Is Christendom ready for Rational Christianity?
By Daniel Raphael, Ph.D.

Ask the Spirit of Truth to help you discern the truth of the following statements and conclusions and see if they make sense to you.

• God exists.
• There is only one God, the indivisible trinity of Father, Son, and Spirit, (G/F, G/S, G/Sp).
• God is eternal.
• God is perfect. (Ref. New Testament, Matthew 5:08, in Jesus’ words.)
• God created the universe.
• God is all-knowing.
• God’s presence abides in all the universe.
• God is all-powerful.
• God and the universe are eternal.
• God and the universe are without flaws and imperfection. Explanation: If there were any flaws in the eternality of either God or the universe that imperfection would have brought about the end of the universe. Further, God being all-knowing and eternal would have seen ahead of time any imperfection inherent in its creation and would have removed that imperfection.
• Thus, God has only one nature: Eternally perfect.
• God is therefore good and God’s universe is good. God, being the ultimate of goodness, is what we would call “loving.”
• God is love.
• The Father aspect of God (G/F) came down to earth in the form and life as Jesus.
• G/F and Jesus for all intents and purposes were the same person during his material existence on earth. (Ref. New Testament, John 10:30, in Jesus’ words.)
• God, through the aspect of the Father, came to earth to reveal his true nature, his true character to his material children. In Jesus, he revealed his truly loving character and nature in all his relationships.
• G/F, as Jesus, was killed by angry, politically motivated men. Explanation: As Jesus, G/F, being all-knowing, all-wise, the exemplification of eternal love, let his murder occur as a final, ultimate demonstration of his eternal commitment to all mortals that he will never interfere in the will-decisions of any mortal, even when that meant the material death of himself as Jesus.
• His supreme demonstration provides a statement to mortals that we are ultimately and solely responsible for our actions and that God cannot be manipulated or compromised by anything we do. G/F, as the supremely compassionate parent that he is, provided mortals with the ultimate model for living in the life of Jesus, through his loving relationships. Jesus made it very clear to us: Love one another as I have loved you, and strive to become perfect as God in all your thoughts, words, and actions. Doing so, we, too, will become undivided in nature.
• If this loving theology is too difficult to understand, look at it another way -- Why would God have himself killed as Jesus as a sacrifice to himself? God, knowing everything, would have known when he created mankind that people would commit sins. Knowing this in advance, he had no need to send himself to earth to have himself killed as a sacrifice to himself to atone for the sinful natures of people he created.
• If God is perfect and knows all in advance, why did he create imperfect beings? God created mortal beings to experience his universe through and with his mortal children; and in doing so gave them the opportunity to decide to join him in Paradise, through the experience of becoming perfect, as he is perfect.
• That’s pretty straight forward, easy to understand, and makes sense, doesn’t it? Even untrained believers, those of you who sit in the pews of traditional Christian churches every Sunday, who have never been taught to think theologically about their religious beliefs, can discern the truth of these statements. Those who are traditionally trained Christians, however, may be aghast that there is no contemporary theological support for the Pauline Doctrines of sacrifice, atonement, and redemption.
• Don’t you wonder what your priest or minister’s response will be when you and several of your church members ask him or her to read these easy to understand statements?
  If I remember right, the usual response goes like this, “Some things are not explainable. We simply have to have enough faith to know that what we have been taught is true.” Being a person who asks a lot of questions, an answer like that only incites me to ask these same questions of the next person up the ladder in the organization.

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Readers are welcome to reproduce this article. Please retain the name and addresses of the author, for those who wish to contact:

Daniel Raphael, Ph.D.
PO Box 3718
Boulder, CO 80307-3718
USA
dr@boulderlifecoach.com

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