Firstly: Jesse, I typed a rather lengthy comment to you yesterday around 4 a.m in reply to your question. It seems my computer had "fallen asleep", whatever that means. Needless to say, I presume it disappeared into cyberspace. Not meant to be.
So, to keep it short and simple: Yes, it is obvious; a no-brainer. Truth is, I have no sense of urgency or remaining desire to defend it, as it needs none. One thing I'm quite sure of though, is that it will be impossible, although one may believe it IS, to make a wise evaluation unless it is thoroughly read and given appropriate consideration; similar to the Bible or any writing regarding God. It is not impossible, but I would venture to say that you will not take a year or so of time to do so. Therefore, one might consider withholding making statements regarding heresy out of ignorance. I use the term ignorance in its most gentle form, not to offend in any manner; we should not want to prematurely afford final judgement without ALL information. I stand neutral in regards to what I prefer what YOU do, because it is up to the Holy Spirit, and YOU out of your own free will. I hope this sounds reasonable.
Peace to us.
To Dr. CharlesSaw: In retrospect, I feel some of my words towards you bordered harshness. You have not harmed me in any way, so surely there is NO need for forgiveness from me to you, yet I do need to forgive myself for my "sins" that I THOUGHT I saw in you, i.e. projected onto you. My apologies. Peace be with you always.
To Stewart: I apologize for the harm I caused you and possibly others on this site. In the hopes of not causing more, I'll attempt to clarify what I meant regarding "be thankful your days are numbered". I understand your confusion on this, as at one time it confused me for awhile; not because it was complicated, but instead, it was an idea foreign to my mind.
God is Eternal and therefore not bound or limited to time, as we APPEAR to be.
I realize you didn't directly accuse me. Nevertheless, take seriously what I said regarding it absolutely necessary to devote the time it takes to thoroughly read and actually meditate on extremely serious matters that are so important to spiritual "freaks" (using the term in a positive way) like you and I, and others.
By your own words, you did a "a little research" and "it didn't take much time". I'm speculating from my own experience, you observed numerous commentaries and statements from individuals who used the terms "heresy" and "cult". Many were Christians who claimed to be or thought they were an authority on the subject. Every one of them obviously did not do what I suggested as necessary to actually fully comprehend and grasp its intended meaning. It was obvious because they mentioned things that it said that were completely untrue, and completely ignored many of the basic terms and themes; either because they were ignorant by not spending the time needed to grasp it, or they just enjoyed being contentious and antagonistic, or they maybe just wanted to feel important by being an authority on something and blatantly lied. The other possibility is it was just to fearful for them to consider and accept certain concepts in which they were not indoctrinated. Would it not concern you if others approached the Bible like this?
Who knows; either way, my intention is NOT to promote the book. I don't really care, which is one reason I never mentioned it. Undeniably though, it has helped me considerably.
I can explain all the items you said should be considered heretical, but I won't, as it would take seemingly endless hours of writing in which I'd rather do something else; as it is, family obligations have been lacking due to time put into writing . I also feel inspired to focus much more solitary time in prayer.
Enough said. My last post was my final intended one on this site, but I felt the need to respond to your comment.
Good day, One-eighty, I hope you will stay with us here.
I am glad that you seem to fess up to having read the book Jesse mentioned. If this is true, then I now have more of an understanding of where your ideas spring from, although, like Jesse, I thought as much as he did. Like Jesse, I place the teachings of ACIM into the New Age spiritualism that espouses many ideas contrary to historic biblical Christian faith. The New age is a mish-mash of many different spiritual sources including some distorted Christian ideas, but mostly ideas that spring from eastern mysticism, Gnosticism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and occultic sources. Therefore, like Jesse, I repudiate these beliefs as well. I consider them heretical and those who embrace New Age ideas as you have are endangering their souls by drawing one away from true Christianity with ideas that tantalize the spirit with esotericism, mysticism, and beliefs that eventually lead to belief in the deity of man, which is an abhorrence to the true God of the Bible.
One-eighty, I value your friendship, and I don't ever mean to be unduly judgmental of your ideas. But I do find most of them crossing the line of sound doctrine. I care for you and do not wish to push you away. I pray for you almost daily and look forward to our conversations here. It saddens my heart to know how you have been steeping your mind and spirit in New Age thinking. I encourage you to stick to the Bible only and refuse to listen or read anymore from New Age materials. I encourage you to seek the Lord of the Bible with all of your heart, mind, soul, and spirit; to honestly ask the Lord to search you and show you any way that you have thought that is in contradiction to what He has revealed in the Bible. We all should do this as well.
In Ps. 51 David so wanted to have a clean heart before the Lord and follow Him only and truly. I pray that you and I and others on this site will desire this also. Reading, rea-reading and praying Ps. 51 is helpful.
First of all, please know that I am not accusing you of heresy. My accusation was directed at ACIM, whether it be their website or the course that they produced
I consider it a very serious matter to accuse someone of heresy, and I can assure you that I did not accuse ACIM out of ignorance.
As I mentioned to you, I only recently stumbled on them after reading your post about the ego. I did not understand what you were saying and I didn't even know where to look in scripture, so I did a web search and that's how I discovered ACIM and saw that your post on the ego was word for word with theirs.
From there, I did a little research on ACIM and it didn't take much time to figure out that their teachings are heretical.
Here are just a few things that I feel should be considered heretical:
- God is your identity, you will be like God.
- God's name is holy, but no holier than yours.
- To call upon His Name is but to call upon your own.
- God Himself is incomplete without me.
- There is no separation of God and His creation.
- We do not need a saviour. We are the sources of our own salvation.
- My salvation comes from me. Nothing outside of me can hold me back. Within me is the world's salvation and my own.
- There is no sin, it is all an illusion.
- And therefore all your sins have been forgiven because they carried no effects at all. And so they were but dreams.
- Jesus' body was an illusion.
- There is no need for help to enter Heaven for you have never left
- Jesus the man was used by the Christ to demonstrate the illusion of the world. In actuality, man is still in heaven. It is simply the illusion of sin and death that have caused false senses of reality.
These things go against the truth of the Bible. Again, I am not accusing you of anything other than sharing things found in their course. And I feel that the Lord is leading me to warn others about ACIM.
pg. 1
Firstly: Jesse, I typed a rather lengthy comment to you yesterday around 4 a.m in reply to your question. It seems my computer had "fallen asleep", whatever that means. Needless to say, I presume it disappeared into cyberspace. Not meant to be.
So, to keep it short and simple: Yes, it is obvious; a no-brainer. Truth is, I have no sense of urgency or remaining desire to defend it, as it needs none. One thing I'm quite sure of though, is that it will be impossible, although one may believe it IS, to make a wise evaluation unless it is thoroughly read and given appropriate consideration; similar to the Bible or any writing regarding God. It is not impossible, but I would venture to say that you will not take a year or so of time to do so. Therefore, one might consider withholding making statements regarding heresy out of ignorance. I use the term ignorance in its most gentle form, not to offend in any manner; we should not want to prematurely afford final judgement without ALL information. I stand neutral in regards to what I prefer what YOU do, because it is up to the Holy Spirit, and YOU out of your own free will. I hope this sounds reasonable.
Peace to us.
To Dr. CharlesSaw: In retrospect, I feel some of my words towards you bordered harshness. You have not harmed me in any way, so surely there is NO need for forgiveness from me to you, yet I do need to forgive myself for my "sins" that I THOUGHT I saw in you, i.e. projected onto you. My apologies. Peace be with you always.
To Stewart: I apologize for the harm I caused you and possibly others on this site. In the hopes of not causing more, I'll attempt to clarify what I meant regarding "be thankful your days are numbered". I understand your confusion on this, as at one time it confused me for awhile; not because it was complicated, but instead, it was an idea foreign to my mind.
God is Eternal and therefore not bound or limited to time, as we APPEAR to be.
see pg. 2
I realize you didn't directly accuse me. Nevertheless, take seriously what I said regarding it absolutely necessary to devote the time it takes to thoroughly read and actually meditate on extremely serious matters that are so important to spiritual "freaks" (using the term in a positive way) like you and I, and others.
By your own words, you did a "a little research" and "it didn't take much time". I'm speculating from my own experience, you observed numerous commentaries and statements from individuals who used the terms "heresy" and "cult". Many were Christians who claimed to be or thought they were an authority on the subject. Every one of them obviously did not do what I suggested as necessary to actually fully comprehend and grasp its intended meaning. It was obvious because they mentioned things that it said that were completely untrue, and completely ignored many of the basic terms and themes; either because they were ignorant by not spending the time needed to grasp it, or they just enjoyed being contentious and antagonistic, or they maybe just wanted to feel important by being an authority on something and blatantly lied. The other possibility is it was just to fearful for them to consider and accept certain concepts in which they were not indoctrinated. Would it not concern you if others approached the Bible like this?
Who knows; either way, my intention is NOT to promote the book. I don't really care, which is one reason I never mentioned it. Undeniably though, it has helped me considerably.
I can explain all the items you said should be considered heretical, but I won't, as it would take seemingly endless hours of writing in which I'd rather do something else; as it is, family obligations have been lacking due to time put into writing . I also feel inspired to focus much more solitary time in prayer.
Enough said. My last post was my final intended one on this site, but I felt the need to respond to your comment.
Peace
I am glad that you seem to fess up to having read the book Jesse mentioned. If this is true, then I now have more of an understanding of where your ideas spring from, although, like Jesse, I thought as much as he did. Like Jesse, I place the teachings of ACIM into the New Age spiritualism that espouses many ideas contrary to historic biblical Christian faith. The New age is a mish-mash of many different spiritual sources including some distorted Christian ideas, but mostly ideas that spring from eastern mysticism, Gnosticism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and occultic sources. Therefore, like Jesse, I repudiate these beliefs as well. I consider them heretical and those who embrace New Age ideas as you have are endangering their souls by drawing one away from true Christianity with ideas that tantalize the spirit with esotericism, mysticism, and beliefs that eventually lead to belief in the deity of man, which is an abhorrence to the true God of the Bible.
One-eighty, I value your friendship, and I don't ever mean to be unduly judgmental of your ideas. But I do find most of them crossing the line of sound doctrine. I care for you and do not wish to push you away. I pray for you almost daily and look forward to our conversations here. It saddens my heart to know how you have been steeping your mind and spirit in New Age thinking. I encourage you to stick to the Bible only and refuse to listen or read anymore from New Age materials. I encourage you to seek the Lord of the Bible with all of your heart, mind, soul, and spirit; to honestly ask the Lord to search you and show you any way that you have thought that is in contradiction to what He has revealed in the Bible. We all should do this as well.
In Ps. 51 David so wanted to have a clean heart before the Lord and follow Him only and truly. I pray that you and I and others on this site will desire this also. Reading, rea-reading and praying Ps. 51 is helpful.
First of all, please know that I am not accusing you of heresy. My accusation was directed at ACIM, whether it be their website or the course that they produced
I consider it a very serious matter to accuse someone of heresy, and I can assure you that I did not accuse ACIM out of ignorance.
As I mentioned to you, I only recently stumbled on them after reading your post about the ego. I did not understand what you were saying and I didn't even know where to look in scripture, so I did a web search and that's how I discovered ACIM and saw that your post on the ego was word for word with theirs.
From there, I did a little research on ACIM and it didn't take much time to figure out that their teachings are heretical.
Here are just a few things that I feel should be considered heretical:
- God is your identity, you will be like God.
- God's name is holy, but no holier than yours.
- To call upon His Name is but to call upon your own.
- God Himself is incomplete without me.
- There is no separation of God and His creation.
- We do not need a saviour. We are the sources of our own salvation.
- My salvation comes from me. Nothing outside of me can hold me back. Within me is the world's salvation and my own.
- There is no sin, it is all an illusion.
- And therefore all your sins have been forgiven because they carried no effects at all. And so they were but dreams.
- Jesus' body was an illusion.
- There is no need for help to enter Heaven for you have never left
- Jesus the man was used by the Christ to demonstrate the illusion of the world. In actuality, man is still in heaven. It is simply the illusion of sin and death that have caused false senses of reality.
These things go against the truth of the Bible. Again, I am not accusing you of anything other than sharing things found in their course. And I feel that the Lord is leading me to warn others about ACIM.
I also wish to remain in peace with you!
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