On 2020-08-07 15:25, Wade Garrett wrote:
On 8/7/20 10:24 AM, Muggles wrote:
On 8/6/2020 10:51 PM, T wrote:
On 2020-08-06 07:41, Muggles wrote:
Religion has nothing to do with a relationship and belief in a
living God.
There are religions besides Christianity.
They were also created by people who want to control other people.
When a Jewish temple was shot up by a hater in California,
the Christian Orthodox church across the street took them
all in whilst the authorities did their thing.
Had the tables been turned, the Jews would have done the
same thing.
Society benefits when religions complete with each
other in the arena of good works, especially
when they cooperate with each other.
That's why I'm non-denominational.
Most the friction comes from haters of religion.
Sure there are obnoxious members that evangelize
incorrectly, but they do not hold a candle to the
Hate coming from the Left.
True...
Most religions contend: We are right, everyone else is wrong, we are
better than you.
Hi Wade,
You must not have had much exposure to Christians.
Yes there are some obnoxious ones who are not
evangelizing correctly. They are just learning.
They will get there eventually. Just ignore them
for now.
Here is what Christianity teaches:
Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what
judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with
the measure you use, it will be measured back to
you. And why do you look at the speck in your
brothers eye, but do not consider the plank in
your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother,
Let me remove the speck from your eye; and look,
a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove
the plank from your own eye, and then you will
see clearly to remove the speck from your brothers
eye.
--Matthew 7, 1-5 KJV
A Story about Judging Others
https://myocn.net/a-story-about-judging-others/
Summary:
Judging others is a great sin, my brothers and
sisters and we should never concern ourselves
with the failings and misdemeanors of other people.
Its none of our business. What we do is for
ourselves. For our own part, anything we see or
hear, we just have to forgive, love and try to
help people as much as we can.
The full version, which you should read. It will
introduce you to Christianity.
The late Papa-Nikodimos, a spiritual father from the Skete
of Kavsokalyvia told me the following story, which is
recorded in Athonite Patristic manuscripts.
There was a devout Christian who went to his confessor
for fifteen years and told him his human weaknesses.
One day he went as usual to make his confession, but
when he opened the door he found the man fornicating
with a woman. He left immediately and, as he did so,
he said to himself: What on earths just ?. This is
terrible. Ive been confessing to him for years and
now what am I going to do? Will I go to hell? All
the sins Ive confessed to him, given hes such a
sinner, are they forgiven or not? All they all still
unforgiven? The man was stunned at the evil that had
befallen him and didnt know what to do.
After hed left, he became thirsty on the way back
home. He carried on for a little and came across a
small brook, in which pure water babbled. He bent
down and drank. He slaked his thirst and didnt feel
at all like leaving, because he wanted to drink
some more of that lovely water. Then a thought
crossed his mind: If the streams so good down
here, how much more so will it be near where it
starts? With this thought he set out to follow
the brook back to its source. But when he got
there, what did he see? He saw the water coming
out of the dead, dirty carcass of a dog. The
water was coming out of the dogs mouth! Then
he sighed deeply and said. What a thing to
happen to me, wretch that I am. Ive been
polluted by this filthy water. It seems Im a
great sinner and very impure if these things
are happening to me.
He was really troubled by this, but then an angel
of the Lord appeared to him and said: Why are
you troubled and saddened by whats happening
to you? When you drank the water from the brook,
didnt you enjoy it, because it was so pure?
You couldnt get enough of it, yet now, when
youve seen it coming out of the impure mouth
of a dog, you say youre polluted. My friend,
dont worry that the dogs dead and unclean,
because the water you and everybody else drank,
may, indeed, have come from the unclean mouth
of a dog, but it wasnt the dogs. The waters
from God; its a gift from Him.
In the same way, the man who heard your
confession, the forgiveness he gave you, it
wasnt his. That forgiveness is a gift from
God. He gives it. The All-Holy Spirit grants
it to those who purely and sincerely confess
their sins and weaknesses. The difference is
that what God gives and grants to people is
given and granted through canonically ordained
priests who have permission to hear confessions
and to remit sins. As the Lord said to the
Apostles: Receive the Holy Spirit. If you
remit peoples sins, they are remitted; and
if you retain them, they have been retained.
So the Holy Apostles gave this authority to
the bishops and their successors and they did
the same for those who are canonically ordained
and are confessors. For this reason and
because they perform Gods holy sacraments,
the priests are superior in office even to a
king and the supreme leader of a people. Priests
are superior to all others, in the sense that
they alone are able to forgive sins. There is no
other way. This is the Sacred Tradition of our
Holy Church.
The angel went on to say: Go and make a prostration
and ask forgiveness of your confessor, because you
saw him sinning. Ask him to forgive you for judging
him As regards the sin he committed, God will
examine him and He alone will judge the man. You
saw him sin, but you dont know if he repented,
or what form his repentance took. So you have the
sin of being condemnatory, but, if he repents
hell reap the fruits of his repentance and his
mended ways. We arent in a position to judge
anybody else.
After the angel had said this to this faithful
Christian, he disappeared from sight. As the angel
had told him to do, the man went back to his
confessor, to whom he told what hed seen and
what the angel of the Lord had said to him. He
made a prostration to him and told him in full
what had passed between him and the angel. The
priest repented, with tears in his eyes, wept
bitterly and asked forgiveness of Our All-Merciful,
All-Loving and All-Good God. He mended his
wicked ways, for the glory of God and the salvation
of his soul.
When my spiritual father, Papa-Nikodimos, continued,
he said to me with love: This is why, my dear
Haralambos (this happened back in 1934, when I wasnt
yet a monk, so he called me by my lay name), we have
no right to judge the behavior of others. As Saint
Paul says: Who are you to judge the servant of
another? (this is in the Epistle to the Romans).
How much more this is true about condemning the
clergy, priests, confessors and monastics in general,
who God tests very thoroughly and against whom
the devil wages the most subtle warfare. God Himself
tells us Do not judge, so that you might not be
judged and You will be judged as you have judged,
and will be measured by the same measure as you
have used. We must forgive the sins of others and
repent. We should judge and condemn only ourselves.
If we want to be saved, we have to forgive other
people. The Gospel commands: If you forgive
people their transgressions, God will forgive you
yours. As you forgive, you will be forgiven.
Judging others is a great sin, my brothers and
sisters and we should never concern ourselves
with the failings and misdemeanors of other
people. Its none of our business. What we do
is for ourselves. For our own part, anything
we see or hear, we just have to forgive, love
and try to help people as much as we can.
Yours in Christ ,
-T