Jesus is the Tao… some miss the point entirely!
I don’t know why I even bother to address some who, it seems no matter what I say, twist it to mean something else…
I was very careful to say that I am not placing Jesus within the “system of belief of Tao” but rather that I am saying that those who seek Tao and practice Taoism, are seeking Jesus… yet even as I try to make that point clear others lie and say I am promoting Taoism… I am not. I am calling those with ears to hear out of Taoism to come to Christ Jesus… and that is a big difference.
To say that I am promoting Taoism is a lie… and slander… and slanderers do not inherit the Kingdom of God.
If I am guilty of anything, it is the same thing that Paul was guilty of in Acts 17:23. this was an unknown god and Paul put the face of Jesus on it… Paul was not promoting sacrifice nor the worship of the unknown god. He was preaching that Jesus was this God Who was not known and now has been revealed!
This is typical of certain people (especially those of the religious spiritual bondage) to twist the truth… and often they do not even realize they are doing it.
So again, stop the lies that I am promoting Taoism… I am promoting Christ. Tao (the essence of everything created and though all thing were created and call “the way”) now has a face and what was impersonal now becomes a Person in Jesus… Who coincidently said He was The Way, Jesus was the One whom all things were created through… I guess Phil Perkins and ben2590 deny this also.
This criticism has come from both Phil Perkins and Ben2590… both miss the point as usual and Phil has called me an apostate over it… the truth is Phil in doing this has once again denied Jesus as a Person and that to be saved we need a relationship with Jesus to be saved… He still preaches that we must believe doctrines and creeds… He has turned thing around so that man was made for the bible and propositional truth instead of those tools being made for man… it is like when Jesus asked, “was the Sabbath made for man, or man for the Sabbath?”
Why do I care about these men’s thoughts? Often I ask that… I often just think that ignoring them would be the best thing and even did that for a time… yet as I read them more and more I see that they do not truly believe as they teach and preach… they teach another Gospel… one that condones slander while condemns homosexuality… one that condones lying as they try to protect the truth as they believe it to be. One in whom their god is impersonal and based on human wisdom and understanding of propositional truth and not based on the Risen Living Christ Who became a man and dwelt among us… to die and take away the sins of the world… to redeem all creation… to bring us into the New Heaven and New Earth… they deny the New Creation and settle to live in the temporal heaven and hell of this fallen creation…(I just wonder what they do with the last two chapters of the book of Revelation?) They claim to not add or subtract yet have added works to Grace and Judgment to mercy… They call what is good evil and what is evil good… They call the Church just a building and deny that it is the Body of Christ… they deny we are called out to perfection in Christ… in fact one of these men mocks that! That is the sickness of the religious spirit that holds them in bondage.
Continue to pray… pleading the Blood of Christ over these two brothers in Christ… for they need to turn to Jesus.
Blessings,
iggy
Technorati tags:
"Carlos Shelton", Belief, Christian, Christianity, Emerging church, Emerging thought, Follower of Christ, God, Grace, Heaven, Holy Spirit, iggy, Jesus, Life, Missional, Redeemed, Religion, Tao, Tao and Jesus, Tao of Jesus, Truth, Values, Walk in the Spirit
4 comments:
I would be interested to see what you thought about "A Personal Tao" an online book about Taoism.
Casey,
Thanks for your question...
There is a big difference between "A Personal Tao" and "The Tao that is a Person"
One is based on one's perception... and one's one perspective... it may be true in one context but yet not true on whole other levels... it is only truth based on how it relates to that person and situation.
When I say or we say as Christians that we have a personal relationship it is in the way one would with an actual person... not some inanimate object or impersonal force...
Jesus we believe was the One whom all creation was made through. He was even before creation as He existed in the Father (God)... I personally do not separate in to "Persons
As some but look at God as a whole being in which the part, known as "Logos" which is Greek for Word... or if you look in the Book of Genesis in the Bible the "And God Said" that became a man...
We believe we now have a relationship with this same man as He rose from the dead and conquered death and hell.
As far as what I read I see that as the biggest difference as the Tao in it's own system of belief is impersonal and unknowable... which if something is unknowable does not allow for a relationship... well at least a two sided one... it would be like trying to find out what a stone is thinking... we will just never know.
Once one comes to know Jesus, as a person... and as God... the Creator... and walk in His Way... or walk "in Christ?" (These are a bit hard to comprehend if one does not accept Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit to reveal these things to you so I don't except you to understand what I am saying)
If :
1. The Tao is the Creator of all things that exist
2. One finds Tao is the Way to enlightenment of who we really are.
3. Tao is unknowable, and impersonal as it is not a person.
Then:
1. God has put a face to Taoism in Jesus by the incarnation… as through Him all things were created.
2. We will not only find out who we are as we walk “in Christ”, but will also find out Who God is.
3. We will also benefit in having a relationship with the Creator… and have Him on a Personal level show us His Way, Truth, and Life…
I do respect you and your beliefs. I admit my own understandig of Taoism is limited, yet I have found in what i know about it that Jesus fits the verything that is saught after in Taoism.
My prayer is that you may find even more of what you seek as you find Jesus…
Blessings,
iggy
Taoism and the Tao can be very confusing to modern western thought.
Its a religion, its a philosophy, its 10,000 things... and yet here is the truth about Taoism.
Its simply about acceptance.
IN that the teaching of Jesus are of acceptance.
One isn't greater or less than another. The path is learning acceptance, and in that many paths do exist and we all use different words to describe acceptance and the rolling it up to a completeness: be it God, Jesus, the Tao, etc
Which ever word, prophet, concept people use. It does roll up neatly to being: acceptance.
and thats the simple message of the Tao.
Of course people have taken that base idea and have added more and subtracted less. But isn't that human nature to make something our own and ironically all part of that process of acceptance.
Peace
:)
Casey,
I do appreciate your comments... and which not to negate your view.
I can only answer you from my own journey which in a way... a form of Taoism/Hinduism/Buddhism and Christianity… I am now fully in the Christian camp.
Though I was a convert to Christianity at 16, I thought I could find more… beyond Jesus… which took mo on a journey that taught me some things… one cannot add to something that is already Whole. If as you acknowledge we take from or add to the whole then it is no longer whole.
Acceptance and tolerance are good things… we agree, yet even in these “good” we as humans have a limited grasp of what is truly “good” as we are finite.
I found that instead of fitting God into my own world view, God desires to be known and bring us into His world view… Into His reality.
I see the Tao as impersonal… like a foggy mist that surrounds us we feel it, but as we reach out to grab the fog, it disappears… it may get inside us with its cold… yet we still do not retain it in us…
What I found as different is that Jesus’ claims to be the Word of God made Flesh… and He desires to live in us. In the past I felt and tasted and heard and thought all this was all I needed… yet if one only tastes… and does not eat… they will still die. I do not mean death here I this world… but as this old creation is transformed into the New Creation (Revelation 20, 21) if one is not now clothed with the imperishable they will perish with the old creation. We need to put on the new man.
Again, tolerance and acceptance are good things, yet if I accept you, which I do, and I do not tell you a bus is coming and it hits you, I have not truly loved you… I have only accepted and tolerated you. Love is beyond tolerance and acceptance… and that is what I am calling out to others to find… The Bible tells us God is Love… and God proved His love by sending His Son, or by becoming a man and dieing for us so that we may have Life Eternal… and we may walk in that Newness and become New Creations …
Without knowing Love… we cannot truly love others. With this God has given us His Spirit to empower us to know love and give true love to others.
That is the one thing Tao can’t do… we can chase Tao and taste and maybe glean from it… but it cannot love us… it can’t comfort us in our time of need… it can teach and make us follow… and we can learn knowledge… but what good is knowledge when a child dies and we need the touch of loved one to comfort us.
I am talking of a New reality in Christ Jesus, the next paradigm of Tao… to a newer and higher reality of not just “the way, the road, the path” but finding that that path leads to the person of Jesus… and that He is the Way to salvation and peace and tolerance and acceptance… because He is Love incarnate.
Thank you again for you comments… I have really enjoyed our discussion. I pray I have not offended you in some way, as that is not my intention at all. I just pray for even myself to move beyond the desire of self enlightenment and move into the reality of living LIFE in LOVE.
Blessings,
iggy
Post a Comment