no religion is the only truth, but truth is found in them all

[Trailblazer]

I think you should make the distinction that some are writtten by men, but not all.

I was point to point out that the only scriptures that were not written by a man were the Writings of the Bab and Baha'u'llah, because they were Manifestations of God who wrote their own scriptures. Even though they were men, they were also divine, since they had a twofold nature, so their their writings were of Divine origin.

 

[TransmutingSoul]

That is a common mistranslation and misunderstanding.
It means and is usually translated as "the Kingdom of God is among you" (in your midst)

It is about half and half but most modern translations go with amongst you or in your midst.
In context Jesus was speaking to Pharisees and so would not be telling them that the Kingdom of God is inside them, they were the hypocritical enemies of the Kingdom of God.
Jesus said that before He came there was the Law and the prophets that were proclaimed and since John the Baptist there is the Kingdom of God being proclaimed.
The Kingdom came with Jesus and was not inside John the Baptist or any OT prophets, and they were not in the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God is in the midst of the world because the citizens of the Kingdom live among the other people in the world and at the end of the age when Jesus returns He is going to set up His Kingdom on earth.

Maybe we get lucky in translation and can see it both ways.

The Kingdom is within us all, and as such is amongst us all.

A twin understanding from one verse.

Regards Tony

 

[Brian2]

Funny that .. translations vary.

18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

However, much of John is not the saying of Jesus, but the saying of an anonymous author.

I would rather stick to the synoptics .. they do not make such opinionated claims.
i.e. do not have so-called "high Christology"

If you stuck to the synoptics OK, but you don't, you pick and choose what is true and what is not from them also.

 

[Brian2]

Actually, it's a theological perspective that changes "inside you", to be "among you" because that of the belief that it couldn't actually mean in you, as the Greek word entos is always translated in the Bible. "Make clean the inside of the cup first". Exact same word.

"Among you" or "in your midst" is not supported by the normal use of that word. It's only translated that way because the church teaches that God is external to you. That's not the word the gospel writers used however. I mean seriously, how many times does Paul say, "Christ in you"? Why is this an issue then, pray tell? If Christ is in you, isn't that the kingdom of God in you too??

Besides, how can God not be inside of us? Are you suggesting that God is not Infinite? If God is Infinite, everywhere at all times, than it's not possible for there to be gaps and holes where God is not, such as inside of us. As I like to ask, is God a block of Swiss cheese? Of course not.

Isn't "entos" only used twice in the Bible. So which is the normal use? But yes it does mean "inside" but the context does not support that use and neither does the other teachings about the Kingdom of God.
When Jesus said it, it was at a time when the Kingdom, as preached by Jesus had not come, so it was not inside anyone but was in the midst of even the Pharisees Jesus was speaking to because Jesus was in their midst.

 

[Truthseeker]

Scientology is not a religion.

Those who believe would be surprised to hear you say that.

 

[Truthseeker]

I was point to point out that the only scriptures that were not written by a man were the Writings of the Bab and Baha'u'llah, because they were Manifestations of God who wrote their own scriptures. Even though they were men, they were also divine, since they had a twofold nature, so their their writings were of Divine origin.

Most of their Writings were dictated to someone who wrote them down, but there is no question of the accuracy of Baha'u'llah's Writings, since they were immediately written. It is a little known fact that there are some Writings of the Bab that have different versions, because people like the Azalis got hold of them, and made alterations. In the case of the Qur'an, they were written down or memorized immediately. Here's how the Qur'an was distributed after Muhammad's death, according to Wiikipedia:

Quran - Wikipedia

Following Muhammad's death in 632, a number of his companions who knew the Quran by heart were killed in the Battle of Yamama by Musaylimah. The first caliph, Abu Bakr (d. 634), subsequently decided to collect the book in one volume so that it could be preserved. Zayd ibn Thabit (d. 655) was the person to collect the Quran since "he used to write the Divine Inspiration for Allah's Apostle". Thus, a group of scribes, most importantly Zayd, collected the verses and produced a hand-written manuscript of the complete book. The manuscript according to Zayd remained with Abu Bakr until he died. Zayd's reaction to the task and the difficulties in collecting the Quranic material from parchments, palm-leaf stalks, thin stones (collectively known as suhuf)[48] and from men who knew it by heart is recorded in earlier narratives. After Abu Bakr, in 644, Hafsa bint Umar, Muhammad's widow, was entrusted with the manuscript until the third caliph, Uthman ibn Affan, requested the standard copy from Hafsa bint Umar in about 650.[49]

In about 650, the third Caliph Uthman ibn Affan (d. 656) began noticing slight differences in pronunciation of the Quran as Islam expanded beyond the Arabian Peninsula into Persia, the Levant, and North Africa. In order to preserve the sanctity of the text, he ordered a committee headed by Zayd to use Abu Bakr's copy and prepare a standard copy of the Quran.[50][51] Thus, within 20 years of Muhammad's death, the Quran was committed to written form. That text became the model from which copies were made and promulgated throughout the urban centers of the Muslim world, and other versions are believed to have been destroyed.[50][52][53][54] The present form of the Quran text is accepted by Muslim scholars to be the original version compiled by Abu Bakr.

So the only uncertainty about the Qur'an is slightly different pronunciations?

I think you are thinking about, for instance, the Gospels, who were written down second-hand and there are variations between the different Gospels on their wording and sometimes I notice contradictions between the Gospels. When you go further back to other Manifestations it gets worse. The history books of the Old Testament are really inaccurate as I see it. Moses and minor prophets had nothing to do with those.

 

[muhammad_isa]

If you stuck to the synoptics OK, but you don't, you pick and choose what is true and what is not from them also.

Maybe .. but where is the evidence for that?

If you refer to the accounts of his appearance to the disciples after he was nailed to a cross, I don't disbelieve it.
If you refer to Jesus dying on a cross, and the prophecy of Jesus telling his disciples it would happen, I can explain..

It is about interpretation..
A vast amount of people in the days following Jesus apparent death, did not know exactly what happened, and it was assumed that he actually dies.
Therefore the verses about Jesus predicting his own death are not diificult to understand.
I do believe he told the disciples he would be betrayed and nailed to a cross .. it is easy for confusion to arise..
If Jesus did not actually die on the cross, would he go around boasting about it, and causing more trouble?

I look forward to your reply

 

[Windwalker]

Isn't "entos" only used twice in the Bible. So which is the normal use?

I can't at the moment find the reference I was thinking of, but it also addressed the normal use of entos in contemporary use in the language to when Luke was written. All told, "inside" was the only understanding ever meant, like make clean the inside of the cup.

That said however, the point of this began with your assertion in this post and the following exchange between you and that other poster:

The Bible does not teach that "heaven is within" and Solomon, Abraham, Moses and Buddha were no more than men, with Jesus being the only divine one among them.

Now we can address Luke's portrait of the conversation of Jesus and the Pharisee and conclude that he must have meant amongst you or in your midst, as he does say similar things elsewhere in Luke, "the kingdom has come upon you," and such. I know the primary argument against Luke inteneding Jesus to mean "inside you", is that he was talking to the Pharisee, and he couldn't have possibly meant in him, after all, since he was anything but spiritually awakened! Correct?

That said however, mystically speaking God is in fact inside everyone, including the misguided religious teachers who strain at gnats and swallow camels. As I presented in my argument to you, is God a block of Swiss cheese? Are there gaps in God where God does not exist. Are human beings air-bubbles inside of God? If so, then is God truly infinite, or is God finite? I would like to hear your answer to that.

So I have no problem at all in Jesus talking to the Pharisee to correct his thinking that that heaven, or the kindgom of God, is not to be found externally to himself (which is exactly the context of that verse), but rather it is to be found within his own being, if he were to "seek and you shall find". It's saying, I would agree with this, "quit looking outside, and start looking inside".

Again, God in you, Christ in you, Spirit in you, are all very frequently spoken of in scripture. God may appear outside of us, but the reality is God is within all of us, all the time, just unseen because of our own "sin", or lack of recognizing it. Is God a block of Swiss cheese, or not?

But yes it does mean "inside" but the context does not support that use and neither does the other teachings about the Kingdom of God.

I very much believe it would be consistent with the understanding that the being the Light of the world, begins inside of each and every believer's hearts. I believe the kingdom of God is a participatory kingdom, not an external force imposed upon mankind.

It's transformative, from the inside out. "Make clean the inside of the cup first, then the outside will be made clean". "Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself", is dependent upon your own inner transformation.

When Jesus said it, it was at a time when the Kingdom, as preached by Jesus had not come, so it was not inside anyone but was in the midst of even the Pharisees Jesus was speaking to because Jesus was in their midst.

It is always within everyone, but repressed and denied in favor of "ways of the world", or the systems of man. So when Jesus came to teach his followers, he was about awakening that inside of them to "follow me", and become the light of the world themselves.

So yes, in your midst is true in a sense, as a candle lights the room. And the more of those who participate in that inner kingdom, the more light there is in the midst of the darkness that separates itself from that Light.

I strongly believe that those who imagine that the kingdom of God is some externalize force that will impose itself upon mankind at some future date, have failed to understand the core message of the Gospel itself. Being the light of the world, is not reserved for one man only. It is for all who awaken to their true Nature, as "children" or expressions of the God, or the Divine from within themselves.

Anyone who Awakens, or is "born again" to the their true spiritual Nature, express the Presence of the Divine within them to the world, just as Jesus did. He taught his disciples to follow him, to follow his way, and be the light of the world as he was. Why do you limit God this way by saying God is to be found in only one person?

All of these things are there within the scriptures.

 

[syo]

no religion is the only truth, but truth is found in them all

Do you agree og disagree?

There is one big, huge religion. All of them.

 

[Brian2]

Maybe .. but where is the evidence for that?

If you refer to the accounts of his appearance to the disciples after he was nailed to a cross, I don't disbelieve it.
If you refer to Jesus dying on a cross, and the prophecy of Jesus telling his disciples it would happen, I can explain..

It is about interpretation..
A vast amount of people in the days following Jesus apparent death, did not know exactly what happened, and it was assumed that he actually dies.
Therefore the verses about Jesus predicting his own death are not diificult to understand.
I do believe he told the disciples he would be betrayed and nailed to a cross .. it is easy for confusion to arise..
If Jesus did not actually die on the cross, would he go around boasting about it, and causing more trouble?

I look forward to your reply

So you don't believe the gospel accounts of what happened.
I already knew that.

 

[Brian2]

I can't at the moment find the reference I was thinking of, but it also addressed the normal use of entos in contemporary use in the language to when Luke was written. All told, "inside" was the only understanding ever meant, like make clean the inside of the cup.

That said however, the point of this began with your assertion in this post and the following exchange between you and that other poster:

​

Now we can address Luke's portrait of the conversation of Jesus and the Pharisee and conclude that he must have meant amongst you or in your midst, as he does say similar things elsewhere in Luke, "the kingdom has come upon you," and such. I know the primary argument against Luke inteneding Jesus to mean "inside you", is that he was talking to the Pharisee, and he couldn't have possibly meant in him, after all, since he was anything but spiritually awakened! Correct?

That said however, mystically speaking God is in fact inside everyone, including the misguided religious teachers who strain at gnats and swallow camels. As I presented in my argument to you, is God a block of Swiss cheese? Are there gaps in God where God does not exist. Are human beings air-bubbles inside of God? If so, then is God truly infinite, or is God finite? I would like to hear your answer to that.

So I have no problem at all in Jesus talking to the Pharisee to correct his thinking that that heaven, or the kindgom of God, is not to be found externally to himself (which is exactly the context of that verse), but rather it is to be found within his own being, if he were to "seek and you shall find". It's saying, I would agree with this, "quit looking outside, and start looking inside".

Again, God in you, Christ in you, Spirit in you, are all very frequently spoken of in scripture. God may appear outside of us, but the reality is God is within all of us, all the time, just unseen because of our own "sin", or lack of recognizing it. Is God a block of Swiss cheese, or not?


I very much believe it would be consistent with the understanding that the being the Light of the world, begins inside of each and every believer's hearts. I believe the kingdom of God is a participatory kingdom, not an external force imposed upon mankind.

It's transformative, from the inside out. "Make clean the inside of the cup first, then the outside will be made clean". "Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself", is dependent upon your own inner transformation.


It is always within everyone, but repressed and denied in favor of "ways of the world", or the systems of man. So when Jesus came to teach his followers, he was about awakening that inside of them to "follow me", and become the light of the world themselves.

So yes, in your midst is true in a sense, as a candle lights the room. And the more of those who participate in that inner kingdom, the more light there is in the midst of the darkness that separates itself from that Light.

I strongly believe that those who imagine that the kingdom of God is some externalize force that will impose itself upon mankind at some future date, have failed to understand the core message of the Gospel itself. Being the light of the world, is not reserved for one man only. It is for all who awaken to their true Nature, as "children" or expressions of the God, or the Divine from within themselves.

Anyone who Awakens, or is "born again" to the their true spiritual Nature, express the Presence of the Divine within them to the world, just as Jesus did. He taught his disciples to follow him, to follow his way, and be the light of the world as he was. Why do you limit God this way by saying God is to be found in only one person?

All of these things are there within the scriptures.

God is everywhere and in Him we live and move and have our being. (Acts 17:28) That does not mean that everyone is in the Kingdom of God or that we find the Kingdom of God by looking within.
"Within" or "Amongst" does not matter so much I guess and Jesus teachings can be understood if either is used but the whole thing is not to insist on and use "within" in a syncretist way and as many do, and try to teach that Jesus was teaching that we should look within to find the truth etc.

 

[Windwalker]

God is everywhere and in Him we live and move and have our being. (Acts 17:28) That does not mean that everyone is in the Kingdom of God or that we find the Kingdom of God by looking within.

I would agree that not everyone realizes the kingdom of God, or the presence of the Divine in the world or within themselves. But why would you say you cannot find God by looking within? Isn't God there too? Closer than your own breath?

"Within" or "Amongst" does not matter so much I guess and Jesus teachings can be understood if either is used but the whole thing is not to insist on and use "within" in a syncretist way and as many do, and try to teach that Jesus was teaching that we should look within to find the truth etc.

Why do you believe you can't find God by searching into your own soul?

 

[Brian2]

I would agree that not everyone realizes the kingdom of God, or the presence of the Divine in the world or within themselves. But why would you say you cannot find God by looking within? Isn't God there too? Closer than your own breath?


Why do you believe you can't find God by searching into your own soul?

Nobody can come to the Father except through the Son.
It is one thing for God to be everywhere and another for God to be living in a person, as in that they have been born again.
In the OT the Shekinah was God's presence coming to the Temple. God was already in the Temple, why bother, was it all just a show by God or did He come in a special way to the Temple.
It is the same when God appeared to Moses in the burning bush and others. Why bother if God was there anyway all along? The angel told Moses to take off his sandals because the ground was holy. The presence of God was there in a special way.
Who cares if God is coming to earth to live with His people in the New Jerusalem? God is always here with everyone.
Who cares that Jesus promised that the Father and Son would come to dwell in those who love Him and keep His commandments if God is there inside us already?
We all have a spirit side however and when our brain is quieted we can hear this spirit side more easily and that spirit side is the highest part of our being. It is the closest thing to God. It is how God made us into His image. But it is not God.
There are different ways to be in the presence of God.

 

[muhammad_isa]

So you don't believe the gospel accounts of what happened.
I already knew that.

I do not believe in a "word for word" accuracy .. no.
The NT is a collection of texts by various authors, chosen to be included in a canon.

You believe that they are "the literal word of God", and assume that God has guided each and every one of the people concerning it, without error?

That is "a big ask" for me to believe that. It is a book written by men, and in an era of political turmoil, where Christian was fighting Christian, and the Roman Empire enforcing creed, denouncing others as heresy.

 

[muhammad_isa]

Nobody can come to the Father except through the Son..

Context, context !

Who was Jesus addressing when he said that?
Many Jews in the time of Jesus were claiming that Jesus had no authority ... that he wasn't a messiah sent by God.
Jesus was saying that they could not "come to God", in that way.

 

[Windwalker]

Nobody can come to the Father except through the Son.

And what really does that mean? Does it mean you have to go hunt down and find where the train conductor is in order to give him your ticket to board the train? I believe in many people's minds that is how they imagine it is with God.

But what then happens when someone tells you that the conductor is inside you? Then it seems you would need to go inside first to find that where that inner Conductor is in you, in order to pass through to board that train.

Who is the Son, but the Manifestor of the Divine? And if all creation is a manifestation of the Divine through the Son, as scripture teaches, then the Son is in everything and everyone. So to say you have to go through the Son to find the Father, or the Formless Infinite God, then the injunction to look within is sound. Wouldn't it be?

It is one thing for God to be everywhere and another for God to be living in a person, as in that they have been born again.

That is only true from the perspective of the person's experience of God. It's not true from the perspective of God. God cannot possibly be literally dead inside of anyone, inasmuch as God doesn't have dead parts. God is Life itself. God is being itself. But metaphorically speaking, we may experience that God is absent, or dead in us, even though in reality that cannot be the case. It is only ourselves not seeing or recognizing and experiencing that Life in us.

Think of what David said, "Take not your Spirit from me". From the perspective of his experience of the Presence of God, it would seem like God left him because of his sin. But in actual reality, it is only David who turned his face away from that which is always there. It's like saying take not the sun in the sky away from me. The only way the sun can be taken away, is for you to turn your face away from it, or hide inside of a cave and keep yourself from seeing it. It's always there. It doesn't go anywhere.

Take that very human expression and put it up against this psalm from David as well, where he cleary recognizes the impossibly of God not being everywhere fully at all times.

Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.​

All of this perspective of seeing God as outside of ourselves, is simply the human perspective of their personal experience of the Presence of the Divine or the lack thereof. If you can't see God, it's not because God isn't there 100% of the time. It's that your not seeing it. That's all.

In the OT the Shekinah was God's presence coming to the Temple. God was already in the Temple, why bother, was it all just a show by God or did He come in a special way to the Temple.

That Presence cannot ever be less of more, controlled like some bucket with a water faucet pouring in more or less of God. All of that is simply an expression of humans opening themselves to what is fully there all the time, or closing themselves off from it.

It's just human language to speak of God coming and going, which is really themselves seeing and not seeing. They externalize their own actions upon God's actions, rather than on their own. The reality is, the onus of of it all is upon them.

Like my analogy about how God is not a block of Swiss cheese with gaps or holes in it where God does not exist, which is an impossibility if God is understood as Infinite, then likewise you don't have "more of God and less of God", in actuality. God is not lumpy. God is not thinned out in places, more here, and less there. God is not a blob which has more accumulated mass in some areas and less in others. God is not material.

When we think of God in terms like that, coming and going, more here, and less there, these are ALL anthropomorphic projections upon God. They are simply ways to talk about God, the way we might about any some of physical creature in our experience of the world, like a tub of water, or a person on the bus sitting next to us. Those are simply mental devices. But when we mistake those as the actuality of what God is, then we confuse ourselves.

There are in fact special ways that God manifests to us. But it isn't God doing something special towards us. It's us opening up in a special way towards God. What really happens, is we open to God and let what has been there in full glory the entire time, to shine through and been seen and experienced. That special manifestation, is actually a special moment for us to see what is there all the time, seen but not seen.

It is the same when God appeared to Moses in the burning bush and others.

Same thing. We see God when we are ready to see God. It's not that God isn't there, and then is there later! How can any of that be possible in reality if God is omnipresent? It would mean God is finite and can come and go lack any other created creature, like a dog or a cat.

That wouldn't be God then. That would be "a god". Do you really view God as a god? That's something to think about.

Why bother if God was there anyway all along?

So are you saying you do believe God is a god, a limited creature of sorts that is not Infinite and omnipresent? Do you really mean to say that God is not in some places, at some times, but comes and goes and moves around as if God has a body, a form and a shape of some kind with an inside and an outside?

But to the more salient question you ask, "why bother" to look if God is there all the time anyway. The answer is incredibly simple. So you can see God who is there all the time that you aren't seeing right in front of your face. So you may experience that Ultimate Reality! That's why!

It's like believing you have nothing, only to open your eyes and see you've have everything all along the whole time. You were only ever lost in your darkened imagination. The "why bother" to look, is so you can be free to know and to love and to enjoy what has been yours the whole time. The why bother, is to for you to find Peace. Even though it's there the whole time, that doesn't mean that you are accessing it for yourself. Cleary, most of our lives were aren't!

The angel told Moses to take off his sandals because the ground was holy. The presence of God was there in a special way.

There are moments in my experience which are experienced as deeper and more sacred than others in this very same way. There are moments that are "take off your sandals" sorts of encounters with the Divine I have. Those are not all the time. But I fully understand from my own experience, the limiting factors is only how much or how little I allow that Presence for myself. If I can't find God at any given time, it is because of some blockage in myself. It's not because God isn't there.

I think ultimately we simply fear allowing ourselves to see that "shekinah glory" of God, to use that term, because we fear it. We fear being annihilated by it. We fear being overwhelmed by it and losing ourselves into it. We fear our own deaths, in other words. I know that this is true. And even the great stories of the Bible talking about God as that "consuming fire" point to that very real mystical realization. All the dross is burned away, the impurities of ourselves are annihilated.

But we cling to those, because we self-identify with them and call them a part of ourselves, as if they were a limb attached to our bodies. But the more we are willing to face that fire of God, so to speak, the more fully we experience that Infinite that is fully there at all times. It's solely up to us to open that faucet and let it flow. It's not up to God. It's up to us.

We all have a spirit side however and when our brain is quieted we can hear this spirit side more easily and that spirit side is the highest part of our being.

I agree with this. And the more we can quite it, and the more we surrender, the greater that Light is allowed to be seen and enter into us, as I just said above, up to the point of "take off thy sandals" moments, and beyond, entering into the Holy of Holies, and such. There are no limits to God. Only us who limit God to ourselves.

It is the closest thing to God. It is how God made us into His image. But it is not God.
There are different ways to be in the presence of God.

There are different ways we experience the Presence of God, is a better way to put it I believe. And of course it is God in us. It becomes a "thy will not mine be done" moment, where I am no more, and all there is is God.

Editing to add:

I'm going to add a quick thought to this question of why it is necessary to look within, as opposed to seeking without in order to find God. Where do you exist? Out there somewhere outside yourself? Do we look all around the house to find ourselves somewhere?

Many do. They try to find themselves in others. They try to find themselves in objects. They try to find themselves in images of the ideal person they want to be. But the one seeking to find themselves, is inside themselves the whole time, simply externalizing themselves in order to see themselves as an object that the subject can try to understand, as if looking into a mirror held in their hands.

Same thing with thinking of God as "out there". God is an internal subjective relational experience. Even if we were to meet God on a bus as a person outside ourselves, it is still the subjective experience of that other that becomes a part of ourselves.

My mother, is a part of me, for instance. If I want to find what my mother is to me, I look into my own heart. I can say this particularly now that she is no longer living in the physical form she had in this life. I can't call her on the phone and talk to her outside of myself. I can't sit with her and see her face now. And it is the same with God, really. Since God doesn't have a body, we seek God in our hearts, like I hold my mother's love in my own heart. It's kind of like that in a way.

Think about that particularly about what Jesus said about leaving you, yet "I am with you always, even to the ends of the earth". Where is that, but inside? And what is experienced inside, opens us to see that Love in all that exists, in the entire universe. It's all about our own set of eyes being opened. And the only way to open your eyes, is to subjectively open them. Look within.

Just processing some thoughts to this. Hopefully that makes some degree of sense to others.

 

[Messianic Israelite]

no religion is the only truth, but truth is found in them all

Do you agree og disagree?

Hi Starlight. Good afternoon. On occasion I do some laboring work for extra cash now and again as I enjoy physical labor. Yesterday, I was helping to move and install lockers in an academy about 6 miles from where I live. During that time, I got talking to another laborer (they were four of us) and I witnessed my faith to him as we were doing the work. In the conversation he told me that he believed that something was out there, but believed that there was no religion that had all the truth. That all religions had some truth in them. I don't see how anyone could have that view except their faith in a Creator is severely lacking.

No, not all religions are the same. And yes, there must be a faith with the truth. A faith that is worshiping Yahweh exactly the way that Yahweh intends. A faith that has the correct interpretation of the Bible. A faith in which the Holy Spirit, also called the Spirit of Truth, is evident. What does Yahshua say about the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit cannot abide in the world, only in the true faith, we read in John 14:17. Why? Because "None sueth in righteousness, and none pleadeth in truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity" we read in Isaiah 59:4. This describes people of false religions, and even those of no religion.

John 8 says: "31 To the Jews who had believed him, Yahshua said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” These other faiths, they are not free. They are bound by the lies and false doctrine which will take them to destruction. They are in prison (Isaiah 61:1, 1 Peter 3:19) and there is no way they can escape prison unless they come to Yahshua.

Saying all religion has truth in them is a cop-out for saying no matter what you believe you will make it to the Kingdom. The reason this earth hasn't been destroyed by Yahweh is given in Isaiah 1:9 "Except Yahweh of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, we should have been like unto Gomorrah." The reason this earth hasn't been destroyed is because of the remnant, just a small amount of people, who are worshiping Yahweh exactly the way that He intends, keeping the commandments of Yahweh and holding the testimony of Yahshua (Revelation 14:12 and Revelation 12:17). Most religions either reject Yahshua, or reject the commandments of Yahweh. I'm sure many religions may have a little bit of truth in them, why, because the commandments of Yahweh are logical, but the chasm between them and the True Faith is vast and wide.

 

[metis]

no religion is the only truth, but truth is found in them all

Do you agree og disagree?

I'm not smart enough to answer your question, but I do tend to believe that the drive to understand creation and what's all around us has led so many people all over the world to search for God(s) even though there are so many differences between them.

 

[Brian2]

I do not believe in a "word for word" accuracy .. no.
The NT is a collection of texts by various authors, chosen to be included in a canon.

You believe that they are "the literal word of God", and assume that God has guided each and every one of the people concerning it, without error?

That is "a big ask" for me to believe that. It is a book written by men, and in an era of political turmoil, where Christian was fighting Christian, and the Roman Empire enforcing creed, denouncing others as heresy.

The gospel accounts came quite early and from sources that the early Church trusted to be authentic in what they wrote. That was before any political interference and the synoptics seem to have been written within about 30 years of Jesus death according to the internal evidence and church traditions as to the authors.
If you trust the modern scholarship then you trust people who do not accept miracles or prophecies and so give a date for the synoptic gospels of post 70 AD (temple destruction) and so make the authors into unknown people who had not met Jesus.
Nothing is a big ask for God but it is true that the gospels are not meant to be 100% accurate in every bit of history they record imo. but that has no effect on the gospel and the teachings of Jesus. There are after all, 4 accounts and they support each other.

 

[Brian2]

Context, context !

Who was Jesus addressing when he said that?
Many Jews in the time of Jesus were claiming that Jesus had no authority ... that he wasn't a messiah sent by God.
Jesus was saying that they could not "come to God", in that way.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but Jesus was speaking to His disciples when he said that nobody can come to the Father but through the Son. (John 14:6)