Saved by faith, rewards for works, page-45

It's kind of hard to respond to posts like this because such posts suggest that the poster is rusted on to a very modern version of Christianity that is highly formulaic, cliched and riddled with man-made homilies and mostly formulated by self-appointed experts of Christianity.

I'm sure Chuck is sincere. I got through the first hour and by then I just wanted to drive knitting needles into my ears.

When the Bible speaks of life and death these are spiritual states. Like when Jesus said, let the dead bury the dead. To be alive is to be somewhat free of ignorance and having a spirit vibrant with the positive virtues, deeds and attributes as prescribed by God via His Messengers. To be dead is therefore a state of ignorance.

The reason people are put off Christianity is that it has degenerated into ritual laden, happy-clapping, money hungry, hypocritical waste of time. Not all, there are pockets of people truly alive in Christ, but they are rare and unlikely to have much of an influence on the world in general.

Sanctified, grace, justified, saved, etc, are all words that must find their way into real, practical life situations.

Jesus rose from the dead in the sense that the reality of Christ was His teachings. Three days after His physical death His teachings re-emerged. This was His purpose and His greatest reality, but this seems kind of lost on Christians.

Now the real big stumbling block for Christians is that they do not recognise any religion apart from Christianity and to some degree the Messengers of the OT. If you reject any Messenger from God you reject them all. You don't get a choice in this. Reject Buddha and you reject Christ. Reject Muhammad and you reject Christ, etc.

So unless you get the oneness of God, the oneness of religion and the oneness of truth contained in both religion and science you have not done much to bring your spirit to life.

Christ is but one path of many and be careful of preachers. Rarely do they come to preaching out of pure, humble motives. Preaching is about the most non-essential activity anybody can aspire to.

Good luck with your journey.