There have been a lot of questions lately about what is going to happen in the future, what’s next in scripture, what does a word mean, etc. etc
I am going to answer with an answer I can be sure of…..I don't know.
We can speculate, we can glean some ideas from Ray's teaching and study of scripture but we just don't know. How can we know? Men have asked the same questions for centuries, we think now we are more spiritual, aware or smarter; but are we? Read some writings of old and you see the same questions and attempt at answers as we do now. The same people who asked these questions, taught about these questions, gave their answers on these questions also translated scriptures and started offshoots of all the different religions in the world.
As I study more and more I find I don't know hardly anything. I am starting to admit that I don’t know or will ever know things in this physical existence and that is liberating. I suspect we are wrong on many fronts, how can we talk about judgment when we don't even know what that means? What about death? Do we really know what that means? We are told it is appointed for man to die once and then the judgment, does that mean a man will never die again? Is a statement of fact (appointed for man to die once) also a statement of limitation (man will never die again)? Do we know what happens in judgment? Is death not a possibility when it comes to judgment? If I tell you it is appointed for man to breathe once and then live, does that mean he never takes another breath? Does “and then live” mean he will never die? If I say, man will hunger once and then find food; does that mean he will not hunger again? There are all kinds of places we can go if we consider this.
We spend a lot of time searching for answers to questions that God has remained silent on. Has what Ray taught made us search for what is next, what is going to happen in the future? If that is our answer then I say we missed the whole point of his teaching and the point of the teaching of Christ and the gospels. The greatest thing that Ray showed me was Christ's message of the good news; we need to die to self, become vessels of God, less of us and more of Christ in us. What we should be asking is how to be a light in this existence, salt in this world. Ray showed me through scripture that God really is my Father, God really is love, God has a perfect plan to create His children, and God is not going to roast anyone in hell for eternity.
If today God gave us all the knowledge we search for, will it make us more Christ like? A better human? Parent? Friend? Does knowledge cause a display of love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in us? Or would full knowledge grow our already overbearing egos to gigantic proportions?
We all sometimes preface our responses with "our understanding is, or our thoughts are." The thing is I've come to understand is that my understanding and thoughts have mostly been wrong, and they become wrong because I am trying to understand; trying to force the issue. I may be wrong now. When Ray was sick and now that he has died, people coming to the website and forum have dropped off, why? I suspect because there are no new revelations to chase after, no new knowledge to glean. There should be many asking questions here and now on how to be a light in the world, salt in the earth. How do we overcome our struggles or at least accept them and how can we support each other?
Our understanding is clouded by our beliefs, upbringing, grasp of the meaning of words and plain old time and translation. We see things through human eyes and understanding. Jews had scripture showing the Messiah would come and when He did they did not even know it. We can look at those same scriptures today and see the fulfillment, the Jews still can’t; why? Because of their traditions and upbringing. Most of us here, and Ray, were brought up on the traditions of the Christian religion; I wonder what we can’t see that is as clear as the nose on our face? We have come to see there is a lot, which is why we are here; I suspect there is a whole lot more too.
When we become Christ like and a vessel for Him we realize our understanding is vanity, chasing the wind. When Christ said if we had the faith of a mustard seed we could move mountains, do we really believe that? Can a little faith literally move a mountain? I believe just what Christ said, and I don't think we have a clue or very little understanding (much less than a mustard seed) about what faith really is; what it really means.
When Christ says He and the Father are one, and we will be one with Them both; we don’t have a clue about what that means or entails. We are too wrapped up in our own unique identities to consider that perhaps One really means One. One is all around, we frame being One, and in relation, God and His creation around the framework of time. Is time even in God’s vocabulary? Einstein even said time was an illusion. We just cannot grasp God’s knowledge or plan.
God showed some prophets the answers to, I believe, some of our questions; what did He also command them? Let’s see, he told Daniel (12) the words were to be sealed. Paul in 2 Corinthians (12) was shown the third heaven and saw things he could not speak of. John in Revelations (10) was shown the seven thunders and told they were secret and not to record them.
O.K, I’ll quit my ramblings now and go back to be a good moderator. I will labor this job for as long as I’m needed and Dennis wants me. I will do the job of enforcing the rules and keeping the forum focused on its purpose. This post may border on teaching, but I don’t think I taught anything, I’m just trying to give you a push to expand your thoughts and see that our purpose now is to make the world around us a little better. I can’t explain the struggles some go through or the depth of evil on the earth, nor do I think that is given to us. We need to accept that our future and the future in ages to come will be a struggle; God tells us when the judgments are on the earth all will learn righteousness. This will not be easy, it will be a struggle and even appear to be hell; and I suspect it is happening even now. Fear not in the end we will have our perfection and it will all seem like a distant memory when looking back.
Craig
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Topic: My answer to your questions and other ramblings (Read 18947 times)