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.

Gaining God's Favor

Several religions in the world believe that you need to gain God's favor in order to gain entry to Heaven.
Christian's seem to have the strongest view of this (in my experience at least) and I've always NOT liked this.

Viewed from the Christian viewpoint, God created ALL of us out of love. Nothing can separate us from his love...except for sinning. If we were to sin (which the Bible claims that all of us do) if we do not ask for forgiveness, we will be sent to hell.

Other's view that God judges us all after we die, and we have a review of our life and are sent to the appropriate spot. But seeing as all of us sin, I guess we all end up in hell.


Well...I don't believe God is like that. Why would someone who loves us more than anything send us to hell for a few white lies? A man who is responsible for the death of hundreds is just as guilty as the little child that told a little lie to their parents? How does that sound fair?

I'm not saying that people can get away with adultery, murder, theft or all that...but think of it this way.

When we die, we go back up to what Christian's call: Heaven, no matter what. After our life is complete, maybe we are sent to a special room to review our life in front of Father God (or who ever, be creative at this point). Now in Heaven, we are beings of pure light and joy, keep this in mind, as it will come up later.
Upon reviewing our lives, we see everything we have ever done. Every bad thing we did really has an affect on us. We feel what it was like for us and the people that we harmed. Being a person of pure love and joy, these emotions take their tole on us.

But not all is lost. Our 'punishment' if you like, is to make up for what we did wrong. Reincarnation for example, is a way we can try it again.


Now in Heaven, some people say that it would be boring, because everyone is all 'goodie- goodie' and nothing bad would happen. Well, after a feeling of "did he just say that?" I knew how foolish this is. Heaven is a place where negative emotions/energies can not be. But it isn't boring at all.
There most-likely are parties, dances, feasts (many mythologies say that there are eternal feasts in Valhalla, etc), think of anything fun and pull out any negativity in it then add it to the afterlife. That's what it will be like.

Religious Sunglasses

So I've been doing a lot of things this week.
I've reached 25,000 words for my November word challenge (http://nanowrimo.org/) and I have basically created an entire timeline for an entire galaxy for that book.
Not only that, but I've had time to think.

Picture yourself walking down a beautiful path. The ground beneath you is gravel. There are thick patches of grass that has pushed it's way through the gravel, making the ground very uneven. Thick lines of trees grow on both sides of the path, creating both a wall and a roof for you. Through the tops of the leaves you can see the sun shining down on you. The further you go, the more sparse the ceiling of leaves become. Soon, two suns, shining brightly in your eyes. You are able to see the entire landscape ahead of you clearly. Your vision is clear and you can see thousands of stars and galaxies in the sky above and around you. It is beautiful.

Now, out of nowhere, a pair of sunglasses fall at your feet. You put them on to see if you can see anything more.

Now these galaxies vanish, leaving you standing on the road. The landscape around you is covered in fog, only letting you see what is right in front of you.

The light of the sun now is dimmed. The glasses make it hard to see anything clearly.

Soon, you begin to think that seeing the galaxies and the beauty around you as unimportant or even sinful!

The sun that was once so warm and bright, is not cooler and very dim. You are awestruck at the sun, but you only see one. You have forgotten about the second sun that once was very beautiful. You think 

"That second sun is just a story. There is only one sun!"

More people show up and they are wearing sunglasses too. They also believe that two suns were false, and that the beauty around you is false.

But after awhile, you begin to remember something. You begin to look above your glasses and you catch glimpses of something.

Excited, you take off the glasses and are blinded with new light. It isn't a bad thing, you soon adjust and are able to explore again. The beauty comes back and you see the thousands of stars and galaxies again. There is even a second sun up in the sky, and you scold yourself for ever forgetting something so beautiful.