Welcome to Gaia! ::

Peace, dear one. Before I say anything, I need you to understand-- I'm not going to tell you what to believe... that's for you to decide, in the end.

However, I will say this. I believe that the Bible is the ultimate source of truth, the source of ultimate truth. *gently* And if you believe this, as well, then this is what it says on the subject:

"For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23).

"For the wage of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:23).

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world, through Him, might be saved." (John 3:16-17).

"If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9). No mention of the priests....

"He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned." (Mark 16:16). Still no priests....

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, not by yourselves; it is the gift of God." (Ephesians 2:8.)

"Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12).

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." (II Corinthians 5:17).

I hope it helps. I'll check back here soon, ok?

3nodding Good idea-- it's all in there. I'd start off with the Gospel of John, then maybe Romans; they might help clear up the salvation issue. Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help-- or any of us, actually, because I'm sure the rest of the guild is just as eager and willing to do what they can. cool

thanx you guys. it's just that the thought of eternal torture and pain in a pool of fire doesn't suit me well. and thinking about stuff like that scares me. and sometimes i'll be reading the bible and it'll say stuff about how if we don't live a life for God that we'll suffer forever and i wonder if what i'm doing is enough.

Ok, well as for mortal sin, there is one and only one that it says serparates you from God and I believe we all did it at one time, that is rejection of Jesus. So once you accept Christ's sacrifice as your personal sacrifice, that it was the perfect sacrifice the man who took away the sin that the first brought into the world, the only way to be at peace with the True and Living God, and through His resurrection we have the hope(not like the hope of that the world has to offer but "the hope that does not dissappoint") of everlasting life you're saved from Hades and Gehenna or Hell and the lake of fire. But that's not a liscence to sin, we are to be Christians, or "little Christs" little images of the one we serve. If we truely believe Jesus is our saviour we will automatically seek to be like Him and not want to offend Him. Now this doesn't mean we gotta be perfect either, we still have some human in us that wants to sin but we have to continually kill our old selves and live for Christ, be His warriors!

One key thing that God wants us to know is that we don't have the power to do what He asks of us. It's true. we cannot live up to the expectation that God has for us. The thing is though, we can through His power. He basically gives us super powers when we accept the sacrifice of His son, His spirit is given to us and we can conquer sin. You doing enough is not the issue, letting God do things through you is what He wants. THis still isn't all that easy, it's simple, "let God do it through you" but it's hard stuff and it is something you will struggle with as you walk with Christ.. but the rewards are out of this world! smile it brings such joy when you can look back on a situation and say, "wow, there's no way I could have done that, God was working through me!" God uses broken people like us to confuse those that seem to have it all together.

As for Jews, the same rules apply to them as they do to us, they just need to recieve the true messiah, Jesus Christ. But in the End, the Jews as a nation will recoginize the Anti-Christ for who he really is (will be) and turn back to God and He will save them. As for when this'll all happen, we're not sure but it seems to be coming up real soon!

yeah...i was watching this show on the history channel and it was saying about the lady of phatima (SP i think) and how she showed three little girls what hell was. well, she lifted her hand and the earth split open and there were pools and lakes of lava and fire and they heard terrifying blood-curdling screams and they could smell peoples' burning flesh and then she closed the earth and said, "you have seen hell. this is the way you will live for all of eternity if you do not live for God" and stuff like that. and ithere was something else about this guy who was the biggest preacher of a religion who said that sinning is the right thing to do and it's like some kind of temptation of the flesh and it must be satisfied or it is sinning and to honor their gods and stuff they perormed ritualistic orgies and stuff. just thought i'd mention how twisted some religions are.

The "law" is the set of rules followed by the Jews, which was originaly God's word but more laws were added to clarify the previous laws. One of these laws was that all Jewish men had to be circumcised. This was one of the many things that was suposed to set them apart from the gentiles and keep them healthy. What is meant by saying circumcision has no vaue if you don't honor the law, is like saying there is no point in taking part of certain traditions of the religion if you don't practice the important parts of the religion.

Disiple Bible Study through my church. I went through 3 yrs of the course in High School. I had great teachers too, I learned a lot from them. I highly suggest you join a bible study if you aren't in one already. Sometimes it may seem boring, but you won't regret it in the end.