I hear you literal man, and I understand that if everyone is free to interpret scripture in his own way…then scripture has no value.
However, there is room to consider a few things. I have read online that the Catholic church has held meetings in either the 3rd or 5th century (I’ll have to look it up again) and decided to take the concept of reincarnation out of the Bible. I will have to research this more.
Also we know that there is King James version of the Bible…but between you and I, who is King James? And then there are other versions, other changes. And then there are other “scrolls” that have been discovered in the course of our lifetime, ancient scrolls, that put some different perspectives before us.
Then there is the story of the Garden of Eden. I would like to see the original scripture in it’s original language, and examine the text with scholars who understand the language.
You know that God is surrounded by angels, heavenly hosts. The scripture tells us that. I not only accept this. I am filled with happiness to contemplate this. And we know that God loves all of us. We are His creation. We are His children. And we also understand directly, that this world is filled with pain and suffering. Tornados, tidal waves, volcanoes, earthquakes, plagues, wars, hundreds, if not thousands of diseases. Why, I ask you to consider, would a loving God place us in such a situation?
Also, we know that every person has a soul. But I differ on that point. I assert, and ask you to consider: We don’t have a soul. We are a soul. We are a soul that has (for a very short time) a material body. The body is temporal. It arises out of the earth, and returns to the earth. It is made of dead matter. It only displays the symptoms of life because we (the soul) are inside. As soon as we depart, it becomes compost, and then earth again. It is a temporal false identity.
There are books on people who have had profound “past life” memories. The evidence for substantiating these memories is provocative. Even little children sometimes speak to their parents of these memories, and the parents do research, and find the locations that these memories refer to, etc. etc. I wish that you would consider obtaining and reading one of these books.
Aslo it can be found online, evidence that the Catholic Church has held meetings in the 3rd or 5th century in which they decided to delete any reference to the subject of reincarnation from the Bible. Politics, control…etc. “Obey the church or…eternal damnation.”
Then we have the Garden of Eden narrative. This is a description of human beings deciding to assert a demeanor of independence in their relationship with God. They do not accept God’s complete authority. Therefore they are evicted, deported, from the “Garden” and forced to live by the sweat of their brow.
My thought ( and this is upheld by other scriptures ) is that the Garden of Eden is actually the spiritual world, where God and His loving servants abide in unlimited numbers. We, you and I, have asserted a spirit of independence, and therefore we have been allocated to take birth in the material realm, the realm of birth and death. For the soul, there is no death. But living here we experience it as if it was a reality. Because we identify with our material body as “me”. But the spirit soul never dies.
So God places us here, in this place of tremendous suffering. And because He loves us, He sends His messenger(s) into this dimension, to counsel us, to tell us of our real home, and to guide us home, by convincing us that the appropriate object of our affection is God, our eternal Father.
In other words the material world is God’s reform school. Or, it is a kind of penitentiary…a place that gives us an opportunity to become penitent, so that we can resume our real nature as lovers of our eternal Father in heaven. The sufferings of this realm are simplly for wearing down our rebellious spirit of independence. We are in therapy.
And those who don’t complete the course, they get another chance, birth after birth. Those who do worldly good, obtain nice births, good family, beautiful bodies, good minds. Those who have been hurtful, impious, are born into less fortunate situations. Sewing and reaping. And those who open their hearts totally to God, under the direction and guidance and inspiration given to us by God’s ambassador, His loving Son, such persons are able to re-enter God’s kingdom when leaving their material body. The others have to return to the earthly world,birth after birth, until they become humble enough to surrender their hearts to God.
There is talk of “hell”. What do you think this world is? There are wars everywhere. There have always been wars here. There is slavery. Look up the history of slavery on wikipedia. It has always been here, widespread. There are diseases. People are so unhappy, so distressed, that they are committing suicide by the thousands. Yes, we are living in hell. And yet, nothing is happening to us. Because we are eternal souls. We cannot die. But we experience death. It is like a terrible dream. That terrible dream is part of our therapy, part of God’s plan to wear down our spirit of independence.
These are not my ideas. They come from other scriptures. Not from King James, or the Holy Roman Empire. But they make sense. These ideas answer questions, as to why God has put us here, instead of with Him, and with the heavenly hosts, in heaven.
This does not mean that we should not open our hearts to Jesus as our savior. Just see the nature of the residents of the material realm. Jesus is sent by our heavenly Father to give us guidance…and we try to kill him. Of course we cannot. But this is the nature of the rebellious soul. Even there are web sites that are devoted to hatefully trying to deny the existence of God. We don’t have to give up our faith in Jesus. But I am asking you only to consider that we are placed here, for our reformation, and if we don’t accept God’s invitation, given to us by His Son, we are forced to return here, birth after birth, until we have a change of heart. And if we don’t have a change of heart, then we are forced to live in this world of birth and death eternally. But we always have this tiny amount of free will. And God is always willing to accept us back into His fold.
I understand if you reject what I have placed before you. I understand that the faith that we have is all that enables us to make sense out of our existence in this world of horrific events, that go on day after day. But I have firm conviction in my heart that God is always on our side, as our eternal well-wisher, and that he will always accept our love, if and when we decide to give our hearts to Him, under the guidance of our saviour, Jesus.
If you feel that I am completely off course, then I request that you pray for me. Please pray for me that I will stop being a self-centered person who is consumed by the demands of the flesh. Please pray for me that I begin to approach God, not for asking Him to enhance my material comforts and pleasures in this material world, but only to bless me in one way: that I have the intelligence and the desire only to live a life that gives God pleasure, and that I rejoice in the understanding of God’s love for all of us.
I respect your faith. I am grateful to you for your desire to be a sincere disciple of God’s intimate loving son, Jesus Christ.
Amen,
Peter
As a cradle Catholic with 12 years of Catholic education (some of it before Vatican II), I was surprised to learn how many dogmas there are.