| 1. Introduction 2. How I can be
bothered with old-fashioned religion...
3. Aren't all religions basically the same?
4. Where then
does one start, if he sincerely seeks to find the Truth?
5. But isn't the Bible the traditional Holy
Book of the West?
6. If the God
that the Bible tells us of is not like the churches...
7. Where is this
God?
8. Is this
"Great Spirit of Love" the only spirit that
exists?
9.Other Gods
10. Any
religious practice is wrong?
11. Is it
necessary to suffer in order to please God?
12. How can I
save myself?
13. What can I
do?
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IN SEARCH OF THE TRUTH!
--Answers to Many of Life's Most
Meaningful Questions! "What is life all about?--What
am I here for?
Is there a purpose, a plan for me?--And if so, what is
it?"
By D Berg
***
If
self-denial, sacrifice and suffering are not the way to
Salvation, what then can I do to save myself?
Nothing!--You can't save yourself! Yet the central belief
of almost all of Man's religions is that Man is basically
good & righteous, & he can save himself. In fact,
after careful analysis we can safely conclude that there
are really only two schools of religious thought &
belief in the World: The "Do-It-Yourself"
religions & the God-Alone-Can-Save-You" kind!
Most of the World's religions teach their followers that
they can save themselves by their own piety and good
works, by their own holiness, by their own sufferings,
their own self-denial, or by their own obedience to the
laws and traditions of that particular religion!--But no
man yet has ever been good enough to earn or merit his
own Salvation!--"For there is not a righteous man
upon the Earth who always does good and never
sins."--Ecclesiastes 7:20.
In the very beginning, God originally intended for each
of us to have a close personal relationship and
communication with Him. He wanted to be our closest
Friend, Someone Whose Love, faithfulness, concern and
care we could always count on.
But God did not want to make us be friends with Him. He
could have easily created us all to automatically obey
and worship Him, like some kind of robots, but He didn't
want to force us to love or obey Him. This is why He
allowed both good and evil to be revealed, so that we
could each make a personal choice, so we could
voluntarily choose to love and obey Him, or rebel and go
our own way.
Sad to say, each of us has made the wrong choices at some
time or another. We have acted selfishly, unkindly and
unlovingly, not only hurting others, but even hurting God
Himself, Who as our loving Heavenly Father, is saddened
when He sees we are going the wrong way.
But despite all of our troubles, problems and
imperfection, God still loves us and wants to be close to
us, to be our nearest and dearest Helper and Friend. Yet
no matter how earnestly and sincerely we try by our own
piety, good works, suffering etc. to become close to Him,
to become one with Him, to become "enlightened"
by Him, to attain Salvation from Him, we will always fall
short of reaching this goal.--"For all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God!"--Romans 3:23.
No matter how good or righteous we try to be, no matter
how severely we discipline ourselves or strive to attain
godliness or Salvation, it is simply not within Man to
save himself!
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