Amusing Christian tells me God is dead

[Wertbag]

I met this guy, a friend of a friend, who was telling me of his personal religious beliefs and I was quite surprised at just how unique (to my limited knowledge) that his ideas were.

He said he believes that Jesus's sacrifice separated the physical and spiritual realms.  It made our world purely physical and stopped God from having any further input in our world.  For all intents and purposes that means God is dead or at least physically dead.  This allowed him to believe in the bible, but he basically switches to a kind of atheism after the crucifixion saying that is why God won't talk to us, we don't get angels visit and there are no miracles anymore.  I thought that made more sense (hard to make any less) than sacrificing Himself to Himself so that He would not judge people against the laws that He made.

Of course that means he has no belief in an interactive, personal God, but I guess you can't say he's an atheist as he does believe a God did exist and may still exist in some purely spiritual realm.

I've never heard of anyone having this particular belief system, so I don't know if it is something he was taught or something he came up with himself.  Has anyone heard anything like this before?  Any other bizarre break away, non-standard Christian beliefs that you have come across?

 

 

[quinntar]

1 hour ago, Wertbag said:

I met this guy, a friend of a friend, who was telling me of his personal religious beliefs and I was quite surprised at just how unique (to my limited knowledge) that his ideas were.

He said he believes that Jesus's sacrifice separated the physical and spiritual realms.  It made our world purely physical and stopped God from having any further input in our world.  For all intents and purposes that means God is dead or at least physically dead.  This allowed him to believe in the bible, but he basically switches to a kind of atheism after the crucifixion saying that is why God won't talk to us, we don't get angels visit and there are no miracles anymore.  I thought that made more sense (hard to make any less) than sacrificing Himself to Himself so that He would not judge people against the laws that He made.

Of course that means he has no belief in an interactive, personal God, but I guess you can't say he's an atheist as he does believe a God did exist and may still exist in some purely spiritual realm.

I've never heard of anyone having this particular belief system, so I don't know if it is something he was taught or something he came up with himself.  Has anyone heard anything like this before?  Any other bizarre break away, non-standard Christian beliefs that you have come across?

 

 

No, I've never heard of that particular belief. I guess the strangest belief I've ever heard is the one Joseph Smith (Mormons)  came up with.

 

Basically God lives on a planet Kolob in the far reaches of the universe, he took on many spirit wife's and produced spirit children who would become the inhabitants of the earth. The spirit children of God rejoiced when they were told the plan for becoming God's themselves. Jesus and Satan was there also as our spirit brother, and offered themselves to guide mankind to becoming God's. But Satan said "I'll do it for my glory" Where as Jesus said "I'll do it for God's glory" 

 

God then chose Jesus and Satan went off and turned as many spirit chldren against God (Who became like demon's) God sent them to the earth as well, but they are bodiless spirit's who continue to try and turn us from God.

 

There's also a Mormon teaching that say's that when God told his spirit children the plan to become God's, some didn't choose his plan. So he put a mark on them (To be born black) Black people had no rights to the priesthood in the Mormon Church. But they did overturn that later on when they were confronted as racists.

[Wertbag]

I had read, many years ago, of a nunnery in Europe where the nuns prayed for death and were disappointed every day they awoke. They said heaven will be perfect so life is just in the way. They didn't go anywhere or do anything as they were terrified of potentially catching a dose of sin. They just sat and hoped to die. Really I can see their reasoning based on standard Christian doctrine. 

[quinntar]

15 minutes ago, Wertbag said:

I had read, many years ago, of a nunnery in Europe where the nuns prayed for death and were disappointed every day they awoke. They said heaven will be perfect so life is just in the way. They didn't go anywhere or do anything as they were terrified of potentially catching a dose of sin. They just sat and hoped to die. Really I can see their reasoning based on standard Christian doctrine. 

I can understand that totally, I desire to sleep and not wake up. But I do wake up, day after day, "when will I die" I tell the universe, and can I have a neo resurrection.

 

That would be so cool.

[◊ DestinyTurtle ◊]

6 hours ago, Wertbag said:

I had read, many years ago, of a nunnery in Europe where the nuns prayed for death and were disappointed every day they awoke. They said heaven will be perfect so life is just in the way. They didn't go anywhere or do anything as they were terrified of potentially catching a dose of sin. They just sat and hoped to die. Really I can see their reasoning based on standard Christian doctrine. 

Oh man, when I was a child my dad used to occasionally tell me that he hoped to die so he could go into heaven soon but he couldn't kill himself because he didn't believe in suicide. He would go on long hiking trips and joke about how maybe this time a bear would attack him.

 

IMO if a religion makes you hate your mortal life so much it's neither holy or spiritual. Life is a gift, and if you happen to believe it was a gift handed to you my an anthropomorphic spiritual being how do you expect he/she will be impressed by you shunning it? Why would such an entity reward you with an infinite version of the thing when you shunned the trial version? It's like smashing a toy car and expecting your dad to reward you with a real SUV. Sorry, kid. You only proved you're irresponsible!

[◊ DestinyTurtle ◊]

11 hours ago, Wertbag said:

I've never heard of anyone having this particular belief system, so I don't know if it is something he was taught or something he came up with himself.  Has anyone heard anything like this before?  Any other bizarre break away, non-standard Christian beliefs that you have come across?

I'd have to give the guy credit for the originality and novelty of his belief, even though I don't agree with him!

[Wertbag]

Browsing Wikipedia I found discussion about the death of god philosophy: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_God_theology

"The Death of God movement is sometimes technically referred to as theothanatology, deriving from the Greek theos (God) and thanatos (death). The main proponents of this radical theologyincluded the Christian theologians Gabriel Vahanian, Paul Van Buren, William Hamilton, John Robinson, Thomas J. J. Altizer, Mark C. Taylor, John D. Caputo, Peter Rollins, and the rabbi Richard L. Rubenstein."

Seems to come in many forms from some using it to describe the rise of atheism to others taking a literal meaning like the guy I met. So it seems to be a rare idea but not a unique one. 

[Joshpantera]

2 hours ago, Wertbag said:

Browsing Wikipedia I found discussion about the death of god philosophy: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_God_theology

"The Death of God movement is sometimes technically referred to as theothanatology, deriving from the Greek theos (God) and thanatos (death). The main proponents of this radical theologyincluded the Christian theologians Gabriel Vahanian, Paul Van Buren, William Hamilton, John Robinson, Thomas J. J. Altizer, Mark C. Taylor, John D. Caputo, Peter Rollins, and the rabbi Richard L. Rubenstein."

Seems to come in many forms from some using it to describe the rise of atheism to others taking a literal meaning like the guy I met. So it seems to be a rare idea but not a unique one. 

 

So what's his position on atheists? No problem with them? 

[Wertbag]

27 minutes ago, Joshpantera said:

 

So what's his position on atheists? No problem with them? 

He believes they are correct. Theres no god and nothing supernatural. He just disagrees that there never was. 

[Joshpantera]

So the 2nd coming is when it all comes back again? And the natural and supernatural reunite? Where are they going with this? 

[LostinParis]

On 7/27/2018 at 8:48 PM, Wertbag said:

I had read, many years ago, of a nunnery in Europe where the nuns prayed for death and were disappointed every day they awoke. They said heaven will be perfect so life is just in the way. They didn't go anywhere or do anything as they were terrified of potentially catching a dose of sin. They just sat and hoped to die. Really I can see their reasoning based on standard Christian doctrine. 

 

My brother-in-law lived as a monk in a monastery in Europe for 13 years. He once told me that he “lives for death”.

Total nutcase.

[Lucy]

Does he think there will be a Second Coming or Armageddon? Does he believe heaven and hell exist?

[Geezer]

On July 27, 2018 at 12:10 AM, Wertbag said:

I met this guy, a friend of a friend, who was telling me of his personal religious beliefs and I was quite surprised at just how unique (to my limited knowledge) that his ideas were.

He said he believes that Jesus's sacrifice separated the physical and spiritual realms.  It made our world purely physical and stopped God from having any further input in our world.  For all intents and purposes that means God is dead or at least physically dead.  This allowed him to believe in the bible, but he basically switches to a kind of atheism after the crucifixion saying that is why God won't talk to us, we don't get angels visit and there are no miracles anymore.  I thought that made more sense (hard to make any less) than sacrificing Himself to Himself so that He would not judge people against the laws that He made.

Of course that means he has no belief in an interactive, personal God, but I guess you can't say he's an atheist as he does believe a God did exist and may still exist in some purely spiritual realm.

I've never heard of anyone having this particular belief system, so I don't know if it is something he was taught or something he came up with himself.  Has anyone heard anything like this before?  Any other bizarre break away, non-standard Christian beliefs that you have come across?

 

 

 

It sounds like your friend is a Deist but apparently doesn't realize it. Deists claim it's a thinking man's religion but critics say it's just another form of atheism. 

[Wertbag]

5 hours ago, Lucy said:

Does he think there will be a Second Coming or Armageddon? Does he believe heaven and hell exist?

Unfortunately I didn't get to those details, he did say we can't know how the spirit realm works, so perhaps he would be agnostic on whether a rejoining is even possible. That answer would give you the best ability to avoid deep questions, and thats what you should look for in any crazy theory. 

[Lucy]

18 hours ago, Wertbag said:

Unfortunately I didn't get to those details, he did say we can't know how the spirit realm works, so perhaps he would be agnostic on whether a rejoining is even possible. That answer would give you the best ability to avoid deep questions, and thats what you should look for in any crazy theory. 

 

For some reason this just made me picture god trapped in hell as punishment for all the things he did in the old testament. As if the short stint as Jesus wasn't enough to make up for all the previous events.