67/78 # 99724 Yes, From: S'TALON on Thu Mar 23 4:14pm but modern thumpers (just turn on your TV or walk into a thumper church), say that if you don't tithe you are going to Hell. And other thumpers literally sell indulegences by saying, "Give and enter into Heaven when you die". What a bunch of bloody Fosterites! -S'Talon 68/78 # 99728 They think From: NIKADEMUS on Thu Mar 23 4:34pm that one can just buy their way into heaven. Not so, for God's Kingdom is not of this world. Material things are not important as one leaves this life. 69/78 # 99731 Well Said... From: TEMPEST on Thu Mar 23 4:44pm Fire Escape, Ironman, Nikademus. God's Word has something to say about those who try to "sell" the gift of God, which is eternal life, and that is: "May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps He will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin." (Acts 8:20-23) He has a lot more to say about the greedy hypocrits, hateful apostate, ect. but I encourage you to see for yourselves. An interesting lecture I had to give in Sociology class today. It was about "christian" cults and "christian" organizations. Stuff like the KKK, televangelists, Worldwide Church of God, ect. Really got everyone's blood boiling, made a lot of people think--and see how certain people, though they claim the Name, blaspheme it in the same breath. 70/78 # 99735 Fosterites From: OCTOPUSSY PEELS on Thu Mar 23 5:52pm Better for us to take up the martian faith, eh Tal? Honestly, we ARE amidst Fosterites left and right. Soemthing must be done and done in the schools. 71/78 # 99771 Job has a From: TRITON on Fri Mar 24 8:47am modernday counterpart written by Goethe: Faust. Instead of the devil and God discussing how far the devil can push Job before he stops believing, it is the other way around. The devil tries to lure Faust away from God by granting him all sorts of material things and phemales if he will only sell his soul. The story ends with Faust not being much happier for his free travel, new home, and new girlfriend, so he repents and goes to heaven. Tri "ing to share some relevant informa" ton (yes I had to say that) 73/78 # 99794 Martian faith From: S'TALON on Fri Mar 24 2:47pm I would have no problem with it. It would eliminate a lot of problems we have now, and we would all grok everything better as a result. -S'Talon 74/78 # 99809 Well, that would certainly From: IRONMAN on Fri Mar 24 5:14pm be, uh......well.......uh......hmmmmm. 75/78 # 99836 Well, uh, huh... From: TRITON on Fri Mar 24 10:26pm Well put, Ironman! - Triton P.S. Who's side am I on, anyway? :) 76/78 # 99845 Save AIDS From: OCTOPUSSY PEELS on Sat Mar 25 12:03am "The Discipline" as it was called, would be great. Yama "thou art God" bushi 77/78 # 99875 I disagree! From: JIMI on Sat Mar 25 2:37pm I disagree the Catholic Church still does indulgences.. They do Masses for the dead and honour and place the Mass in their name to offset the Negitive Actions (Negitive Karma) in the life while they were alive... It is the same things just sounds a little bit different!!!! It is a ticket bought into Heaven because everybody in that church is praying for your salvation and hoping that you get it... Sounds sorta like a Black or Evil act to me.. If you didn't do the actions in your life to get in there why buy your way in?... Has anyone noticed how much Jehova and Shaitan hang out ttogether??? Sorta like the Black Sabbath song "Warning".... Roll over Rover, Let Jimi take over!! From Jimi Hendrix... 78/78 # 99910 Replies... From: FIRE ESCAPE on Sun Mar 26 1:02am Tal: Gee, it would pretty easy to share the faith of the Martians (rocks that is - since that is all there is on Mars.) one "rock" to another (oops, that was "Grok" wasn't it, oh well same thing anyway). And as for intercession for the dead, forget it, the Catholic Church offically renounced their doctrine on "purgatory" back in 1975 or so. Once you die, you is FIXED on the destination you chose for yourself. The Bible is pretty clear on MAN's complete inability to change the spiritual condition of another man. .."No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him, the ransom for a life is costly and NO payment is EVER enough - that he should live on forever and not see decay." - See Psalm 49:7-9. Fire Escape 75/87 # 99929 Read stranger in a From: YAMABUSHI on Sun Mar 26 12:09pm Strange land. Youd love it (or hate it) FE. You remind me of Patricia. How can one renounce purgatory if it was God's idea? wouldnt they have to check with Him? Yama "tense shift" bushi 76/87 # 99938 FE would From: S'TALON on Sun Mar 26 2:33pm probably hate it. As far as indulgences and purgatory, at least in my parish, the cleric collects money (I think it is $5 to dedicate a mass to someone and that cleric claims it will help them get out of purgatory, and I think other clerics in other parishes still follow this corrupt and evil practice as well.) 77/87 # 99948 Purgatory? From: PINKY on Sun Mar 26 3:58pm I'm not truly sure what my religion believes about such a thing. I never pay attention in Sunday School. Anyway, if you believe in Heaven and Hell, and you believe that depending on how you lead your life dictates which one you go to, than if you are midline (and if it is a balance which decides, you'd have to be EXACTLY midline), than you shoule receive the benifit of the doubt. I mean, if God here is so magnanimous, surely he would be willing to help you out in an iffy situation. But I wonder about God myself. I'm debating weather or not he exists and what is his nature. 78/87 # 99959 Yeah, From: NIKADEMUS on Sun Mar 26 8:59pm maybe the Church will renounce Easter next? It just goes to show that the church and the bible are not true representitives of God. The human factor is the falter of both the bible and church. I suppose next that the church will say that only left handed people will be saved. About Martians, we didn't check under those rocks, did we? How about inside the planet? There is not life on Mars, yet! We haven't set up bases there yet, when we do, then there will be life for certain on Mars. Hey, don't you watch 'War Of The Worlds: The Series'? :) 79/87 # 99965 Personally... From: OLIVER WENDELL JONES on Sun Mar 26 10:57pm I like the idea of purgatory... I think it's possible that we're all in purgatory now... like if we die, and we aren't bad enough for hell or good enough for heaven, we're reincarnated to try and be more extreme... well, it's my philosophy, no one said youhad to LIKE it... ŠFrom: AGRAJAG on Mon Mar 27 8:22pm Some say that pugatory is hell...Others say it is limbo What the (Excuse the pun) h**l is purgatory anyway...What is churches Idea on it? 81/87 # 100038 Well... From: HYPERBOREAN MENACE on Mon Mar 27 9:36pm The Roman Catholics believe that purgatory is where people to to cleans themselves of their sins before entering heaven. Kind of a nice idea... You only burn in a temporary hellfire (as opposed to "an eternal hellfire"). People sure come up with some neat ideas to make their respective religions more interesting. OWJ, I never thought of life on Earth as purgatory... Interesting idea... Sure feels like it sometimes... 82/87 # 100040 Although I disagree with From: IRONMAN on Mon Mar 27 9:55pm your views, OWJ, thanks for posting them. S'Talon, I wonder what would happen if you , or someone else in your parish, were to challenge that priest (or priests) and ask him how he POSSIBLY could think of EVER justifiying indulgences¬ Theù are evil. 83/87 # 100046 Well... From: OLIVER WENDELL JONES on Mon Mar 27 10:39pm As I once said, Ironman, the worst kind of opinionated person is one who has no opinions. Am I making sense to anyone but myself? 84/87 # 100069 I found this interesting From: CHRISSY on Tue Mar 28 2:41am does any Catholics remember all the older fire and brimstone lectures in church and school...well my mom and dad go to DeSales, a catholic run type of bible study with pre-approved tapes and books and all run by a priest and they are now learning that there is No Satan, that the demons referred to in the Bible was mental illness, and that all paranormal experiences are the result from mental disorders(seeing things and hearing things) and that it is also temptation and ill will® Interestinç they aren't coming out in the churches preaching it since all the older Catholics would be in an uproar over it but that is now the Offical standing...Chrissy 85/87 # 100072 Interesting indeed From: S'TALON on Tue Mar 28 3:12am Preach something different to each person, so they'll all be satisfied. Now, that is modern theology for you! Going into Cynical moods here. 86/87 # 100077 EXACTLY From: CAVE MAN on Tue Mar 28 8:53am Surprize! that has always been the beliefs of the Catholic church. You see, the bigger Your social circle is, the more concessions you have to make to the group. So the Catholics are really the "popular" religion...That is based on what is popularly believed. To maintain achient validity, the vatican only believes in the classical scriptures. The people believe what they want, the pope believes in god, and the church makes the tie that binds them. Is this good? Is this bad? Or is this this just religion? 87/87 # 100100 Religion.. From: FIRE ESCAPE on Tue Mar 28 3:59pm Religion will never set you right with God. And God doesn't opperate on a "earn yourself heaven" system. Religion means loosely "to rebind or to bind again" it infers an effort on the part of Man in stiving to attain salvation or rightness with a deity. The Bible says that we can not justify ourselves by our own good deeds, God doesn't put your works in some kind of cosmic balance and weigh them, I'm sorry to break this to you but you can not do ANYTHING to impress God. We are all sinners, this includes you, me, and every pastor, preist and nun in the entire world. This is why God sent Jesus to save us, if we could do it ourselves then God was wasting his time and life dying for us now wasn't he? You can believe what you like but I for one will not make the mistake of equating God with "religion" or "churches", people make mistakes and the "church" has been wrong before, the Bible is the only reliable revelation there is about God, read it yourself and get to know God, don't let anybody, be they your friend or your pastor, tell you what they think God is like. Check and double check it against the Bible for accuracy. Alot of people wonder if God really exists, I often wonder if God thinks the same about them? Fire Escape 86/89 # 100110 yeah From: YAMABUSHI on Tue Mar 28 5:37pm We know, not to be rude or anything® Doesnt this tell anyone anything? This corruption and changing to meet the public needs (and pocket books, but, face it, God makes good dough) MUST mean that there is little to belive in. The puritans died out because of such things. If they had the Real Thing, why doesnt it prosper and why isnt god Pissed because NOBODY is listening? A religion dies because it doesnt change. IT changes to propagate itself, as do we. No one here practices Christianinty,its been lost almost totally® Jeez,the doubts are just insurmountable, unless ya dont wanna see 'em. 87/89 # 100145 No one here practices From: IRONMAN on Tue Mar 28 11:40pm Christianity, Uh, well..I mean,..I know I'm not perfect..but, uh... 88/89 # 100159 What Yama From: S'TALON on Wed Mar 29 3:28am meant is that noone here practices Christianity in its orginal form, which is impossible. In Roman times, the people wanted something to defy Rome (and its Mirthaism and Ceasar worship), and that something was Christianity. Today, people want to be nozy and/or thump (hence your thumper religons), or be part of a crowd (hence your mainline religons). Yes, religon is bogus, but spirtualism isn't. There's a big difference between finding and having a relationship with a Higher Power and the mockery that we have going for most religon today. Most people want to be led, instead of finding out for themselves it seems, else religon would not prosper. 89/89 # 100282 Yes... From: FIRE ESCAPE on Thu Mar 30 12:45pm Spiritualism is real but it won't lead you to God. It might lead you to a self actualized existence (notice it's SELF actualized not GOD actualized). You can call your honor and selfdedication your higher power but that doesn't make it God. It's just another pretty deception, another religion to throw in the basket. I agree that there are hundreds of thousands of religions but there is only one way to be with the true God. As Mad at the World says, "I am torn between two kingdoms, I am fighting with my soul. I want to live, I want to love, and Heaven is my goal. Still I'm cursed with being human,trapped inside this sin and hate It's all in vogue, but it's all so old, I pray it won't be too late. I want to see Heaven, a place where there's ONLY ONE GOD TO CHOOSE. 'Cause in a mind filled by this world, gives you SO MANY WAYS TO LOSE...." People may not be perfect, true, so no one imperfect can ever live up to a perfect code, that is to be expected, but this doesn't mean that this way is not around or that it isn't still being attempted. To quote Servant, "Good intentions always seem the best, but they're only intentions until you put them to the test.".If all you see are "talkers" and never any "doers" perhaps you are looking in the wrong places.