Some of your ideas has had a lasting impact on me.
1. Seeing is not believing. This introduced me to the fact that our senses are mis-leading not authoritative. Meaning the outer image of reality is not naked reality itself (as upheld by God). It only makes sense that we have to lose our material bodies to gain access to a more unfiltered spiritual reality.
2. Thoughts are shared, perceptions are private. This one had a profound effect on me. I knew our thoughts intermingle on a deeper level than we can recognize, thus I have become more alert and cautious what I think about that others can know about (which would just sound superstitious to the midern mind). Collective ideas with enough momentum can really take hold of our individual minds. Ideas are entities.
It also strengthened my belief in telepathy - that thoughts can travel through time and space and that we have a greater human potential than is recognized by our limiting assumptions (which have real limiting effects). I also realised technology might be obstructing this dormant potential, and interrupting vital cognitive fields. Because we lost God, we lack belief in ourselves - thus outsource our inner capacities to invasive technology and bureaucracy.
3. Our thinking is more evil than ever, not our actions. This is one of your recent propositions which struck a chord with me. Physical innocence does not alleviate spiritual harm. Most of the violence is happening in our minds today. We all have to examine our thinking and motivations.
4. Direct knowing. This concept has helped me trust my being as it is rather than being a merely socialised thing with horizontal sense based/peer pressure convictions. From this position, it is easier for me to intuit and trust the direct reality of Christ (as an ongoing personal relationship), which is simply not discernible through material means. Surely we must in a sense be cut off from God to find him and harness principles of true faith.
Eric. Thanks. Makes me realise how much I owe to Steiner and Barfield - 1,2,4. And you can take credit for extrapolating 3, which I believe but don't think I have explicitly stated.
21 April 2019 at 23:34
Simon said...
Is this method of knowing solely restricted to knowledge of Jesus Christ? Could one also apply it to other phenomena? Is this method of knowing assumed to be true, or justified in another way?
Simon - it is not a method. But ive written much about it here if you search intuition, and primary thinking, and direct Christianity.
22 April 2019 at 07:05
Simon said...
I have read a fair amount of your posts on these topics, but cannot entirely understand the conclusions you've been coming to regarding them, hence my questions. Perhaps the easiest question would be: can this line of thinking be applied to phenomena not related to Jesus Christ?
Simon - If you want a yes/ no answer; the answer is yes; but from the way you ask it I think you are misunderstanding what I mean.
What I am talking about is the subject of Steiner's Philosophy of Freedom (And I found the preceding short PhD thesis Truth and Knowledge important too). I found it hard to grasp what was meant, it took me more than a year - but others might get-it quicker.
It's all online free - at Rudolf Steiner Archive and Rudolf Steiner Audio.
22 April 2019 at 07:33
1. Decide whether you want what Jesus Christ offered - which was resurrected, eternal life after biological death, as a Son or Daughter of God, in a loving Heaven, participating in the continuing work of creation.
If you don't want this - then it is not really worth proceeding.
If you do want this:
2. Decide whether you believe Jesus really was divine, the Son of the creator of the universe - and therefore able to deliver what he had offered.
How could you know such a thing? It is unlikely that you will be convinced by any process of research, history, or logic, or the authority of living Christians.
(If you try to get an answer by some kind of investigation of external sources, the statistical probability is that you will encounter fake Christian sources - because these are in a large majority.)
So you should proceed to ask this question directly. That is, ask your-self whether you believe Jesus was and is who he claimed - you should ask this by an act of simple but profound reflection. Ask it of your deepest true self which you might agree has divine authority (because if God is good and we are his children, then our deepest self is divine and authoritative).
Ask it of God the creator; ask it of Jesus - who lives and reigns. Clear you mind and wait in silence for an answer that carries its own authority.
Ask the question simply, and the simple answer may come to you as a direct form of knowing.
If you get the answer Yes - Yes, Jesus was divine and can deliver on his promises (which you want for yourself), then...
3. Look around at the available (self-identified) Christian denominations and churches - and investigate (and question) to judge if there are any accessible that you predict will help you to be a Christian.
If you find one, try it. If the actual, local church helps, then join it - do it, as fully as possible (evaluating, all the while, to check that it really is helping).
But...
4. If there are no satisfactory churches accessible - or none satisfactory to your needs and discernment; then just get-on with being a Christian on your own, as best you can. Don't feel guilty! Take full responsibility for your own faith - no excuses accepted!
*
Note: What I would say Not to do: Don't join a church and then try to change it.
Because insofar as you succeed, it will certainly weaken and probably destroy it. All worthwhile churches are pretty tough about certain things, and if you don't agree with what they are tough about - then don't join them, or leave them. To liberalise and subvert existing Christian churches is to to aid the enemy.
If you join a church and find that it is overall helpful, and that overall you approve of its aims and methods - then support and strengthen that church so that it can makes its distinctive contribution to the work of salvation and theosis.
And if/ when your chosen church becomes corrupted by secular leftist materialism - then cease to support it, leave it.
"How might you become a Christian?"
6 Comments -
Some of your ideas has had a lasting impact on me.
1. Seeing is not believing. This introduced me to the fact that our senses are mis-leading not authoritative. Meaning the outer image of reality is not naked reality itself (as upheld by God). It only makes sense that we have to lose our material bodies to gain access to a more unfiltered spiritual reality.
2. Thoughts are shared, perceptions are private. This one had a profound effect on me. I knew our thoughts intermingle on a deeper level than we can recognize, thus I have become more alert and cautious what I think about that others can know about (which would just sound superstitious to the midern mind). Collective ideas with enough momentum can really take hold of our individual minds. Ideas are entities.
It also strengthened my belief in telepathy - that thoughts can travel through time and space and that we have a greater human potential than is recognized by our limiting assumptions (which have real limiting effects). I also realised technology might be obstructing this dormant potential, and interrupting vital cognitive fields. Because we lost God, we lack belief in ourselves - thus outsource our inner capacities to invasive technology and bureaucracy.
3. Our thinking is more evil than ever, not our actions. This is one of your recent propositions which struck a chord with me. Physical innocence does not alleviate spiritual harm. Most of the violence is happening in our minds today. We all have to examine our thinking and motivations.
4. Direct knowing. This concept has helped me trust my being as it is rather than being a merely socialised thing with horizontal sense based/peer pressure convictions. From this position, it is easier for me to intuit and trust the direct reality of Christ (as an ongoing personal relationship), which is simply not discernible through material means. Surely we must in a sense be cut off from God to find him and harness principles of true faith.
21 April 2019 at 22:29
Eric. Thanks. Makes me realise how much I owe to Steiner and Barfield - 1,2,4. And you can take credit for extrapolating 3, which I believe but don't think I have explicitly stated.
21 April 2019 at 23:34
Is this method of knowing solely restricted to knowledge of Jesus Christ? Could one also apply it to other phenomena? Is this method of knowing assumed to be true, or justified in another way?
22 April 2019 at 05:52
Simon - it is not a method. But ive written much about it here if you search intuition, and primary thinking, and direct Christianity.
22 April 2019 at 07:05
I have read a fair amount of your posts on these topics, but cannot entirely understand the conclusions you've been coming to regarding them, hence my questions. Perhaps the easiest question would be: can this line of thinking be applied to phenomena not related to Jesus Christ?
22 April 2019 at 07:13
Simon - If you want a yes/ no answer; the answer is yes; but from the way you ask it I think you are misunderstanding what I mean.
What I am talking about is the subject of Steiner's Philosophy of Freedom (And I found the preceding short PhD thesis Truth and Knowledge important too). I found it hard to grasp what was meant, it took me more than a year - but others might get-it quicker.
It's all online free - at Rudolf Steiner Archive and Rudolf Steiner Audio.
22 April 2019 at 07:33