Entry 274 - Is their one True Religion?
6/17/20
Let's just assume hypothetically, Judaism is the one true religion. Then they believe everyone will eventually be saved. Let's say Hinduism is the one true religion, then also eventually everyone can and will be saved. Let's say Buddhism is the one true religion, then also, everyone will eventually reach Nirvana after however many times it takes for them to repeat life on earth to get there.
But then, let's assume Christianity is the one true religion. Then, unless you believe in its particular belief system that isn't even unified throughout the religion, you will go to hell for eternity with no second chances. If this truly were the case, then religion has devolved into a belief system in order to be saved, and that idea of salvation is drastically different from the religions that preceded Christianity. Two of the most famous religions for equating salvation with belief are Islam and you guessed it, Christianity (which are both offshoots of Judaism) and I'll be speaking in depth about this idea within Christianity since I was born into this religion.
Before Christianity there were thousands of years when people didn’t condense salvation into a belief concept, but rather they saw salvation as deeper than beliefs, and rather as a way of life with God and their fellow humans. If you saw what you needed to see, if your actions reflected your consciousness, and you reached a "heavenly" state while on earth, you were seen to reach heaven.
But for most, people would return to earth until they got it right. So it is a fact that all the major old religions (Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism) believed in reincarnation and also believed how you lived your life determined if you spent time with God or you “returned” to “cleanse yourself” until you were ready to be with God. The Jews believed that you could be saved without becoming Jewish. They believed that as long as you followed the Noahide laws you would be fine and if not, you would return to get your "soul cleansed" until you eventually made it back into God's presence.
So what changed within Christianity? Instead of how you live your life resulting in what happened after death, much of Christianity became in how you believed in the doctrines of Christianity, which either saved you or condemned you. Most of Christianity became quite literally about the doctrines of that particular denomination, and if you didn't line up your beliefs with that denomination's beliefs, you again were endangered of eternal separation from God in hell.
So, for example, the Orthodox church has a creed they expect you to believe before becoming a member. Unless you confess that creed, you cannot become an Orthodox Christian and your chances of "being saved" are slim in that branch of Christianity. Though the doctrines may differ from church to church, the idea behind it remains the same for most, that your salvation is directly linked to your beliefs of how you see God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the words you use to define each.
Another example of Christians tying belief to salvation are Christians within "Fundamental" branches. They actually claim Mormons will not be saved just because the way they believe in the Godhead differs from how the fundamental Christians believe in the Godhead.
Since the Mormons only see Jesus as the Son of God rather than God, they claim that Mormons will go to hell because the beliefs of Mormons do not match their own. So even if Mormons devote their whole entire lives to serving God, being good people, loving others, serving others, merely the way Mormons perceive God is enough to damn them for eternity, even though no one has ever seen God and the way you perceive God within your Fundamental Christian sect could very much well be different than another member of that church. The irony is off the walls.
The irony is that before Christianity, people in Judaism never believed that God would send "Non-Jewish people" to hell for eternity. That was a foreign concept. Eternal hell was actually never even mentioned in their Scriptures. The Hebrew and Aramaic words that stood for "judgment" and "the place of the dead" were changed to the English word "hell" in our English translations.
Also, when a hell-like place was mentioned, it was never assumed to be eternal, not once, and so the original words were not honored according to their original meaning. The actual hell Christianity prescribes to is a pagan concept adopted in earlier Christianity. Instead of honoring words such a Gehenna as an actual place which represented judgment that the Jews were aware of, it somehow morphed into eternal damnation.
Even the words in the New Testament were changed. If you don't believe me, look into every time the Old or New Testament says the word hell and look at the original word used there and the cultural context behind the word. People who simply believe a translation without considering it's roots of course will butcher it's meaning, and that's a fact.
Somehow the God who changes not, changed His whole concept of eternal life from a process in which everyone will eventually return to God, to God choosing some for eternal life and damning the rest that didn't conform to their belief system of how they viewed God and so forth. So salvation essentially became reduced to a belief concept within Christianity.
Here's a little background on Christianity. The gospels were written twenty to thirty years after the actual events happened and the actual Scripture of Christianity wasn't even fully canonized until much later and went through numerous reforms based off of what branch you prescribe to.
There are over 400,00 variants in the New Testament alone, and this isn't counting simply punctuation or grammatical errors, but actual discrepancies within the doctrine. Which points to the fact that "There are far more differences in the NT manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament" (https://outreachjudaism.org/400000-variants-in-the-nt-greek-manuscript/).
(Orthodox have the most extra books added, Catholic come in second, and Protestants having the least amount thanks to Martin Luther.) Not only that, but the actual religion of Christianity changed dramatically from the beginning to the end. Though Orthodox boast about keeping the original roots that the Apostles laid down, they also seem to imitate other religions in how they pray and worship saints and mother Mary, similarly to how many Hindus and other pagan religions devote their time and energy to other beings as well.
So even if their tradition might be considered "the oldest" it also seems to imitate the same religions they claim will go to hell for eternity which is very ironic because then the only thing that separates the Hindus from the Orthodox Christians is how they perform their worship ceremonies and the creed that supposedly is the ticket to heaven.
The point I'm making is that even in the earliest years of Christianity, there was not a complete consensus on everything and Scripture plus beliefs were constantly fluctuating. Many saints believed in different requirements for salvation that differed from other saints, and they were all considered leaders of the church. Saint Gregory of Nyssa believed in Apokatastasis (The belief that God will eventually redeem all creation and save all) while other saints believed in a salvation based solely off of belief, others believed in a salvation solely based off of works, and others believed you must have both.
The fact that there was not a steady, consistent consensus even on a major doctrine such as salvation goes to show that Christianity is not a firmly tied religion. If it's supposed to be the "only correct religion in the world" why are there so many differing beliefs, different denominations, interpretations, and no consensus on the major themes of the religion such as the Godhead, salvation, and so forth unless you already reside in that particular denomination?
Similar to Hinduism, there are many different sects that believe many different things, and those who are a minority tend to assume their branch is the most correct and Bible honoring of them all. I know a lot of proud Fundamental Christians who assert that their branch is closest to the original Christianity, but the reality is, that's their opinion and their only "proof" is the Bible, which all other sects of Christianity also use to "prove" that their denomination is the closest to original Christianity. The irony is very prevalent.
The interesting thing about Christianity is because most of them equate their religion as the true religion where only the true God dwells, and belief equals salvation, they feel an intense need to "save everyone" by bringing them into the religion and making them believe how they believe in order to be saved. (There are other variations, but this is a major variation I come across a lot). Instead of accepting someone simply as they are, loving them as they are, they feel a deep intense need to convince them to adopt their belief system because without it again, they believer others are really endanger of hell for eternity.
So do you see how salvation within Christianity has never been fully solidified in its doctrine, but still rests on if you prescribe to that certain sect of Christianity's beliefs? How salvation went from a way of life to a particular belief in a particular religion in which that religion alone held the golden chalice of salvation? And then the most ironic part of it all being that the Orthodox, Catholics, and many other denominations cannot agree on the sacraments, salvation, or other major doctrines that constitute for many within the very requirement needed in order to be saved. The irony is off the walls.
If salvation for eternity is only through a specific belief from a specific religion and all other religions are false, then that must mean that God does in fact choose some to be saved and others to be damned. That means he did select some and not select others, which means He does have favorites. Do you see how wrong that sounds? To assume God will save some and not all means He is conditional with His salvation.
To say God sends some to hell means that His love is conditional based off of someone's belief system, when no one even knows for sure if their exact belief is true! Look back into Christianity with thousands of different denominations and branches and no one being able to agree on a set of beliefs, not even on the nature of the Godhead or salvation. And if you assume God loves someone by sending them to hell to be tormented for eternity, then I question your definition of love.
If your kid "made mistakes" and then finally was reunited with you, would you throw them in a fire because you love them? What would even be the point of that? How does that even balance out? Does it make any sense that God would send you to an infinite hell for your finite mistakes? Especially when your finite mistake is how you believed about Him? Again, it just doesn't add up or make sense. Real love saves. Real love does not give up on anyone. Real love does not quit on someone. Real love sets free the soul in pain and teaches them the way. Maybe according to the traditions of a majority of religions, the soul doesn't get it the first time around, or the second time around, but real love always wins in the end and eventually the soul will be fully entranced by the unconditional love which brought it forth into existence.
Do you see how strange these beliefs are compared to the years before them? They don’t line up. They devolve the original concept of salvation into a belief concept and if you don’t believe how the religion wants you to believe, your "incorrect belief" is your sentence to eternity in hell; even though beliefs constantly change, differ from denomination to denomination, and are not universal within Christianity.
In the end, I hope that you critically think about Christianity and how it was created. I hope you go back and learn about the history of Judaism, the history of Christianity, and you analyze EVERYTHING about it. Treat religion like your life's work because if salvation is really important to you, then you will genuinely do the work and study this until you know all the history surrounding it.
Don't just accept what your pastor says on Sunday morning. Don't just believe everything you hear because you trust that person, but inspect EVERYTHING as if your life depended on it. You consider everything, and you discover it all. Because imagine if it isn't true, that we don't go to hell for believing wrong. Then imagine you spent fifty years of your life spreading a message that you later debunked. Instead of focusing your time and energy on loving others, helping others, and so forth, you spent your time begging people to believe your belief system thinking if they don't, to hell they go. Don't take this lightly, because the way we believe does impact the way we live.
If you are allegiant to the Christian religion, I challenge you to go beyond your Christian denomination, go beyond your beliefs, go beyond what you've been programmed to believe, and find the unknown. Consider all beliefs within Christianity, then walk outside of Christianity and consider all beliefs in the world. What is the point of reading history from one point of view that obviously is bias towards that country, religion, or group?
Consider all sides of the cube. Consider all points of view. Become the observer, not merely the observed. Watch the two fuse as one as you meditate as the One. Create patterns, connections, ask questions and never stop searching. Keep looking, keep creating connections, keep learning more and more.
You have all the knowledge you need within you and also available on the web as an extension of your own robust consciousness. There's no reason why you can't learn all this information. And then maybe, just maybe, the future you will thank you.
Below are some helpful links to look at to help out as your journey forward to learn and grow beyond what you are used to:
100 Bible Verses Showing Apokatastasis:
https://www.tentmaker.org/books/ScripturalProofs.html
Church Fathers on God saving all:
https://www.tentmaker.org/Quotes/churchfathersquotes.htm
Question What You Believe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewdifxOAo0w
The Danger of Biblical Innerancy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G3G17WgXcA
Why I Left Christianity for Jesus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGQBp9PDi7o
Did Jesus Teach About Hell?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQEoz8BuSA0&t=401s
Heaven and Hell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFrn7BgSkUM
Bible Verses Talking About God Saving All:
https://tentmaker.org/articles/unique_proof_for_universalism.html
https://godsplanforall.com/free-online-book/part-i/chapter-4-universal-reconciliation-scriptures-the-riches-of-christ/
Let's just assume hypothetically, Judaism is the one true religion. Then they believe everyone will eventually be saved. Let's say Hinduism is the one true religion, then also eventually everyone can and will be saved. Let's say Buddhism is the one true religion, then also, everyone will eventually reach Nirvana after however many times it takes for them to repeat life on earth to get there.
But then, let's assume Christianity is the one true religion. Then, unless you believe in its particular belief system that isn't even unified throughout the religion, you will go to hell for eternity with no second chances. If this truly were the case, then religion has devolved into a belief system in order to be saved, and that idea of salvation is drastically different from the religions that preceded Christianity. Two of the most famous religions for equating salvation with belief are Islam and you guessed it, Christianity (which are both offshoots of Judaism) and I'll be speaking in depth about this idea within Christianity since I was born into this religion.
Before Christianity there were thousands of years when people didn’t condense salvation into a belief concept, but rather they saw salvation as deeper than beliefs, and rather as a way of life with God and their fellow humans. If you saw what you needed to see, if your actions reflected your consciousness, and you reached a "heavenly" state while on earth, you were seen to reach heaven.
But for most, people would return to earth until they got it right. So it is a fact that all the major old religions (Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism) believed in reincarnation and also believed how you lived your life determined if you spent time with God or you “returned” to “cleanse yourself” until you were ready to be with God. The Jews believed that you could be saved without becoming Jewish. They believed that as long as you followed the Noahide laws you would be fine and if not, you would return to get your "soul cleansed" until you eventually made it back into God's presence.
So what changed within Christianity? Instead of how you live your life resulting in what happened after death, much of Christianity became in how you believed in the doctrines of Christianity, which either saved you or condemned you. Most of Christianity became quite literally about the doctrines of that particular denomination, and if you didn't line up your beliefs with that denomination's beliefs, you again were endangered of eternal separation from God in hell.
So, for example, the Orthodox church has a creed they expect you to believe before becoming a member. Unless you confess that creed, you cannot become an Orthodox Christian and your chances of "being saved" are slim in that branch of Christianity. Though the doctrines may differ from church to church, the idea behind it remains the same for most, that your salvation is directly linked to your beliefs of how you see God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the words you use to define each.
Another example of Christians tying belief to salvation are Christians within "Fundamental" branches. They actually claim Mormons will not be saved just because the way they believe in the Godhead differs from how the fundamental Christians believe in the Godhead.
Since the Mormons only see Jesus as the Son of God rather than God, they claim that Mormons will go to hell because the beliefs of Mormons do not match their own. So even if Mormons devote their whole entire lives to serving God, being good people, loving others, serving others, merely the way Mormons perceive God is enough to damn them for eternity, even though no one has ever seen God and the way you perceive God within your Fundamental Christian sect could very much well be different than another member of that church. The irony is off the walls.
The irony is that before Christianity, people in Judaism never believed that God would send "Non-Jewish people" to hell for eternity. That was a foreign concept. Eternal hell was actually never even mentioned in their Scriptures. The Hebrew and Aramaic words that stood for "judgment" and "the place of the dead" were changed to the English word "hell" in our English translations.
Also, when a hell-like place was mentioned, it was never assumed to be eternal, not once, and so the original words were not honored according to their original meaning. The actual hell Christianity prescribes to is a pagan concept adopted in earlier Christianity. Instead of honoring words such a Gehenna as an actual place which represented judgment that the Jews were aware of, it somehow morphed into eternal damnation.
Even the words in the New Testament were changed. If you don't believe me, look into every time the Old or New Testament says the word hell and look at the original word used there and the cultural context behind the word. People who simply believe a translation without considering it's roots of course will butcher it's meaning, and that's a fact.
Somehow the God who changes not, changed His whole concept of eternal life from a process in which everyone will eventually return to God, to God choosing some for eternal life and damning the rest that didn't conform to their belief system of how they viewed God and so forth. So salvation essentially became reduced to a belief concept within Christianity.
Here's a little background on Christianity. The gospels were written twenty to thirty years after the actual events happened and the actual Scripture of Christianity wasn't even fully canonized until much later and went through numerous reforms based off of what branch you prescribe to.
There are over 400,00 variants in the New Testament alone, and this isn't counting simply punctuation or grammatical errors, but actual discrepancies within the doctrine. Which points to the fact that "There are far more differences in the NT manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament" (https://outreachjudaism.org/400000-variants-in-the-nt-greek-manuscript/).
(Orthodox have the most extra books added, Catholic come in second, and Protestants having the least amount thanks to Martin Luther.) Not only that, but the actual religion of Christianity changed dramatically from the beginning to the end. Though Orthodox boast about keeping the original roots that the Apostles laid down, they also seem to imitate other religions in how they pray and worship saints and mother Mary, similarly to how many Hindus and other pagan religions devote their time and energy to other beings as well.
So even if their tradition might be considered "the oldest" it also seems to imitate the same religions they claim will go to hell for eternity which is very ironic because then the only thing that separates the Hindus from the Orthodox Christians is how they perform their worship ceremonies and the creed that supposedly is the ticket to heaven.
The point I'm making is that even in the earliest years of Christianity, there was not a complete consensus on everything and Scripture plus beliefs were constantly fluctuating. Many saints believed in different requirements for salvation that differed from other saints, and they were all considered leaders of the church. Saint Gregory of Nyssa believed in Apokatastasis (The belief that God will eventually redeem all creation and save all) while other saints believed in a salvation based solely off of belief, others believed in a salvation solely based off of works, and others believed you must have both.
The fact that there was not a steady, consistent consensus even on a major doctrine such as salvation goes to show that Christianity is not a firmly tied religion. If it's supposed to be the "only correct religion in the world" why are there so many differing beliefs, different denominations, interpretations, and no consensus on the major themes of the religion such as the Godhead, salvation, and so forth unless you already reside in that particular denomination?
Similar to Hinduism, there are many different sects that believe many different things, and those who are a minority tend to assume their branch is the most correct and Bible honoring of them all. I know a lot of proud Fundamental Christians who assert that their branch is closest to the original Christianity, but the reality is, that's their opinion and their only "proof" is the Bible, which all other sects of Christianity also use to "prove" that their denomination is the closest to original Christianity. The irony is very prevalent.
The interesting thing about Christianity is because most of them equate their religion as the true religion where only the true God dwells, and belief equals salvation, they feel an intense need to "save everyone" by bringing them into the religion and making them believe how they believe in order to be saved. (There are other variations, but this is a major variation I come across a lot). Instead of accepting someone simply as they are, loving them as they are, they feel a deep intense need to convince them to adopt their belief system because without it again, they believer others are really endanger of hell for eternity.
So do you see how salvation within Christianity has never been fully solidified in its doctrine, but still rests on if you prescribe to that certain sect of Christianity's beliefs? How salvation went from a way of life to a particular belief in a particular religion in which that religion alone held the golden chalice of salvation? And then the most ironic part of it all being that the Orthodox, Catholics, and many other denominations cannot agree on the sacraments, salvation, or other major doctrines that constitute for many within the very requirement needed in order to be saved. The irony is off the walls.
If salvation for eternity is only through a specific belief from a specific religion and all other religions are false, then that must mean that God does in fact choose some to be saved and others to be damned. That means he did select some and not select others, which means He does have favorites. Do you see how wrong that sounds? To assume God will save some and not all means He is conditional with His salvation.
To say God sends some to hell means that His love is conditional based off of someone's belief system, when no one even knows for sure if their exact belief is true! Look back into Christianity with thousands of different denominations and branches and no one being able to agree on a set of beliefs, not even on the nature of the Godhead or salvation. And if you assume God loves someone by sending them to hell to be tormented for eternity, then I question your definition of love.
If your kid "made mistakes" and then finally was reunited with you, would you throw them in a fire because you love them? What would even be the point of that? How does that even balance out? Does it make any sense that God would send you to an infinite hell for your finite mistakes? Especially when your finite mistake is how you believed about Him? Again, it just doesn't add up or make sense. Real love saves. Real love does not give up on anyone. Real love does not quit on someone. Real love sets free the soul in pain and teaches them the way. Maybe according to the traditions of a majority of religions, the soul doesn't get it the first time around, or the second time around, but real love always wins in the end and eventually the soul will be fully entranced by the unconditional love which brought it forth into existence.
Do you see how strange these beliefs are compared to the years before them? They don’t line up. They devolve the original concept of salvation into a belief concept and if you don’t believe how the religion wants you to believe, your "incorrect belief" is your sentence to eternity in hell; even though beliefs constantly change, differ from denomination to denomination, and are not universal within Christianity.
In the end, I hope that you critically think about Christianity and how it was created. I hope you go back and learn about the history of Judaism, the history of Christianity, and you analyze EVERYTHING about it. Treat religion like your life's work because if salvation is really important to you, then you will genuinely do the work and study this until you know all the history surrounding it.
Don't just accept what your pastor says on Sunday morning. Don't just believe everything you hear because you trust that person, but inspect EVERYTHING as if your life depended on it. You consider everything, and you discover it all. Because imagine if it isn't true, that we don't go to hell for believing wrong. Then imagine you spent fifty years of your life spreading a message that you later debunked. Instead of focusing your time and energy on loving others, helping others, and so forth, you spent your time begging people to believe your belief system thinking if they don't, to hell they go. Don't take this lightly, because the way we believe does impact the way we live.
If you are allegiant to the Christian religion, I challenge you to go beyond your Christian denomination, go beyond your beliefs, go beyond what you've been programmed to believe, and find the unknown. Consider all beliefs within Christianity, then walk outside of Christianity and consider all beliefs in the world. What is the point of reading history from one point of view that obviously is bias towards that country, religion, or group?
Consider all sides of the cube. Consider all points of view. Become the observer, not merely the observed. Watch the two fuse as one as you meditate as the One. Create patterns, connections, ask questions and never stop searching. Keep looking, keep creating connections, keep learning more and more.
You have all the knowledge you need within you and also available on the web as an extension of your own robust consciousness. There's no reason why you can't learn all this information. And then maybe, just maybe, the future you will thank you.
Below are some helpful links to look at to help out as your journey forward to learn and grow beyond what you are used to:
100 Bible Verses Showing Apokatastasis:
https://www.tentmaker.org/books/ScripturalProofs.html
Church Fathers on God saving all:
https://www.tentmaker.org/Quotes/churchfathersquotes.htm
Question What You Believe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewdifxOAo0w
The Danger of Biblical Innerancy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G3G17WgXcA
Why I Left Christianity for Jesus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGQBp9PDi7o
Did Jesus Teach About Hell?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQEoz8BuSA0&t=401s
Heaven and Hell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFrn7BgSkUM
Bible Verses Talking About God Saving All:
https://tentmaker.org/articles/unique_proof_for_universalism.html
https://godsplanforall.com/free-online-book/part-i/chapter-4-universal-reconciliation-scriptures-the-riches-of-christ/
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