Brief Description Of Christianity

[Leon]

Christianity (from the Greek word Khristos, "Christ", literally "anointed one") is a monotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in the New Testament. The Christian faith is essentially faith in Jesus as the Christ (or Messiah), the Son of God, the Savior, the manifestation of God to humankind (Immanuel), and God (Yahweh or the "Lord") himself.

Adherents of the Christian faith, known as Christians, believe that Jesus is the Messiah prophesied in the Hebrew Bible (the part of scripture common to Christianity and Judaism). The foundation of Christian theology is expressed in the early Christian ecumenical creeds, which contain claims predominantly accepted by followers of the Christian faith. These professions state that Jesus suffered, died from crucifixion, was buried, and was resurrected from the dead to open heaven to those who believe in him and trust him for the remission of their sins (salvation). They further maintain that Jesus bodily ascended into heaven where he rules and reigns with God the Father. Most denominations teach that Jesus will return to judge all humans, living and dead, and grant eternal life to his followers. He is considered the model of a virtuous life, and both the revealer and physical incarnation of God. Christians call the message of Jesus Christ the Gospel ("good news") and hence refer to the earliest written accounts of his ministry as gospels.

Christianity began as a Jewish sect and is classified as an Abrahamic religion (see also Judeo-Christian). Originating in the eastern Mediterranean, it quickly grew in size and influence over a few decades, and by the 4th century had become the dominant religion within the Roman Empire. It is widely agreed upon by Historians that the Catholic Church, along with the Orthodox Church are the two oldest Churches in the world, and were one until the East–West Schism.

During the Middle Ages, most of the remainder of Europe was Christianized, with Christians also being a (sometimes large) religious minority in the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of India. Following the Age of Discovery, through missionary work and colonization, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, and the rest of the world, therefore Christianity is a major influence in the shaping of Western civilization.

As of the early 21st century, Christianity has between 1.5 billionand 2.1 billion adherents, the largest Church being Catholicism. Christianity represents about a quarter to a third of the world's population and is the world's largest religion. In addition, Christianity is the state religion of several countries.

[holistichealer]

Leon:

Maybe a better title for this one would be "Present Day Christianity", because there is good evidence that the religion with the name of "Christianity" today, isn't the same as what Jesus taught when he was in the flesh.

In particular, there is credible evidence that what we call "Gnosticism" today is more in line with his teachings, as evidenced by recently discovered ancient tents that date back to that time. I'm not referring here to "just" the Dead Sea Scrolls, or the Nag Hamadhi "library", but also the so- called "Nassene Sermon" and The Kolbrin "Bible" as well.

(See sub- forum, "Spiritual Books", for info on the Nassene Sermon ("Gnostic Secrets of the Nassenes") and the Kolbrin, as well as "Magus of Strovolus", I mention below.)

What appears to have happened over the years is that the unadulterated teachings of Jesus were all but lost, because of the fact that he taught in different ways to different people, depending upon their association with him, with those closest to him, although having the most direct communication, being far outnumbered by the rest of the population in general.

In addition, the message as (mis)understood by the masses became the state religion of Rome, with all of the weight of the Roman government and then the "Church" (which in effect supplanted the Roman gov't) being put behind it and any other religion (or version of Christianity for that matter), being persecuted out of existence.

There is a growing number of people today who are getting back to what they understand is the root of "Christianity"- Gnostic teachings attributed to Jesus. These teachings are similar to, yet very different, from "traditional" Christianity in that reincarnation is accepted as fact and the idea that "salvation" is more than simply professing belief in "the Messiah", but by adhering to his esoteric teachings and breaking the bonds of the material world and therefore the need to reincarnate.

Personally, of all the things I've read and people I've looked into, the one that's resonated with me the most is the philosophy of Stylianos Atteshlis, a.k.a., "Daskalos", the Greek Cypriot Christian mystic of "Magus of Strovolos" fame. . His teachings truly put everything into a cohesive system, that included "Joshua" (Jesus), God, Angels, reincarnation, our high self vs. our "temporary personality", extrasensory abilities, healing, thought forms (which he referred to as, 'elementals'), out of body travel, why we are here and what to do about it, etc.

Daskalos taught that Jesus (whom he referred to as "the God- Man") was indeed the direct messenger from God, and that the message to us was and is that we are infinite beings on a journey of self- realization. In other words, he was a wake- up call for us to our true potential. (Very Gnostic- like, when you look into it.)

He also said that he remembered all of his past lives, including the one as a child when Jesus was here in the flesh.

One of the things I find very interesting is Daskalos' interpretations of the parables Jesus used. Perhaps the most illustrative is the one of the Prodigal Son. Here is the gist of what he says about that parable:

"For me, this is the most important parable. It contains the very essence of truth. What did the son say to his father? 'Give me my share of the property.' What is his property? Mind - everything that is Mind, including matter. The 'younger son' is a soul passing through the Idea of Man, the Human Idea. The elder son is an Archangel. He also has his share of the property, which means that Archangels are using Mind, too. So our brothers who stayed with the Father have their 'share' - which is Mind. The 'younger son' - that is: 'human beings' - spends his share on 'reckless living' - experiences in the worlds of separation.

"As Joshua describes it, the Lords of matter, the Lords of Separation, had him as their slave. They sent him out to look after the pigs. What are those 'pigs'? The elementals he had created. And he was content to eat the food those pigs were eating. That refers to the filthy combination of the low elementals, which pollute mind and emotion. These are the elementals which Joshua called 'deaf and dumb spirits' (Mark 9:25) .

"But then he came to his senses. 'What is this that I am eating?' he said. 'What are all those thoughts and emotions I have? Do they satisfy me? I am eating the same food as the pigs.' So he decided to leave and go back to his Father.

"This is another very important point. All the while he was thinking those thoughts, his father knew it. Then he started thinking how to behave towards his father. 'Am I worthy to be his son? Let me go back and sell myself into his service.' But when he had taken some steps towards his father, the father rushed to him and embraced him. So the father is waiting for his return."

[armourofgod]

Science is the word that we hear every day. It will be amazing to know that the facilities that we enjoy today is the result of hard work of scientists who are even less than 1% of our total population. We can boast about the progress we achieved in a less period. Is science everything? Then what is the role of God?

I found this question and answer in this blog..http://whocreateduniverse.blogspot.in what is your opinion

[holistichealer]

Some scientists got together and decided that since they could create life, terraform planets and many other things, they could do everything God could do.

So they challenged God.

And God accepted the challenge.

God reached down, took up a handful of clay, shaped it into a human and blew life into it, so that it awoke.

One of the scientists reached down and took a handful of clay and started to shape it.

And God said, "No, I made that clay. Make your own clay from nothing like I did first."



I hope the above helps with the answer you seek.

[ventura23]

Oct 7, 2009 22:46:17 GMT holistichealer said:

Leon:

Maybe a better title for this one would be "Present Day Christianity", because there is good evidence that the religion with the name of "Christianity" today, isn't the same as what Jesus taught when he was in the flesh.

In particular, there is credible evidence that what we call "Gnosticism" today is more in line with his teachings, as evidenced by recently discovered ancient tents that date back to that time. I'm not referring here to "just" the Dead Sea Scrolls, or the Nag Hamadhi "library", but also the so- called "Nassene Sermon" and The Kolbrin "Bible" as well.

(See sub- forum, "Spiritual Books", for info on the Nassene Sermon ("Gnostic Secrets of the Nassenes") and the Kolbrin, as well as "Magus of Strovolus", I mention below.)

What appears to have happened over the years is that the unadulterated teachings of Jesus were all but lost, because of the fact that he taught in different ways to different people, depending upon their association with him, with those closest to him, although having the most direct communication, being far outnumbered by the rest of the population in general.

In addition, the message as (mis)understood by the masses became the state religion of Rome, with all of the weight of the Roman government and then the "Church" (which in effect supplanted the Roman gov't) being put behind it and any other religion (or version of Christianity for that matter), being persecuted out of existence.

There is a growing number of people today who are getting back to what they understand is the root of "Christianity"- Gnostic teachings attributed to Jesus. These teachings are similar to, yet very different, from "traditional" Christianity in that reincarnation is accepted as fact and the idea that "salvation" is more than simply professing belief in "the Messiah", but by adhering to his esoteric teachings and breaking the bonds of the material world and therefore the need to reincarnate.

Personally, of all the things I've read and people I've looked into, the one that's resonated with me the most is the philosophy of Stylianos Atteshlis, a.k.a., "Daskalos", the Greek Cypriot Christian mystic of "Magus of Strovolos" fame. . His teachings truly put everything into a cohesive system, that included "Joshua" (Jesus), God, Angels, reincarnation, our high self vs. our "temporary personality", extrasensory abilities, healing, thought forms (which he referred to as, 'elementals'), out of body travel, why we are here and what to do about it, etc.

Daskalos taught that Jesus (whom he referred to as "the God- Man") was indeed the direct messenger from God, and that the message to us was and is that we are infinite beings on a journey of self- realization. In other words, he was a wake- up call for us to our true potential. (Very Gnostic- like, when you look into it.)

He also said that he remembered all of his past lives, including the one as a child when Jesus was here in the flesh.

One of the things I find very interesting is Daskalos' interpretations of the parables Jesus used. Perhaps the most illustrative is the one of the Prodigal Son. Here is the gist of what he says about that parable:

"For me, this is the most important parable. It contains the very essence of truth. What did the son say to his father? 'Give me my share of the property.' What is his property? Mind - everything that is Mind, including matter. The 'younger son' is a soul passing through the Idea of Man, the Human Idea. The elder son is an Archangel. He also has his share of the property, which means that Archangels are using Mind, too. So our brothers who stayed with the Father have their 'share' - which is Mind. The 'younger son' - that is: 'human beings' - spends his share on 'reckless living' - experiences in the worlds of separation.

"As Joshua describes it, the Lords of matter, the Lords of Separation, had him as their slave. They sent him out to look after the pigs. What are those 'pigs'? The elementals he had created. And he was content to eat the food those pigs were eating. That refers to the filthy combination of the low elementals, which pollute mind and emotion. These are the elementals which Joshua called 'deaf and dumb spirits' (Mark 9:25) .

"But then he came to his senses. 'What is this that I am eating?' he said. 'What are all those thoughts and emotions I have? Do they satisfy me? I am eating the same food as the pigs.' So he decided to leave and go back to his Father.

"This is another very important point. All the while he was thinking those thoughts, his father knew it. Then he started thinking how to behave towards his father. 'Am I worthy to be his son? Let me go back and sell myself into his service.' But when he had taken some steps towards his father, the father rushed to him and embraced him. So the father is waiting for his return."

[ventura23]

Why is the history so important to know.
Christ is in the here and now, isn't that enough?
The Holy Spirit is teaching us now in the moment.

[mysticnamaste]

Nice thread and very interesting too. It's important to know the history because time has passed and changed everything we hear about Jesus and Christianity, but sometimes we don't exactly know how it happened. We as Humans tend to modify things so I might say from the Jesus time to today his teachings are completely different. Maybe He (Jesus) has to come back again to teach us what he wanted us to know.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

[Leon]

You speak well Mysticnamaste. I am sure Christianity would look completely different to us if we looked back over history, maybe we would not recognise it, as several aspects have changed, and I would suspect it would keep changing. Like the aspect of re-incarnation, that was taken out hundreds of years ago. As it was felt people would not take ownership for their sins in this life, thinking that they would have another life on earth to make amends, instead of putting things right as soon as they could. As they say you learn the future by studying history, for unless people change for the better, they will keep making the same mistakes.

[mysticnamaste]

I definitely agree with you here... Some people name themselves Christians, but in reality, I don't understand what sort of a Christian they are if they don't follow up with Jesus teachings. I frequently hear them sounding out "Oh Jesus died for us" "To clean up our sins" Really? So I can go around  hurting people and not expecting to get my own chunk of karma... I personally don't think  much about reincarnation if it exists, we'll see, but for now I try to do my best by amending my mistakes as soon as I can, forgiving myself as easily as others. Why should I wait to reincarnate in order to set my life straight?