Love one another as I have loved you
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Love = Compassion
The Parable of the Good Samaritan : Luke 10:36
"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" The one who showed him compassion, replied the expert in the law. Then Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
First John 3:17
If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need, but has no pity on him {compassion for him}, how can the love of God be in him?
Matthew 25:34-35 "Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; ... For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,
... 41 Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, ...'
Matthew 14:14
And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.
Matthew 20:34
Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him.
mark 1:41
And being moved with compassion, he stretched forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou made clean.
Mark 6:34
And he came forth and saw a great multitude, and he had compassion on them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things.
Luke 7:13-14
When he saw her, the Lord had compassion for her and said, "Don't cry." He stepped forward and touched the stretcher on which the dead man was being carried. Those carrying him stood still. Jesus said, "Young man, I say to you, get up."
Matt.5:44-45
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.
Mark 12:29-31
"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these."
Luke 6:27
...Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
1 Corinthians 13:1 -- ( and the whole [Love] chapter )
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
...Jesus began to preach and to say,
"Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand"
Matt.3:1-2
Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
Matt.4:17
From that time Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
Matt.11:20
Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.
Mark 1:4
And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Mark 6:12
They went out and preached that people should repent.
Luke 13:3 unless you repent, you will all likewise perish
[and again]
Luke 13:5 unless you repent, you will all likewise perish
Matthew 18:3-4
And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
John 13:34
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another."
John 15:12
"This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you."
1 Corinthians 13:1-2
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
Matthew 25:40-41
And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.' "Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, . . .
"good"
Matthew 19:17
Why do you ask me concerning what is good? There is only One who is good.
Mark 10:17-18 and
Luke 18:17-18
Good teacher, what must I do to receive eternal life? Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
Jesus would not even let a person call him "good"??!! Suppose we called him "great", or sacred or holy or "God"! How much more would that upset him!?!
But, Jesus would not even let a person call him "good" in Matthew, Mark and Luke. So how do we explain the 4th gospel, John, claiming Jesus is the same as God and at the same time, the Son of God?
John 10:34-35
"It is written in your own Law that God said, 'You are all gods.' We know that what the scripture says is true forever; and God called those people gods"
John 1:12
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God ...
John 1:34
And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Even John admits that Jesus is not someone that the rest of us are not. He can claim that Jesus was "one with God" because we all are. We are all Gods and "the kingdom of God is within you", Luke 17:21.
Today, the gospel of John is recognized as coming from the same theology as that of the Qumran community and we now also know that, despite their rhetoric, they were adamant in their refusal to call any man "god".
"And when she saw the infant Jesus she exclaimed, behold Immanuel! Behold the signet cross of the Messiah on his brow! And then the woman knelt to worship him, as God with us, Immanuel; but one, a master, clothed in white, appeared and said, Good woman, stay; take heed to what you do; you may not worship man; this is idolatry. This child is man, the son of man, and worthy of all praise. [but] You shall adore and worship God; him only shall you serve.
THE AQUARIAN GOSPEL OF JESUS THE CHRIST 4:10-12 by Levi
In the year 325, in Nicea, the church was holding a council "the Council of Nicea" that declared that Christ was "the Savior God" and wrote a creed "the Nicean Creed" to enforce it, and today, we are not told how it all happened. Time after time Jesus refers to himself as a "son of man" (Mark 8:31,38; 9:9,12,31, etc.) (as if he knew people would try to make a god out of him?); but the expected Messiah(s) of the Hebrew people was a great prophet, NOT a god, and Jesus himself seems to oppose it: "No one is good except God alone" and "you are all gods".
"there were many Pagan deities during the time of Jesus and afterwards for whom quite similar claims were made and in whose names were preached quite similar doctrines. Mithras was a Redeemer of mankind; so were Tammuz, Adonis and Osiris. The view eventually taken of Jesus as a Redeemer was not a Judaic concept; nor was it held by the first Christians in Palestine. The Messiah the Jews and the Judaic Christians expected was not the Son of God but a messenger from God, not one who saved by blood-atonement but one whose salvation came from his rule of the earth in a Messianic kingdom.
THE MEANING OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS pg.90, by A. Powell Davies
Heaven
Matt.13:44-46
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
Luke 17:20-21
Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, `Here it is,` or `There it is,` because the kingdom of God is within you."
"There is still the teaching of the 'Kingdom of heaven within you' ... 'The sabbath is made for man and not man for the sabbath.' ... 'Return good for evil; love your enemies.' ... Religion can be summed up, said Jesus, in two principles; 'Love God sincerely and other people as much as you love yourself.' (( Mark 12:30-31; Matt 22:37-39; Luke 10:27 )) Jesus said: 'Do unto others as you wish them to do unto you.' He did not invent these summaries of 'the Law and the Prophets,' but he makes his emphasis clear by the fact of selecting them." pg.128
THE MEANING OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS by A. Powell Davies
Romans 12:19-20
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." To the contrary, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink;
From my seminary years:
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| THE UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING |
| THE UNEXAMINED FAITH IS NOT WORTH BELIEVING |
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This surgeon in Italy, for instance, told me that he was doing an elective operation on a fairly young man in good health. The patient had a cardiac arrest and the doctor was unable to resuscitate him. All of a sudden, the doors of the operating room were flung open and there was his wife.
She said, “I was out in the waiting room and my husband came to me. He told me to tell you that he’s not dead.” The doctor resumed the resuscitation and the patient’s heart started beating again. The first thing the patient said was, “I was up above my body and I kept trying to tell you I wasn’t dead, but you couldn’t hear me. So I told my wife.”
- Dr. Raymond Moody, author
https://www.guideposts.org/inspiration/life-after-death/dr-raymond-moody-the-secrets-of-the-afterlife
https://near-death.com/george-ritchie-nde/
Oh, my god! I'm not really dead -- am I? I mean, my body is dead --- I can see it below me --- but I'm floating ... I can look down and see my body lying flat in the hospital bed. Everyone around me thinks I'm dead, but I'm not. I want to shout, Hey, I'm not really dead! This is so incredible ... the nurses are pulling a sheet over my head ... people I know are crying. I'm supposed to be dead, but I'm still alive! It's strange, because my body is absolutely dead while I'm moving around it from above. I'm alive!
Journey Of Souls; Case Studies of Life Between Lives
- Michael Newton, Ph.D., page 7; (1st paragraph of Chap.1)
The Prophecy
The Old Testament deliberately ends with
the prophecy of the coming Messiah:
Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament:
Judaism considers Malachi to be the last of the biblical prophets, and believes also that the Messiah will be a prophet and that Elijah will precede him.
Malachi 3:1
“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.
One of the last two verses of the Old Testament:
Malachi 4:5
But before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes, I will send you the prophet Elijah.
Reincarnation
Those who assembled the Bible knew that up through the time of Jesus, this passage was understood to mean there would come a messiah, a prophet, and that Elijah, reincarnated, would precede him. Therefore, on that statement, the Old Testament ends.
Publicly, to the crowds, Jesus affirms the prophecy and that He is the awaited messiah by declaring that John is Elijah:
Jesus speaking to a crowd:
MATTHEW 11:13-15
Until the time of John, all the prophets and the law of Moses spoke about the kingdom; And if you are willing to believe their message, John is Elijah, whose coming was predicted. Listen, then, if you have ears!"
Jesus has just told them that John is Elijah. Those who "have ears" realize that makes Jesus the awaited Messiah and, they should pay attention. However, even some of the disciples did not understand (missed it?) and He had to tell them personally.
Jesus speaking to the disciples:
MATTHEW 17:10-13
Then the disciples asked Jesus, "Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah has to come first?" "Elijah is indeed coming first," answered Jesus, "and he will get everything ready. but I tell you that Elijah has already come and people did not recognize him, but treated him just as they pleased. In the same way they will also mistreat the son of man." Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.
Just like everyone else, it is also true that the disciples all took reincarnation as a commonly and personally accepted reality or they would not have understood Jesus to know that John the baptist was Elijah, nor would they talk about a person committing sins even before being born:
Jesus and his disciples assume reincarnation as a common reality:
JOHN 9:1-3
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been born blind. his disciples asked him, "Teacher, whose sin caused him to be born blind? Was it his own or his parents' sin?" Jesus answered, "His blindness has nothing to do with his sins or his parents' sins."
Again, the disciples and Jesus all take reincarnation as a commonly and personally accepted reality, for everyone: Only if a person has incarnated before, could they be BORN blind to repay some past sin. In a society that does not believe in reincarnation, such a question would not even be thought of!
Reincarnation was commonly accepted:
Matthew 16:13-14
Jesus went to the territory near the town of Caesarea Philippi, where he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the son of man is?" "Some say John the Baptist," they answered. "others say Elijah, while others say Jeremiah or some other prophet."
Reincarnation was not just a belief unique to Jesus and his followers. It was not just their own personal interpretation of the scripture. It was officially-universally accepted within the Jewish community.
"During the week I had reviewed my textbook from a comparative religions course taken during my freshman year at Columbia Univ. There were indeed references to reincarnation in the Old and New Testaments. In A.D. 325 the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, along with his mother, Helena, had deleted references to reincarnation contained in the New Testament. The Second Council of Constantinople, meeting in A.D. 553, confirmed this action and declared the concept of reincarnation a heresy." pg.35-36
- MANY LIVES, MANY MASTERS by Brian L. Weiss, M.D.
In AD 543, the then ruler of the Roman Empire, Emperor Justinian I, blatantly and brutally removed the Teachings of reincarnation from the scriptures of Christian orthodox doctrines. For the first 500 years of Christianity, reincarnation was a vital component of Christian doctrines.
https://www.amazon.com/Reincarnation-Removed-Christian-Scriptures-Justinian-ebook/dp/B0927HLD75
There is some evidence of belief in reincarnation in ancient Greek and Roman cultures, but it is not as prominent as in other cultures such as those of India and Tibet.
“The theory of reincarnation is recorded in the Bible. But the proper interpretations were struck from it during an Ecumenical Council meeting of the Catholic Church in Constantinople [325 AD] called the Council of Nicea. The Council members voted to strike those teachings from the Bible in order to solidify Church control.”
- OUT ON A LIMB by Shirley MacLaine
"While at the [Qumran] community He (Jesus) developed his ability to communicate difficult concepts in the form of parables. Many of these early parables do not appear in the Bible, mainly because they deal with reincarnation."
- JESUS AND THE ESSENES by Dolores Cannon
A discovery made by a psychologist (Helen Wambach) and mentioned in her book, LIFE BEFORE LIFE: Having put over 750 people Under hypnosis, often in group situations, and regressing them beck to the time that they were born. She discovered that 90% experienced a past life [pg.8] and that [all the] "90% of my subjects found that death was plesant." [pg.41 & 63] over 87% knew relatives and friends in their present lives from past lives, and while they chose to be born again, many, 72%, did so reluctantly - only 28% felt enthusiastic about it. Another author, Dick Sutphen, has hypnotized hundreds of people and also says that about 90% of his subjects remember past lives. However, it is only from Helen Wambach that I got the clue to a pervasive, resistance to reincarnation. Given that most people (72%) didn't earnestly want to be here this time. I can now understand our general resistance to the belief in coming back again, myself included. "no thanks". So, now, how do we get off this merry-go-round?
She laughed as she showed me the tears that were rolling down her cheeks. I reassured ther that hers was a common reaction, and that soon she'd feel cheerful. "Oh, I feel cheerful enough, " she said, "it's just that I realize that birth is not a joyous occasion. The two deaths I had in the two past lives tonight were very pleasant experiences. It's getting born that seems the tragedy." page 25-6
LIFE BEFORE LIFE - by Helen Wambach
(from a college student's reaction to a hypnotic regression back to the time of her birth.)
Time to get off
Matt.3:1-2
Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
Matt.4:17
From that time Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
Luke 6:20 (The Beatitudes)
Blessed are you who are poor (destitute) , for yours is the kingdom of God.
Matt.5:3 (The Beatitudes)
Blessed are the poor in spirit, (destitute) , for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matt.5:9 (The Beatitudes)
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Luke 6:21-22
When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."
Matt.6:9-13 (The Lord's Prayer)
"This, then, is how you should pray: " 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.' "
Matt.18:21-22
Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.
I am convinced that whether it is Hawaii, or El Dorado, or a dream, if it is a place, something that can be seen, then, no matter how 'heavenly' it seems, it is NOT the "Heaven" that is "The-Kingdom-Of-God" nor the best state-of-mind (?) to be in, and, whatever that Love consciousness [state of mind] is, it is ever more wonderful than any "place".
When a person "shuffles off this mortal coil" (Hamlet) time and space cease to have meaning. They are both descriptions of a physical world that has been left behind, - hard as that is to keep in mind. It also makes no sense to "picture" or "visualize" consiousness - though reports invariably use those physical descriptions to relate or "describe" a non-physical experience.
Within Christianity there are so many denominations with such a wide range of beliefs from one group to the next; and within every group, so many with agendas and prejudices; so many thinking they are filled with love for everyone except "them", whoever "them" happens to be, that you wonder sometimes if any of them listen when they hear Jesus saying over and over, "Love one another"; forgive "70 times 7"; and "Vengeance is mine, says the Lord".
A pastor, replying to outside criticism of church members, once said that "Those in the church who curse, drink to excess, or are unfaithful to their spouses are no different from the people who claim to work for a company but don't do their jobs. The company and the church are both victims of such behavior.
While this is true, what gives organized religion a bad name is the immorality, the prejudice, and the bigotry, of the clergy, when they betray their members or, feed the flames of hate and violence. Arousing their people into criminal acts of violence, against gays, blacks, non-Christains, non-Muslims, immigrants, whoever they don't like or understand. These leaders are as shameful as those in the past who supported slavery, condoned murder and, committed other unspeakable acts of violence for whatever their historical-cultural reasons. Sometimes it seems they never learn.
Then a catastrophy like hurricane Katrina, destroying New Orleans, comes along (Sept. 2005) and people start helping each other even if "religion" won't. ...
Forest King, a "dyed in the wool conservative" has been sharing his home with the Meehan-Hoo family, a lesbian couple with three children, ages 5, 7 and 9. "The adults are same sex, and I don't care," he says. "I don't care if they're purple and got horns coming out of their faces. They're Americans first."
King's town of Attleboro has aggressively adopted the Meehan-Hoos. Locals have given them $600 in Old Navy gift cards and $60 in Borders certificates. A nearby inn has donated a romantic dinner for two for the couple. A coffee shop will deliver a pastry tray every week, "from now until whenever," according to Kim Allard, a city councilor who has helped arrange donations.