more and more christians believe in karma and reincarnation

[Windwalker]

Belief isn't a work.. my goodness...you need to learn some theology.

It is a work when you say you have to get the right beliefs in order "to be let into heaven". You make it about getting the right answer on a test. And that is definitely a work. You have to get a passing grade by answering right. That is a work. You have to earn being "let into heaven". There is no other way to spin this, sorry.

You have to earn your graduation. You have to earn your diploma. You have to "earn" your being "let into heaven", according to what you are teaching..You pass the test, and then God lets you graduate. It's no more complicated than that. And all of that is a salvation of works.

 

[Windwalker]

...you need to learn some theology.

Actually, I already did. I "earned" a degree in it. Have you?

 

[ajay0]

Here are some articles which state that reincarnation was a part of the original teachings of Christ, until they were deleted by the romans in the councils ...

The Wheat and the Weeds: The Law of Cause and Effect and Christian Judgmentalism - Wisdom Words

Noel Langley in Edgar Cayce on Reincarnation traces the elimination of reincarnation to the abuse of power exerted by the Emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora. (Hang on: this gets a little complicated.) Justinian “summoned the Fifth Ecumenical Congress of Constantinople in 553 A.D. [CE] to condemn the Platonically inspired writings of Origen.”

Was reincarnation REMOVED from the Bible? Shock claim holy book 'was edited'

Increasing evidence brought to light from various historians and skeptics show that there was a lot of information that was not only left out of the Bible, but disinformation that was deliberately added after the New Testament was released.

Mr MacGregor argues that "Christians did believe in reincarnation".

However, he adds: “All written evidence of reincarnation in early Christian teachings and in the Bible was deliberately suppressed by the Catholic church.”

It must be noted that there is a lot of evidence that points towards a large percentage of early Christians who did accept the idea of a cycle and rebirth.

This was around the period of 0 AD to 500 AD and it was during this time period that the stories of Jesus Christ were written down by hand and passed down to future generations.

During this time, the Bible as we know it had not been written and put together in full.

As the story goes it was 367 AD that the Church Father, Athanasius, designated 66 books that together formed the Christian biblical canons.

These were, in essence, the only books included and recognised by Christian teachings.

Upon the discovery of these crucial and important documents, scholars have been able to confirm that Gnostic Christians also believed in reincarnation.

At this time they did not have the label of Gnostics at all, they were just Christians who followed the message of Christ and just so happened to believe in reincarnation.

Many people claim that a certain council took the teaching of reincarnation out of the Bible.

Reincarnation: The Church’s Biggest Lie

At the beginning of the Christian era, reincarnation was one of the pillars of belief. Without it (as later happened), Christianity would lose all logic. How could a benevolent, loving God give one person a silver spoon and leave the next to starve in their ostensibly only earthly life? Early Church elders and theologians, like Origenes, Basilides and St Gregory, taught reincarnation of the soul as a matter of course—it was written in the Bible, after all. Nowadays, most Christians suspect blasphemy if someone references reincarnation.

 

[Wildswanderer]

It is a work when you say you have to get the right beliefs in order "to be let into heaven".

Not according to Paul, who wrote most of the new testament.

 

[Windwalker]

Not according to Paul, who wrote most of the new testament.

Wrong. Paul doesn't teach what you are teaching. I've already shown you that. But you don't seem to care about what Paul actually teaches about faith and belief, or what John teaches, or what someone who has a degree in theology tells you. You're still right. Right?

 

[Wildswanderer]

Wrong. Paul doesn't teach what you are teaching. I've already shown you that. But you don't seem to care about what Paul actually teaches about faith and belief, or what John teaches, or what someone who has a degree in theology tells you. You're still right. Right?

I'm still right because I actually believe what Paul said. Read Romans without your blinders on and tell me how we are saved.
"That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."


"If"...yes there are conditions.

 

[Windwalker]

I'm still right because I actually believe what Paul said.

I believe what Paul said too, especially when you read it in context, which you are not. I've already pointed this out to you, but you just pretend I didn't say it and spell it out for you. Look at the rest of the chapter....

Read Romans without your blinders on and tell me how we are saved.

Blinders is not reading this verse in context, which is what you are doing, looking with blinders at one verse and not the surrounding verses.

"That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."

And let's keep going!

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?
​

Good question Paul! Since not everyone can hear the name of Jesus, since not everyone everywhere can have some preacher tell them, what of them? Are they just lost, as Wildswanderer here on RF might imagine? Tell me that can't be! What say you Paul?

But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did:
“Their voice has gone out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.”​

Oh, so you're citing Psalm 19 which says that the heavens declare the glory of God, without words, without speech, without a preacher preaching Jesus to them, and saying "Of course they did!" Yes, I understand that! So it's not really about adopting a theological perspective, but simply hearing the Spirit of God in the heart, regardless of not ever hearing anything whatsoever about Jesus of Nazareth?

So it's not about having the right idea of Jesus then at all, since you have those who can have genuine saving faith in God without a preacher. Got it! That's what I thought. How people believe, based upon the knowledge they have, is really what faith is about. It's not about specific ideas and beliefs, and it's the sincerity of the heart, regardless of ideas about God they have that is what matters to God. They have heard, without the preacher! Got it! Thanks, Paul. Seems you agree with me then.

"If"...yes there are conditions.

The condition is belief of the heart. Unless you want to disagree with Paul and send everyone to hell that doesn't think about God like you do, including other Christians? Speaking of Paul's teachings, "Who are you to judge another man's servant"?

 

[Wildswanderer]

I believe what Paul said too, especially when you read it in context, which you are not. I've already pointed this out to you, but you just pretend I didn't say it and spell it out for you. Look at the rest of the chapter....


Blinders is not reading this verse in context, which is what you are doing, looking with blinders at one verse and not the surrounding verses.


And let's keep going!

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?
​

Good question Paul! Since not everyone can hear the name of Jesus, since not everyone everywhere can have some preacher tell them, what of them? Are they just lost, as Wildswanderer here on RF might imagine? Tell me that can't be! What say you Paul?

But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did:
“Their voice has gone out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.”​

Oh, so you're citing Psalm 19 which says that the heavens declare the glory of God, without words, without speech, without a preacher preaching Jesus to them, and saying "Of course they did!" Yes, I understand that! So it's not really about adopting a theological perspective, but simply hearing the Spirit of God in the heart, regardless of not ever hearing anything whatsoever about Jesus of Nazareth?

So it's not about having the right idea of Jesus then at all, since you have those who can have genuine saving faith in God without a preacher. Got it! That's what I thought. How people believe, based upon the knowledge they have, is really what faith is about. It's not about specific ideas and beliefs, and it's the sincerity of the heart, regardless of ideas about God they have that is what matters to God. They have heard, without the preacher! Got it! Thanks, Paul. Seems you agree with me then.


The condition is belief of the heart. Unless you want to disagree with Paul and send everyone to hell that doesn't think about God like you do, including other Christians? Speaking of Paul's teachings, "Who are you to judge another man's servant"?

Yes let's look at context... it's about Israel rejecting God, even though they had the knowledge of God. And salvation in general had not yet come to the gentiles. Yes, there were exceptions but God specifically revealed himself to those seekers.

11 Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.

How did salvation come to those who didn't have the Torah?
Through preaching the Word.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."


The gentiles that came to God even before Christ had to forsake thier idols. They could not just believe whatever and be saved.


8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.


“You shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.


God doesn't accept just any vague belief in the existence of gods, nor does he accept the fools who say there is no God.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

There's only one way.

"And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

 

[Muffled]

god's spirit and self's are one and the same. god can't be infinite or eternal and separate from anything.

self is the image of god and the spirit came from god. the greek word for spirit is psyche. that's exactly what conscious beings have, a psyche. ugh

why in the world is it written glorify god in your body otherwise?

1 corinthian 6:20

I believe I do not see the logic in this. Infinity and eternality are not physical things.

I believe that simply means our self is what the mind of God decided it to be.

I believe that is true in the sense of creation but not in the sense of proceeding from the nature of God.

I believe we should glorify God everywhere but it certainly requires help from Jesus to do it in the body.

 

[Muffled]

Maybe, maybe not.

I doubt any work penned by the hands of men, is of true divine origin.

I believe you may doubt it but the nature of God is revealed in the writing which serves as proof of its divine origin.

 

[Muffled]

But what is it that wakes us up to decide there is something better? Isn't that a "higher self"? And isn't that something that is awakened by that Spirit of God?

I believe in my case it would have been indirect at best and we know God manages things to go the way He wishes when He can. The decision was still mine. Somewhere along the line I learned where my bread is buttered. I figured out a fish is better than a scorpion.

 

[Windwalker]

I believe in my case it would have been indirect at best and we know God manages things to go the way He wishes when He can. The decision was still mine. Somewhere along the line I learned where my bread is buttered. I figured out a fish is better than a scorpion.

Yet according to scripture, that faith comes from God and not of yourself. (Eph. 2:8). That means, it's not something the ego generates, or that comes from our lower "sinful" self. That means, there was something already existing inside you that was "sparked", or nudged, or pulled at that was responding.

It cannot be God forcing himself into you, but rather the Spirit within responding to the call from without, so to speak. In other words, everyone has that Divine awareness, within them in order for it to respond to it, or to continue to ignore it if we so choose.

If we are to believe it is wholly external to ourselves, then we cannot be responsible for not listening. We would be incapable of responding to something we don't have in the first place. It's like asking someone with no arms to clap their hands. Right?

 

[Fool]

I believe I do not see the logic in this. Infinity and eternality are not physical things.

I believe that simply means our self is what the mind of God decided it to be.

I believe that is true in the sense of creation but not in the sense of proceeding from the nature of God.

I believe we should glorify God everywhere but it certainly requires help from Jesus to do it in the body.

infinite, eternal, are synonyms meaning without end or endless. meaning also boundless, limitless. there is nothing beside it to contrast/limit it. you can't be infinite or eternal and be contrasted to something else.

isaiah 45:5


Synonyms of endless | Thesaurus.com

infinite | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

eternal | Search Online Etymology Dictionary