Ancient mystery religions and the possible psychedelic roots of Christianity

Key doctrinal announcement today. Some sins are just too much

 

I'm going to hold my tongue here, and just defer Catholic Answers:

In John 8:58, when quizzed about how he has special knowledge of Abraham, Jesus replies, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I Am”—invoking and applying to himself the personal name of God—“I Am” (Ex. 3:14). His audience understood exactly what he was claiming about himself. “So they took up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple” (John 8:59).

In John 20:28, Thomas falls at Jesus’ feet, exclaiming, “My Lord and my God!” (Greek: Ho Kurios mou kai ho Theos mou—literally, “The Lord of me and the God of me!”)

In Philippians 2:6, Paul tells us that Christ Jesus “[w]ho, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped” (New International Version). So Jesus chose to be born in humble, human form though he could have simply remained in equal glory with the Father for he was “in very nature God.”

Also significant are passages that apply the title “the First and the Last” to Jesus. This is one of the Old Testament titles of Yahweh: “Thus says Yahweh, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, Yahweh of armies: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; besides me there is no god’” (Isa. 44:6; cf. 41:4, 48:12).

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What the Early Church Believed: The Divinity of Christ​

 

Increased your faith in what ?

 

And here's a piece applying St. Paul's writings to the divinity of Chirst:

St. Paul and the Divinity of Jesus - Catholic Stand

Excerpt:

The Worship Due to God Alone
The first passage we’re going to look at comes from the letter to the Philippians. In it, Paul is praising the humility that Jesus displayed by choosing to become human and die on the cross:

Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11)

An Old Testament Parallel
When people bring up this text in discussions about Jesus’ divinity, they usually focus on Paul’s remarks that Jesus “was in the form of God” and that he did not grasp “equality with God.” However, I would like to focus on something else. I want to look at the end of the passage, where Paul says that every knee will bow at Jesus’ name and every tongue will confess him as Lord. These words are an allusion to an oracle in the book of Isaiah: “And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, from my mouth has gone forth in righteousness a word that shall not return: To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.” (Isaiah 45:21-23)​

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I've read all of his books and have heard him speak. I'm agnostic: I can no more presume there isn't a biblical god than I can presume the opposite. i simply don't "know". But, as far as I'm concerned, Ehrman is the only one who makes any sense.....and he's been exposed to both ends of the "there is a God/there isn't a God" spectrum. I am persuaded by the fact he gave up belief and examined the evidence - such as it is

 

You obviously haven't read a thing by or about him.

 

All you have to do now is practice it.

 

What is a miracle though? Isnt it just something unexplainable in human terms?
Something beyond mere human ability?

Isn't this universe a miracle?
Isn't love a miracle?
Isn't it just a matter of terminology?
Don't we all know such phenomenon exist?

 

I'm sure he got a great education at TC.

 

Well, things we don't yet understand. It was once thought that the moon moved about the earth and kept its place in orbit due to Divine planning and intervention. Then Newton invented Calculus while in his 20s and explained why.

 

I would change most of Tilly’s miracles as stuff that isn’t unexplainable but stuff that is unexplained so far.

 

Well, it is comforting to turn the unexplainable into a miracle and attribute that to a god. Why should we question what a relatively primitive people stumbled upon 2,000+ years ago and be confused. It's easier to just "believe" and be done with it. I confess to sometimes wishing I could. I'm no closer at 80 to knowing "what it all means" than I was at 20.

 

Yet its pretty miraculous how calculous and physics just happened. Thats my point. Miraculous things are ones we cant do on our own.

 

Absolute absence of intelligence accidentally yielding intelligence unfathomable, will ever remain absolutely unexplainable... (...because it's absolutely impossible) ...and yet that is precisely what the militantly godless maintains actually happened ( "...because enough *time!*").

The mother of ALL miracles!!!

I suppose you ought start with that *miracle*--we--including life and intelligence--are fruit of preexisting intelligence.

There's one explanation for one of your miracles that hasn't been explained *yet*.

PS--laws don't write themselves. Not even laws of physics, chemistry, thermodynamics, biology...

 

Knowing the principles, ethics, and morality taught by Jesus is true. Trusting what what Jesus taught - most especially in Matthew and the Beatitudes - underscores the truth of it. Not simplistically believing the God of the Bible, but authentically trusting, "all will be well."

It's not enough to simply declare belief in doctrines and dogmas cobbled together generations after Jesus preached. Faith implies trust. People with genuine faith in what their teacher; pastor; rabbi; guru; leader; master (let your culture or tradition decide) teaches, attempt to live their lives authentically, trusting and following the guidance of their Guide. Jesus is the Guide I follow. Not because I believe the dogmatic dogmas denied in my previous post, but because I have lived long enough to have experienced and grasped the truth and intrinsic value in the teachings of Jesus.

Prophesied for generations before he appeared, nothing in the prophecies state or imply he would be born of a virgin, or that he was or is God. To the best of my knowledge, apart from the accounts in the gospels, there is no genuine, authentic, or historically accurate account of Jesus rising from the dead. What would be the need for a resurrection? You tell me.

Faith to me is actively trusting enough to live your life according to what is taught rather than simply declaring belief in approved doctrines. Much of it stressing a deceased non-believing person will go to hell if the deceased does not believe the preferred doctrines of the religious tradition being preached. In evangelical circles there is too much well intended but misguided indoctrination emphasizing only Only Christians believing what they are instructed to believe will reach the heavenly plane. Too often evangelists place more emphasis on the correctness of the prospective convert's beliefs, that only the correct beliefs will permit a deceased Christian admission through the Pearly Gates, rather than the universal necessity of charity, tolerance, and kindness towards those in need. But in my fervency I tend to repeat myself.

Only an authentic awakening and conversion to intentionally, purposefully sacrificially deny self to follow the way of the cross can and will bring a genuine change to how one views and lives life. People often fail; more than they succeed. I know I do, but the man Jesus mercifully also taught repentance and forgiveness and hope to soldier on.



It took time to get to this point, most of my life. There were a good many steps and sidesteps along the path and the path was rocky and uneven. The book refers to one of the byways, as Dreamliner may recall. The referenced book and several others were of great assistance and encouragement when I needed it.

Above all, I am grateful.

 

"What would be the need for a resurrection? You tell me."

Death and original sin; and not "would", but IS.

Your turn: what would the point be of making up one of the most radical, alienating, challenging, and controversial aspects of the Faith, if it were not grounded in Truth? If it were not revealed?

Bc your diluted, malleable to taste, warm fuzzy pet Jesus would be a much easier salespitch, woulda fit right in the paganism of the day (another lucrative god cult), and woulda remained as flexible and contortable to fit any time...

Why make things so difficult upon themselves, voluntarily--under penalty of death--upon make believe fiction?

 

Where does the universe end? What is on the other side? Another locker, marble, galaxy? Are we just a simulation.

And our ex trying Dukes’ Garlic Habanero was an abomination!

 

Well, right there in Canaan before Jesus there was the Canaanite storm and fertility god Baal, who would die in the spring (the beginning of the dry season) and rise from the dead in the autumn (bringing with him the autumn rains and the return of vegetation). Farther away in Phrygia there was the vegetation deity Attis, who would die and later rise from the dead, coinciding with the cycle of vegetation. So what was "the need for resurrection"? Originally it was the need for food, for parents to be able to tell their children, "Eat your vegetables."

 

No matter what we understand it always pales to what we do not.

Science will not explain love. It will not explain what tiggers the phenomenon of life. It can explain when the fire of life starts and extinguishes, but it cant actually explain what makes something go from unalive, to alive. Life and love are miracles.

 

Unfortunately, I’m probably more familiar with his work than you are. He’s a case study on how an insistence on certitude and ease of assimilation fosters doubt. And most of his arguments are sophomoric.