Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Y2K" data-source="post: 10835131" data-attributes="member: 35049">Jesus: Think about these two words, superstition and legalism. They end up looking the same but are born out of different sentiments.Superstition in its essence is actually a subtle lack of faith in God. if there is no righteous God in control of all things, a person ends up trying to appease the world of unseen power. Habits develop out of fear of the unknown. You took God away from them, Gautama, so they live in fear of the spirit world. Anytime God is displaced but belief in the spirit world remains, placation will dominate the individual's efforts.The corruption that attended my followers was the other side of the coin. When grace is evicted, laws or power-seeking people take over. Legalism enters and ceremony becomes the focus.These two things-superstition and legalism-rush into hearts bereft of a God of mercy and grace.Your followers are consumed with ritual and fear, and you don't recognize the cause.Buddha: Those are strong words, Jesus.Jesus: Let me demonstrate a simple fact here. Priya, why don't you invite that monk to join us for lunch?Priya: But it's past twelve o'clock, Sir! These monks don't eat after the noon hour. He'll be violating his code of discipline. Besides, I'm a woman. I cannot place food directly into his hands.Jesus: War, why don't you give him this fruit?Boat Driver: You really want me to do that?Jesus: Yes, I do.Boat Driver: All right, I'll try...Well, I offered it to him, Sir, and he refused. He said it would pollute him. But he allowed me to put it into his. bag, so long as he didn't touch it.Jesus: You see, Gautama, that's what I mean by legalism. Now look at those people outside that spirit house nearby. Why did they build that spirit house, Priya?Priya: Oh, we all do that. If we don't, some bad things could happen to us. So we bring offerings to appease departed spirits in the hope that no harm will come to us.Buddha: But Jesus, this is all a corruption of what I taught.Jesus: Maybe so, but let me trace the route of that corruption. First, you told them there is no God. Then you told them there is no self. You also told them there is no one to pray to. You told them there is no evil one to fear. You told them everything is only within themselves, even though those selves do not exist. You instructed them that their good deeds have to outweigh their bad deeds. You carved into their consciousness a huge debt. You gave them scores of rules to live by. You told them all desire is to be cut off. You told them you would cease to be, and, when they have paid, they will cease to be.How can all this bring peace, Gautama? Think about it! They cannot escape the conviction of a power greater than themselves. A sense of worship and awe is inextricably woven into the human condition. If they don't find it in spirit and in truth, they will find it in the flesh and in falsehood.There is only one who offers solace and fulfillment in spirit and in truth ... and that is God.Buddha: There we go again.... God.Jesus: And there you go again with your constant effort to do away with God. Gautama, may I ask you a simple philosophical question?Buddha: Yes.Jesus: You said you recalled an infinite number of births, didn't you?Buddha: Yes.Jesus: But you also had a final birth?Buddha: Yes.Jesus: How can an infinite number have finality?Buddha: Shall we then call it numberless?Jesus: You still have the same problem. You cannot evade this contradiction. That's why I began the first book of the Old Testament and one of the books of the New Testament with "In the beginning, God!" A quantity has limitations. An eternal, infinite being is not the same as a quantity.Buddha: I'm thinking; keep talking.Jesus: The same applies to morality. Morality is inextricably joined to personhood. There is no way to talk of what one ought to do without showing the value of the person. In fact, wasn't your objection to the caste system one of the reasons you rejected Hinduism?Buddha: Yes.Jesus: You saw the problem, but where's the solution? There's no way to confer value on a person unless that value is intrinsic. There's no way value can be intrinsic unless that person is created by one of ultimate worth. That's why the heart craves worship; it seeks "worthship" in the object that's revered.The purpose in life, Gautama, is communion, not union. There can be no meaning when the goal is to meditate oneself into oblivion. But meaning is found in a relationship with the living God. That's what it's all about-a relationship. And I am the one who is the way, the truth, and the life. He who comes to me will be fulfilled. I work the miracle of extinguishing destructive hungers and planting new, legitimate hungers to take their place. I give to you life that's abundant. I offer a new relationship.Buddha: Ah, but Jesus, haven't many in your name also perverted worship, even though you offered yourself, your person, to them?Jesus: Yes, many have perverted the worship of the living God and continue to do so. But please take note of the difference: The entanglement of your followers in superstition was a logical departure from your teaching because there was no God to start with. Their hearts drove them to a transcendent one, but you said there was none to be found. The substitute was worship in any form.The departure of my followers was inconsistent with my teaching because they forgot God. They replaced the well of God with broken cisterns of their own makingAlso, you told your followers that they had to go beyond you. So, in a sense, they went beyond you.But the same cannot be said of God. There is no greater beyond.Buddha: But a perversion is a perversion, isn't it? What difference does the nature of the perversion make?Jesus: I knew that would be the question. We're almost back to where we began.There is one major difference between your indictment of false worship and mine, a difference you cannot deny.Wherever the worship of the living God has been perverted, it has always been the result of a departure from my Word. This is so important that I want to dwell on it for a moment. You see, one has to find out what is eternal and then interpret the true value of everything in that light.I taught my disciples that though everything on earth would someday pass away, the Word that I gave to them remains forever. I told them that anyone who adds or takes away from this Word will be accursed. I told them that the Scriptures cannot be broken.Right from the beginning, the greatest question ever asked was "Has God really spoken?" The answer to that is a resounding "Yes!" That's why I told Priya that it's not bread that we live by, but every word that comes from the mouth of God. When my people depart from that Word, other hungers take charge. Individual lives become prostituted, and worship itself is prostituted.</blockquote>

Verification: Hathara warak wissa keeyada? (Hathara wadi karanna 20)

Top Bottom