Anonymous #3 18h

fascinating additions to this discussion. but I think you’re deluding yourself if you believe the Evangelicals of America are interested in a spirited theological debate. the folks that believe in the Antichrist believe the devil to be a very real, tangible figure. Probably Greta Thunberg or something idk.

1

Anonymous #4 18h

When did I ever say that? I just offered you those people’s known kryptonite. It’s not supposed to fix them, it’s supposed to disarm them.

1

Anonymous #3 18h

I think both the invocation of Gnosticism and the Hebrew Bible read as glaring red flags to the braindead, biblical “literalist” Christians, fried out of their minds on eschatological slop

1

Anonymous #4 18h

I think that's unfair. Calling them braindead skips giving them the benefit of the doubt. What keeps people from reason usually isn't incompetence, it's fear. End-times belief runs on fear of hell, of the end, of being wrong. Insults just confirm the persecution story they've been handed. They need compassion, not a taste of their own medicine.

1

Anonymous #3 18h

Yeah, fair enough. I’ve been there and felt such fear before and yet got out while never having received the compassion you describe. I suppose my patience has run short. The very real, tangible end of the world plausibly approaches and I’m disgusted that some of my peers expect Jesus to return and fix it for them, as they cover their eyes and plug their ears. Idt you’re wrong, though.

1

Anonymous #4 18h

I hear you. Getting out without that compassion is real, and sometimes compassion is just stepping back. It's less a standard than intention and impact lining up. One reframe I've found helpful: in some esoteric readings, Christ isn't only Jesus but the light in all of us, so the "return" is people waking up to it. From there, being wrong isn't evil, just misguided. Even "sin" (hamartia) means missing the mark. No wrongdoing, no punishment, just coming home.

5

Anonymous #3 18h

from what theological tradition do you hail? this is a pretty compelling take on the Christian faith and I’d love to read more. seems almost pantheist.

1

Anonymous #4 17h

I actually don't hail from one tradition. I'm a panentheist (God in everything, but also beyond it) and a nondualist. I'm closest to Jewish Kabbalah, and a lot came from Hindu spirituality through yoga and meditation. Kabbalah calls the infinite Ein Sof, and it's never named in scripture. Every name for God is a face of it, not the whole. That's how I read the Bible: a human snapshot of something ineffable, not the thing itself.

1

Anonymous #4 17h

On Jesus: I believe he was divine, but not differently than anyone else. He was in total alignment with God, and God isn't exclusive to him. That alignment is Christ consciousness, and it's available to all of us. The whole teaching is in "love your neighbor as yourself." The metaphysics is in "as yourself": your neighbor is you. That's why I think sin starts with self-rejection. You can't love outward what you've cut off inward.

1

Anonymous #4 17h

For learning more, Dr. Justin Sledge's YouTube channel Esoterica is the best place to start. He covers the divine feminine that orthodoxy pushed out: Asherah, worshipped alongside Yahweh (an 8th-century BCE inscription blesses by "Yahweh and his Asherah"), Sophia in the gnostic texts, and the Shekhinah in Kabbalah. He also talks about the suppression of the feminine on the Know Thyself podcast, episode 203, starting around 1:14:22.

5

Anonymous #3 17h

Lmfao not my comment on esoterica getting deleted 💀 yall I did not dox this man fuck you automod. Anyway, video on how God transitioned from being the storm god in Canaan (if I remember right) to being the capital G God is one of my favs.

3