New Testament discussions
This link above is how this same article is published in Hub Pages,
This link above is how this same article is published in Hub Pages,
About the New Testament
Welcome to our article page, (49) The New
Testament religious discussions
May God guide and help us to write the
right things in these religious writings?
At the end of the Bible, there is a long article called Revelation, which forecasts the end of the world as we know it. There are a lot of believers that really believe that it will really happen the way it is written in the Bible. But at the same time these days there are people that think that the end of the world could never happen that way, and therefore Revelation has been written for making people fear God, in order to control the people through this fear.
About the New Testament
Dear readers, in our last hub we have
talked about the Bible and The Old Testament being the Hebrew history, as well
as a religious book, in this hub will talk and discuss about the New Testament
and other things as well.
As
we all know, religions could be said to be very complex and sometime hard to
understand, so, we need to discuss those religious issues, if we want to understand
them, for this reason today we would like to discuss about The New Testament,
just to see what we think about some issues that happen there. We know that religious
issues are very complex and they take a long time to sort out, for example here
we are working to find a way out of some issues that seem to bother the world
of religions today, the main issues that religions face today could or would
be: to find a way how to survive the atheist attacks; how to stop paedophilia
in the religious orders and how to stop extremists to use religions for their own
violent acts.
These issues when we think about it, they
seem to have a link to the way religions have been formatted in the past, yes
religions have been man-made mainly for the purposes of controlling the people,
but at the same time we need to say that today they are not as good as they
were supposed to be; of course we accept that God and other spiritual entities
may really exist, for this reason we continue to believe in God and religions.
Anyhow, because we still believe in God and
religions, we have looked at many religious issues already and written many
articles about it; in the last post we have also written about the Old
Testament, which is the religious book that tells us how this religion was made
from the very beginning; of course it all depends of how people understand the
Bible, so many people see it in different ways, but that does not matter as it
is still the most read religious book in the world. Anyhow, we are doing all
this religious study in the hope of finding ways that would help religion
survive better, the attack of the atheists and also the attack that the
extremist groups that are producing against religions today and other issues.
Because of the actions of these groups the
rest of the religious community needs to start asking whether it is wise to
continue to believe in religions just the way they are today. So, let us look
together with our religious friends where we stand today in religious matters;
for this reason I have asked my friend Mark to say something about it, keeping
in mind what we have already talked about in our last hub, I have asked Mark to
comment on the New
Testament, since we have already written about the Old Testament in our
last hub, now we would like to see how Mark is going to explain the New
Testament and the religions that exist today.
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Comments on the New Testament
Our fried Mark’s comment
Dear readers, my name in these religious
writings is Mark and I believe that we have met already, as I have had some
religious discussions with my friend Frank and other fiends before, and as far
as I know Frank has already written in his posts what I personally have said before, so in a
way you know me already.
I have to say that today I have been asked
from my friend Frank to comment on the New Testament and the existing religions
as I see them today, so that he can include my comments in his religious
articles, as we all know, or seem to be aware of, everyone of us sees religions
in a slightly different way, I suppose that these religious differences also
apply to me, since I have been asked to comment on religions, you see that is
the reason why I have been asked to comment, it is just to see the way that I
see religions today. Now that I have said that let me start my comment on
religions.
Since I have been following Frank’s
religious posts, I know what he wants me to comment about. So let us start from
Frank’s last hub, where there were descriptions and comments about the Old
Testament and this is what Frank wants me to talk about. You see Frank wants me
to talk about the reasons why we switched from the Old Testament to the New
Testament and so on and also if the New Testament is going to last forever, so
to speak. But I am going to say a bit more than just that, as I would like to
start to talk about other religions as well, so let me see from where I can
start.
If we try to look back in time, we will see
that there were lots of religions that were practised for a period of time, and
then they were modified or abandoned for another religion, but religions
have always existed, as far back as any human record can be found, therefore
religions are necessary to humanity, if they were not necessary humanity would
not have invented them or followed religions.
Now don’t get me wrong just because I have
said that religions were invented from us people; therefore you may start
thinking that I might be an atheist. No, I am not an atheist but I believe that
God exists and the spiritual world exists, even if we have to find it in another
dimension; now this spiritual world might be somehow different form the way
that most people believe it is today, but that is something that remains to be
seen.
Perhaps I have taken you too far away from
what my friend wants me to comment on, which is about the New Testament, how it
was connected to the Old Testament and also how could it be connected to future
religious beliefs, so let me start to connect every spiritual thing together,
since I believe that everything in the world would be a link of the chain that
goes around and connect everything together and this includes religions also.
For a start, all religions are so made that
they try to give the people something back when they follow religions, most of
them promises future benefits even if these benefits are to be found mostly
after dead in the spiritual world, but people see these benefits as being
important to them and follow religions, these is how religions are made and
survive for as long as their follower see these benefits.
Now, since with the passing of time things
slowly change, also the value of the benefit might change, perhaps not the afterlife
benefit because nobody knows if they even exist, Since nobody can come back
from the dead and tell us; but other benefit that are more down to earth may
change, and for this reason one day the follower of religions might be looking
for something else.
For this reason religions need to change to
fit the needs of the people, what I have just said may sound a crazy thing to
say, but the reality is that this is how it all happens, when we think about it.
Now let us see why the change occurred from the Old Testament to the New
Testament, as written in the Bible; anyhow this reason is not really explained,
but if we read between the lines, there is something like the explanation
below.
--------------------------
Explaining why the New
Testament
Here we need to start talking in a general
way; so, when we look at religious history, the old religions gave way to other
religions and so on; so, during one of those religious changes that occur from
time to time; in the Old Testament Yahweh became the Hebraic God that the
Hebrew people worshiped, this was achieved by Yahweh freeing the Israelites
from the Egyptian Pharaoh who was keeping them as slaves, so it is said the
Yahweh did many things to achieve that; but Yahweh was a very tough god to deal
with, and there are good reasons for Yahweh God being so tough, it was because
the Jews needed a tough God.
The reason why Yahweh was a very tough God
to deal with, it was because the Israelites were also tough people to deal
with; in other words, I believe that people get the god that they deserve
according to their own behaviour. Just think what the Hebrew were doing or
wanted to do when Yahweh was leading them to the Promised Land. People in those
times were very tough and even violent; therefore they needed a tough god and
tough laws to guide them in the right direction that is the reason why the Old
Testament was so violent, this type of religion lasted for a very long time, as
it was needed until things would change for the better. Now to give a
description of what happens next, let us say that when God saw that this was not
the best way to lead his people as the people had become a little bit more
tame, then God thought to bring about a new religious way, and this is when Our
Lord Jesus Christ came
down to earth to show us how to live peacefully on earth with this new
religious way, which today is known as Christianity.
-
At this point of time I (Frank) come in and
say to Mark to come to the point more quickly, as he is taking too long to come
to the religious point that I have asked him to comment on, because also our
other friends may want to say something about this religious issue.
--------------------------------------------------------
The New Testament is about Christianity
Mark's comment, the New Testament is about Christianity.
Now just to come to the point more quickly as my friend Frank is urging
me, I am going to say that today Christianity is the largest religion in the
world, even if it has many denominations and some of them may be a bit
different from one another, they all derive from the change of religions that
our lord Jesus Christ brought with his coming on earth, and of course what he
taught us in words and examples. Jesus was able to change the Ten Commandments
without losing any of their meaning, by saying that we should love God our
Father and should love our neighbours as ourselves. This is approximately what
I believe he wanted to say, even if he used different ways or words.
Our Lord Jesus Christ also gave us the greatest prayer that the world
has ever known, when he was asked how we should pray our Father in heaven,
Jesus gave us 2000 years ago; The lord’s prayer, which is the prayer that we
pray even today, starting with: Our Father who art in heaven; and so on. I hope
you see what I mean.
As we all know the New Testament is about the life of Jesus Christ and
his religious teachings, these new religious teachings of Jesus formed the New
Testament, which has lasted for 2000 years or there about and we still use them
today and perhaps we will be using them for many thousands of years in the
future.
As we all know Jesus Christ teaching were followed by so many people
that became a new religion, which we call today Christianity, which is nearly
one third of the world population, if we group the different denominations
together. Here I would like to point out that the teaching of Jesus Christ were
all about love and humbleness, like you should love your Father God, and love
your neighbour and don’t do anything to others that you would hate if anyone
did it to you, or something like that. So Jesus Christ was a very loving person
and taught only about love. So the New Testament should be about love above
all, and the Old Testament about fear you god should or would be abolished
according to the ways that Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us.
Now as we have said above, our Lord Jesus Christ was a very loving
person and taught more about love than anything else this was his personality, well
at least this is what we usually understand when we read the four gospels of
The New Testament, but then at the end of the Bible suddenly his personality
seems completely changed, so, let us see what it is, and perhaps why there is
this change.
The only way that we can describe this is that for us believers and this
includes myself there is something strange written at the end of the Bible in The
New Testament, which somehow seems out of place with the rest of Jesus Christ
teachings, and this article is called Revelations where the end of the existing
system is forecast; we are saying this because, we suddenly find the Lord Jesus
Christ behaving somehow like Yahweh in the Old Testament, therefore we become
suspicious whether it is really our Lord Jesus Christ that dictate Revelation.
You see Revelation it is written in such a dramatic way that to me it seems
that it has nothing to do with the New Testament and the way that our lord Jesus
Christ was teaching us.
But at this point of time I believe that I have said enough, because I
want also to leave something to say for our other religious friends. Perhaps
Gino would like to take over from me and talk about Revelation, as I remember he
had something to say about revelation before, so I am sure he is going tell us
his own views here again.
But let me just say briefly something else, Christianity achieved two
major things, one was that it split the old Jewish religion and the other one was
that the pagan religion came to an end. That is all for now.
See you later: from, Mark
-
Now, since Gino happened to be there, I asked him if he wants to say
something about the Bible Revelation and he agreed.
--------------------------------------
Revelation discussion
Our friend Gino speech
Hello my readers and listeners, here again
I have been asked to say something about the Bible Revelation, as our friend
Mark has pointed out that I may be willing to talk about it; okay I am willing
but I will try to be as brief as possible as I was going to leave you, because
I have some personal things to attend to presently, so if you want me to make a
long speech you have to wait for another time.
Anyhow as we have said already something on
this subject a while ago, I have to continue to say how I see this last chapter
in the Bible called Revelation. My personal beliefs are that Revelation seems
to be a separate article altogether from Jesus Christ teaching in New
Testament, if we look at the way it has been written, revelation is just
another very violent episode that the whole world is going to be subjected to,
if and when it might happen, therefore it is as if we are going to go back to
the Old Testament, where the fear of God was the main driving force, I am sure
that it has been written for that intention in mind, in other words to control
the people through fear. Of course there must be an explanation for it and this
I may have to tell you another time, when I am able to make up my mind what it could
mean.
Today the only other thing that I really
want to point out is that the intention of Jesus Christ and the New Testament
is all about wanting to guide the believers through love and understanding and
not through fear, therefore the book of Revelation seems to be out of place at
the end of the New Testament. I hope you see what I mean.
See you later; Gino.
------------------------------------
My comment and conclusion
Having seen what Mark has said about our Lord Jesus Christ, who taught
love and humbleness and also what Gino has said, which more or less agrees with
Mark; we cannot avoid to become suspicious of the reasons why Revelation has
been written like that, because it seems to me that when we add everything
together it does not seem to add up the way it should; therefore we should
search for the reason why and then explain it; for this reason we may have to
believe that today religions or religious meanings may need to be modified, now
when we talk about modifying religious meanings, we are talking about what is
hidden behind those meanings that seems right at first sight, and the reasons
why they are like that. Perhaps here I may suggest that Revelation might have
been written like that just because there was no other way to keep the Christian
people together in those troubled times?
Anyhow we might have to assume that because of all these religious
problems, if we want some sort of present religious order to survive, we may
have to modify them, and if modifying religions as they are today is not going
to be enough, then religions need to be changed in such a way that they have to
survive, because as we all know man needs God and therefore religions, it has
been so since the beginning of the world.
Therefore, let us try if we may to change religion, or at least suggest
that religions need to be changed, as much as they need to be changed for them
to survive. Of course at this point of time all we know is that religions may
need a new method or new theory made in such a way that it could work and be as
close as possible to today way of living, so that people may think that religions
can still be followed without an extra effort.
Therefore we would like to suggest that a modern religious way needs to
be brought about with a modern method or theory, which has got to take in all
particulars of each and every religion that exist today, once we have done that
we have to try to fit all the pieces together, as we do with a jigsaw puzzle.
In other words we have to try to find the way of how life and religions
complement each other and there is no difference if one belongs to another
religious group; and from this knowledge try to show religious people that they
could all be together, they could stay together because the life energies of
the universe and the spiritual energies of the universe are together and we are
all connected to them, and also that life and spiritual things form a never
ending life cycle of the universe, this is what we are going to put forward in
our last and third part of our religious writings that we would like to call,
Reconciliation of the universe.
Now, if we are able to do that, then with this new theory it might
become possible to explain how everything including spiritual things may indeed
exist in the universe and how religions could co-exist together in the future
and serve humanity, as it has done in the past, I know that this may not be
easy, but we have to try, it is the only way to find out. You see, we believe
that religions need to continue.
I think we have said enough in this article, so see you in our next
article, Religions need to continue.
May God bless you all?
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