the_problem_of_religion The Words of Jesus of Nazareth **Take heed, beware of living your life on religious "food." ** By now you have certainly forgotten the five loaves that fed the five thousand, with twelve baskets left over, or the seven loaves that fed the four thousand and the plenty that remained. But I am not speaking to you about earthly food. No, I have come to warn you against feeding on the ideas and false teachings of those who market religion. In vain such people worship me, teaching as doctrines what are merely the inventions of men. They're so busy clinging to their own superstitions that they have forgotten the commandments of God. Beware of false teachers who stand before you wearing sheep's clothing. Beneath the disguise hides a ravenous wolf. They follow their real leader, the devil, and do what he wants. He was a murderer from the beginning, and never told the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks in character, for he is a liar, and the father of lies. To these swindlers who set themselves up to be your judges I say: Judgment upon you, false religious leader and teachers, hypocrites! You bar the doors of the kingdom of heaven, closing the way to those who truly wish to enter. You don't enter yourselves; and you barricade the way to those who long to go in. You steal from poor widows; and then, to conceal your true intentions, you make long pious prayers. You will inherit great damnation. You travel across land and sea to gain one proselyte; and when that person is won, you make him two times more the child of hell than yourselves. You preach: "The temple is unimportant. What is important is the treasury of the temple!" Which is greater: the gold in the treasury, or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And you say: "The altar is not important; but the gift that is upon it is important." You are both foolish and blind. Which is greater: the gift on the altar, or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Whoever honours the altar, honours it and all things upon it. And whoever honours the temple, honours him who dwells within its walls. And they who honour heaven, honour the throne of God, and he who sits upon it. You make ceremonial offerings of even the mint and herbs that grow in front of your house. At the same time you have forgotten the weightier matters of the law: judgment, mercy, and faith, that which should concern you. Your vision doesn't extend one inch in front of your face. You strain a gnat from your wine, and proceed to swallow a camel. Then you clean the outside of your cups and bowls, while inside there remains a thick coat of extortion and the filth of excess. How blind can you be! First take care of the mess within; and then the outside will be clean. You false teachers! In your hypocrisy you are no better than whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of death and dead men's bones. You may impress people by your outward show of righteousness, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and sin. How can you believe, you who live for your colleague's praise, and never seek the praise that comes from God alone? You build monuments to the prophets, and put flowers around the tombs of the righteous, and say: "If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would never have allowed their innocent blood to be shed." Witness your own inconsistency! You are the children of those that killed the prophets, and now you even surpass the deeds of your ancestors. You snakes, generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell? Behold, I will send you prophets, and wise men, and teachers: and some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will beat, and persecute from city to city. Such hypocrisy! Isaiah was right when he prophesied of you, saying: "These people approach me with their mouths, and honour me with their lips; but their hearts are far from me." You justify yourselves in front of your congregations; but God knows your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed by man in repulsive in the sight of God. Take heed: Many will come from the east and west, and sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But those who should have entered the kingdom will be banished to the darkness outside. Unless your righteousness exceeds the pseudo-righteousness of the so-called religious, you will never set foot in the kingdom of heaven. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- These are the very words of Jesus of Nazereth. Taken originally from the Bible , and arranged here by subject as they appear in Lee Cantelon's book "The Words" (c) 1997. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 010826 ... unhinged that was probably the longest bible type passage i have ever read. the_problem_of_religion is perception; everyone's is different and they think it's absolutely right. 010826 ... kx21 Ten_supreme_hearts, specifically She4 & she8? 010826 ... kx21 Homeostasis... 010826 ... kx21 Satanization... 011011 ... Sonya Religion separates people where it should unite them. So many lives have been lost over religion that it seems to have lost its purpose (to help us lead better and more peaceful lives in my opinion.) With religion we end up getting not only massive segregation (churchs still separated by ethnicity in a lot of cities), but also tyranny and unnecessary deprivation. In the words of Jonathan Swift: "We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another." 011012 ... kx21 'Hijacked' by Terror... 'Terrorised' by Tiger... 011013 ... kx21 'Powered' by Political Leader... 'Politized' by Religious Preacher... 'Polarized' by Sheep... 011014 ... kx21 'Powered' by Political Leader... 'politicized' by Religious Preacher... 'Polarized' by Sheep... 011014 ... Dafremen This should be read. Christian, Atheist..whatever..it doesn't matter. This is real and it is true. It is CERTAINLY worthy of a moment of our time that we would otherwise spend scratching ourselves, blathering or watching TV. 030922 ... kx21 Topological_Defect:- The wavelength of its word is not equal to the frequency of One's Fuss... 030922 ... smurfus rex another problem is that the ones to whom this passage refers don't realize it's about them. their lies run so deep that even they believe them. 030922 ... It could be that they are so secure in thier Faith that they choose not to enter into debates, which only ring the bells of dissention and acrimony, perhaps they prefer instead to lift up, or truly embody the character and spirit of thier faith in every breath, in every step. Perhaps they choose to respectfully, and reticently observe and accept a persons right to dissent and discourse. Perhaps any thing outside of the Light and Love of thier life is a meaningless distraction. 030923 ... Isaac There is a distinct difference between a person who believes in the bible and a person who believes in another person's interpretation of the bible. 030923 ... Dafremen There is NO difference between truth fallen from the lips of God or from the lips of a liar. Truth is truth and the onus ISN'T upon the speaker to differentiate, but upon the listener or reader. Those that would ignore the truth because it came from a paperback instead of their Lord's own good book, have chained themselves to the title and not its content. They have set themselves up as the willing-to-be-duped. They have set themselves up to ignore the truth and believe whatever lies may be slathered between the pages of their "holiest of holies." Is that to say that the Bible is a book without merit? Certainly not, and anyone that has read my writing knows that I highly recommend its study. What that means, is that if your main criterion for determining what is true in life is whether or not it comes from a credible source, then you have chained your notion of truth, not to truth itself, but to another's words. The veracity of the word determines whether or not truth is to be found there, not the reputation of its source. Wake up! 030923 ... the logician define lies. 030923 ... oldephebe the utility of a truth can only be subjectively ascertained w/r/t the whole faith, religion, philosophy, political orientation, gender identification, mode of mind, in short the entire sphere of human conduct and thought..the talismanic authority one beqeuathes to a proposed verity..even out of the mouth of madness. A person will cling to what has blessed them, or served them well in thier life. We're ALL strapped in to our subjective states of consciousnes. It's totally fine with me if someone doesn't accept what is my truth for me. I guess the only problem I would have with someone and thier adherence to a "truth" or mode of being would be if a child or weaker person was harmed in the observance of anothers imposed truth, physically or emotionally. I think harm would be the extent to which any reasonable person could clearly identify/determine visually or explicitely what would statutorily constitute objective harm/abuse. Like I said earlier on this blathepage..if you are being fed so sumptuously from a truth you don't feel the need to eat off of another's plate.. ... 030923 ... god all_religion_ia_a_problem_for_me 041010 ... three words the_problem_of_religion eyebrows follow_me 050305 what's it to you? who go blather from