Mangling others' religions

[halbhh]

Is it justified to interpret someone's scriptures differently than those the scripture belongs to?

For example, the New Age teaching that Jesus was a guru who lived in India, and that he was teaching a form of eastern religion.

No he didn't and no he wasn't.

Seems to me, we have to understand people's religious claims from the perspective of those who believe and practice the religion. And, we have to understand and interpret people's scriptures from the perspective of how those who believe these books to be scripture understand them.

It is notable that we can encounter people that don't believe in God insisting to us they know the scripture better than we do, even if they know little or nothing about the person they make that assertion towards.

heh heh.

They can just assume, unreasonably, irrationally, that they understand it better. Even at a Christian site, which is simply going to have some that have studied extensively. How....arrogant or delusional is that?

I was surprised actually, having read all the cannon twice, and most of the books 3 and 4 and 5 times, with plenty of looking at original language and varieties of commentaries....imagine my surprise to be told in response to my correction of an error by one atheist once, on that basis of only a single post, that his friend knows the bible better than me. As if the atheist was omniscient. What was so striking was it did not appear to be merely a smear or only rhetoric, but an dramatic delusion, right in plain sight. Not what I expected.

What makes people like this!?:

I'd suggest to anyone anywhere anytime, this isn't a very realistic way to see yourself. heh heh

 

[Vinayaka]

What makes people like this!?:

Insecurity is at the root of it. Being secure with your own beliefs allows for a detached non-argumentative take, which begets the attitude of not really caring what the other guy thinks at all.

 

[Shad]

Thanks, I just brought the book, then I can read more

Shoghi Effendi in Oxford and Earlier

Regards Tony

Let me know if you find reasons you didn't know of before.

 

[halbhh]

Insecurity is at the root of it. Being secure with your own beliefs allows for a detached non-argumentative take, which begets the attitude of not really caring what the other guy thinks at all.

That's definitely how it works.

A lot of people can do this, when it's not so hard. It's when the situation is harder that it gets interesting.

One might even be up at a level where they aren't too worried about their own life even. That's advanced.

But what if instead of one's own life, it's other people's lives that are being destroyed? Then we are doing better to be able to act to defend those others, instead of being unconcerned. But we do want to be calm and peaceful. We agree on that. That is one thing Christ gives to his followers that do as he says, a real peace, beyond understanding.

 

[TransmutingSoul]

Let me know if you find reasons you didn't know of before.

I will pass. I do not need to pursue the issues you have raised.

If you wish to know more, I am sure you are more than able to do your own research.

I have read enough about and what Shoghi Effendi wrote, to know there are few to match His Intelligence and knowledge.

Regards Tony

 

[columbus]

It is notable that we can encounter people that don't believe in God insisting to us they know the scripture better than we do, even if they know little or nothing about the person they make that assertion towards.

That's really an easy one.

I do know the scriptures. But I don't have any reason to reinterpret it to support any particular religious organization.
Religious people do. They do it all the time.
Tom

 

[Shad]

I will pass. I do not need to pursue the issues you have raised.

If you wish to know more, I am sure you are more than able to do your own research.

It was just a curiosity I had at the moment.

All the answers I have seen have not be about accuracy purposes but merely flair as I said before. A poor method to use.

 

[CG Didymus]

What we must all consider, if we believe there is One God, is that God doeth as God willeth.

Why would we consider we are the only rightly guided people's?

First of all, Where in the Bible is that "doeth" and "willeth" quote from? Next, it makes it sound like the things God does don't have to make sense. Like telling one people one thing, then telling other people something else. Like for instance, Satan. He's not mentioned much in the Hebrew Bible but is a major character in the NT. Then, the Baha'is tell us there is no such being.

Christians have gone into the Hebrew Bible to find anything to support their belief in Satan. They even found him in the Garden of Eden. But then, if the Baha'is are correct, that was a complete waste of time... there is no Satan. So they "mangled" the Hebrew Bible for nothing? All because God led on Jesus and the gospel writers to think there was a Satan? What's he doething? God's messages are inconsistent and vague.

 

[TransmutingSoul]

First of all, Where in the Bible is that "doeth" and "willeth" quote from?

I see It is written in many ways in all God given scriptures.

Acts 21:14"And since he would not be persuaded, we fell silent, remarking, "The will of the Lord be done!"

Matthew 6:10 "Your kingdom come Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven"

It may help to know why the word was chosen by Shoghi Effendi;

willeth is defined as a third person form of will

Doeth is defined as a third person form of do.

Third person - "discourse or literary style in which the narrator recounts his or her own experiences or impressions using such forms: an essay written in the third person"

Thus the Messenger talks in the Third Person style?

Regards Tony

 

[halbhh]

That's really an easy one.

I do know the scriptures. But I don't have any reason to reinterpret it to support any particular religious organization.
Religious people do. They do it all the time.
Tom

Yes. We can at least suggest, try to get people to understand, they are to listen to Christ (the Father's own instruction to us), instead of reducing or redefining or imposing ideas onto His words. I tell people 'lay aside doctrines and ideas and trying to prove something, and just totally listen to his words, and let them into your heart.' If a person can truly hear "love one another", then they can begin to do it from being on the Vine (as He instructs us in John chapter 15).

 

[InChrist]

The only reason Christianity exists is Jewish heresy and reinterpreting the Torah to fit their narrative.

That’s not the way the Jews who became followers of Jesus Christ saw it.