http://educate-yourself.org/lte/bornagainChristian29aug05.shtml
August 29, 2005

----- Original Message -----
From: Mariana
To: Editor@educate-yourself.org
Sent: Monday, August 22, 2005 4:00 PM
Subject: Educate Yourself . org

Dear Mr. Adachi,

I have read a good portion of your website and most recently the "Bible-believing Christian" response you have posted. I am the younger sister of Marlena, the person who sent you that e-mail, and have one more question regarding your standpoints, and a request. I understand your personal views on the Bible, but the question that is still lingering in my mind (which I also feel was the original question of that email) is if you are a born-again Christian. And whether you are or are not, I also wonder if you personally believe whether the prophicies of the Book of Revelation (i.e. the rapture, the antichrist, etc.) are true or not.

Please understand that I am NOT trying to pick a fight. Much of what I am trying to say naturally will sound argumentative when written out in letter form.

Thank you very much for your time and efforts!

Sincerely, Mariana

----- Original Message -----
From: Educate-Yourself
To: Mariana
Sent: Monday, August 29, 2005 11:12 PM
Subject: Re: Educate Yourself . org

Hello Mariana,

I know you're not looking for a fight, so don't take my response to your question as a rebuke. It's a sharing of information to, hopefully, open your eyes to new vistas of insight and realization. I wouldn't bother to answer you if I was only interested in one-upsmanship or debate.

You're asking the wrong question when you ask me if I'm a born-again Christian. A "yes" or "no" answer to your question leads one into a fixed path of structured thought, an inculcated, contrived, and calculated mind set (perhaps 'mind wash' is more accurate) that automatically leads one into certain conclusions and judgments-which is exactly what it was intended to do- about the person to whom the question is posed.

Well, I'm not going down that road.

It seems like such a simple question, doesn't it? "What's the Big Deal?" you might say. You're just looking for a simple 'yes' or 'no' to a question that "is still lingering" in you mind- right?

OK. For starters, your lingering question is based on pure curiosity of a personal matter that you really have no right to inquire about or a justified reason for asking in the first place. You're curious, but in a prying sort of way. I'm not going to throw rocks at you for a relatively small impropriety, but you should recognize, at least, that you're asking an inappropriate question.

However, my reason for not answering you directly goes beyond that.

It's damaging to you, whether you accept that or not, to pose such questions to people. It's damaging to your soul's development; to the spiritual development of your heart; and to your capacity to understand, love, and forgive. It's damaging to your relationship with Jesus and with The Creator.

Why?

Because the pre-programmed response (mind set) which you already have there sitting inside your mind and heart is ready to spring forward the moment you hear the word "yes" or "no" in response to your question.

If it's "yes", then you'll generally heave a sigh of relief and tell yourself that someone like me could likely be led back to the Righteous Fold, as it were, given enough time and quoted enough verses from the Bible-from a reasonably skilled verse "quoter"; say Jack Van Impe, for example. If the answer is "no", then that's a horse of an entirely different color.

If the answer is "no", then you're dealing with a 'unsaved' person; a person who has not 'accepted' salvation through the Blood of Christ, and we both know that the only route to eternal salvation is through a personal commitment and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Isn't that so Mariana? Isn't that exactly what you believe to be the truth of the matter?

How do I know that?

I know that because you've been on the receiving end of Christian fundamentalist indoctrination. You wouldn't have asked the questions you did, if you hadn't been exposed to that indoctrination. Of course, you never thought of it as indoctrination. You were just sitting there listening to Pastor so and so on TV or in church, bringing you the "Good News" and the "Word of God" straight from the Bible (and the Pastor) into your heart and mind for more than a few years I'm guessing. You listened in the interest of bettering yourself and having a closer relationship with Jesus. I understand that and I don't fault you for that.

You listened for the best of reasons and you were there to help save yourself, your family, and to go beyond that-to help save others in the world who were yearning for the same peace and comfort that you found in the company of like-minded Christian brothers and sisters. I got all that.

I know your intentions were good and they were sincere, but you've been led into a blind canyon by all those fundamentalist preaching sessions; listening to and absorbing the words of those preachers, who pretty much led you to the same place-a blind canyon- the mind set I mentioned earlier.

A blind canyon only has one way out, and so does the Christian fundamentalist mind set. You're either in or you're out when it comes to Christian fundamentalism. You're either aboard the Glory Train or you're not. You're either a Born-Again follower of Jesus, who's on his way to Glory & Salvation-in the very near future- or you're not. There's no in-between.

But if you're not aboard the Glory Train, then you must be one of them-a non-Christian: a Moslem; a Buddhist; a Taoist, a Hindu, etc or perhaps you're among one of the 'unsaved' wings of Christianity like Catholics or Russian Orthodox, or Greek Orthodox Christians, for instance. Is that a fairly accurate assessment of what "you" believe Mariana?

Are you beginning to see where I'm going with this?

Adhering to the fundamentalist party line fundamentally requires its adherents to be judgmental of others. Judgementalism, by its very nature, leads one to condemnation of others for not agreeing with the core precepts of the fundamentalist believers (in our case, born-again Christians, but it could just as equally apply to Islamic fundamentalists or Zionist fundamentalists for that matter).

And now we're getting to the crux of the matter.

Condemnation of others eventually leads to conflict and strife. Conflict eventually leads to war, and war leads to unspeakable devastation and the death of millions of people, most of whom are completely innocent and uninvolved as combatants.

Is this what 'Christianity" should be all about? Judgementalism and condemnation?

Did you hear on the news recently that Pat Robertson said that a Special Forces assassin squad should kill the President of Venezuela because it would be "cheaper" than running a war to "take back" Venezuela from this "dictator"?

How insane do these 'Christian' fundamentalist, British Israel front men for the New World Order have to get before their trusting and mesmerized followers wake up to the fallacy of their words and the evil of their intentions?

Sincerely, Ken

P. S. The questions on The Rapture, End Times, etc are already answered on my web site in a number of places. Use the search engine and put in the keywords to find those articles.

Reader Comments

----- Original Message -----
From: CHRIS BSCHADEN CARTOGRAPHY
To: Editor@educate-yourself.org
Sent: Monday, August 31, 2015 9:54 AM
Subject: Letter to the Editor

Dear Ken
Having just read the letter to you from Mariana, her question "are you a born-again christian" and your response to it, it felt it necessay to come out of my silent corner and share a few things about the 'born-again' question in general with your readers.

As some of us know, the Vatican has a huge collection of very old scriptures, some dating back as far as the second century, including original letters written by the early church fathers like Origen and Hieronimus, the writings of Francis of Assisi and countless others. These are locked away from the public for reasons that you and I know and many would not believe. Now every once in a while it happens that those who do have access to the scriptures mentioned feel compelled to tell the public about the vast differences between old and new, even though it means getting fired instanty.

Some very trustworthy information are available from the daughter of one of the late presidents of the German Republic, Jutta Ranke-Heinemann. Having completed her studies as Professor of Theology behind the walls of the Vatican, she pointed out several inconsistencies in one of her books. - The quote: "You have to be born again so that you shall be clean" (which is where the 'born-again Christian' derives from) can be found only in the very latest versions of the bible. All the older scriptures have Christ saying : "You have to be born again and again UNTIL you are clean."

So, by just removing two words and changing one, the question to you wouldn't make any sense at all and the entire belief structure was changed into a different religion, where you live only once and therefore the membership to the church is that much more critical for 'eternity.'

Oops, another obstacle. 'Eternity' in our sense didn't exist either in the languages of old, so she wrote. The arameic word for eternity meant anything from 'as long as a whole life' to 'a very, very long time.' Of the 53 times it occured in the scriptures, only once it was translated with today's 'eternity'. (An eternal hell was simply a better tool to keep the masses in line than a hell (of guilt feelings) which could be overcome by repenting and correcting mistakes of the past in another class.

And, since I'm at it -some readers may already have turned off in disgust anyway - a young mother was called in the old language 'alma' and a virgin 'betula'. Guess what the old scriptures called Mary, the mother of Christ? And no, I don't think it has anything to do with the divine mission of the second highest being here on earth, in which I believe in, it's just that the Creator of the physical laws for our dimension doesn't have to change his own laws in order to set His plans in motion.

Just thought I'll give you a hand.....
Greetings
Chris B.

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