jakejonesiv

Hi Faithful,

I see what you mean. Except for prostelitizing, cults keep their members from having much contatct with the outside society. They need to keep their members isolated to keep them under control!

You know, be not part of the world, do not date or marry outside the cult, do not think for yourself; only believe what the cult leaders tell you.

Jake Jones IV

Chris Weimer

Christos, however, is used in the Septuagint long before Christianity came onto the scene. Languages do change, you realize? Words sometimes gain the opposite meaning. Nice used to mean ignorant. So back to my original question - is Dionysius ever called ο Κυριος ο Χριστος (Lord Messiah)? Probably not, you say? Is he called ο Κυριος ο Χρηστος anywhere? If he is, in what context?

Furthermore, the burden is still on you to show that Jesus was merely a construct of the Dionysian religion assimilating with Jewish ideas instead of a man who later was embellished with Hellenistic motifs. Please, we've all been waiting for you to show how this occurred.

Chris

jakejonesiv

Hi Chris,

If this message is meant for me, no wonder you all have been waiting, because I have never made the assertion that "Jesus was merely a construct of the Dionysian religion assimilating with Jewish ideas." Such a statement is preposterous.

I did state in another thread that Christianity is a syncretic religion. Agree or disagree? This Dionysus stuff is just a little bit of that.

Jake Jones IV

Chris Weimer

Syncretic to what extent? I could have sworn you didn't think that there ever existed a Jesus in real life, and that he was merely a construct of different gods. I have no problem with Hellenistic elements making their way into Christianity, but how much and to what extent is the problem. We need a trajectory, we need plausibility, and so far we don't have one for a mythical Jesus.

Chris

PS - I know Malachi151 at least was under the hypothesis which I mentioned above. I thought you were too. Awaiting your correction on your true thoughts.

Doug Shaver

Of course you do.

The followers of Jim Jones and David Koresh surely said exactly the same thing.

Didymus

So do leaders of modern cults. Can you name a modern cult that didn't lose / hasn't lost members?

Nothing special about that. I'm not going to research CV on this, but I do recall David Koresh, Jim Jones et al telling their followers that they were perfectly free to leave, but that, if they did so, they would lose the love and fellowship and suffer eternal damnation. The difference is...?

And what but a cult would ritualize the sacrificial eating of divine flesh and drinking of divine blood?

Didymus

Faithful

Indeed there are faith groups that have cut ties with the traditional Bible-based church and have gotten caught up in the cultish spirit.

This is an example of such a Church that has broken away from the traditional Baptist Church -

They have fellowship one with the other and often cooperate in such things as evangelism. They, however, will only fellowship or cooperate in joint meetings with churches of like belief. They will not participate, on a church basis, in any outside function with churches which do not also strictly base their faith and practice on the New Testament. They will not participate in joint meetings, or evangelistic endeavors, with Protestants, Catholics, or other doctrinally unsound church groups who do not hold to the fundamental teachings of the New Testament .

This church will remain separate from these churches as well as other Baptists groups who participate with the unscriptural churches. They practice the Biblical teachings of separation as stated in Ephesians 5:11, which says, "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. " This church believes that to join with churches who teach and practice false doctrine is condone and even show approval of Biblical error and that all doctrinal error is sin.

A church that becomes very isolated in its beliefs and won't fellowship with other church groups really concerns me. They also seem very legalistic and still cling to the law of Moses with a lot of "Thou Shalt Nots" instead of grasping onto the New Covenant, the more loving law of Jesus.

It is very easy to become so pre-occupied with this tunnel vision of tearing down the views of other faith groups, that our own spiritual walk loses its focus in dwelling on Jesus' message to love our neighbour as we love ourselves.

Doug Shaver

Let me take a wild guess here. A Bible-based church is a church that interprets the Bible the same way you do. Am I right?

Faithful

At the risk of opening a real can of worms - yes..

Doug Shaver

Well, OK. Now, say I'm looking for a Bible-based church. I find several that say they are Bible-based, but each says that the others aren't. They all say the same thing you do: Any church that doesn't interpret the Bible like we do is not a Bible-based church.

Do you understand why I might have a problem with that? If you understand, how would you suggest I solve the problem?