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Why ‘us vs them’?

Should we

  • Follow blindly without question

    Votes: 2 5.7%
  • Allow our religious leaders to turn us against other religions

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Allow political leaders to manipulate us to see other nations as enemies

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Allow media to control our beliefs

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Question everything

    Votes: 25 71.4%
  • Accept we are all human

    Votes: 8 22.9%

  • Total voters
    35

TransmutingSoul

One Planet, One People, Please!
Premium Member
To me there is a difference between the three: righteous/ unrighteous/ wicked.
In the Bible both the righteous and unrighteous (KJV just and unjust) will have a resurrection. - Acts 24:15
Whereas, the wicked will be gone ' destroyed forever ' - Psalms 92:7; 104:35; 145:20; Proverbs 2:21-22
The resurrected righteous will need to remain righteous.
The unrighteous will need to become or learn to become righteous and then stay righteous to gain everlasting life.
I agree there is levels of waywardness that esculate beyond unrighteous behaviour, that would manifest to the level of wickedness.

It may be that wickedness ends in the 2nd death, that of the Spirit.

Regards Tony
 

danieldemol

Veteran Member
Premium Member
See it as you wish to Daniel.

Regards Tony
I wish to see it as it is Tony, in my view you are the one reading it wishfully, but I encourage all to either read the referenced text fully or at least do a find in page for "godless" as I have nothing to fear from being wrong unlike a certain atheophobe in my view.
 
  • Winner
Reactions: ppp

URAVIP2ME

Veteran Member
I agree there is levels of waywardness that esculate beyond unrighteous behaviour, that would manifest to the level of wickedness.
It may be that wickedness ends in the 2nd death, that of the Spirit. Regards Tony
Yes, even wicked sinner Satan ends up in 2nd death - Revelation 21:8
Jesus will 'destroy ' Satan - Hebrews 2:14 B
This is what the first prophecy found at Genesis 3:15 is about Satan's head being crushed. - Romans 16:20
Sinner Satan's time is limited - Rev. 12:12 B

As the 'spirit of life' died when sinner Adam died so it does with all of us.
Adam went from non-life, to life, and returned back to non-life ( aka dust - Gen. 3:19 B; Ecclesiastes 3:20 )
A person can Not return to a place he never was before. Adam's before was dust - Gen. 2:7
Since we are innocent of what sinner Adam did is why God arranged for us to have a resurrection - Acts 24:15
 

CG Didymus

Veteran Member
Yes, even wicked sinner Satan ends up in 2nd death - Revelation 21:8
Jesus will 'destroy ' Satan - Hebrews 2:14 B
This is what the first prophecy found at Genesis 3:15 is about Satan's head being crushed. - Romans 16:20
Sinner Satan's time is limited - Rev. 12:12 B

As the 'spirit of life' died when sinner Adam died so it does with all of us.
Adam went from non-life, to life, and returned back to non-life ( aka dust - Gen. 3:19 B; Ecclesiastes 3:20 )
A person can Not return to a place he never was before. Adam's before was dust - Gen. 2:7
Since we are innocent of what sinner Adam did is why God arranged for us to have a resurrection - Acts 24:15
I case you didn't know... Baha'is don't believe that Satan is real. To them, Satan is symbolic of our "lower" nature. And then Adam... For Baha'is he's a "manifestation of God." They don't take the Creation Story literally.

So, I don't think Christian interpretations of the Bible and the NT are relevant to Baha'is.
 

URAVIP2ME

Veteran Member
I case you didn't know... Baha'is don't believe that Satan is real. To them, Satan is symbolic of our "lower" nature. And then Adam... For Baha'is he's a "manifestation of God." They don't take the Creation Story literally.
So, I don't think Christian interpretations of the Bible and the NT are relevant to Baha'is.
A lot of people don't believe Satan is real. A lot of people don't believe the Creation accounts.
But to me a comparison should prove to be informative. Why believe Satan is real or why not real.
 

IndigoChild5559

Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
A lot of people don't believe Satan is real. A lot of people don't believe the Creation accounts.
But to me a comparison should prove to be informative. Why believe Satan is real or why not real.
I have no idea if there is a literal Satan or not. Some Jews believe he literally exists, and is a servant of God with one very rough job. Other religious Jews believe he is simply a metaphor for our own inclination to evil.

But this much I DO know: we do not need Satan to explain the evil in the world. Everything you see can be explained by the evil in men's hearts.
 

Secret Chief

Vetted Member
I wish to see it as it is Tony, in my view you are the one reading it wishfully, but I encourage all to either read the referenced text fully or at least do a find in page for "godless" as I have nothing to fear from being wrong unlike a certain atheophobe in my view.
I'd lend you my copy...
 

danieldemol

Veteran Member
Premium Member
But this much I DO know: we do not need Satan to explain the evil in the world. Everything you see can be explained by the evil in men's hearts.
Occam's razor slashes the unnecessary assumption of an unobserved unevidenced Satan to explain that which can be explained using natural explanations in my view.
 

TransmutingSoul

One Planet, One People, Please!
Premium Member
I wish to see it as it is Tony, in my view you are the one reading it wishfully, but I encourage all to either read the referenced text fully or at least do a find in page for "godless" as I have nothing to fear from being wrong unlike a certain atheophobe in my view.
That is just supporting the need for one world language, so the meaning of words do not become such a debatable item.

May that day soon come. Regards Tony
 

danieldemol

Veteran Member
Premium Member
That is just supporting the need for one world language, so the meaning of words do not become such a debatable item.

May that day soon come. Regards Tony
Even if the world adopted one language tomorrow people would debate the meaning of words which originated in other languages in my view.

That being said I'm not opposed to the world having a common secondary language, I just don't think it would remove debate about the meaning of words.
 

mikkel_the_dane

My own religion
Occam's razor slashes the unnecessary assumption of an unobserved unevidenced Satan to explain that which can be explained using natural explanations in my view.

Yeah, but that says nothing about the existence of Satan as such, since Occam's razor is cognitive and not ontological.
 

URAVIP2ME

Veteran Member
I have no idea if there is a literal Satan or not. Some Jews believe he literally exists, and is a servant of God with one very rough job. Other religious Jews believe he is simply a metaphor for our own inclination to evil.
But this much I DO know: we do not need Satan to explain the evil in the world. Everything you see can be explained by the evil in men's hearts.
Bingo! Yes, Adam was a man with a man's heart.
Once Adam chose to break God's Law then fallen Adam's heart contained the inclination leaning towards /wrongdoing.
We are all born after fallen father Adam's downfall thus inheriting his acquired wrong inclinations.
I like how Jeremiah 17:9 expresses about men's imperfect hearts.
It is like we have a traitor within us. First, the imperfect heart urges us to do something, but once we have done it then the heart gives us all the reasons why we should Not have done what we did in the first place.
Any thoughts about Proverbs 28:26 ______________
 

URAVIP2ME

Veteran Member
That is just supporting the need for one world language, so the meaning of words do not become such a debatable item.
May that day soon come. Regards Tony
In Genesis chapter 11 we find the world started out with one language ( one vocabulary )
In high school English class we were forming sentences by using the fewest words to express some thoughts.
In answer to a question, the teacher said the English language was Not that comprehensive.
One student asked, " What language is the most comprehensive ? "
The teacher replied, " Hebrew, but that today's Yiddish is Not the same "
So, during Jesus' thousand-year reign over Earth (May that day soon come) communication will keep improving.
 

ppp

Well-Known Member
The solution is humanity embracing the Councels given of God, which are given by all the Messengers CG. Unity can only be built on our recognition of the Oneness of God and humanity. That is now very clear.

The Pen has many meanings and if anybody was interested, I have posted a link to one persons study as to what the significance of the "Pen" in Scriptures means below.

Also consider the progression of religion, the Bab and Baha'u'llah are the first Messengers to record the Word of God with their own Pen.

"...This is the Day which the Pen of the Most High hath glorified in all the holy Scriptures. There is no verse in them that doth not declare the glory of His holy Name, and no Book that doth not testify unto the loftiness of this most exalted theme...." Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, pp. 13-14

All the Messengers are God's Pen. The pen is a metaphor. The pen talked about is a feather or a hollow reed which contains the ink that flows on to the page. This also refelect the humility of the Messengers, God word flows through them, their human will 100% subdued.


Muhammad as the Pen has recorded.

"Recite thou, in the name of thy Lord who created;
Created man from clots of blood;
Recite thou! For thy Lord is the most Beneficent,
Who Hath taught by the Pen;
Hath taught man what he knoweth not. (Qur'án 96:1-5)

The Baha'i are not able to make other people's choices CG, we can only offer what the Pen of the Most high in this age has offered, what God has offered through the hollw reed, the Pen of the Most High, the Most Glorious Pen.

So we look at those pens, or listen the pens of men.

Regards Tony
That is not a solution. It has no practical and specific steps for directly addressing a specific issue. What you have is a marketing speech for your religion.
 

danieldemol

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Yeah, but that says nothing about the existence of Satan as such, since Occam's razor is cognitive and not ontological.
Tell that to the fairies that shake their glow dust in a light bulb every time you switch a light on in my view.
(That was a lame attempt at humour in case anyone couldn't tell).
 

CG Didymus

Veteran Member
That is not a solution. It has no practical and specific steps for directly addressing a specific issue. What you have is a marketing speech for your religion.
What do Baha'is suggest we do about Gaza and Ukraine? Pro-life vs. Pro-choice? The left or the right? Will Baha'is pick a side? Or stay neutral? Staying out of things is their usual stance. It's easy to say that "unity" is the answer. But how do they bring "unity" to people that are so far apart?

The solution is humanity embracing the Councels given of God, which are given by all the Messengers
The "solution" then is everyone accepting and embracing and obeying the teachings of Baha'u'llah?

Yes, I could see how that would work. Just like if everybody obeyed the Ten Commandments. Or even the "Golden Rule."

Yes, great solution. All people from now on... just stop sinning.
 
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