Showing posts with label Really. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Really. Show all posts

Monday, February 25, 2013

Bible Facts - What Does the Bible Really Say About the "Three Wise Men"?

At this time of year, many of us see nativity scenes every time we leave the house. These usually feature three Wise Men looking at the newborn baby Jesus or handing him little gifts. You'd be hard put to find someone who doesn't think that three Wise Men actually visited the newborn baby Jesus.

Does the Bible say three Wise Men gave gifts to a newborn baby Jesus? No! You won't find this in the King James Version, the NIV, The Message, you won't find this in any Bible version!

What does the Bible say? The Bible says that after Jesus was born, Wise Men (okay, this is not their ", but that's another article! I'll call them that here or this article will end up too long!) traveled hundreds of miles to Jerusalem to look for the one who would be called the "King of the Jews". When Herod heard this, he got quite upset because the Senate had appointed him Ruler of the Jews some time earlier and he was a ruthless guy known for murdering his competition. He called a meeting of the chief priests and Bible scholars to ask if they knew anything about this. They told him that the one who would be called "King of the Jews" would be born in Bethlehem.

Bible Facts - What Does the Bible Really Say About the "Three Wise Men"?

Herod then called the Wise Men to a secret meeting, and told them to look for this child in Bethlehem and report his whereabouts to him. He pretended his intention was to go there to worship him, but they didn't fall for that! Anyway, they headed off to Bethlehem and found Jesus in a house, as we are told in Matthew 2:11. Now instead of heading back to Herod, they took off in the other direction back to their own country.

Matthew 2:16-17 says that when Herod realized that the Wise Men had made a fool of him, he got extremely angry. He ordered the death of all the male children up to the age of two years old in Bethlehem and the whole area around it. Verse 17 says that he'd figured out the age from the information supplied by the Wise Men. So any Bible version you pick up will say the same thing - there were no Wise Men present when Jesus was baby, not a single one! They found Jesus as a child close to the age of 2 and living in a house. Remember that after Jesus was born, the Wise Men traveled many hundreds of miles from Persia to Jerusalem to look for him. It took them a while to get there - remember, they couldn't catch a plane!

Now, the Bible doesn't mention the number of these "Wise Men". No doubt the number "three" came into popular belief because they were three different types of gifts - and notice there were not three gifts, just different types of gifts!

History tells us that "Wise Men" were very wealthy, multi-millionaires in today's terms, and traveled with cavalry for protection for themselves and all their luxurious stores. Persians were known in those times for their over-the-top luxury. When they found Jesus, it is highly unlikely that they handed him little gifts the size of a shoe box, as those nativity scenes suggest. More likely it took several people to unload all the treasure from the camels! Gold, frankincense and myrrh were very expensive gifts, this is all well documented historically.

Bible Facts - What Does the Bible Really Say About the "Three Wise Men"?
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

Dr. Ann Nyland is an ancient Greek language scholar and lexicographer known as the translator of The Source New Testament available at [http://www.smithandstirling.com] Her research field is word meaning from New Testament times.

watches mobile phone Cheap Rugged Ridge 53703 52 Soft Top With

Sunday, January 20, 2013

What Does Unconditional Love Really Mean?

Unconditional love means unconditional freedom. Love and freedom are two of those words that are interchangeable. Freedom of choice is unconditional love-
unconditional freedom. Choice is another of those words that are interchangeable with Love and freedom.

For the most part, humanity understands little of what the word unconditional means. Unconditional means... "NO CONDITIONS." This lack of understanding is what has divided man from man, and religion from religion throughout his sojourn in the physical reality. It is again man's ego trying to grasp the idea, and not being able to surrender to its meaning. It appears to be the nature of humanity to always add conditions to unconditional-let me demonstrate.

The one common thread that I have found weaving through man's many belief systems is that God is Unconditional Love. I have yet to have anyone tell me that this is not so, and it seems to be accepted by all belief systems that are centered on a creator. If you are in disagreement with this statement then there would probably be no sense in you reading any further.

What Does Unconditional Love Really Mean?

Now it must be made clear in this example that unconditional means that there are no conditions to God's Love. Do you understand and agree, that unconditional means no conditions apply?" Be sure because it gets more difficult to differentiate as we move along.

Do you understand that if there was a condition to God's love, then God would be giving conditional love? Conditional love is not the same as unconditional love as described in the preceding paragraph. I have never heard or read anywhere that God gives conditional love, have you?

Love and freedom are the same; if there is a condition to freedom, then it is not unconditional. Freedom is given from unconditional love. Freedom of choice is the same thing as unconditional love-they are all the same thing. I know this is repetitive, but if you can follow this understanding, and accept it, then there is something further you need to understand.

The following concept is extremely difficult for most people to understand. Because love, freedom, and choice are unconditional, there can be no PUNISHMENT associated with them; once again-no punishments. Here is where the so called enlightened fall by the wayside. They cannot accept any of these things without the recourse to punishment. You can practice unconditional love, unconditional freedom, and unconditional choice with no punishments! God will never punish you! Retribution is a lie, it was all made up. Only Man will punish you. Anyone who tells you different, is not coming from unconditional love. They live in fear of you accepting these things. They do not understand what unconditional means.

Most all who have read the first half of this article will not have problems with it until they get to the "No Punishment" part. At this point man's ego takes over, and will try to reason his way out of agreeing with the concept of unconditional. He will begin to say, yes I understand what unconditional means-but! Then he will start; you cannot have people running around doing whatever they want. There is a price (condition) for freedom. You can not freely love anyone you want, that is immoral (conditional). Our choices are limited by are colour, sexual orientation, creed, age, sex, and geographic region (conditional).

If you buy into these conditions, then you are in direct contradiction with what you may have agreed with when you started reading this article. If you didn't agree to the first part, then you have read farther then you were supposed to. You were warned! For those who do not agree that God is unconditional love, and don't understand the contradiction; let me explain. There seems to be a paradox here. Can unconditional love and conditional love exist at the same time? The answer is yes, because we have forgotten our heritage, we have moved away from unconditional. God gives unconditional love; man lives in conditional love!

This is where the contradiction comes from. We understand the love of God, and we feel inferior to it. We can not except that unconditional love is who we really are, and therefore apply conditions to our love and freedom. We project our human emotions and feelings onto God, effectively insulating ourselves from the reality of unconditional love. We attach certain conditions to his love. If we do not follow his will, we will be punished by him as we would punish those that would not do our will. Man's love, freedom, and choice are conditional because we have always had freedom of choice, to choose and accept those conditions which are conditional. It is paradoxal and appropriate that humanity should set conditions for itself, in direct contradiction to what God represents, and expected from his creations-that life is free to live as it desires without limitation. It is the natural course of all living things to evolve to the next best version of itself, so the natural tendency is to survive, not destroy.

Who is it that is teaching us about conditional love? Who or what is actually separating us from the unconditional love of God? The clue has been in the Newspaper's recently and has been manifesting itself for weeks. I'm in Canada, and it is August 08, 2003-the date I have written this article. For weeks now there has been a major controversy about legalized gay marriages. Who do you think is at the forefront of all the objections? Who is it that is using fear tactics to persuade politicians and supporters to change their policies? Who has come out, and said that they fear for the souls of those supporters?

They are the same profits that have for centuries, taught us of Gods conditional, unconditional love. They have taught us that God's love is unconditional, and that it must be accepted as blind faith-and yet they have set down punishments for practicing unconditional-so in effect they have made unconditional, conditional. I don't blame you if you are confused here; who wouldn't be. They have used fear, punishment, and death to implant this lie into our belief systems. They have been as the false profit. The institute does not correctly reflect God's love, nor do the profits and teachers-they don't even come close to teaching it. Their interpretations reflect only their fear that they share with the rest of humanity.

As you reason these contradictions, listen to yourself. Are you coming from unconditional love, or are you reacting from fear? Whatever you now believe, you will have chosen it from unconditional love, because that is your true nature. It should be your reality. You have unconditional freedom to live conditionally, in conditional love without freedom of choice, if that is what you desire. There is no greater display of divine love.

At this moment try to imagine choosing to live unconditionally, try to choose between the two, conditional or unconditional. And if you chose the later, how would you condition yourself to accepting it.

Feel the unconditional love as you make a free choice. As you make the choice, you should notice that you are not being punished for it. That may come later, not from God, but from those who would denounce your choice, and who are living in the realm of conditionality. If nothing else, understand the contradiction. But also understand that who you really are is free. Do not fear for your soul, your soul can take care of itself, and of course that is exactly what it is doing. It is the BLIND FAITH (which is not surrender) that leads you into darkness, when you do not question it. Faith is never blind; it is an essential step in the process of knowing.

Not taking responsibility for your own salvation has given power to those who would use your vulnerability to keep you on the straight and narrow-not yours, but theirs.

The human ability to see black and call it white, is a real blessing in a world of contradictions that require us to make a choice, and believe nothing else. There is no one that is more blind than he who will not see. This has led us into the notion of right and wrong; you are wrong, I am right. We both cannot be right-right?

As you learn to accept the choices of others not being as your own, you will free yourself from the necessity of making judgments about them, and you will be practicing unconditional love. Your new found love for yourself and humanity will set you free. It will be another major step into expanding your enlightenment. To truly free humanity, mankind must see all aspects of itself as being free; as being created from absolute unconditional love. In the greater picture, all things are perfect as they are. It is not necessary to like someone as they are, but it is necessary to love them unconditionally as they are.

The bottom line is that you cannot live your life unconditionally because you live in a physical world that is conditional. However, it doesn't stop you from experiencing unconditional love. Absolute unconditional love is the very nature of the creator-which you are-and it is only when you are focused on yourself as Creator that you will experience unconditional love.

(revised 03/2010)

What Does Unconditional Love Really Mean?
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

Roy E. Klienwachter is an ordained minister,light worker, writer and author of Spiritual New Age Wisdom books written in simple language with the eloguence of Zen wisdom.
http://www.klienwachter.com

watches cell phone Cheap Tiffany Office Furniture Tif1010Pcantflk Presentation Stand Purchase Alps Mountaineering Red Tail 4900 Cubic Inch