Here is Jesus own explanation of salvation that clearly contradicts whay you are teaching about the bible: "Whoever tries to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my (Christ"s ) sake will gain it." So, salvation is for Christ. Clear as a mountain stream. Your so-called "life", that you are holding onto through contradictory gospels (that depend on Christ laying down his life for you), prevents the salvation of Christ. Oh, not so clear? Its because the bible doesnt actually teach anything except to record interpretations. This saying of Jesus is about as clear as it gets to a ray of light, and yet it is subject to your own interpretation. Why dont you be honest about it? Because you have an agenda: to save yourself through twisted theological/legal gymnastics. The neo-Pharisaic Jews (the black sheep of the religio-Judeo family) interpret this in strange ways. Maybe they will give up smoking cigarettes and count that as laying down ones life. Or go to church and count that as laying down ones life of staying at home. It all depends on your interpretation what "life" means, when you"ve already been told you were dead ("let the dead bury the dead"). The Lords Supper has also been interpreted to save your own lives when it clearly is supposed to remind you that Christ is broken into many pieces (destroyed) for "you" (people) to have a so-called "life". And you are happy with this??? You should be shocked by this and renew your efforts to lay down your so-called life so that Christ can be made whole again. Because while you hold onto your life, you sacrifice the life of Christ. So what life must you lay down? You must lay down the appearance of a separate existence and accept the exclusive existence of Christ as your own. You might think this is an interpretation and it is. Because as clear as the original statement is, words are inherently weak . By claiming that the bible speaks clearly about your version of interpretation is inherently dishonest. Its dishonest to claim you are not actively interpreting, and that with an agenda. That (dishonesty) is exactly what you need to hold onto your life, as a man, woman or child: you need a core dishonesty even prior to your first incarnation. Its this dishonesty that causes your first incarnation (causing you to be "born in sin") and is what is causing multiple more incarnations; in what is actually "hell". Every breath you take...every minute tik tok on the clock of time, you are debating the existence of Christ. There is no neutral position : you are either for or against Christ. Every minute you spend arguing for your own existence you spend arguing against the existence of Christ, whose existence is a wholistic, exclusive monopoly on all existence (life). Other than Christ, nothing else actually lives. All breathing of the flesh is an appearance (an interpretation of Christ). The appearance denies the existence of Christ (technically sacrifices/destroys/kills the existence of Christ for your own).
I don’t think it’s fair for you to say I’m dishonest in saying this about your beliefs. I did not realize that you believe in 1% of the Bible, although with an interpretation that you say goes completely against all the texts the surround it. It should seem understandable to you, I would think, that in such a case, it would legitimately appear to one like me that your beliefs contradict the Bible. I will keep this in mind for the future. Don’t forget, previously you gave this response to me, leading me to believe my assessment was correct: I am not aware of hiding anything. I am choosing to believe the Bible’s claims about itself and I do believe it is clearly unified in it's message that people are in a rebellious state against God and only through the means He has provided, namely Jesus, can one be reconciled to God. Job 19:23-27: “Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! Job was written hundreds of years before Jesus came, and some believe it could be the oldest book in the Bible. Here it has a theme common with the rest of Scripture: 1. God is our Redeemer 2. After death we shall see God with our eyes. In this passage, also in the Old Testament, there is the recurring theme that the one thing that separates people from God, is sin: Listen! The LORD’s arm is not too weak to save you, nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call. It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore. Isaiah 59:2 NLTSome of the descriptions given of God or His Suffering Servant, are exactly what Jesus endured during the abuse he received just before and while He was on the cross. These were also written hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth. Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb? Even if she could forget, I will not forget you! 16Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Isaiah 49:16 BSBNote here that this is God talking, saying He cannot forget His people, He has inscribed them on the palms of His hands. Not only are these very comforting words of God’s faithfulness to His people, but immediately the picture that comes to a believer’s mind when reading “I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands” is of the scars that Jesus retained from being nailed to the cross and having the sword pierce his side. After His resurrection John 20:27 tells us, “Then Jesus said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and look at My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.’” Also from Isaiah, written hundreds of years earlier, is this description that took place just before Jesus was crucified: I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. Isaiah 50:6 ESV Also, in Isaiah 53:5 BSB, piercing seems to refer to the nails of the cross, the stripes referring to the whipping he endured, all done as a substitution for us, in our place, for our peace with God: But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. The Bible teaches that people need to look to God to save them. Turning, trusting, believing and having faith in God conveys the same idea. And there is no other God besides Me, A just God and a Savior; There is none besides Me. “Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself; The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, And shall not return, That to Me every knee shall bow… Isaiah 45: 21-23 Numbers 21:6-9 tells how the Israelites sinned and God sent snakes as a punishment. Many died before they repented and confessed they had sinned and asked Moses to intercede with God for them. Here are verses 8 and 9: 8 The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived. Jesus used this story as a picture of how one believes in Jesus to receive eternal life. John 3: 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,[f] 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”[g] 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. I didn't comment on much of what you wrote because I would really rather not get into an argument with you over any of it. Also, this is all off topic on this thread. I would like to keep it for Christians songs only.
This is a beautiful rendition of one of my favorite hymns, "Love Was When" by Paul Sandberg. I'm not familiar with his name but found the following info about him from Haven Today. https://haventoday.org/series/through-it-all-with-paul-sandberg/ He gave up a successful music career in Hollywood and never looked back. His name was Paul Sandberg and he spent his career singing and working with Haven Ministries.
The dishonesty i'm mainly referencing has to do with your representation of the bible as a unified voice in favor of only one type of salvation. In fact it advertises two type of salvation 1) the salvation of mankind (or a subset thereof), or, 2)the salvation of Christ. Your preferred type of salvation is at the expense of Christ in favor of the human archetype. Your detested type of salvation is at the expense of the human archetype in favor of Christ. Here are Jesus own words in this regard: "Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. " Thus, salvation is for Christ, as clear as a mountain stream. Perhaps none of the collection of legacy lore known as the "old testament" (to the neo-Judeo faction) supports the salvation of Christ at the expense of the human archetype, except to say that Adam fell asleep, and, having never woken up, the whole lie-brary is a description of Adam's terrible dream, in which Good is misrepresented (blasphemed) and bloodshed (war) follows. So it (the text), like the world it lives in, is dark, like a grimoire of black magic spells. Comes now Jesus, a ray of light in a dark world filled with dark texts, saying, "Come to me you who are weary (of the darkness) and follow me (follow my example)". This message was sent to men whose minds were filled with darkness, and in their interpretations of his message, they surrounded the message with their dark interpretations, still asleep under the spell of "Adam". Comes now Jesus, first to wake up (resurrect), making him the "second Adam", so to speak, the first to awaken out of all that has gone asleep. Following Jesus, all will awaken. Not following Jesus they will remain asleep within the first Adam, so-to-speak. "Awaken ye who sleep in Christ" is a lost scripture which speaks of the sleep of Adam, and now, reveals that it is the sleep of Christ (not Adam) that promulgates blasphemy against Good, with resulting bloodshed (war). Alas, the entire "old testament" is simply a record of various aspects of the dream as they pertain to but one lineage of peoples. Is any of it true? Only if the dream is true. If you think the dream is true, you are still asleep, ignoring the call for all the weary to "follow me". Comes Jesus, a ray of light in a dark un-reality, whose bright message has been obfuscated by the dark interpretations of all those who still believe the dream is true (that the "old testament" has anything positive/true to represent). As a result, about 99% of the text (the con-text) about Jesus are still dark, like the minds that interpreted his sayings, and 1% of it still shines like a lone candle in the darkness. The con-text is all in favor of saving the human archetype, no matter what or who it must sacrifice. It will sacrifice lambs, or Christ, as it doesn't give a damn. I would not describe this as a "belief in 1% of the bible". It's an observation that your own worshiped context is choking on a gnat, having a hard time swallowing what Jesus has said about salvation. I see the context as a kind of beast, trying to consume (destroy) what little light appeared in it's domain a couple of millenniums ago. I would not describe this as a belief in 1% of the entire story, just an observation that the 1% of "new wine" that has been swallowed by the 99% "old wineskins" has the potential to destroy it's unified fabric. And i notice that you ignore the fact that since Jesus, the text is not fully unified in it's message. It's not so much my beliefs that contradict the con-text, its Jesus own knowledge of his Self that contradicts everything the Jewish leadership had been saying for thousands of years. Those amongst the Jews who thought Jesus was the "Messiah" tried to incorporate his message into legacy lore, only to choke on it. I simply point out a few crumbs that were not completely swallowed into the darkness of the legacy con-text. For example, the Lord's Supper. It is a reminder that Christ is broken (destroyed) for the human archetype to exist, so-to-speak (nothing produced by a dream actually exists). Your OK with this. I am not. The darkness is OK with this. The light is not. While the dream persists, it will continue to "sacrifice" Christ. This is not too different from vampires of lore, who, living in the dark, must drink the blood of that which lives in the light, in order for that which abides in the dark to "live" (exist, survive). As such, the Lord's Supper is a parable, which, if you interpret correctly, you will live, but if you continue to interpret wrongly (unworthily), you will surely continue to die, and be born again to die again...dead, but not quite alive either, like vampires. Your interpretation of Jesus' message does hide the actual message. I've pointed out a few example of his messages that were not completely digested by the dark monster of con-text that has swallowed it, and yet, even now, you ignore these instances, suggesting they are "off topic". These examples are more difficult to interpret in favor of your preferred type of salvation (the salvation of the human archetype, or a subset thereof), so they are ignored and hidden by false statements such as, "I do believe it (the entire collection) is unified in it's message". Whereas, it is not unified. I believe that this is a matter of honesty. The idea that anything else, other that Good, can exist, is presumptuous and must be confined to an ignorant dream (the dream of Adam, so-to-speak). The idea that something else can exist, AND maintain a "rebellious" state, is twice as presumptuous, and twice as dark. These presumptions serve only one purpose, to "save" the human archetype by adding details to belief in its existence. For example, details about a war in the heavens about the human archetype, increases belief in the human archetype, that it does indeed exist. Otherwise, why would the heavens fight battles for the human archetype? It must certainly exist! How could the human archetype "rebel" from the heavens if it did not exist? In this way (of thinking), the prime objective is to increase and maintain belief in the human archetype, maintaining its existence. However, all belief pumped into mankind, is taken away from the knowledge of Christ. In this way, you do sacrifice Christ by all such ignorance. Here is a fact: Nothing can actually break the law(s) of Good. Therefore, nothing ever has. Stories about rebellion serve only to maintain a dream state, entirely untrue, in order to preserve each character in the dream, especially the character one relates to most (one's identity within the dream). That which dreams cannot ever be reconciled with that which is awake. Here again, you wish to maintain the characters made up within a vast dream, and thereby save (at least some of) them. The clever amongst the characters can indeed use "Jesus" as a "means" whereby to continue sleeping, so long as his message can be interpreted to support the salvation of the human archetype (or a subset thereof). But by no such means can you awaken, as did Jesus. And if you were honest, you would follow Jesus example (how to wake up) instead. The clearest example he gave, which you hide and ignore through dishonest interpretations, is that he identified himself with the Good, the entire Good, and nothing but the Good. In this embrace of Spirit, he rejected flesh as any kind of origin or destination. This thread seems to exist in a section of forum called "Religion and Spirituality", and specifically evangelizes for one type of salvation, the preservation of the human archetype or a subset thereof. This is what i am speaking to, not politics about the presidency, not cookie recipes in Chit Chat. So i believe it is on topic as long as you are advertising lyrics to songs which promote the type of salvation that Jesus spoke against.
There's no lyrics to this song, so it has to be interpreted. You have to listen for the actual meaning in back of the notes. Here is what this song, "The Messiah Will Return", actually means: First, we know that Jesus was not the Messiah, having denied it himself: "My kingdom is not of this world". So, not surprisingly, he has not come back for at least 2000 years now, at least not in the way some Judeos and/or neo-Judeos are expecting. Thus, the term "Messiah" must be sublimated to more accurately reflect the actual role Jesus played, to describe more exactly the method, time, and place of "return". Second, it's quite clear that Jesus claimed to have come from another world, proverbially named, The Kingdom Of God, but which doesn't really have a name. Any name that would distinguish his origins from "this world" will suffice. He also made it quite clear he was RETURNING to the world he came from. To simplify this in terms of a popular parable, the "Prodigal Son" returns to his place of origins. After that, there are no parables that say he again left his origins to return to the pig sty he had already "overcome" and/or otherwise escaped (escape from the belly of the whale so-to-speak). This is why Jesus said, about 2000 years ago, "I am returning...", and, "follow me". Ever since, "he" has been leaving "this world", to an original state of being that man cannot go: "Where i go you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow me later". Note well, it does not say, 'i will come back later'. It is clear, then, that there is as mandate to follow, one way or another. It is equally clear there is no mandate to sit around waiting for what the Jews are waiting for: a supra-human king over all nations, ruling from a seat of government in Jerusalem, having disposed of all remaining pockets of resistance in a bloody conflict. The "return", therefore, is more of a psychological phenomenon than a physical phenom that can be seen with eyeballs. There is a phrase, for example, "return to one's senses", and/or "i came back to my senses". This can happen in a flash, as in a flash of knowledge. If you seem to be standing on the face of the earth, it will seem as though the knowledge has come "here" to "this world". This is only because knowledge must meet you where you think you are, until you realize "you" are not "here". True knowledge will reveal that "you" are on your way "home" (not here) along with the proverbial "prodigal son", where no man can go. Knowledge of one's True Self comes more subtly, silently, like the morning star in the east, signaling the end of darkness. It "dawns" upon one's mind. The full acceptance of this knowledge is transformative. One now knows he is no longer a man, nor a woman, and therefore needs no longer the sun, moon, or air to breath. In the light of knowledge, all such perceptions vanish back to the nothingness from which they came. Thus, where "you" now stand, comprises the entire world of Christ, having arrived "home". The arrival of actual knowledge can be invigorating. It can inspire exclamations like "Christ!!!", with several exclamation marks. The revelation of one's True Self is astonishing beyond words. Hence, no lyrics in this song. Imagine suddenly discovering that you can play the guitar, like this man, without ever having practiced. That would be astonishing indeed. And if you could, what would you play? How happy would you be? Even more, it is astonishing to have knowledge dawn upon one's mind, returning it to its senses...to it's original state of being. "Messiah" is to be translated: The Knowledge of Christ, One's True Self That's actually what this song is about if you listen very carefully.
“But what about you?” Jesus asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by My Father in heaven..." Matthew 16:15-17a BSB
A Christian version of "Hallellujah." Merry Christmas, everyone! [Edited by Magna:] At OP's request this thread is closed.