Are there any Jews on this board?

Is that all it takes??? The doctors were wrong all these years!!! I guess I can throw all that Zoloft and Prozac away, cause God is going to fix my depression!!! (SARCASM) Please realize that most Psychological disorders are the result of some sort of chemical imbalance in the brain or events that have happened in the past to an individual and are not, as you say, the result of the lack of spiritual guidance. That is an ignorant assumption. What if a person is a victim of Rape or molestation??? An extreme case, I know, but their depression is no doubt caused by those events and not by the lack of God in their life. I would argue that a victim of a rape would go so far as to say that if there was a God, then he would never have allowed the rape to happen. Any amount of Spirituality is not going to fix those circumstances that happened.

 

I believe that mind, body, and spirit all play a part in all illness at all times, especially depression. That doesn't mean that people who aren't prone to depression don't get deeply upset or fall apart when tragedy befalls them. Depression is more about how well and how quickly people recover from stuff and how deep a hole they fall into when they're prone to becoming down. Depression is an incredibly complex thing, and I think many if not most doctors acknowledge that it's not purely biological or purely emotional. How peoples' spiritual life affects them emotionally can obviously play into it. Moreover, and I know this may be controversial and/or unpopular, but I believe that people who follow a spiritual path in their life tend be be targets for spiritual attacks, and the things they are attacked by feed on their fears and use depression and despair to let them let their fears drag them down.

 

Sorry if I came off as more confident than I am or too generalizing. I'm colored by my personal experiences and communicate coarsely sometimes, so my bad, but even in all that you've said, you've sort of made an argument that says I'm not exactly wrong, but oversimplifying and exaggerrating the differences to some degree, that there are governing bodies and tradition, but some quite a bit less than others or not at all, and none to quite the same degree of organization and ties to the original church or it's artifacts as the Catholic church. I admit it's very difficult and unfair to use the term "Protestant" generically at all in a conversation like this because of the wide range of beliefs therein, but that fact in and of itself personifies what I consider to be at the core of how valuable traditions, tools, and doctrine get incorrectly mutated over time. You've given me some good stuff to think about an look at in terms of learning more about the different brands of Protestantism, though, so thanks for that. I will try to get more specifically educated.

 

Well I work in the box office at my theatre so I'm selling tickets to all these events, so yes I am forced to, but it doesn't bother me or anything. My tone in this post wasn't meant to be derogatory, but people speak their minds on this board and if I wanted to have people jump all over me I would have posted it on a more conservative board. - I'm not accusing you of jumping on me or anything, but I feel that people are taking defense, and not that you shouldn't but I just wanted to clear the air b/c i'm not that type of person.. I enjoy learning and this Jewish arts festival has helped me a lot to learn more about this culture & religion.

Sounds cool like a book I would love to read, i'll add that to my wishlist.

This is true, and maybe that's why I don't know about them. I've never known anyone Jewish, and yea it's true, they don't try to push their religion on people. OHH wait, I take that back.. I have a friend who is a African Hebrew Israelite, and that's what she believes, and she's constantly telling me that christianity is wrong. She's always telling me that in The Bible it says "thou shall not worship any other God besides me" or something, and I agree it does say that, but Christianity believes that Jesus is God (the son of God), etc.

The thing that made me step back in my own Christian beliefs is that every friggen Religion is telling the other they are wrong.. I had to give up and realize I don't know the truth, and i'm not claiming anyone is right.. it's really confusing, i'd rather learn a little about all of them and just seek my inner spirit. The thing that's really a trip is when every type of Christian tries to tell the other that they are wrong and they are right.. it's like damn you can't win for losing.

See I knew someone would get some of the humor out of that.. I think that out of all the boards I went to, this one has a lot of people who can get jokes.

I think that's cool.. i've seen plenty of Jewish people around San Diego that had those earlocks.. I didn't know that they were Jewish, I actually though they were quakers. (is there a difference? Don't laugh, i'm serious) I'm learning something new all the time.

I'm curious Honeygirl, did you convert to Judaism? I've been watching Sex And The City a lot lately and it's during the time where that one girl converted so that her boyfriend will marry her.. I thought that was interesting.

I always wanted to learn about this, it seems interesting.

I agree with that, every cultrue and religion has strengths and weaknesses.. I was watching a re-run of Will & Grace last night, and it was hilarious.. I think a lot of Jewish people have a sense of humor b/c it was funny. Jack said "and just when I was about to say Jewish people were cheap", then when that Dr. guy got in the elevator he looked at the ground and said "oh there's my penny".. hahahahaa, i was laughing my ass off on that one.

I agree with what you are saying, and a few on here do and don't, this is a new subject in itself. Someone was trying to tell me recently if I didn't want to have anxiety disorder I wouldn't. I took offense to that, because if a person had it they would clearly not be saying that, because this is something i wouldnt' wish on anyone IT SUCKS!

------ Glad to see this subject carried on, and i'm glad that I got to learn more and that more people here are so diverse and versed in different Religions. That was my purpose of this thread. I got a little lost towards the end, because it started getting too much into debate, and everythings a blur to me b/c I hate to debate personally.. I can only take a little of it. Have a nice day.

 

Technically the Bible says if you reject the gospel, you'll spend your afterlife in hell. If you don't know, you're not automatically doomed. The effect is the same (intimidation), but I just wanted to set the record straight there. Hope you don't mind, CR.

 

That has happened, but I do not think the majority of Protestant churches are guilty of it. Surprisingly, I find it's the more traditional churches who are bending rules that were never meant to be bent (the Episcopal church leaps to mind), rather than the new postmodern non-denominationals. Ignoring isn't quite the same as outright contradiction.

Or never teach them to seek it out to begin with.

For those who have gone that route, I wouldn't disagree. Once a person steps in and makes himself the sole mediator between the people and God, the foundation is in place for manipulation and brainwashing on a very large and very powerful scale.

Ironically, the same accusation has been cast toward the Catholic church.

And not without merit, I might add.

 

This is true -- Jesus was the law personified, according to John 1. Jesus was a walking, breathing example of what following Old Testament law looked like. As the two were one (Jesus and the Law -- figuratively speaking), what He said makes sense. He will never be lessened or fade away.

I think what Paul is saying here is that without the law, there is no reason for faith. The law reveals the unrighteousness of mankind, and that will never change. Therefore, just by having faith in Christ (even for the Gentiles, who were never given the law), the law is recognized and supported.

There are two important things to remember about this verse. First, is that Jesus was preaching to Jews, who were indeed under the law. The second is that under John's premise that Jesus and the law are one, to teach someone to break the law would be to teach someone to rebel against God, which is the textbook definition of sin.

Agreed.

Moses is not the house. He was a servant of the house.

 

I would agree this is true for Messianic Jews, but not for Gentiles.

For us, celebrating something like the Passover would be like an American celebrating Cinco de Mayo. We can respect it, but it just doesn't have the same significance.

 

In a way...

 

Thank you.

I'll concede those points. It has indeed been my experience that Protestant churches tend to emphasize submission of requests to God before listening for His will, particularly for those who are new to the faith. It has also been my experience that teaching which emphasizes secluded meditation, listening for the "still, small voice" of God, and 'quiet time' (which has become a catch-all phrase for this idea), is generally reserved for the spiritually mature.

Of course, this does present a problem of 'stunted' spiritual growth, at least as it relates to a person's relationship with God. I think the Protestant church's answer to that problem is diligent Bible study, and I think the reason for it is so when a Christian does begin opening himself up to listening for God's voice, that he has the ability to discern that it really is God who is speaking. But that's just a theory of mine. I don't have any source or documentation to back that up.