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There are numerous ways to use language to communicate messages that are not openly stated in the words themselves.   Meanings, data, and implications are there,°  none the less, but one must apply conscious thought to receive and understand the messages.    An example of a very obvious, but unspoken meaning can be found in the classic line:  "Have you stopped beating your wife?"   Without openly saying so, the question presupposes that the person being questioned is or has been beating his wife.   A Biblical example of messages that are indirectly sent can be found in Genesis 3:22-24

"And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:"  

"Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken"

"So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."  

What do these three passages tell readers about the "God" making these statements?    There is a wealth of information that is not stated directly in the above three passages that becomes obvious the moment one applies his/her mind to them.   

First, there is the question of multiple gods.  (Multiple gods are also implied in Genesis 1:26 and 11:7)   Who and what are they?   

Second, God has plunked a death-sentence tree right under Eve's nose and has the antidote (eternal life)  tree hidden somewhere else.   He doesn't tell Eve and Adam about the other tree.   Instead,  when Eve does what God already knows she's going to do, he kicks her and Adam out of the Garden.   He then puts guards around the antidote tree so that even if Eve and Adam find out about the tree, they can't get to it.   

Then there's another little-known link that adds still another unanswerable question to this already confusing, God-created mess.   Revelation 22:19, says, in part "...God will take away from him his share in the tree of life..."  This passage indicates that man has a share,  (an ownership interest) in the tree of life.    Is this the same tree referred to is the book of Genesis?   Is this so-called god of the Genesis story actually stealing something that belongs to Eve and Adam?   What is "the tree of life?"   What is your share of  that tree?    How can one possible interpret language like this literally?   

These Genesis passages also tell us that the story God is peddling about being forgiving is a scam.   The Eve and Adam story exposes God as anything but forgiving.    According to Christian beliefs, not only does he pass out the death penalty for a minor infraction,  He kicks Eve and Adam and all their future generations out of paradise.   And, if the Christian theology about original sin is correct, He's still pumping original sin into you, into me, and into very other human being in revenge  for something Eve and Adam did thousands of years ago.   He's preaches forgiveness and at the same time, He's still taking out revenge on all human kind for one, minor, multi-thousands-of-years-old  indiscretion that you and I had nothing to do with.   

This has to be the universal record for the worlds' most absurd expression of revenge and hypocrisy.   If the God in the Eve and Adam story is a forgiving God, then the moon really is made of cream cheese.   

There's also the implication that by living in the Garden of Eden and not eating the forbidden fruit, Eve and Adam already had eternal life.    And what about responsibility.   Who is responsible here?  God claims to know ahead of time what humans are going to do, so why did he set Eve up for a fall and then blame the whole mess on a snake and punish the snake and all the snakes descendants forever more?   (What do you suppose snakes were like prior to the forbidden tree incident?)  And then there's God's dirty tricks described in the Tower of Babel story (Genesis 11:4-9) in which this so-called loving an forgiving God destroys human capacity to anything they (humans) can imagine doing.

Any rational thinking person who reads these Genesis stories is going to question God's motives.  To quote Jesus,  "By their fruits, you shall know them."  According to Christian theology, the God referred to in the Book of Genesis is a self-centered, hypocritical, sadistic, conniving, scheming, deceptive (lying-by-omitting-the-truth) God.   If He were a human being here on Earth, would you want him to date your daughter?   Or to use the classic line, "Would you buy a used car from him?"   

How does one make any sense of the God in this story?   For one thing "Original Sin" (claiming all humans are evil because Eve and Adam ate from the forbidden tree) has no biblical support.   It's something some long-dead Christian leader thought up and added to Christian theology.    Other than that, the above attributes are from Biblical scriptures exposing the characteristics of God.   Obviously something is amiss here.   How does one figure out where the problem lies?  If Genesis 3:22-24 are literally true and if original sin is true, as the Fundamentalist Christians claim, then we are all in deep trouble.   

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Are there any other ways to deal with this story 
other than to simply ignore it?      

Yes.  

 First,  ask yourself, " What do the Biblical passages tell us about the characteristics of, the nature of, and the behavior of the God of the Christian Bible?" 

God needs a day off to rest from his work (Genesis 2:3)  

God made man in his own  image (Genesis 5:1)  

God  walked through the Garden of Eden, (Genesis 3: )

God's vindictive and punishing behavior in response to Eve and the forbidden tree.   (Genesis 3:14-2 )

God's  Arbitrary destruction at the Tower of Babel, (Genesis 11:4-9 )  

Et cetera,  et cetera.

The behavior and the characteristics of God as exposed by Christian, Biblical passages do not describe anything close to what the present-day evidence offers us as the most probable hypothesis about the nature and functionality of "The Source of All Creation."     

Second,  remember that any human words describing the nature of God are an expression of one's beliefs about God and are NOT a description of God.°  

Third,  use the above expose of the Genesis stories as a stepping stone on your path into consciousness.**     

Fourth,  focus on the teachings of Jesus and simply allow most of the other parts of the Bible to just be.    

Fifth, awaken your own mind to the fact that any person with a heart, but without a mind to go with it is only a partial  human being.   Conversely, any person with a mind, but without a heart to go with it is also only a partially human being.   And as you will recall from the Wizard of Oz analogy,° courage to seek, find, and live by the truth is a third and vital ingredient in making a complete human being.   

Sixth, realize that questioning religious stories is a vital aspect of finding the truth, and as Jesus, Himself said,  "Know the truth and the truth will set you free."    Another vital reason for questioning religious declarations is because among the thousands of truly devoted religious leaders, there are a few clever, unscrupulous con artists° who are using religion to make sheep and cash cows° out of the gullible and the mindless.    It's always been that way.   It's that way now, and there is no evidence that the pattern is about to change any time in the near future.  ("Beware of the wolves in sheep's clothing.")

Seventh, open your mind, open your heart, and have the courage to face the truth:   Life is not what we've been led to believe it is by those who claim to know!°      The Christian Bible is a wonderful, delightful, sacred book, but the overwhelming evidence indicates that it is NOT the literal truth.   It's a great beginning for those seeking the truth, but common sense indicates that  it is NOT the end.   Life is dynamic, ever changing, ever growing, and ever evolving.   Nothing is both static and alive.   Life is filled with movement, change, growth, transformation, evolution, and vitality.   Perhaps it's time to revitalize the truth in Christianity by stepping beyond the stories that contradict the Bible, deny the physical evidence, defy common sense, and produce destructive results.

The ultra-conservative faction of Christianity is stuck in an ancient version of the truth.     They have openly proclaimed that their limited and incomplete version of Christianity is the total and only truth.   They are not wrong.   They are simply missing some major pieces of the truth -- pieces that were not available two thousand years ago, but are available today. 

Because the ultra-conservatives are, by far, the most vocal and outspoken Christians, the public image of Christianity is incomplete and very distorted.  Open your mind and you'll see that the messages which Jesus gave us are much bigger and grander than what you've been led to believe.

Eighth, look again at the Bible and see the blessings that are still hiding there.   The sections below will be your initial guide in this eight step.

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The N.V.P Team members 
think it's time for moderate and
open-minded Christians to take back Christianity.  
We welcome your thought and opinions.  Please Contact Us° 

Man's Relationship to God:

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The most significant of the presently ignored passages in the Christian Bible deal with who and what we are and with how the universe functions. 

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The Fundamentalist Christians have turned Jesus into a Biblically prohibited, golden idol and placed Him on a peddle far above themselves.   Rather than acknowledging the teachings of Jesus as the pathway to "heaven,"  they have declared that Jesus, himself is that pathway.   Rather than acknowledging that  "heaven,"  could be ( and very likely is)  a state of being, they have emphatically declared that heaven is a physical place somewhere above the clouds.   

These beliefs are a holdover from the days when people believed that the Earth was flat like a three layered cake with heaven above the clouds and hell beneath the Earth's surface.   They staunchly refuse to even consider any possibility about who and what humans are that is not part of ancient Christian theology.   In direct contradiction to numerous passages in the Christian Bible° and  in direct defiance of present day scientific finding, they have also declared that humans are their physical bodies.°   The overwhelming evidence points strongly to these conclusions:   

   "Heaven" is a state of being and not a physical place.  

   Humans are eternal non-physical beings and, as such, were not created at conception or at any other time in the physical, human life cycle.   

   Each being experiences multiple Earth lives in human bodies.   

   Each human being is an integral part of Creation and the Creator called "God."  

   God is NOT an out-there-somewhere being separate from humans and separate from nature.   The beliefs that humans are separate from God and from nature are false beliefs.   The  evidence also points to the conclusion that humans are an integral part of both God and nature.  

   The goal of the human experience appears to be to bring God to Earth and to experience our divine nature while living in a physical body.

   Our Earthly physical bodies are an integral part of nature and, as such, the body's biological nature, including its sexual nature, must be acknowledged.  

   Humans are co-creators with God.  

   Free will is really free.    Humans are NOT required to be or do anything for God.   

   Humans are NOT here on Earth to be tested to see which ones are good enough to get into heaven.   Earth-life is NOT a temporary way station on the way to heaven.

   Humans are NOT inherently evil, but rather are inherently good.   

   Prayer is NOT begging an out-there anthropomorphic God (a super human sitting on a cloud in the sky)  for favors, but rather is a statement of  love, respect, humility, and gratitude for Source.`   

   The energy source that humans call "God" does not appear to either need or desire being worshiped.

   Humans are spirits in bodies and not bodies that each have a spirit.

In addition to the latest scientific evidence, numerous passages in the Christian Bible can be seen as supporting the validity of the above statements.   Readers are reminded that the conclusion drawn regarding the nature, the  significance and the meanings of this, or any other sacred text, are a function of  the reader's interpretation.  Like everything else in life, the Christian Bible is, for each of us, what we declare it to be.   

The Fundamentalist Christians leaders have declared humans to be worthless, groveling, incompetent morons who must prostrate themselves in the mud where they belong, then  pray to Jesus and beg God for favors.  
 The passages  listed below, tell us a very different story.

John 14:12                                                                                     John 14:12                ...

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater [works] than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father."

    This Quote from Jesus is commonly paraphrased as:   "Anything I can do, you can do and more."   

Psalms 82:6 

"I have said, Ye [are] gods; and all of you [are] children of the most High."

    This same message can also be found in John 14:2,  --  Isaiah 41:23  --   and John 10:30-35  + 10:38.  

Isaiah 41:23 

"Shew [show] the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye [are] gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold [it] together."

John 10:30-35  + 10:38                                                                      John10:30-35           ...

30) " I and my father are one accord.   31) Then the Jews again took up stones to stone him.  32) Jesus said, I have shown you many good works from my Father; for which one of them do you stone me?   33) The Jews said to him, It is not because of the good works we stone you but because you blaspheme; for while you are only a man, you make yourself God.   34) Jesus said to them, Is it not so written in your law you are gods?   35) If he called them gods because the word of God was with them (and the scripture cannot be broken)   38)  ...the Father [is] in me, and I in him.

Matthew 25:40

"Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done [it] unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done [it] unto me"

    This passage reaffirms the intimate connection between man and God.

John 10:17 

Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.  

    Here's still another Biblical indication that life is not the physical body, itself.   Who or what is it that is laying down "my life?" 

Matthew 17:20

“... If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you."

John 1:1

“In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God."  

    Here's the Biblical version of The Universal Law of Thought°

Romans 14:14

“I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that [there is] nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him [it is] unclean.”

    This passage reinforces the scriptural message of John 1:1  regarding the Universal Law of Though -- and that the world is what we perceive it to be.

Romans 14:20

“. . All things indeed [are] pure; but [it is] evil for that man who eateth with offence”

    This passage also reinforces the scriptural message of John 1:1  regarding the Universal Law of Though and one's perception of physical reality..   

Proverbs 23:7

"For as he thinketh in his heart, so [is] he. . ."

    This passage, too, reinforces the scriptural message of John 1:1.    Proverbs 23 (the entire chapter)  is recommended reading because it offers a warning about who's company you should keep.   Humans tend to think and act like those with whom they associate.                        (Reference:  Birds of a Feather... °) 

2John 1:2

 For the truth's sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever.

    And here, too, the Bible also tells us where to find the truth.  And where does one find the truth?   See the next Biblical quote. 

Romans 14:5

" . . . Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind."   

    Does this sound like God is telling us to use logic, reasoning, factual evidence, and  convincing arguments, or is God telling us to use threats, intimidation,  arson, violence, murder and government laws and force our ways onto others?

John 8:32

“Know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

    To assist you in having a clearer understanding of what this passage means, you are invited to read a description of the opposite of the truth.^°    Also note a very similar message in  2John 1:2  and in 2John 1:4.   

Matthew 7:15-16

"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but  inwardly they are ravening wolves.   Ye shall know them by their fruits.”   

    Here are a few more details about how to  Recognize a False Profit.^°   

Ecclesiastes 3:19                                                  .Ecclesiastes 3:19.              ...

"For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all [is] vanity."

u    This Bible passage exposes still another fundamental Christian lie of omission.°   Here, the Bible, itself,  exposes, as a fraud, the fairytale about man being separate form nature.    The evidence indicates that humans have both and animal nature and a human nature --  that our human nature give us an advantage over other biological life forms, but it in no way lessons our animal nature.   Readers are directed to  the quote from Chief Seattle.°   

Luke 17:21

“Behold, the kingdom of God is within you." 

    What is the kingdom of God?  Those who dominate right-wing Christianity have been telling the public that God's kingdom is in heaven and that heaven is a physical place that used to be above the clouds. ^1**   It's that place where all the born again Christians (and only born again Christians) will go to be with Jesus after "The Rapture." °

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So, where is heaven?  Is it an out-there-somewhere place as the Fundamentalist Christian leaders are telling their sheep, or is it within each and everyone of us as indicated in the Christian Bible?

How does one deal with this type of inconsistency?    1)  be mindless and just continue riding along on the fairytale wagon.  2)  Consider the Bible to be wrong?   3)  Ignore the problem and focus on something that really matters like who won the yesterday's ballgame.  or  4)  Accept what the evidence indicates --  that those leading right-wing Christianity have been and still are intentionally deceiving and misleading their followers. 

Ecclesiastes 11:5, RSV                                              Ecclesiastes 11:5, RSV             ...

"As you do not know how the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of the woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.”

1 Corinthians 2:14 

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned. 

Ecclesiastes 3:11                                                              Ecclesiastes 3:11                ...

"He hath made every [thing] beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end."

u    The Bible again states that humans do not know how God works.

Matthew 6:6

"... when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

    This passage tell us that we can connect directly to God.  It instructs people to pray in private.   

Are Human Beings Body or Spirit?