Faith Without Works is Still Faith

The Bible says that "Faith without works is dead,"
I was reading the blog of a very spiritual (Christian spiritual) person. He was pretty intelligent in his beliefs and very strong in his beliefs. Sadly, he passed away almost 2 years ago.
He also believed that 'faith without works is dead,' and this is where I got inspiration for today's post.


Having Faith isn't about doing good deeds to prove to God that you have faith in him...is it? That doesn't seem like faith to me. By this passage, it seems like Faith is something that you need to earn.
Faith is something given to someone. Christians put their faith in God. Isn't that enough?

Well, honestly I don't see why God would be upset if someone doesn't do good deeds to prove they have faith. Yeah, it's nice to feed homeless people, but doing good things for others just to make sure you 'don't go to hell' isn't Faith at all. That is being afraid and trying to save your own rear.

If you truly want to help 'prove' to God that you have faith in him, know already that you are already 'In Paradise'. I believe that we do not go to hell. In fact, I don't believe that Hell is even a real place. Sure the Fallen Angels had to go somewhere, but the Christian version (many religion's versions actually) are wrong.

So with this knowledge, do good just because you can help people who need it. If you are looking for a reward or a 'thank you' then you are still doing things for personal reasons. The feeling of "Hey, that homeless man would be cold if I didn't give him my coat," should be enough.


~BSP

The Nephilim (and King Og)

All my life, I have been a Christian. I went to church, Sunday school, said my prayers, took communion and read my Bible and obeyed the 10 commandments.

It wasn't until about a year and a half ago, maybe two, when I began to question things.
I had been 'going-through-the-motions' with church and I didn't really have more than a Daily Prayer relationship with God. I read a passage in the bible about the Nephilim.'

Genesis 6:4

4The Nephilim were on the earth in those days-and also afterwards. When the sons of God went to the daughters of humans (man, mortals etc.) and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

This passage shocked me at the time. Yes, I had read it before, but I didn't really catch it. I guess I wasn't interested.

So I got on my computer and began researching who the Nephilim were. The results were very surprising.

Several things that I found about them were very interesting. I'm going to take today to talk about the origins of the Nephilim.

The Watchers or Old

To start off, it is incredibly difficult for us to understand exactly WHO the Watchers were. As they did not originate on Earth, or even our dimension, we don't know exactly how they came into being, what the naturally look like or even what they are. But from old stories and records, we are able to figure out a little bit about them.

Back in the days of Noah, it seems that some of the watchers (200 was the number given) began to feel emotions towards the humans. The Bible says that they went to the daughters of men, but I believe that, as the Watchers have no gender, they were able to take the chosen form of either of the two genders and went to those that they chose.

Anyway, The Watchers were one of the higher ranking angels (if you can call it a 'rank') in Heaven. They were able to come and go to Father God's own throne (Job 2:1 Bible) when the pleased. So they were high 'rank'.

But The Watchers were forbid to mix their DNA with humans (have children), but 200 of the did. Some sources say that they were cast out of Heaven, and punished. They were no longer able to go before God and were never able to live in Heaven again.

As time went on, the immortal Watchers could not breathe in the source energy of Father God. They began to lose their immortality and eventually died. If any survived, no one knows.

But their children became very powerful. Goliath and his four brothers were Nephilim. David and his men knew of their kind too, because they all knew to be afraid of the armies that Goliath was with. It felt like none could kill him.

I believe that the Greek gods were either Watchers or Nephilim, too. Then you have the Norse gods and all the deities of ancient times.

People back then didn't make religions out of fake people. Their origins were just unknown, so they were embellished upon greatly.

With that in mind, our ancestors don't seem crazy at all to me. Ancient technology, monuments like the pyramids and Stonehenge seem like small feats of their strength...if they were built by them.

There are even hundreds of pictures (both real and fake) or giants and the bones that were found. Men that were 20 feet tall, but history has given us stories about men who were greatly taller. Some of The Watchers were even said to be 300 feet tall, but as I have found little to no evidence, I don't know if it is true or not. Possible, yes, but true...I don't know.

King Og for one is another mystery. I have read that he was around during the flood. It also said that the flood waters came up to his knees, and he survived by walking around!

Biblical text say he was 12ish feet tall (8 cubits) but people forget that a cubit was only as long as the rulers arm. So if Og was thirty feet tall (just say) a cubit would be significantly longer. 

According to Wikipedia, The Talmud further embellishes in fantastic detail that Og was so large that he sought the destruction of the Israelites by uprooting a mountain so large, that it would have crushed the entire Israelite encampment. Moses, fulfilling the LORD's injunction not to fear him, seized a spear of ten cubits length, and jumped a similar vertical distance, succeeding in stabbing Og in the ankle. The LORD then caused Og's teeth to lengthen until they grew into the mountain he held aloft; millions of ants then swarmed into his mouth, killing him. 

Either way, these giants were around. If their might (and height) were greatly embellished, their feats of strength still seem amazing.

~Namaste

Special Announcement!

As of today (December 22, 2013) I have started a Soul Phoenix page on Facebook!

It may not seem very exciting, but I hope that I can use it to reach out to new people on another source!

Hope to see you guys there!

Click the link if you want. :)

https://www.facebook.com/thesoulphoenix

Is Religion Useful?

Religion is something that has had it's good and bad uses.

People have been killed in the name of religion, but it has also given people hope.

Like many things in our life, Religion is a tool. It should either be a tool that you use for good, or leave it alone.

Religion is really something that has brought much hate into existence. Though it isn't always the fault of the 'believers'.

I'll give you an example: The Crusades.

The Crusades were all about the Christians 'cleansing' the Muslims. The priests lied to the soldiers, telling them that "This is the path to heaven!" and other crap like that. They kept brainwashing them saying that "God willed it!"

I'm not saying that the soldiers were 100% victims in these events. Many were power hungry anyway, but the Crusades were pretty much the Religious Leader's fault. They wanted land and the wealth that came with it. But the Muslims were standing in their way. So what better way then to turn countries against them "In the name of God!"

I find it very...insulting shall we say, when people hate on the Crusaders. They were only following what thought were 'God's Orders'.

If someone that you trusted highly told you that you and your families would die (burn in hell?) if you didn't stop this 'bad guy' from doing something...would you stop them?

I know I would want to help.

So I would say that Religion would be useful to many people. Not in a bad way though.

The 'Christian' God is real, or at least something exactly like him (though not as the 'Bible' portrays him, most-likely). Religion is good to offer someone hope, a purpose in life and can save lives. 

Though it does have it's bad parts, Religion is good for SOME people.

Peace

Cliffhangers

With recent events of my Grandma passing away, I've been asked a few times about 'how I am handling it?'

Well...aside from me saying "I'm alright," I haven't really told anyone the truth.

Even though my Grandma (who also happened to be one of my best friends) is gone in this life, I'm taking it rather well. In fact, I'm quite happy about the entire thing. I don't like the fact that she is gone, and I don't like how she left, but aside from that, it is my view of death that kept me happy about it.

I'll explain...

Have you ever been reading a really amazing book, or watched a TV series that you love, or played a video game that you just had to keep playing to see the end? You go through it expecting the author/writer to come to a good conclusion at the end. But when you reach the last chapter...it leaves you with a cliffhanger.

My point is this. Life is like that book, show or game. You go through life without knowing what is at the end of this book. Sometimes it is fast, slow, happy, angry, easy, hard or sad. But when you finally reach the end, death, that is your cliffhanger. You don't know what happens until the next book (the Afterlife) is published.

When you 'die' you know all the answers. Your cliffhanger is finally understood. Everything in the 'book' makes sense, you understand every good thing and every bad thing. 

Looking at death this way, made me feel better about my Grandma leaving. I knew she was just at a different chapter and that our stories would connect again in the future.