Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: rick@jts.com (Rick Yazwinski) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Pagans and Christ (was Re: Christians abetting Satan?) Message-ID: Date: 1 Oct 90 01:11:55 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: JTS Computer Systems Ltd. Lines: 90 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu [Kenneth Kutz says that New Age beliefs contradict the Bible, and thus objects to a previous claim that they are simply adding some new ideas to Christianity. Anything that contradicts the Bible can't be made part of Christianity. --clh] Ken, I see the point you're making; however, one question pops into my mind. What of the (sp?) Pistis Sophia? This was a part of the Christian Bible until some pontif in (I believe) the 15th century decided to remove it. Now, as I understand it, the Christian Bible is supposed to be the "words of God", if that's the case how could a mere mortal decide that part of it is not longer valid? In this book, many of the "New Age" beliefs are mentioned (reincarnation being one of them). > Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do > righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship > can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between > Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an > unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God > and idols? ... ``Therefore, come out from them and be > separate, says the Lord.'' (II Cor 6:14-17, cut and pasted courtesy > of Geoff Allen's previous post and the X Window System from MIT :-) > Yes, don't be yoked with unbelievers - I can speak from experience that this doesn't work. At the same time, don't follow the customs of unbelievers, for that would only soil yourself. No Christmas tree this year, it was "borrowed" from the previous pagan religions and is a Yule tree. No bunnies or eggs at Easter, they have nothing to do with the ressurrection of Christ but are symbols of fertility and coincide with the pagan festivals of fertility. Denounce St. Patric, who before he was Christinified was called Patricius and was a Druid!!! Those of you of Judaic background, get rid of your hexagrams, they're symbols dating back thousands of years before Christianity to Tibetan Taoists (I believe) and are a symbol of the combination of Male and Female sexes (in fact the Kabbalists out there, if they're honest, will tell you that there's a picture in the arc of the covenant depicting, rather graphically, this union). >"They >exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things >rather than the Creator." Since through Christ, ALL things were created, then >those who believe in "other divinities" are identifying themselves with this >group. It could not be any clearer. Romans 1:30, describes these people >to be "God-haters". Although one in this category may not speak out loud a >hate for God, their acknowledgement that One True God does not exists puts >them in this camp. Yes, if one is a pantheist, he is an enemy of Christ. I do not consider pagans/heathens to be enemies of Christ. It doesn't make sense. If person A doesn't believe that person B exists how could person A be person B's enemy? It doesn't scan. >Well I'm not sure what "condemn" means in this context, but perhaps this postings >sheds some light as to why the Christians you know have problems with "wrong" >beliefs. According to the Bible, those who have "wrong" beliefs to the extent >that adhere to pantheism, are God-haters. For those Christians to accept the >validity of pantheism, they would have to drop the Bible from the "inspired of >God" category. The professing church is well on its way to doing that today >as the apostasy increases in some circles, but then again, even the apostasy >was predicted as something that would take place in the end times. So the >existance of such of movement, to me, increases my faith in the infallibilty >of Holy Scripture because it adds just one more of many fulfilled prophecies >to a growing list. > I haven't read this group frequently, but I was curious, so please excuse me if this has already been brought up, but... Is it not possible that... All beliefs all over the world - pagan/heathen/Christian/Buddist/etc.... all worship the same superiour being (whatever/whoever that may be) and that they do it in a way that works most effictively for them. No Christian that I've ever met would disagree with the statement that "God is in this tree." or "God is in this animal." For Christians believe that everything is of the God. Twisting the concept slightly you can see that panthism makes sense. Religions that have more than one God/dess figure - easily explained in this context, the different Gods/Goddesses are different aspects of the one greater being and are easier to conceptualize. Think about it, if you have an open mind and are willing to think it makes a lot of sense. -- Rick Yazwinski | To Be Silent JTS Computer Systems Ltd. | To Dare --------+-------- To Know {yunexus,uunet,geac,torsqnt}!jts.com!rick | To Will [People have certainly criticized concentration on the Bible by claiming that the selection of the books in the Bible are arbitrary. Alternatives proposed include various books with Gnostic leanings (which were an issue during the first few centuries of Christianity, and the issue of the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonicals (which are primarily an issue between Catholics and Protestants now). However claims of a Pope changing the Bible in the 15th Cent. have to be wrong. Current Bibles are translated from documents dating from 2nd to 5th Cent's. The only later chnages would be the Protestant rejection of the Apocrypha. I've never heard of Pistis Sophia. --clh]