Sorry my reply took so long, but I had to confer with my “Elder” to see how much I could say about the subject. In the term by the Grace of Lord Mithra, we mean that we do not deserve the love that Ahura Mazda shows for us because we have done nothing to earn it and we can do nothing to earn it. Even if we have made the decision to follow Lord Mithra, it was Ahura Mazda who pursued us, no we who pursued him. It was Ahura Mazda who gave us the right to be his children, not us who earned that right! By accepting the Grace of Lord Mithra and becoming the children of Ahura Mazda in truth do we accept the salvation provided us and spend our time in Heaven awaiting the final end of time and with the resulting cleansing, welcome those of our friends and families that did not follow the Lord and had to abide in Hell until the end of time and the cleansing. It is through the sacrifice made by Lord Mithra by giving his mortal life on the cross, descending into Hell to teach and redeem those that would listen and returning from the grave after 3 days that we have received his grace. If this sounds familiar, it was lifted almost word for word by the early Christians from our credo and adopted into their newborn cult.

This issue is well-addressed also in the works of Marcus J. Borg, particularly "The God we Never Knew" and "The Heart of Christianity". In my opinion, Borg, as a critical biblical scholar, has a much more balanced and informed view than does Spong. They both agree that Christianity must change, and both attack fundamentalism, but Borg is a bit more on-target than Spong.

in your previous post, you mention christianity having no rules or rituals. i responded.

Amy:
I was not about to debate on an opinion that we both agree on.

Whilst I would agree with you that morality is not outmoded, I'm confused and somewhat skeptical of your theory that sex before marriage is the cause of STDs, unwanted pregnancies, abortion on demand, and especially divorce rate statistics: Single people don't have the monopoly on STDs, far from it; Married couples find themselves in the position of having unwanted pregnancies, and opt for abortion on demand! We know there are myriad reasons for the failure of marriage, but I've never yet heard that the couple divorced because they had sex before the marriage. That theory is preposterous and illogical. The definition of sin is variable to the individual; what you define to be sin, does not necessarily make it fact.

I know.... I did not mean to debate my previous statements.

I was talking about your statement on there not being any provisions by the writers of the bible on mass murders being allowed into Heaven. What I should have said was, I can not respond to that in a satisfying manner, because I do not have an answer to that. I am not knowledgeable enough in that area, as of yet.

LOL you are too cute PA i know enough about hitler I'm no stranger to further education and i have researched alot of material and have actually know holocaust survivors of course I don't know everything but I feel its more than enough to get a picture of Hitler, , but none the less I appreciate you sharing what you saw, interesting, I don't follow anything but my truth I'm defined by my personal experince , but i do understand how alot of people can and do fall for " charismatic sales men with no evidence, no nothing, just because someone said so I'm just not one of them, if I see evil coming I cross the street , but it seems I'm the exception not the rule namaste Sheri

So much, oh so much! But where does one begin? I read the discussion on homosexuality further on down the page! So I will start there: Some people are born right-handed, others left-handed; some are ambidextrous: In the bad old days, children were rapped over the knuckles for using their left hand, or it was tied behind them: Thankfully science and social advancement brought us all up to date with the revelations of cells, and genes etc. Biological/Physiological Science has made phenomenal leaps and bounds recently, especially with DNA and all that entails alone. I believe that one day, sooner than later, homosexuality will be accepted as we accept the difference in eye color.

Another outmoded teaching is the slavery of women that is still perpetrated on vast numbers of women in certain parts of the world, even today. Human beings who have no rights whatsoever. Women who can be killed on the whim of a man! We have a long, long way to go on that one!

I suspect your query will open the floodgates on outmoded teachings of the bible!

Thank you, Lauren for your input. I have to agree on that with the treatment of women. A lot of people are afraid to answer that question directly. Your thoughts are appreciated.

Oh look - another person who totally misses the point.