I have a question for everyone...?

Question

Do you ever stop to think maybe even GOD would sometime like to smack his own face in disgust and yell out...." That is NOT what I meant when I said that!!!!"
If you base your faith on the word of man (Pope, priest, pasor, brother, etc.) instead of the word of GOD then have you not left yourself open to misconception?

Answer 1

We all bear responsibility for what we say in interpreting God's Word...our opinions may carry weight to another and if we are not faithful in our interpretations or ignorant (I assume that we are all sometimes both of these!), then we are misrepresenting the Holy God of the universe! Whoa, that's big!

But having said that, I believe that the Holy Spirit of God will speak in and through a sincere believer and a good way to help guard against unintentional misrepresentation might be to pray for that very guidance.

And then the flip side is this: when we listen to the spiritual opinions of others, we should test it through prayer and reading of the Word ourselves rather than by blindly following others' ideas simply because they are in a position of respect. This is especially true when the one who is "teaching" is a clergy but it is more important than ever as this person can influence a lot of folks and skew the truth in dangerous ways. In fact, a question I ask of pastors fairly regularly is "How can I decide who's scholorly interpretations of original texts is least biased?" Hey, after all, everyone sees from their own perspective...including you...including me. I have never recieved an answer that fully satisfies, so again, I rely on my open and honestly searching heart, lifted to God in prayer and reading of the Word.

So the responsibility for we humans who are seeking to know/convey the nature and will of God is two fold...we must take care in our speech and care in our listening. In all of it, God will set everything right if both parties are open to His divine leading, through His Holy Spirit and His Word.

And by the way, I believe this is the procedure for discerning truth in other religions as well. I would be interested in hearing what those of other religious groups think about this.

Peace and Grace of Christ, friend.

Answer 2

I think you also have to realize that you can't be the only one that's right. There are people that get it right all the time and it's not wrong to share that. If you doubt something or it doesn't line up with some greater bit of knowledge you already have, you should look into it yourself.

When Jesus says love your nieghbor and then someone tells you that you're supposed to shun someone that is gay, you know that those things are agreeing with each other. You should then look into it and make sure Jesus didn't use the word "except." Which of course, He did not.

Answer 3

I agree with your first paragraph.
I think most religions, especially any fundamentalists have taken religious writings and warped the meaning to fit their beliefs.

The problem with the second paragraph is that we only have the word of man (or woman), unless GOD has spoken to you personally.

My advise, (and it is only the word of one person, no more or less valid then any other person) listen to the teachings of your pope, priest, pastor, brother, rabbi, monk, Dali Lama, etc... and find the faith that best fits you. Don't worry about what everyone else believes. Frustrating, I know.

GOD said, "Love thy neighbor". That is tough. I think, at this point in time, we would all be better off learning to "Tolerate thy neighbor".

Answer 4

All religion is man made it all makes the same claim that it comes from God. This claim is partially true but people can never stand to leave Gods word alone. This is because god’s word is consistent and does not mesh well with their personal preconceptions and bigoted ideas. So they make little changes here and there injecting their thoughts into the mix tainting the word with nonsense. For this reason you should not put much faith in these ideas about god that come from others. If God wants to tell you something He is perfectly capable of telling you directly.

Maybe you should stop reading what other people say about God and ask him to tell you what he wants you to do directly. Stop reading; clear you mind and listen. When you pray get you’re talking over as soon as possible and listen. He is trying to talk to you but your mind is full of nonsense from the bible and other sources. Don’t be surprised if what you hear does not sound much like what you have been told about God. You will be hearing Gods message minus the nonsense.

In your bible study have you ever heard of the small still voice? You can't hear it if your mind is otherwise occupied with other people’s silly ideas about God. Just try it you will be surprised

Love and blessings
don

Answer 5

The most important thing for everyone to remember is that the holy texts of all religions were written by man, they were not a fax sent down by god. The way to live ones life in accordance to god is to live as you best believe god to want you to live your life. If what you are doing makes you feel guilt then it probably means it would not be as god wanted you to behave. And yes there probably are tiems when god gets frustrated with his creation because we are doing things that he may not like, but he did give us freewill and knew that we would make mistakes.

Answer 6

No Way!!!!
First of all God (Krishna) is perfect as are his instructions in form of:
1.Bhagwad Gita ( http://www.krishna.com/main.php?id=291 )
2.Srimad Bhagwatam
3.And many more -> http://www.krishna.com/main.php?id=33
Secondly, when we follow a bona fide Spiritual Master (Guru) who is in established succession of Disciples which is directly connected to God (Krishna) – there is no question of misconception. The only thing we need to ensure is that how sincere and surrendered our Guru is.
Based on my own realizations I can say that what ever my Guru (A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada) teaches me through his books and disciples is the perfect truth. But this only can be realized after surrendering oneself to the Guru.
Also Chanting of following manta cleanses the heart to develop faith in the absolute truth:
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
Try this and be happy. Human form is for Devotion to the supreme lord Krishna. Please don’t be fooled by this kind of thoughts.

Answer 7

I think you are right. Any religion based on principles set by man is bound to lack something, will have some shortfalls somewhere. And it is open to misinterpretation by perverts too.

I personally stick to the truths in the word of God alone, carefully regarding any man's interpretation of it before I embrace it.

Answer 8

Well. God did not just want us to get the answers but have a journey of faith. We need to read his word in addition to just hearing from others and judge it. It is expected that it will have different meaning as you grow in the faith. You do need to hear from "experts" who have studied the word and times if you want the best understanding because they can put things in content of the era it was written which can add to the meeting...but there are screwballs out there that do, of course, do their own thing with God's word.

Answer 9

Yes, yes, yes, yes........You are right on. God speaks many times, and man interprets bases upon his understanding (religion).

Interesting to note God's conversation with Noah after the flood. God says about 5 times that his covenant is between himself and man AND the ANIMALS....He was practically yelling it. Then, In the very next passage, Noah is slaughtering an animal to sacrifice to God....God's comment was, I can see that man's heart is evil from his youth. Basically, can they really be this stupid?????

Answer 10

That is so true. The bible was written in my opinion for us to search out and seek the truth in it. god wanted us to love him enough to be searchers of truth. I listen to no man and when god opened my eyes unto his word abut the god head I accepted it because there was no one telling me to see it that way I was praying and said lord will u enlighten my eyes unto your word and wow did he ever. I don't listen to anyone I go to church and take what the preacher says and write it down and then I search all the Scriptures out in the bible my self. Its like going to the doctor for a third opinion.