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  1. LAGoff

    Can a religion be said to be 'true' if only 1 out of a million can do it?

    I'm Jewish, so I'm no expert. But I would say 'saved' from the fires of hell, which if I'm not mistaken is the penalty for for even "any who looks at a woman and wants to possess her ... if your right eye causes you to sin, take it out and if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off...
  2. LAGoff

    Can a religion be said to be 'true' if only 1 out of a million can do it?

    I'm talking about the NT. It seems to me that being saved is almost impossible. First, there's the 'hard' statements by Jesus that counsel plucking out eyes and cutting off things if one even looks or thinks wrong. Then there's the eye of the needle-type statements. Then there's the kind of...
  3. LAGoff

    What Happens When We Die?

    Good news! If you follow the Old Testament you don't have to concern yourself with that because it is silent on the subject of the disposition of our souls in an afterlife. To life! (Le'chayim!), not death.
  4. LAGoff

    Ritual Religious Animal Sacrifice

    I believe you ('Mindmaster' in post #5) are right about Dualism being the root of animal sacrifice. Then all else (i.e. blood sacrifice) follows because God is holy and demands that we be good, and we can't, so the destruction of an animal (the bloodier the better) represents our destruction...
  5. LAGoff

    Troubling Gematria "Coincidence": "God is love"/ "God is love"

    I'd like a Kabbalist to explain why terms like Abba and Son and Adam Kadmon were used/developed by the early Kabbalistic developers in the heavy Christian environment of Germany and France a thousand years ago (perhaps that's a self explanatory sentence? Just saying.) And for God's sake! Adam...
  6. LAGoff

    Troubling Gematria "Coincidence": "God is love"/ "God is love"

    I hold that the Kabbalistic formula found in many prayer books including Artscroll: "leshem yechud Koodsha breech Hoo vshekhinta" is dangerous/Christian-like and that Koodsha breech Hoo is Tsair Anpin/Ben. Why does Kabala identify Koodsha breech Hoo with Ben / Zeir Anpin? It seems disrespectful...
  7. LAGoff

    Troubling Gematria "Coincidence": "God is love"/ "God is love"

    Could very well be as you say (although I don't understand what your 414 gematria is referring to). But I'd like to know what I'm to love about this 'oneness'? If I am to love that God is the only God, and therefore the only God who could possibly be truly worshiped, then I can love that; but...
  8. LAGoff

    Troubling Gematria "Coincidence": "God is love"/ "God is love"

    What comes right after "God is one"? "And you shall love". This can imply an imperative that you should add the 13 of love to the 13 of one, which implies that "one" without "love" is incomplete (i.e. not 26- God's name). Dyslexia acting up again: The title of this thread should be God is one...
  9. LAGoff

    Troubling Gematria "Coincidence": "God is love"/ "God is love"

    Also, can you see how this may relate to the Kabala (sefirot, Aba, Eema, Ben, Adam Kadmon, Shekhina)- i.e. how "God is one" is unsatisfying alone to certain Jews? Perhaps they also 'saw' the gematria that was waiting to be 'filled' with the missing 13 of ahava which would add ('complete')...
  10. LAGoff

    Troubling Gematria "Coincidence": "God is love"/ "God is love"

    True. I guess I can relax a bit for now. In order to lessen the impact of the gematria 'coincidence' I showed, I will consider that the NT masterminds felt that "God is one" was incomplete and unsatisfying, so they-- with their obvious knowledge of some Hebrew-- added that "God is love", which...
  11. LAGoff

    Troubling Gematria "Coincidence": "God is love"/ "God is love"

    God is one (echad=13) in the OT, and God is love (ahava=13) in the NT, and God's name equals 26 (YKVK). Putting this all together means that what this is telling us is 'one love'. You may say, "So what"? What's wrong with "one love"? When Shabat is over I will try to tell you what I find...
  12. LAGoff

    Troubling Gematria "Coincidence": "God is love"/ "God is love"

    The OT says to love your neighbor and God. Fine. This is love as a verb. But the NT 'totalizes' it by making it a noun: God is love- Mark. This is threatening to me because it seems to me that this is what we (i.e. most humans) really worship (i.e. 'LUV' / All you need is Love). So the...
  13. LAGoff

    Troubling Gematria "Coincidence": "God is love"/ "God is love"

    The only place where I see the NT in the OT is the fact that the keystone verse of the OT is "God is one" and the keystone verse in the NT is "God is love". Both one and love add up to 13 in Hebrew (one/echad = 13; love/ahava = 13). The implication is that the OT without the NT is incomplete...
  14. LAGoff

    How does God speak to you?

    Let's say you pray to God for a Mercedes-Benz and you get an answer through an SE (synchronistic event). I would say that if the answer took the form of a Mercedes-Benz hitting and paralyzing you, there's a better chance of it being from God. I was being facetious there, but if you pray to God...
  15. LAGoff

    The following things about your religion aren't special...

    Just a quick 'drive-by' from the OT that may be of interest in parsing the delicate balance between anything goes ("I pray to Mary and she gives me what I want") and "only one Way goes". Malachi 1:11. "For from where the sun rises to where it sets, My name is honored among the nations, and...
  16. LAGoff

    Give a reason for your faith

    I changed my mind. I am asking God to grace me- but not to scare me, because I just can't take too much grace. I now pray for God to give me clues/synchronicities that don't go past the scare-point. In other words, I decided I didn't want grace because I thought that God wouldn't give me...
  17. LAGoff

    Give a reason for your faith

    My faith grows when I turn away from grace* because living in it creates too much energy/Light (i.e. synchronicities with their demanding messages for me). I have a brain and so I choose to use it instead of going down the grace path. When grace comes (actually, I have to program/tune-in to...
  18. LAGoff

    Ezra the son of God?

    I'd send you here: and then go to the 05:36 time mark. (it's on youtube under "Tovia Singer EPISODE 59")
  19. LAGoff

    Advaita Vedanta: The problem of ignorance.

    I like the fact that the YinYang symbol (along with-- perhaps-- that unmentionable symbol on Aupmanyav's head-- don't know-- would like to know more) are built for spinning. It reminds me of the spinning and flashing sword at the entrance to the Garden / Tree of Life in chapter 3 Genesis. May...
  20. LAGoff

    Advaita Vedanta: The problem of ignorance.

    I didn't say 'apparently' hide, I said hide.
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