Re: I genuinely hope..
Submitted by Babel-17 on February 15 2002 13:28:34
In reply to Re: I genuinely hope.. submitted by Splash! on February 15 2002 03:28:16
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Before saying what I want to say in response to your post, I feel compelled to stress once again that I'm not a Christian... I don't reiterate this for purposes of controversy, but rather to underline the universal nature of (what I see as) a deeper truth that lies beyond all religious metaphor.. As one who's life has been intimately touched more than once by something which is-me-but-greater-than-me at the same instant, I would say, in answer to your question...(which I imagine was rhetorical but I'm going to pretend it wasn't (;) God's grace is infinite There is no one who is condemned forever God loves us as though we were his right arm, or his thigh, or his heart He loves us as we love ourselves, and as we/he would have us love each other so as to complete the circuit and realize our true natures in his divinity Do some say that no sin goes unpunished? (: I say that no sin goes unforgiven, no matter it's gravity As we are as intimate with God as we are with our own hearts and minds, so to is God as intimate with us...even to the degree of being one and the same with us in mind and heart Knowing our minds and hearts with such intimacy, God condemns no one and forgives all, since he knows the truth of our hearts and knows that we would never sin at all except for the fact that we are caught up in a phantasmal reality but do not know it God is nothing but mercy and love for us, his creations in whom he dwells, and discovers his own nature through us just as we discover our true nature through intimacy with him Therefore, I disagree with the Bible, but I do not disagree with God God is within us, as surely as blood and breath and bone There is no Hell except the one which we ourselves create by the degree of our separation from that intimate, inner voice of joy and love which is the heart and tongue of God Now, having said all that, I imagine it's clearer why I wanted to stress at the beginning that I'm not a Christian I'm not a Christian, but what men call "God" has spoken to me...has been one with me...has spoken not only to my mind but to my heart, and these were the things it said I confess to you, I was uncomfortable with using a gender-specific pronoun in the above paragraphs...uncomfortable, in fact, even to call what touched me "God", since the image of God that exists in most people's minds is limited and finite, and this was not This was limitless, eternal, without beginning or end It has no name and can never be given one It is beyond all categories of human thought because the mind itself is too limited to encompass it Rather, it encompasses the mind I should stop now before I ramble on like this forever, and believe me I can (; But, to reiterate... God's grace is infinite There is no one living or who has ever lived who has strayed so far from the path as to be beyond the grace of the true, eternal God of the Universe all love John |
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