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BoundSacrifice

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Hi everybody! I'm new to the forums, obviously, and I'd like to clear up some things regarding my theology so as not to offend later on.

I am a Christian, and I read the Bible. I have taken college-level courses regarding the Bible. My theology is a little... unorthodox, to say the least.

I do not support biblical inerrancy. I believe that the Bible is a human work as a response from revelations of God, but is affected by the culture, prejudices, and limitations of the time in which it was written.

I am a Universalist - I believe that either there is no punishment after death, or if there is, it is not based on belief systems. I believe all enduring religion is valid as a path to God. I realize the implications of this.

I do not believe Jesus was God, although I know he existed. He was a Jewish mystic, a teacher, a healer, and a prophet. I follow his teachings as closely as I can.

I'm not sure about the Resurrection - not that I don't think Jesus is still divinely real today, but that I'm not sure if anything physically happened to his body. I am inclined to say something did, but I'm not sure.

I reject the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, and with it, original sin.

That being said, I am still Christian and I love joining with other followers of Jesus and his ways. I hope to learn much from everybody here, and I'm glad to meet all of you :)
 
Hi and welcome to CF.net BoundSacrifice. You seem to come with many convictions contrary to basic Christian doctrine, and I would suggest going to the top of our home page located on a darker blue bar and you'll find an option titled "Quick Links." Selecting that you will see a list including "Terms of Service," and "Statement of Faith" helpful in knowing how and what to post.

I do hope you can learn along with the rest of us as we seek to learn of, and to please God. May you be blessed here in Jesus' name.
:waving
 
Thank you for the welcome Eugene :). It's true, my beliefs are rather contrary to conservative Christianity. I'm more inclined in the manner of Marcus Borg and John Shelby Spong, who are Liberal Christians, as am I.
 
The problem with liberality is that it plays to supposition rather than truth. E.g., Universalism might portray that God being love would never be just and judgment to be a part of that, Humanism asks: wouldn't God want me to be happy? The difficulty with this is the fact that the finite mind of man can and will not be subject to infinite problems facing him.

Aren't we all the same? No. We are born in sin and that must be rectified by God and that alone is provided by the sacrifice provided; His Son and our Savior Jesus Christ. There is none other name given among men whereby we may be saved from the wrath of God other than Jesus; He is the way, the truth, and the life and without Him there is no salvation.

Yo mention the fact that you did not believe Jesus is God, and yet He proclaims Him to be so in Isaiah 43:11. "I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour." The word LORD used here is the word Jehovah shown below taken from Strong's Concordance.

Jehovah="the existing One"

1) the proper name of the one true God
1a) unpronounced except with the vowel pointings of 0136

I do hope you will reconsider what Christ is to our lives and will examine without prejudice the grace and truth of God's word to us. Thanks.
 
Welcome to CF!

Very good post, Eugene!
Eugene said:
The problem with liberality is that it plays to supposition rather than truth. E.g., Universalism might portray that God being love would never be just and judgment to be a part of that, Humanism asks: wouldn't God want me to be happy? The difficulty with this is the fact that the finite mind of man can and will not be subject to infinite problems facing him.

Aren't we all the same? No. We are born in sin and that must be rectified by God and that alone is provided by the sacrifice provided; His Son and our Savior Jesus Christ. There is none other name given among men whereby we may be saved from the wrath of God other than Jesus; He is the way, the truth, and the life and without Him there is no salvation.

Yo mention the fact that you did not believe Jesus is God, and yet He proclaims Him to be so in Isaiah 43:11. "I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour." The word LORD used here is the word Jehovah shown below taken from Strong's Concordance.

Jehovah="the existing One"

1) the proper name of the one true God
1a) unpronounced except with the vowel pointings of 0136

I do hope you will reconsider what Christ is to our lives and will examine without prejudice the grace and truth of God's word to us. Thanks.
Click to expand...
 
I realize that Liberal Christianity is a very controversial topic, so a response is to be expected. I'll answer the claims made in this post the best I can.

I do not believe in supernatural theism. I don't believe that God is a personlike being separate from us. I believe he is the ground of the reality in which we live, forming the world in the manner which modern science has described. I feel that science describes the "how", not the "why".

I don't think that Jesus talked about himself as equal to God. Many of the sayings about him being the "I am" are found in John, and frankly most of John doesn't go back to Jesus at all, but rather the early church. I don't believe that Jesus was God, but that he was intimately close with God and that God was the focus of his entire life. He is God as revealed in a human, one of us. He is not God, but what God would be like were he a human. I live by his teachings because he was not only interesting, but incredibly smart. He was brilliant.

About him being our Saviour, I agree. Not in the way that believing in him is our only ticket to heaven, but that by following his way, we might be able to construct what God wants on this Earth, in the present. That's not to say I don't believe in an afterlife, but that's not what I think Jesus was talking about when he said "Kingdom of God". Also, Isaiah was a prophet who lived more than 700 years before Jesus did, and he preached almost entirely to Judah about their coming fall to the Babylonians in 586 B.C.

I truly do believe in God. I don't believe that God is a Christian, or a Jew, or a Hindu, or a Muslim, etc. I believe that God is experienced through every culture in a different way. Although God is seen differently by every religion due to prejudice within itself, God is real. God is more than this universe while also being present in it.

I'm not saying that your interpretation of Scripture is wrong; I just can't, as a skeptical and rational human being, say that Jesus believed he was God and that his Resurrection was about sacrifice rather than defeating the powers of this world, without being able to have some evidence to show that the claims of him being God go back to him, rather than being written down around 100 C.E. as it appears they were.

As I said before, I am Christian and passionately proclaim Jesus is Lord and the powers at be here on Earth are not, and that I do experience Jesus in my own life and not just as a historical figure and that he is with God now. I just can't vouch for his miracles, physical resurrection, and equality with God, without some proof.
 
farouk said:
BoS: You see, for the Biblical Christian, the Bible and the Resurrection is the proof.
Click to expand...

It's not that I don't read the Bible (On the contrary, I've read the Old Testament twice and most of the New Testament), it's that a lot of the Bible was oral tradition for generations before being written, and isn't historically reliable.
 
Hi BoundSacrifice. Nice to meet you. I've read some Borg and Spong and flirted with liberalism for awhile, but found it just didn't do it for me. Anyway, it's nice to meet you :)
 
BoundSacrifice said:
It's not that I don't read the Bible (On the contrary, I've read the Old Testament twice and most of the New Testament), it's that a lot of the Bible was oral tradition for generations before being written, and isn't historically reliable.
Click to expand...

BoS:

Hebrews 11 says: 'But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for He that comes to God must believe that He is and that He a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.'

So if we come doubting what He has clearly said in His Word, why should He accept us?

And what about our sins? we need the Savior.

God bless to you your trusting study of His Word.
 
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