|
Banned
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Boxing ring of HaShem, Jesus and Allah
Posts: 1,945
|
Devolution of Observations.Net
A few years ago, in my search for reading matter about NDEs, I stumbled upon Observations.Net, a site by Robert Jenkins teaching about "Open Christianity". It had quite a new-agey outlook on Jesus, the human soul and the afterlife. The author chided the fundamentalists for believing God could be so cruel as to burn people in eternal hell. He taught that the real message of Jesus was that of unconditional love, not condemnation of anyone. He even went so far as to admit that the Bible has contradictions and errors and isn't an infallible guide, isn't the Word of God. It was a thought-provoking site, obviously produced by someone who let his thoughts run freely and fearlessly.
Now in the thread here about liberal Christianity vs fundamentalism I wanted to ask Tercel if the Observations.Net guy would count as Christian. But to be sure, I decided to check first that the site hadn't changed its message substantially. Boy, was that a prudent thing I ever decided to do! Upon this visit to Observations.Net, it seems the author has caved in to fundamentalist ideas and pulled in the whole atonement-or-hell view. Now he has choice quotes such as these:
Quote:
|
But know that God's love is a holy love. He demands holiness and will not allow sin to go unpunished. Motivated by His love, and in fulfillment of His holiness, He, Himself, bore the punishment for all our sin upon the Cross. Thereby, we can share in His righteousness forever apart from any works of our own. (Romans 3:21-26) God loves, but He will never deny His holiness.
|
Quote:
|
For the self-absorbed self and the self-sufficient self is filled with narcissism, and greed and fear, jealousy and cruelty. Such a self cannot accept its need for salvation. Such a soul is destined for hell.
|
Quote:
|
The Biblical testimony is clear. The evidence is clear. You must decide if you will believe for yourself that Jesus is Lord and accept Him as the Ruler of your life. The Apostle Paul said, "...if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:8)
|
Quote:
|
New age leaning authors such as Raymond Moody have provided a highly distorted view of the NDE by leaving out any hellish accounts.
|
Quote:
|
It is essential that even true near death experiencers never be regarded as prophets or infallible sources of divine truth. They are not the bearers of special revelation as were the Biblical authors.
|
Quote:
|
I have found that non-Christian NDEs are often morally ambiguous. The "being of light" instructs the experiencer that life is a school, and that the experiencer must return to life because there is more to learn. Such an experiencer sees the events of his life during a life review. His sinful actions may cause embarrassment. However, the "being of light" is said to be non-judgmental. Sinful actions are treated as simply another learning opportunity. There is no call to repentance; no call to turn to Christ. Therefore, we see non-Christian NDErs or NDE enthusiasts such as the webmasters of beyondtheveil.net and nderf.org espousing a shameful doctrine of moral relativism. Are these things not reminiscent of the serpent's beguiling words to Eve in Genesis 3:5 that newfound knowledge would transform her into a god? Christian NDEs can also contain life reviews in which the experiencer learns from his life actions. Life is indeed a school. But the school ends in a test. Therefore, the Christian NDEr learns that repentance and faith in Christ is paramount while knowledge is secondary.
|
Quote:
For those of us in Christ, our Father is God. (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6) But for those who reject Christ, their father is Satan (John 8:44) Considering that most people are outside of Christ, it would also be reasonable to approach non-Christian NDEs with suspicion due to the possibility of Satanic influence.
Yet, these considerations raise the vexing question: How can an NDE be satanic when the "Being of Light" radiates such unconditional love, and the experience seems to occur within the heavenly realm? The Apostle Paul answers this question in 1 Corinthians 11:14 where he says, "For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light."
Satan was once Lucifer the archangel. He knows the ways of God. He can imitate God and feign love in such a way as to deceive the unregenerate. If a non-Christian undergoes an NDE, and takes away the message that repentance and faith in Christ is unessential to eternal life, then Satan has trapped that soul in the bondage of lies.
|
Quote:
|
The proper conclusion is this: There is one true source of special revelation given to man, and that is the Bible.
|
Amazing! A New-Age, tolerant Open Christian become a fundamentalist. I still keep parts of the former Observations.Net on my hard disk, so here are a few morsels for comparison:
Quote:
|
The earthly teachings of the historical Jesus agree with the Near Death Experience. For the NDE makes it clear that we are all equal before God. During the life review, those who lived a nonspiritual life on earth can open their eyes, and learn everything they missed. As a result, the formerly nonspiritual person will suddenly become equal in knowledge and advancement to the person who followed an arduous spiritual path throughout their earthly life. The guy whose life was beer and ball games will find himself in as high a level of heaven as the saintly minister or the self denying guru.
|
Quote:
|
Notice that Jesus reaffirmed the law against adultery. He referred to the woman’s action as a sin, and never excused her behavior. But although he disapproved of her behavior, he saw in her a human being, and a child of God, in need of compassion. Those who have experienced the life review during the Near Death Experience report the same thing. When they see the evil they have done, they are forced to experience the pain they inflicted on others. They feel a deep sense of shame, and revulsion towards their own actions. But then they look to the Being of Light, Who radiates nothing but unconditional love. "You are forgiven. All guilt is gone."
|
Quote:
|
The Christians accepted the person of Jesus, but they too rejected his message. According to them, God is a god of wrath who says that we deserve eternal damnation. Only through the blood of Jesus can we be spared this god’s horrible anger. But Jesus taught us that God was kind, even "wombish" and that God does not condemn. As such, Jesus’ message is the same message as the Being of Light, Who is seen in the Near Death Experience.
|
Quote:
|
I would first advise you to avoid the fundamentalist churches with their schizoid relationship to God. For they combine passionate love of God with intense, agonizing fear. They praise God for saving them, but believe that had they died before their salvation, God would have consigned them to the fires of hell forever. You don’t need that.
|
Quote:
|
But even for the most evil of souls, the pain will not last forever.
|
Quote:
Life is as it was meant to be.
There was no fall from grace in a mythical Garden of Eden. For the Infinite God cannot be thwarted by finite man. God’s plans for humanity are on schedule.
|
Quote:
The 10th B.C. biblical writer, who composed the Adam and Eve story, tried to do that very thing. This writer, known as “J” by scholars, depicted a violent reaction by his god when Adam and Eve chose to grow up. And in so doing, J devalued the image of our Creator. For J’s god was a weak and jealous being, whose temper was based on fear. In fact, this god of Genesis was a mere bodily deity, who strolled the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day to avoid the hot afternoon sun. And this all-too human god, reacted with ignoble and unworthy alarm when he saw that man had gained newfound knowledge. For he worried that with knowledge and choice in hand, man would no longer pay him homage. Instead, man would soon be his equal. So this jealous god, filled with fright, drove man from the Garden and posted cherubic guards at Eden’s edge to prevent man from ever again returning to eat from the Tree of Life. Maybe man’s newfound knowledge could not be taken away, but if he could be denied immortality, man could still be ruled.
But denial of immortality did not work. For only a few chapters later in the Genesis saga, J’s god again lost control of the human situation and his temper. In a vile rage, he destroyed all humanity, guilty and innocent alike, with the exception of Noah and his family. And ever since, the religionists have warned man to keep his head bowed, to never question the faith, and to sing songs of praise, lest the fearful god become angry.
But do not tremble before the god of religion with his bouts of temper, his cruel threats and his poor emotional control. He is not to be heeded or respected because he is no god at all. For the true God, is a God without jealousy or fear. The true God is a God of infinite strength, infinite love and infinite wisdom, Who is self-secure. Because of His strength, the true God has chosen to exalt us. And because He is self-secure, He cannot feel threatened, nor does He demand worship or praise to build His ego.
(note: this is incredibly close to the Gnostic view of the True God vs the Demiurge Biblegod)
|
Quote:
|
For a God of love does not throw away human life like so much garbage to the fires of eternal torment.
|
Quote:
|
The Bible contains much grand wisdom. It is the most extraordinary book in human history. It should be read and studied. And no one is truly well educated if they do not know the Bible. But it is not infallible. And when it teaches eternal damnation, it is wrong.
|
Quote:
|
The Being of Light is the purest expression of the love of the Infinite for His creation. Furthermore, if the biblical Satan has the power to intercept our souls and the desire to ask us if we loved others; if he has the power to heal and create; if somehow he managed to make himself the Lord of Heaven as the Being of Light clearly is, then only one conclusion is possible, no matter how bizarre: Satan is a God of love.
|
Such was Observations.Net website a few years ago. Now it's preaching the fundamentalist message of eternal-damnation-in-hell-forever-unless-you-accept-Jesus. How sad.
|
04-08-2003, 02:55 AM
