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To: newfreep
Clearly you lack the intellect to comprehend God’s Word that ONLY believing Christ as your Lord and Savior will allow you to enter Heaven

Intellect tells you that??...so if you live in Indonesia and you are brought up listening to some moronic Imam...then Intellect will tell you what? Or you are brought up in India and your intellect will tell you to be saved by some ‘’heavenly’ guy with 8 arms.

So if you are a Jew, Muslim, Rastafarian,(Hitchens Maternal Grandmother was a Jew, ergo he was a Jew) you should believe ONLY believing Christ as your Lord and Savior will allow you to enter Heaven??

what arrogance and profound lack of intellect....Faith means belief without hard proof. Believe if you will, but it is not an intellectual exercise

210 posted on 12/16/2011 4:52:54 AM PST by Vaquero ("an armed society is a polite society" Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: Vaquero
Eight arms, you say, ay?

:^)

  "Nay, and of hearts which follow other gods
In simple faith, their prayers arise to me,
O Kunti’s Son! though they pray wrongfully:
For I am the Receiver and the Lord
Of every sacrifice, which these know not."
 
- Bhagavad-Gita, Ch: IX, Lines: 92-96.

 

 The Bhagavad-Gita.
 
Chapter XII
 
 
ARJUNA:

LORD! of the men who serve Thee—true in heart—
As God revealed; and of the men who serve,
Worshipping Thee Unrevealed, Unbodied, far,
Which take the better way of faith and life?
 
KRISHNA:

Whoever serve Me—as I show Myself—
        5
Constantly true, in full devotion fixed,
These hold I very holy. But who serve—
Worshipping Me The One, The Invisible,
The Unrevealed, Unnamed, Unthinkable,
Uttermost, All-pervading, Highest, Sure—         10
Who thus adore Me, mastering their sense,
Of one set mind to all, glad in all good,
These blessed souls come unto Me.
        Yet, hard
The travail is for whoso bend their minds         15
To reach th’ Unmanifest. That viewless path
Shall scarce be trod by man bearing his flesh!
But whereso any doeth all his deeds,
Renouncing self in Me, full of Me, fixed
To serve only the Highest, night and day         20
Musing on Me—him will I swiftly lift
Forth from life’s ocean of distress and death
Whose soul clings fast to Me. Cling thou to Me!
Clasp Me with heart and mind! so shalt thou dwell
Surely with Me on high. But if thy thought         25
Droops from such height; if thou be’st weak to set
Body and soul upon Me constantly,
Despair not! give Me lower service! seek
To read Me, worshipping with steadfast will;
And, if thou canst not worship steadfastly,         30
Work for Me, toil in works pleasing to Me!
For he that laboreth right for love of Me
Shall finally attain! But, if in this
Thy faint heart fails, bring Me thy failure! find
Refuge in Me! let fruits of labor go,         35
Renouncing all for Me, with lowliest heart,
So shalt thou come; for, though to know is more
Than diligence, yet worship better is
Than knowing, and renouncing better still
Near to renunciation—very near—         40
Dwelleth Eternal Peace!
        Who hateth nought
Of all which lives, living himself benign,
Compassionate, from arrogance exempt,
Exempt from love of self, unchangeable         45
By good or ill; patient, contented, firm
In faith, mastering himself, true to his word,
Seeking Me, heart and soul; vowed unto Me,—
That man I love! Who troubleth not his kind,
And is not troubled by them; clear of wrath,         50
Living too high for gladness, grief, or fear,
That man I love! 

Who, dwelling quiet-eyed,
Stainless, serene, well-balanced, unperplexed,
Working with Me, yet from all works detached,
That man I love! 

Who, fixed in faith on Me,
        55
Dotes upon none, scorns none; rejoices not,
And grieves not, letting good and evil hap
Light when it will, and when it will depart,
That man I love! 

Who, unto friend and foe
Keeping an equal heart, with equal mind         60
Bears shame and glory, with an equal peace
Takes heat and cold, pleasure and pain; abides
Quit of desires, hears praise or calumny
In passionless restraint, unmoved by each,
Linked by no ties to earth, steadfast in Me,
        65
That man I love! 

But most of all I love
Those happy ones to whom ’tis life to live
In single fervid faith and love unseeing,
Eating the blessèd Amrit of my Being!
 
Here endeth Chapter XII. of the Bhagavad-Gîtâ,
        70
entitled “Bhakityôgô,” or “The Book of
the Religion of Faith”.


“Here shall no end be hindered, no hope marred
No loss be feared: faith—yea, a little faith
Shall save thee from the anguish of thy dread.”
 
-          Bhagavad-Gita, Ch: II, Lines 140-142.
 
ARJUNA:

“And what road goeth he who, having faith,
Fails, Krishna! in the striving; falling back
From holiness, missing the perfect rule?
Is he not lost, straying from Brahma’s light,
Like the vain cloud, which floats ’twixt earth and Heaven
When lightning splits it, and it vanisheth?
Fain would I hear thee answer me herein,
Since, Krishna! none save thou can clear the doubt.”
 
KRISHNA:

“He is not lost, thou Son of Prithâ! No!
Nor earth, nor heaven is forfeit, even for him,
Because no heart that holds one right desire
Treadeth the road of loss! He who should fail,
Desiring righteousness, cometh at death
Unto the Region of the Just.”
 
-          Bhagavad-Gita, Ch: VI, Lines 125-138.
 
  “Of many thousand mortals, one, perchance,
Striveth for Truth; and of those few that strive—
Nay, and rise high—one only—here and there—
Knoweth Me, as I am, the very Truth.”
 
-          Bhagavad-Gita, Ch: VII, Lines 8-11.
 
  “There be those, too, whose knowledge, turned aside
By this desire or that, gives them to serve
Some lower gods, with various rites, constrained
By that which mouldeth them. Unto all such—
Worship what shrine they will, what shapes, in faith—
’Tis I who give them faith! I am content!
The heart thus asking favor from its God,
Darkened but ardent, hath the end it craves,
The lesser blessing—but ’tis I who give!
Yet soon is withered what small fruit they reap
Those men of little minds, who worship so,
Go where they worship, passing with their gods.
But Mine come unto me! Blind are the eyes
Which deem th’ Unmanifested manifest,
Not comprehending Me in my true Self!
Imperishable, viewless, undeclared,
Hidden behind my magic veil of shows,
I am not seen by all; I am not known—
Unborn and changeless—to the idle world.
But I, Arjuna! know all things which were,
And all which are, and all which are to be,
Albeit not one among them knoweth Me!”
 
-          Bhagavad-Gita, Ch: VII, Lines 69-90.
 
  “Nay, and of hearts which follow other gods
In simple faith, their prayers arise to me,
O Kunti’s Son! though they pray wrongfully:
For I am the Receiver and the Lord
Of every sacrifice, which these know not
Rightfully; so they fall to earth again!”
 
-          Bhagavad-Gita, Ch: IX, Lines 92-97.
 
 
“Yet not by the Vedas, nor from sacrifice,
Nor penance, nor gift-giving, nor with prayer
Shall any so behold, as thou hast seen!
Only by fullest service, perfect faith,
And uttermost surrender am I known
And seen, and entered into, Indian Prince!
Who doeth all for Me; who findeth Me
In all; adoreth always; loveth all
Which I have made, and Me, for Love’s sole end,
That man, Arjuna! unto Me doth wend.”
 
-          Bhagavad-Gita, Ch: XI, Lines 332-344.
 

213 posted on 12/16/2011 5:04:44 AM PST by James C. Bennett (An Australian.)
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To: Vaquero
what arrogance and profound lack of intellect....Faith means belief without hard proof. Believe if you will, but it is not an intellectual exercise

First, that, together with your characterization of intellect as something distinct from belief, is part of a more modern and truncated definition of faith (See Francis Schaeffer's Escape from Reason for a discussion of how this arose in the West over the past several hundred years). Second, you're missing the most important elements regarding faith: the object of the faith and one's actions based on that faith.
214 posted on 12/16/2011 5:05:53 AM PST by aruanan
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