Very interesting: A New Kind of Christianity

[Kind of Blue]

A New Kind of Christianity, Brian D. McLaren

"McLaren is considered one of the country's most influential evangelicals, and his new book, A New Kind of Christianity, takes aim at some core doctrinal beliefs. McLaren is rethinking Jesus' mission on Earth, and even the purpose of the crucifixion"

...In this light, Jesus’s offers of “life of the ages” and “life abundant” sparkle with new significance. When Jesus promises “life of the ages” (a far better translation of the Greek zoein aionian, I believe, than “eternal life,” the meaning of which is poorly framed in many minds by the sixline narrative), he is not promising “life after death” or “life in eternal heaven instead of eternal hell.” (John, it should be noted, never mentions hell, a highly significant fact.) Instead, Jesus is promising a life that transcends “life in the present age,” an age that is soon going to end in tumult. Being “born of God” (1:13) and “born again” or “born from above” (3:3) would in this light mean being born into this new creation. So again, Jesus is offering a life in the new Genesis, the new creation that is “of the ages”—meaning it’s part of God’s original creation—not simply part of the current regimes, plots, kingdoms, and economies created by humans in “the present evil age...”

Oh-oh, I think McLaren is gonna be in big trouble :popcorn:
Also interesting, McLaren's survey of young evangelicals.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125165061

[JanusAscending]

1. COOL!!

I'd go to his Church!! Very interesting indeed!! Might have to get the book!!

[Kind of Blue]

4. Yes it is, JA. And they know that

their versions of what Christ said are filled with inaccuracies and inaccurate translations and interpretations thereof :grr:

[tanyev]

2. Interesting. Fits in with a lot of things I am reading right now,

but I've never heard of McLaren before. I'll have to check him out.

[Kind of Blue]

5. I know, I'd never heard of this evangelical either.

I was checking out his website and found this "I wish I could have embedded this clip on pages 119-126 of A New Kind of Christianity as a theological commentary on how a violent (mis)interpretation of 'the second-coming Jesus' commonly subverts the actual nonviolent Jesus of the four gospels."

Here's the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpNB2SoNfyg&feature=player_embedded

Funny but he makes the point.

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. Sadly, hell realms exist.

The Christ has through his sacrifice, created a vast, extremely positive energy field which can purify the lower energies/karmic knots, so hell need never be experienced.

The cycle of birth and death, containing the cycle of heaven and hell (the upper and lower astral realms) may be broken, and our true nature remembered, which is spirit, and such provides for immortality so much as that goes. Forgetting is the nature of the material realm, and the deeper one ensconces one's self into material things, and thus material energy/karma, the more clouded one becomes and the connection to spirit, eventually lost. Christ provides evidence and a path out of this cycle. Of course, other paths which directly seek God are just as good relatively, if one is truly serious about it in proportion to one's worldly ventures. The master said that enlightenment is possible anywhere...

And in regard to Christ's teachings, he said that all of us may do as he does, that faith the size of a mustard seed may move mountains (and Moses did some such wonders). The Christian Scientists, for what little I know of them, seem to have taken Christ's teachings as a mystery school text, regarding the revelation of our true nature, the nature of these realms, and the path to transition.

Just my two chants on the subject (sorry for the pun :hide:)

[Kind of Blue]

6. Oh, I believe in a hell, as well.

Sorry for the rhyme :rofl:

But not all that burning and smelly sulfur. I just think we wind up at levels where our energies resonate. I certainly don't want to hang out with a bunch of miserable spirits.

Indeed, a lot of the mysteries are what we practice now, introspection, meditation, finding the light within, basically direct experience with the Divine.