Thoughts on Buddhism

[Carnavon]

Well then 5:30 is a blatant contradiction to 5:22 then. If Jesus has no will of his own but can only do the will of the Father then clearly it would still be the Father who is executing his will through Jesus and Jesus would be nothing more than a mindless puppet of the Father.

Therefore it would make no sense to say that the Father judgeth no man, if the Father is actually judging people by forcing his will through Jesus.

It is actually quite straight forward. There is a difference between judgement executed and doing so in accordance with the will of (in this case) the Father.

Mover, if Jesus was a misunderstood Mahayana Buddhist these rumors can easily be made to make sense. A Buddhist would say that you are the judge. In other words, if we think of ourselves as children of the universe then all judgement has been bestowed upon us. And will we be judged as we judge because we are the only ones who pass judgement on anything in the first place.

So anybody can think what they want and that is true? And based on that be innocent or not?
Even if that is the case, you still do not meet your own standards. You do what is wrong in any case.
At the same time (I am the judge) and willing to be judged by “my” standard, yet you claim it is a cult etc. Where is your logic son?
You rely on “ifs” without any proof that your specific brand is “the one”. Forgive me for sounding cynical, but you seem to prefer to make up your mind on issues, based on philosophies of men – when you have facts confirming truths within the Bible, and prophecies that have been fulfilled, indicating a supernatural origin and where Jesus himself claimed to be God (and was killed for that)
Would you please set out your basis for judgement and the reasons for such a decision.

However, where you're wrong is when you way, the "whole" scripture has an opposing view that's not true. Jesus had also said that if any man hear his words and not believe him he will not judge them. So he had already stated earlier that to not believe in Jesus, and to not believe in his words is not grounds for judgement.

John 12:47 And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.

Please note what Jesus is saying – the purpose of his coming was not to judge, but to save. That there is a day of judgement is evident from the rest of Scripture and Jesus himself confirms that there will be a day of reckoning and judgement – at Jesus second coming
“Mar 13:26 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with much power and glory,
Mat 25:31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
Mat 25:32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
Dan 7:13 I was looking in the night visions. And behold! One like the Son of Man came with the clouds of the heavens. And He came to the Ancient of Days. And they brought Him near before Him.
Rev 1:7 "Behold, He comes with the clouds," and "every eye will see Him, and the ones who pierced" Him, and all the tribes of the earth "will wail on account of Him." Yes, Amen.

John 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
But that's not what Jesus was saying here. He wasn't saying that the Father would judge anyone. He was saying that the WORDS he has spoken shall be the judgement.

And that falls perfectly in harmony with Jesus having been a Mahayana Buddhist. Because the words that Jesus taught were the laws of Karma. Therefore if you fail to maintain, right thought, right action, and right speech, as Jesus taught you will create karma that will indeed be your nemesis.

It is funny, the Muslims claim Jesus was a Muslim.
Yes, Jesus says that each of us will be judged according to His words- all that He said and not our own "pick and choose".
Of course Jesus (as with Muslims for one) speak about good works.
The Bible shows what should be the “hallmarks” of a Christian: Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Gal 5:23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law and thus no seeming variance with your view on right words etc.

If it is in fact true what you claim (Jesus having been a Mahayana Buddhist) , then you will have to agree that this is also true:
Joh 14:6 Jesus said to him, I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Joh 14:7 If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you do know Him, and have seen Him.
Joh 14:8 And Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.
Joh 14:9 Jesus said to him, Am I so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? The one seeing Me has seen the Father! And how do you say, Show us the Father?

This also means that you will have to accept Jonah and the big fish (Jesus referred to that) and the Old testament.
Or maybe they just quoted Jesus incorrectly according to you expert opinion?

The Christian myths that Jesus was the demigod son of the God of Abraham have no merit at all.

Mat 22:32 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
Jesus said: Joh 10:30 I and the Father are one."

No. The verse is crystal clear. There is no "interpretation" required.

"Forgive them for they know not what they do".

It's pretty straight forward. How are you going to interpret that into something else?

Quite easy. If seen in context (and not in isolation as you would prefer), you would notice that these mitigate directly against it:
Grace: If our salvation was based on works (pride), it would not be grace. The whole basis of our forgiveness is grace and not works. Our righteousness is imputed righteousness and not deserved – as we cannot – as you aptly demonstrate by your remarks (“your feeble apologists/ These fables are asinine, and your feeble apologetics are precisely that”)
If you take the text literally, that would mean murderers are forgiven just because they do not know what they are doing (what a thought!). Or maybe you can enlighten me on what was forgiven?

John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
This is clearly John offering his own narrative commentary. It's clear as day. He refers to Jesus as him not as me. So this is clearly not being written as a quote. It's written as a commentary by the author.

Joh 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him
Mat 8:20 And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."
Your claim is Jesus said something else? Why would you assert that?

I personally don't even trust the "quotes" to be verbatim and correct. In fact, it would be utterly foolish to do so. These authors are clearly making up these quotes based on their own biased views. Changing just a few words only slightly can imply a totally different meaning that the man Jesus might have actually meant

By this you mean that the passage as you quoted as evidence for ignorance as an excuse is included? What is your basis then for judging what is truth and what not? You do not have any ground for arguing any point, my friend

Even Jesus was said to have told his very own disciples that they do not understand what he is saying. And we're supposed to believe that the authors of these fables understood?

If you do not understand much of magnetism, does it make magnetism untrue?

The problem that I see is that you want to “read” your flavour of Buddhism into the Bible, accepting what you like – but the two faiths are poles apart- Buddhism is based on works and Christianity the opposite – with undeserved grace.

Christians are also called to live holy lives, with care for our enemies – whereas with Buddhism “ Benevolent action in behalf of those who are suffering is not a Buddhist value as such action would undo the consequences of negative karma)."

Again two poles apart. I know which one I would want to live in – where people are kind and care about misfortune– whether others deserve it or not. Jesus should have said to the woman called in adultary" You get what you deserve" ? Please enlighten me what a proper response in your view should have been?

As I see it, a Buddhist will eternally be condemned as we all know that many of our works are evil and thus never reach perfection (to the contrary, it seems to get worse and worse). No escape, no forgiveness. In contrast to this, Jesus offers
Mat 11:28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest