All I can suggest to you is make sure you put your faith in the right place. You said because of Daniel’s comment, you have faith in where you’re going after this life. Neither Daniel, me or anyone else can ensure where any of us end up. Being spiritual doesn’t do anyone any good if their faith is not place in the only one who determines our eternity.

Of course I keep referring to it as God’s word. That’s what it is. See this post as an explanation. There is so much unbelievable evidence to support that it is that I would have just simply disregard “evidence” if it is to be rejected as God’s Word. I’m not just talking about my Christian faith but about physical and tangible evidence. The muslim Koran and other books cannot hold up to the same claims as the bible (I’m a former muslim). I also realize and understand that you do not accept it as God’s Word. What you have to understand is that my post is based on the FACT that it is God’s Word

I also realize and understand that you have chosen to believe that that God speaks in different ways. Lot’s of people claim that – they claim that God told them to go out and murder because of that person’s sin. Are they wrong and you’re right? Even within Christianity, people who make those claims are in error which is evidenced by the fact that what they say is going to happen does not come to pass. I once listed to two people argue with each other – one saying that God told him such and such while the other person replied that God said the opposite. Which one of them do you suppose was right – both? Was God giving each of them different messages about the same thing?

I will agree with you – MY success rate is abysmal. Actually, it’s worse than that – I bat zero in conversions. BUT fortunately, it’s not my job to convert people. Christians are the vessels. Look at it this way. You have a car but it’s not your car’s job to get you to your destination. You drive your car to your destination. The car is the source of your transportation but it is not responsible to make sure you get where you’re going. That’s your job.

Okay, I obviously made a wrong assumption about you having read the bible. I was wrong. But I can say that most have not. My apologies to you.

I’m wondering why you do not wish to share your faith with me. Obviously since you read my blog, it is obvious as to where I’m coming from but it would help me in having discussions with you to know your faith background.

” I can… cut and paste the written word of God that states otherwise.
…His written word condemns the very act that someone claims God said to do?…
I can prove you wrong simply because God wrote it down in His Word (the Bible)… My source of knowledge about God is what He has revealed to mankind and that is found nowhere but the Bible…what I do not discount is what God said preserved in the Bible… ”

You see you’ve missed the point of what I was saying. You keep referring to your Bible as if it were the de facto Word of God, as if this were a proven fact born out of objective evidence.

It is not.

You have chosen to believe that the Bible is God’s word. I have chosen to believe God speaks in other ways. You cannot show that the Bible is God’s word, you can only make a claim; a claim that has no objective evidence to support it. Your claim is thus no better than mine, or Muslim’s, or Shinto’s, or any of the multitude of religions on this earth whose adherents all believe they have been spoken to by God, in word or in scripture.

Until you realize that your success rate in converting others will be abyssmal, whether you have the help of your Holy Spirt, as you claim, or not.

“My hope for you — and I really mean this sincerely and 100% — is that you at least take the time to investigate the claims of the Bible. It’s not going to hurt you to read it.”

Why is it that when people disagree with you folks, you automatically jump to the conclusion that it is because we’ve never read the Bible? I was a fundamentalist Evangelical Christian for just over 2o years. I studied the Bible backwards and forwards. I attended Bible school and Seminary in preparation for ministry. I have a working knowledge of scripture in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. I have written several papers and essays that were published in leading Evangelical periodicals of the day.

You can believe me when I say I have read the Bible. This reply does not come from a position of ignorance. I know the Bible well; better than most Christians I dare say. I just don’t happen to believe it is the Word of God.

Why? I have no reason to believe it is. And you have no evidence to show that I am wrong. This is my point.

“I could have faith that my pet bird is going to teach me how to fly like him — boy would I be in for a big surprise when I jumped off a building with him at my side.”

Yet you also don’t have the faith required to drink poison, or allow venbemous snakes to bite you. If your Bible is the yardstick of faith, why do you find that so difficult?

I could have faith that the leaves of the Bible will spread open in a large parachute, but boy would I be in for a big surprise when I jumped off a building with the Bible at my side.

You see how empty religious rhetoric works for both sides? And yes, I’m aware that your Bible doesn’t work that way, but then neither does my faith work in the way you erroneously tried to descibe.

I agree with you, I cannot change anyone. That is outside the pervue of my abilities. Only the Holy Spirit can change someone’s heart.

You keep saying that witchcraft/spellcraft is a gift from God. I can (and did in my original post) cut and paste the written word of God that states otherwise.

The kicker is we do NOT have the same objective evidence (you said we did)). If you can find scripture where God gives His thumbs up to witchcraft/socery, then we have something to talk about. What you are telling me is that He has given you special revelation that it is okay. Do you realize that there are some that are convinced that God told them to go out and murder someone yet, His written word condemns the very act that someone claims God said to do?

I can prove you wrong simply because God wrote it down in His Word (the Bible). I have no independent revelations that He gave me. My source of knowledge about God is what He has revealed to mankind and that is found nowhere but the Bible. Obviously you have chosen to discount that and have accepted another source. My hope for you — and I really mean this sincerely and 100% — is that you at least take the time to investigate the claims of the Bible. It’s not going to hurt you to read it.

I agree — claims about what God says are a dime a dozen. In fact, I pretty much discount what people say that God said. However, what I do not discount is what God said preserved in the Bible. And yes, it’s about faith but faith has to be in the right source. Having faith in a tree or whatever someone chooses to save you is not going to cut it. I could have faith that my pet bird is going to teach me how to fly like him — boy would I be in for a big surprise when I jumped off a building with him at my side.

I’m not going to try to convince you of anything. It’s not my place to change your beliefs, and I doubt I could, any more than you could change mine. I’d like to point out a couple of things though…

You keep saying that God condemns, what you refer to as sorcery. While I understand that you believe that, i’d like to point out the futility of telling that to people who believe otherwise.

I believe God not only does not condemn spellcraft, but that spellcraft is a gift from God. How do I know this? God says so.

So you say God condemns it, and I say God gives it, and both of us claim the same source… God. The real kicker is that both of us have the exact same amount of objective evidence to support our claim… none. You have your book, which cannot be verified as being God’s word. I have God’s word direct from speaking with Him, which I also cannot verify independently. Neither of us can prove the other wrong. One could speculate that perhaps that’s the way God wanted it? Who can say?

Claims about what God says are a dime a dozen. In the end, it’s all about faith. What you fail to realize is that every person of faith, no matter what religion, believes as fervently as you do. Do you believe me when I tell you what “God says”? No, of course you don’t. How then could you expect persons of other faiths to take your claim of what God says as truth? You can’t convince a person of faith that you know God’s will better than they do.

This is why “witnessing” isn’t suppose to be about telling other people how wrong they are. One simply cannot insult another person into accepting your beliefs. Claiming “God says” based on your Bible is only effective if one already believes that the Bible is God’s word. Witnessing is supposed to be about telling your experiences, relating your faith, telling what your beliefs are. In the end the only way you’ll ever be taken seriously is if your life is so demonstrably better that the other person will want what you have.

People of my faith do not preach or proselytize to others. We don’t go around telling people how wrong they are, yet we are the fastest growing faith in the western world, while fundamentalist Christianity is in a steady 200 year decline. Perhaps you might consider a change in tactics?

Once again, I don’t expect you to accept my beliefs in God. I do hope, however, that I have shed some light on why your claims are also ineffective to others.

Thanks. I’ll go over and read it. With my computer being out of commission for a few days and now that I have a friend coming to town, I’m going to be off again for the next few days. I’ll be checking in but as it stands right now, I’m running behind.

I enjoy your posts so I am looking forward to reading this one I like reading what other Christians say. one of the ways that I have really grown is reading and talking to other Christians. It’s kind of cool how God works that way.

Sorcery and being a priest are practically the same thing. Religion and spirituality however are completely different, Religion is following the knowledge taught within a system or through a book, which is good cause there is a lot of things that someone should know out of the bible. Spirituality is when someone can actually communicate with god and is aware of their own core self and spirits and being accepting of all people with unconditional compassion for god lives within us all, and to point out negativity in people is to be a hypocrite because how could you point out such things if they weren’t in yourself already.
What do you think a priest is doing when he blesses you? It is using the power of whom he calls god to bring power through his intention. A blessing is when someone does good to improve things in benevolence (example: Wishing someone well with a relationship, praying for someone to have a safe drive home, thinking nice things towards someone, etc…). A curse is when someone seeks to shoot something down (example: Criticizing someone for what they do is a curse, blaming someone for problems, thinking negatively towards someone for what they do, etc…). What the word sorcerer means is someone who is of the source, Source meaning whomever they call god. The more spiritual and more connected someone is with god the more magical power they have to work with matter energy and spirit. That is how manifesting takes place and through this power priests have results by blessing people.
Sorcery isn’t evil by itself, sorcery is just the practice of spirituality and the application of spells/ blessings/ hexes. Whether the sorcerer is good or evil is a different story. Would you say it is evil if i were to (blessing) bring wealth, abundance, prosperity, love, compassion, and kindness to a poor family through prayer/rituals/alchemy/spells/etc…??? But it is evil to Hex someone with bad luck, it is evil to use alchemy to transmute someone’s money into hatred just because you don’t like them, it is evil to pray for the death of someone through ritual. These are evil spells per say. I follow God and attend church weekly for I love god. But I am also in training to be a daoist preist because daoist mysticism is the application,practice, science, and understanding of spirituality through a sorcerers tools. I use my christian beliefs and christian connection with god to power my daoist preist training. I am a daoist christian mystic who blesses people everyday, who chants for the financial benefit of the planet, who prays to god for blessings on the people i love. So, tell me, am I evil?
Terminologies don’t matter, to you I guess I could be called a good witch. I share with you what I practice and what I know so you can benefit by it in your choosing. You can follow the path and label me evil and use this information to your benefit in proving that sorcery is evil. Or you can be open minded and understanding of what I do and take it as just that, my journey and possibly open spiritual paths for you and others. I really don’t have any preference on what you choose to do with this information, that is your life and it isn’t my job to alter it in any way, I just enjoy writing these responses to open my own mind and subconscious to what I know about my studies. By sharing information I receive information.

Blessings

You are getting your request..:)… My post for tomorrow, January 7, is the l-o-n-g article I wrote in 1997….. It may be long, but so is eternity….. I have also written some shorter posts over the years and will post them some other time…..

Have a blessed day.

Margaret