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To: jimmyray
John's Gospel is my favorite.

We are permitted to sin. We are permitted to recognize these sins, we are to pray for the Lord's help in changing our habits from the tendency to commit these sins. Note that we are not to pray for forgiveness! We take Holy Communion at this point as a covenant and strive to lead a good life. This regeneration process continues through eternity as we are never 'perfect'.

We look at the spiritual counterparts of The Holy Supper as 'blood'/wine = truth and 'body'/bread = good. Taking these by eating is making these virtues our own. The Lord wants to draw us closer to Himself, always. He Himself said that wine was symbolic for His blood. Not sure where you are getting the barbaric 'blood must be shed' argument.

We are responsible for our own actions and deeds. We cannot 'blame God' for our sins anymore than we can take credit for Christ's merit on the cross. The Lord and His angels are always with us and we have free will because of it.

Of course we believe that the Lord was crucified and rose 3 days later. We also believe that he only appeared to those that believed in Him after he rose.

Death of the body is just an event. We all wake in the Spiritual World a few days later and continue (or start for some) our spiritual development. Many, like the Samaritans in the Lord's time, find it very easy to accept Jesus Christ as their God and Savior. The only question then is 'How did you live your life?'

163 posted on 03/27/2008 8:15:48 PM PDT by DaveMSmith (Nothin' worse than a leaky dame)
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To: DaveMSmith
Please explain your understanding of these passages:

John 3:3 "Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."

and 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

2 Cor 5:21 "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

We can debate transubstatiation at another time

165 posted on 03/27/2008 8:37:16 PM PDT by jimmyray
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