you're quoting in 2 Corinthians have nothing whatsoever to do with the 'destroy the flesh' verse. You would only like to think so. Remember that in those times adulterers,blasphemers,heretics,etc, are stoned to death by Mosaic law. So stoning someone to death is commonplace in those times. In 1 Cor Paul delivered Judgement on a particular case, saying the person's flesh is to be destroyed for the salvation of that person. He made that judgement only in that one instance, which seemed to him a grievous sin, a man sleeping with his father's wife. He did not say all sinners should be treated that way. After his judgement he then advocated shunning all sinners within their camp. But the thing is, it doesn't matter what Paul meant, or what we want those verses to mean now. What matters is what the people who used it as a basis to burn people alive, destroying the flesh, thought it meant. Offenders against the crown were usually beheaded. Offenders against the Church were burnt. Thomas Moore was one of the kindest and miost devout of English Christians, very humane. He went about burning 'heretics' out of his compassion and kindness, so their souls may be saved! What we think Paul's verses meant doesn't matter now. It only mattered then. Here is the whole thing. Remember the Latin version and the KJV were in use then and there were no euphemistic versions then as now: 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Paul then goes to on to rebuke them for their 'glorying', which he calls a little lump that leavens the whole bread. He goes on to say they may keep company with sinners outside the church, that it is for God to judge those outside the church, but sinners within the church are to be shunned, and sinners in the church can be judged by the church. The entire thing might have been said to mean to shun the man, except for the 'destruction of the flesh so his spirit may be saved' part. From that verse grew a formula for the salvation of the souls of 'heretics' and 'sinners'. And remember the Christians thought the bible absolutely infallible and iron-clad words direct from God himself, not helped by the fact that Paul more than once says it is not him talking and issuing commandments, but God. lol, muyissera, you will make my head swell na! |
| Christianity Etc › Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 5:01pm On Jul 16, 2010 |
There are millions of those things, actually. Worldwide. Have you ever noticed that people who are unusually kind and loving tend to die young? They usually don't grow old. It happens in every culture. people have long seen the phenomenon and there are proverbs about it.'The good die young, the wicked linger, etc'. Their journey is done and they go to be with God. Illness or an accident is allowed to claim their lives. Their families mourn and people are grieved becasue the person was 'so nice!'. They know their families are grieving but they're in unspeakable bliss with God, in a universe of pure pleasure beyond mortal imagining. Nothing will induce their return to this world. Sometimes the grieving is so much they might appear to a loved one in a dream or waking vision and say,'Stop grieving. It's indescribably fantastic here!'. They're really lucky, and we here are the ones they really, really pity. Many atheists don't actually want to know if there's a God or not. They enjoy living life on their own terms and think all that will change if they ever take the question of God seriously. There might be all sorts of new 'religious' rules and all that. But the rules are the same for us all and have never changed. They operate irrespective of background or religious belief. We're all going to die biological deaths. We were never meant to stay here permanently. God made us from the same eternal spirit fabric that He/She/It is made of, and we might leave this world, but we never die. There is a verse somewhere in the bible that made me raise a brow when I saw it. It's true about God: 'I have foreknown you from the foundation of the world.' Our memories are veiled here because we can't function here if we remember. You have a name that isn't the one your parents gave you but the one He gave you when He made you, and when you leave this world of flesh, you will gradually remember everything. It'll be weird. Mellen Benedict This guy has a non-Christian background. He was dying of terminal cancer, was aware of NDEs and asked that his dead body be left undisturbed for some time after death. When he died of the cancer his wishes were respected. He was dead for almost 2 hours. When he returned the cancer was cured. His NDE is fascinating. http://www.near-death.com/experiences/reincarnation04.html George Rodonaia This guy was dead for three days after a car accident and was in the morgue. He was an atheist at the time. He came back when they were cutting into him during an autopsy. If he'd been Moslem, no coming back. He'd have been buried. Needless to say, that was the end of his atheism. http://www.near-death.com/experiences/evidence10.html Group NDE Here are two examples of when a group of people die or almost die together and share an NDE. http://www.near-death.com/group.html Ranelle Wallace This is a Christian NDE. The first I've posted. The private plane she was in crashed. http://www.near-death.com/wallace.html Rev Kenneth Hagin. This happened when he was 15 and a Southern Baptist Christian. http://www.near-death.com/forum/nde/000/90.html |
| Christianity Etc › Re: Images From The Christian Inquisition by MadMax1(f): 6:51pm On Jul 14, 2010 |
OLAADEGBU:Oladeegbu, you keep surprising me. And you wonder that I like you and keep pestering you up and down. @Chukwudi44, Honey, MyJoe mentioned John Calvin, who wasn't a Catholic, doing the same thing. It wasn't just Catholic Christians. The RCC committed the most atrocities because it was incredibly wealthy and powerful,and had held the reins for more than a thousand years. And you have to admit some of your popes deserve an entire ward in a psychiatric hospital. But it's being pointed not all of them did these things, and many Catholic priests died fighting it. To me, that's the epitome of courage. The whole thing is a mixed bag of good and very, very bad. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: Images From The Christian Inquisition by MadMax1(f): 5:23pm On Jul 14, 2010 |
Gangster popes? You're too kind. Some of them were psychopaths. They went batshit with too much power. One Pope made it official doctrine that Popes were 'infallible' and cannot be wrong. Believe it or not, there are Christians that cannot connect the 'destroy the flesh to save the spirit' doctrine in Corinthians to the actions of those who later carried it out. In 2010, thousands of years after the bible was written, they themselves are living out their lives based on faith in the 'infallibility' and 'divinity' of the bible. Yet they find it hard to fathom that Christians in earlier eras also believed that the bible (and popes and priests) was 'infallible' and its formulas 'divine', and that they used verses in the bible to destroy other people. Not out of wickedness, but out of sincere belief they were doing good, saving the victims' souls. One person recently said that to 'hand over the person to Satan for the destruction of the flesh' simply meant to destroy the sinful human nature. Yet the person failed to explain the process by which a sinful human nature is handed over to Satan for destruction and why he himself, as a Christian, has not applied this mysterious process to destroy his own sinful nature. Others say it is 'ostracism'. But the verse didn't say 'drive the sinner out from among you'. It said 'hand him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so his spirit may be saved on the Last Day'. It's perfectly clear, and many who believed the verse 'divinely inspired' did exactly as it said long after the writer of that verse was dead, sincerely wanting to save the souls of 'sinners' and 'heretics'. Blind, unreasoning faith is one of the reasons why the horror persisted for so long until people dropped their ignorance, saw the light and put a stop to it. It has no foundation in the teachings of Christ and is not Christian doctrine except to those who chose that it be so. It was horribly abused by a powerful religious caste for its own purposes. It was also heartbreakingly applied by others out of genuine belief. Some popes and priests did evil in antiquity, some popes and priests did not. Some priests protested the evil they saw and many of them died for it. The majority of the body of Christians took no part in these things but were themselves the victims. When our people were throwing twin babies alive into forests because they thought twin babies were an evil omen, it was a Christian that came to stop it. It's some of the same Christians that died by the thousands fighting for the freedom of the slaves some of our ancestors sold. No group of people is perfect and we're all ruled by self-interest. But ignoring all the good that many ordinary Christians have done and trumpeting ancient history to deride the present is ridiculous and a little irresponsible. There are just some very bad people, and for them, any excuse will do to commit atrocities if they ever have power. If the Bible or Quoran is not there, they'd find something else. Political ideology for instance, or the sort of racism and tribalism that leads to purges and genocides. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: Images From The Christian Inquisition by MadMax1(f): 6:32am On Jul 14, 2010 |
Jenwitemi:If you knew anything about Christianity at all, you'd know it is based on the NT, not the old. Judaism is based on the OT. If you want to try and hold modern Christians responsible for what a few people did centuries ago, knock yourself out. No sensible or honest person would. And no 'defence' or explanations are due you from people who did not write the old testament. If you've issues with it, take it up with the authors. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: Images From The Christian Inquisition by MadMax1(f): 4:04pm On Jul 13, 2010 |
It isn't 'Christianity' at work there. It's the Roman Catholic Church and its priests and employees. Europeans may have brought Christianity here but they didn't originate it. They wouldn't get slaves if we weren't selling our kin for trinkets. The Asians had known Europeans for much longer and weren't selling their people to them. We Africans had been keeping slaves before they came, and we saw nothing wrong is selling fellow Africans to them. Yet it's those same Europeans that fought for the abolition of slavery, some of them at the cost of their own lives. America went to war with itself over it, North fighting South over slavery. It wasn't all the priests in RCC that went along with what was happening during the Middle Ages. But those who had the courage to protest had a habit of being burnt for 'heresy'. Those people had been led to believe, in the absence of a bible, that RCC priests can damn their souls for eternity, and so they did evil in terror of 'excommunication'. Stalin was an atheist who murdered Christians by the hundreds of thousands, and had them involuntarily committed to mental hospitals and tortured till they renounced God. Hitler twisted social darwinism into some romantic Volk nonsense where Aryans were the superior race and contaminants like Jews, Gypsies and the feeble must all go. At least thirty-five million people lost their lives through him in WW2. Mao wanted to implement radical atheistic Marxism, and something like 40-100 million Chinese died as a result. Cruelty is a human failing and has nothing to do with religion. There is no foundation in the Christian gospels for the evil the RCC did. Quite the opposite, which was why they kept the bible away from the 'masses' for over a thousand years. Christians didn't have a bible until the 16th century or so, and then only through the efforts of people like William Tyndale, who translated it into English. The KJV is based on his work. For his trouble he was hounded over Europe by the RCC, strangled and burnt. The bibles he had given out were collected by a RCC posse. His friends courageously continued his work. Christians in antiquity believed whatever the Roman Church told them to believe. It was when people began to read the bible for themselves and saw no basis in the gospels for all the excesses of the RCC, that they rebelled and separated from RCC, and things slowly began to change. Can the Catholic Church come now and say it wants to torture people and burn them based on its contents? The ignorance on which their power was based is gone. Ethiopia, one of the oldest Christian nations in the world, was not under the influence of the RCC and has its own bible, the Ethipian Bible, till this day. Europe did not originate Christianity. Ethiopia existed peacefully as a Christian country for centuries till one of its emperors was converted to Roman Catholism. That was the end of peace. Religious murder began. Ethipians who didn't accept Catholism were killed by the thousands. When an evil person has power, evil happens, be he a psychopathic Pope or Hitler or Stalin or Foday Sankoh. But what has what RCC did in the past to do with the present? No one is happy about it, but it happened hundreds of years ago. All the participants are long dead. They did not bring the Inquisition to Africa, they kept it within themselves in Europe. You can't deride Christianity for what some people did in the past. It's the same as saying Sani Abacha killed Saro Wiwa in the past, but both of you are psychopaths because you're both Nigerians. It makes no sense. The Middle Ages were evil times because evil men had great influence. Do you know many Catholic Christians fought what their own Church was doing then, some at the cost of their lives? If we had been living in those times would you have had the courage to do the same? You're trumpeting the evil some people did in the past, but what about the great good that many others did? Moslems are killing Christians in your country NOW. They killed people this week in Kano. I read of a Christian they threw a tire on and burned to death in your native country. Why don't you add the photo of that man burning to death to your collection up there? Why not incite people to despise Islam or the great mass of peaceful Moslems who do not support religious killing? Why not dredge up pictures of what Islamic authorities did to Arab Moslems in Saudi one thousand years ago and start calling Islam names and inciting non-Moslems to hatred of Islam? What's the point you're making here?There's more than enough evil going on in the world TODAY to occupy you. Perhaps you should spend your time drawing attention to those than bringing up a dead past that has no relevance to the present. There's no evil religion, there are only evil people. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 10:11pm On Jul 12, 2010 |
I'm just a little busy at the moment. I'll post other NDEs in a few days. I saw the verses in Matthew you mentioned long ago when I was searching for Jesus referring to Adam. He never once mentions Adam. Did you notice that He began that verse with , 'Have you not read'? That's the only place he prefaces an OT quotation with "Have you not read?". Odd. And MyJoe, He still does NOT make a single reference to Adam in that verse, merely that God created people male and female, a self-evident fact. If you check out the Genesis verse he quoted from, you'll see that he ought to have mentioned Adam, because in Genesis, that verse was used to refer to the MARRIAGE OF ADAM AND EVE. This is the full text referred in Genesis: Gen 2: 23-24 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. The two verses go together. Instead He avoids Adam, and quotes two separate verses: Gen 2: 24, and Genesis 1:27 Gen2: 24:Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. Gen 1:17: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created He them, male and female created He them. He avoids Adam or Eve or Eden and says in Matthew 19:4,5 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Do you see? You have to remember He was talking to Jews and so used the material they were familiar with. Yet He was quite confortable ignoring Mosaic laws and the Sabbath the Jews held as 'sacred'. Do you know how many times He was caught ignoring the Sabbath? If God made the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th, and the 7th day actually came from God to honour God by, do you imagine Jesus would disregard the Sabbath? No, he would 'honour' his father with observing the Sabbath. In fact, if he were fake, he would make a show of doing so. If he disregards the Sabbath it could mean a few things. Like perhaps He knew the Jewish '6-days of creation, 1 day of rest' Genesis story was bogus. As were Adam and Eve. Though maybe I don't get you, and you can clarify how Matthew 19:4,5 endorses the existence of Adam, Eve, Eden, Fruit, and that death and suffering came into the world through Adam? He not only ignores them both, in four entire gospels where his mission to bear away the sins of the world is continually expounded on, he does not mention the Eden story or any of the characters ONCE. Which is strange if Adam is the cause of the sin he came to bear away. The Matthew verses only buttress what I was trying to say. Yes, I quite agree Storm had a religious childhood. And that he may have 'drawn' from that. I see what you're saying and you may be right. Recall we were all raised as children in one religion or the other, though, and that few children were rasied as atheists. If there isn't an external reality outside our beliefs, as an atheist, an adult, and a university professor no less, none of the things he saw should have happened to him. He should have gotten the oblivion he expected if our beliefs is all that determines what happens when we die. The name 'Jesus' is just an anglicized version of His Jewish name. But there was no other name that Storm knew to call, and the nudge to call came from outside him. Christ could not come till Storm called because it has to be a choice. The fact remains that it's only Christians who accept who He was when He came here, and that gives them a bit of an edge. Nevertheless Christ doesn't belong to Christians alone. He did not indicate how He saves other people, but that others are saved is certain. I absolutely believe no one can get to God without Him. Human beings have been here for hundreds of thousands of years. He just came 2ooo years ago. Did humanity start getting saved 2000 years ago? Did the laws of justice and mercy and compassion and sowing and reaping and making choices come into effect two thousand years ago? Of course not. David, who died centuries before the birth of Jesus, wrote a psalm asking for the joy of his salvation to be restored. Christians simply don't know enough to presume to do the work of Christ for Him and determine some formula by which they are saved and others roast in 'an eternity of hellfire.' He said no man cometh to God except through Him. He said broad is the way that leads to destruction, narrow is the way that leads to life. Christians take Christianity to be the 'narrow way', and all other religions the 'broad way' and 'destruction' to be an eternity in hellfire. Never mind Christianity hadn't been invented when He was talking. Who said He was talking religions at all? He absolutely was not. Honestly, for a hundred and one reasons that have nothing to do with religion, I completely believe this Being to be who He says He is. Please read Storm's book first. When you read the book you'll see that, apart from the name 'Jesus', which is the only name he knew, nothing that happened in the NDE conformed to traditional Christian beliefs of what happens after people die, so it wasn't childhood sunday school talking. You'll be a little surprised at the questions asked and the answers given. And the story doesn't end with that NDE, but continued while he'd been returned and was back home and at work. I searched for Moslem NDEs a long while back and got a few, but they're scarce because Moslems bury their dead very, very quickly. |
. or maybe i should also go back and check out just what the Jesus said about tithing 