Christian-faith.com/ Buddhist Monk Turns To Jesus!

NAMO TASSA BHAGAVATO ARAHATO SAMMASAMBUDDHASSA
NAMO TASSA BHAGAVATO ARAHATO SAMMASAMBUDDHASSA
NAMO TASSA BHAGAVATO ARAHATO SAMMASAMBUDDHASSA

Translation: May veneration be presented to the exalted one who is a Buddha and who has achieved enlightenment by himself righteously. X3

Any scripture quoted is from the Christian Bible New International Version.


Christianfaith .com


http://www.christian-faith.com/forjesus/buddhist-monk-turns-to-jesus


This is the second such article that I have reviewed. If anyone knows of a former Christian pastor who has since become a Buddhist monk, please let me know about it. I would like to write an article about it, however the story would have to be confirmed as authentic which apparently was more than our friends over at the Christian-faith .com web site found necessary with this story. After the article we shall review.

Here it is.......

Buddhist Monk turns to Jesus!



Bruce believed in
Buddhism and in 1994 he was ordained as a novice monk. Even though he was relaxed at peace, there were no miracles, or great spiritual awakening in his life. At last he turned to Jesus Christ and his life changed for the better after his conversion to Christianity.
BUDDHIST Monk turns To JESUS Christ
After I finished high school, I decided to find my own identity by researching my Laotian background. I read many books on Laotian history, religion and philosophy. Besides researching my ethnical background I also wanted to find out more about the belief I had been born into. Buddhism with all its rules and regulations was not satisfying me spiritually or emotionally. By the age of 30 the problems in my life were almost crushing me. I thought if I worked harder at Buddhism, I might find the answers. In 1994 I was ordained as a novice monk. There where several reasons for doing this; to gain spiritual experience and merits, but also to pay respect to my parents, especially my mother. The parents of monks receive honour and status in the community, so by my becoming a monk, I also raised their status. My family and friends prepared the initiation ceremony. My head was shaved and I was dressed in a white robe, which was later changed to a yellow one. The next 3 weeks were spent in a Buddhist temple learning to obey very strict rules. My day began at 6.00am chanting and praying the TRIPITAKA: the Triple Gems: the Buddha, the teaching and Sangha Monk community. Then I would sweep the floor and tidy up. As a novice
monk I had to cook breakfast and lunch. The remaining time was spent washing, meditating, teaching and studying the Buddhist scriptures. Since there is very little written Buddhist scripture recorded, the teaching method is passed on verbally and memorised. Even though I was relaxed and at peace, there were no miracles, or great spiritual awakening.
My conversion to Christianity
I finally left the Buddhist temple none the wiser, or more able to cope with my problems. Yes, for a while in the monastery, away from every day problems I felt at peace, after all I didn’t have to cope with reality. However, I didn’t feel satisfied, nor was I taught how to cope with life outside the monastery.
I didn’t find the answer as a Buddhist monk so I decided to look elsewhere. I spent many months of continually reading books on different religions, including the Bible. Some of my Christian friends even invited me to their church. I also attended a church camp. None of the above however made a difference until on Monday 27th Dec 1999 I met a lady who told me about Jesus Christ. On this day I made Jesus Christ my Lord, Master, Saviour and God. I met her while visiting
my best friend, Zlatko. She listened sympathetically to the problems and
struggles in my life, emphasising that ONLY GOD could help remove the burdens from my shoulders. I could not work for my “”Salvation”". As I listened I felt different, warmth had crept into my heart, and finally I said a short prayer towelcome the LORD Jesus Christ into my heart as my Saviour. I didn’t know it then, but found out later, that Jovanka my friend’s wife had prayed intensely in “”tongues”" while I was being witnessed to. God later told her the following: “”Marlies, you think it was your good witnessing skills that led Souk to Jesus!
No, when Jovanka prayed in tongues she bound the demon sitting on his head that had stopped him from turning to the Lord Jesus Christ.”"
When the prayer was over I felt totally at peace and relieved. I was not even afraid of what my parents might say that one of their children had changed from a religion that had been in the family for centuries. In fact, within a few weeks I told them that no longer did I follow the Buddhist religion, but had become a Christian.

My life changed for the better after my conversion to Christianity. I
was taught the basic Bible principles and gradually the Holy Spirit opened my eyes and heart to see and understand the “”TRUTH”" about GOD. I saw miracles, received revelations from God via dreams. Also my prayers were answered. As well as, there was a visitation by the Lord Jesus Christ. One very important change was that slowly God had helped to erase my past sadness, heartache and worries and replaced them with His warmth, healing, love, joy and peace. During the first 4 years of being a born-again Christian, I learnt how to fight spiritually and to overcome the tricks and temptation of the enemy–satan. Despite my sincere efforts though, there still remained old habits such as laziness, gambling, lust, rebellion, stubbornness, pride and childish behaviour - tantrums. There were also major issues of confusion in speech and writing and depression.
The Break Through
I thank God for Christian friends who put up with me.
Gradually life was getting so bad that I gave in to the prompting of my friends and on the 13th July 2004, we sought God in order to have the root cause revealed, which had hindered my walk with Jesus. Yes, I knew Jesus loved me very much and that I was his child, but there were blockages that were hindering me from a closer walk. That night we praised and worshipped the Lord Jesus and waited upon Him. During prayer, 2 events from my childhood came to mind. One night my parents went out and my younger brothers and I were looked after by the
maid. Looking back, I now know that she was performing witchcraft. We were sitting on the floor around a burning candle. Suddenly she said “”something”", then threw a rag-doll at me. This frightened me so much that my spirit nearly jumped out of my body. In fright and anger I retaliated by throwing a nail cutter and file at her which hit her near the eye. She had a sore left eye, but was otherwise ok.
The 2nd event happened at the age of 8, when my father gave me a small job to do. I had to offer water and food to an ICON among other Buddhist statues inside the house shrine. One night I forgot to bring the food offering and the spirit, became angry. That night, my family and I were woken by constant knocking on the floor and wall. When my dad returned from police duty, he told me it was a spirit of a dead boy who had been called upon to come and protect the family. I was punished for not doing my job. Now, I know that the dead boy would have gone straight to heaven, because all children belong to God, regardless of what religion the parents are. The ’spirit’, asked to protect my family in fact was a demon and a bone from the dead boy’s body gave it the right
to be in our home. I shared these two events with my friends. The first
thing that came out during prayer was that my name had to be changed from Souk-SonKhan to Bruce. Souk-SonKhan in Loation means war on Friday. All my life I remembered strife and conflict, especially during my school days when other children would tease me about my name, calling me ‘cry baby’, for that is what Souk means in English.
In regards to the curses, of a ‘befuddled mind’, poverty, depression and suicide, spoken out by the maid, Marlies broke these and asked God to turn them into blessings. Interestingly, when we looked up the word
‘fuddled’ in the dictionary, it described my attempts at speaking perfectly —foolish, confused and muddled. Then she commanded the ‘boy demon’ to leave my body. Because I had forgotten to give the demon its offerings it had come into my body as punishment. This explained my childish tantrums considering I am now 38.
When Mendo, Marlies and I met again the next day she had an interesting story to tell me. Apparently the ‘boy demon’ had followed her home after leaving Mendo’s place that night and just as she was about to go to sleep it stood by her bed and told her to invite it into her life. In no uncertain terms she told it to go back to the Laotian village where it had come from! As it couldn’t go into Marlies it decided to force its way into my life again. After the prayer session on Monday night I expected a spiritual battle and was ready for warfare. I dreamt that I was in a house with a teenage boy. Not until what appeared to be sunrise did I realise that my dream had become reality, because as I was pushing the boy out of the window I noticed that he was wearing my white and blue striped flannelette shirt which ended up in my hand as he vanished. Then I realised that the boy in my dream had not been a human being but the spirit of the dead boy who my father had asked to protect my family over 30 years ago. Instantly I rebuked it and commanded it to leave in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I had evidence that the spirit impersonating the dead teenage boy had been living in my soul and had been holding back my life’s progress and joy. The next night the demon tried, but did not ucceed, to come back into my soul while I was sleeping. I was woken up when the evil spirit tried to touch my legs; so I commanded it to get lost and never return. For those reading my testimony you might ask yourself the question, “”why did it take 4 years for me to get properly cleaned out?”" Extreme stubbornness and pride, on my part, prevented God the Holy Spirit from getting through to me. Every time I was told that there was something wrong I threw a tantrum and didn’t mix with my friends for a few weeks, or months. At one stage I had a friend staying with me. God gave him a dream and in that dream Rey saw Jesus Christ sitting on my bed. Tears were rolling down Jesus’ cheeks as he looked at my sleeping body. Stubbornness and pride are major sins. In Buddhism, with the wheel of reincarnation, you simply try to be good, but as you might come back as an ant, or tiger, it doesn’t really matter. By the continuing process of reincarnation you are not held accountable for your actions, even though your conscience tells you when there is something wrong. In the Bible however it is written: Hebrews 9:27 “”Everyone must die once and after that be judged by God.”" I became a monk, because amongst other things this would give prestige to my family. Buddhist monks might have a higher standing in society, but ultimately they will stand before God and be accountable for their sins. The Bible says: Romans 3:22 God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all: 23/ everyone has sinned and is faraway from God’s saving presence. 24/ But by the free gift of God’s grace all are put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free. I look back now at how much I’ve learnt from the Lord Jesus through his Holy Spirit. Jesus won the victory over death at the Cross ( Luke 24: 7) and set me free. God is so kind and loving that He entrusted His faithful followers to use His Name and power for genuine purposes such as healing the sick and casting out demons, so that His Father might be glorified. (Luke 1:19..) So, people have the freewill and choice to accept Jesus Christ by Faith to be their Lord and God Then they also have a choice of being “”totally”" cleaned from sins and denouncing all previous masters. Even though I am longing to go to Heaven to be in God’s presence, I realise that there is so much work to be done on earth. I am very grateful to God who knows that I try very hard to please Him, but it is only through His Grace and the Blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ that I am accepted to be worthy, not good works. I must thank many people who have shared their love and devotion, guidance and prayer with me to get to know and come closer to the Great, Living God. My parents and family have raised and fed me, but I see my Christian brothers and sisters - as my extended spiritual family. It is my heart desire to follow the Wonderful Lord Jesus and to fulfil His commission which is to preach, pray, share God’s love and the Good News to all nations regardless (Matthew 28:19)
No other philosopher or religious leader could ever guarantee their followers the assurance that their names will be written in the
“” Book of Life”" (Revelation 20:12) and that they will live for an eternity in heaven with Almighty God. I will always give praise, glory and honour to Almighty God the Father, through his Son Jesus for the ransom of my sins on the cross.
If you have never asked Jesus Christ into your heart then pray the
following prayer.
“”Oh, Lord my God, I come to you today and I ask you to
forgive me for my sins. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died and rose again to set me free from my sins. I ask now Lord Jesus that you would come into my heart and be my Lord, Master, Saviour and God. I also ask that you Heavenly Father would give me the Holy Spirit. I welcome you Holy Spirit into my heart and I pray that you would teach me and guide me in the way I should go. Oh Lord my God I ask you now to forgive me for the sin of having served the devil (name the areas eg Buddhism, witchcraft, Satanism etc.) in the area of … and that you would wash me clean with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ from that sin.”" Then say: “”Devil the Lord Jesus Christ has forgiven me
for serving you …. He is my Master now, and I tell every foul demonic spirit to get out of my life now and stay out. I take the Sword of the Holy Spirit and cut off every association with the devil once and for all. Amen
Bruce
(If you have further questions you may contact me on my e-mail address.) E-mail: bruce006600@yahoo.com.au

There are some basic problems with this article.


1. “Bruce believed in Buddhism and in 1994 he was ordained as a novice monk.”

If we read and believe the article it would seem as if “Bruce” did not actually know much of the dhamma prior to being ordained as a novice, and was not his stated main intention for becoming a monk in the first place.

2. a.“My day began at 6.00am chanting and praying the TRIPITAKA: the Triple Gems: the Buddha, the teaching and Sangha Monk community. Then I would sweep the floor and tidy up. As a novice monk I had to cook breakfast and lunch. The remaining time was spent washing, meditating, teaching and studying the Buddhist scriptures. Since there is very little written Buddhist scripture recorded, the teaching method is passed on verbally and memorised. Even though I was relaxed and at peace, there were no miracles, or great spiritual awakening.”

As a former Theravada Buddhist novice monk he would know better than to use the Sanskrit “TRIPATAKA” and would use the Pali “TIPITAKA” instead.

b.“As a novice monk I had to cook breakfast and lunch.”

In the Theravada Buddhist culture whether your a novice or not, you would not be doing the cooking. This would be reserved for the laity as it would be deemed too disrespectful to have a monk, novice or otherwise cooking any of the meals.


c.“The remaining time was spent washing, meditating, teaching and studying the Buddhist scriptures.”

If you were ever caught trying to actually teach anything to anyone regarding Buddhism as a novice you would receive a really good talking to. I had to learn this personally, as a novice I once was rather unfortunate to have made that incredibly stupid mistake.

d. “Since there is very little written Buddhist scripture recorded, the teaching method is passed on verbally and memorised”.

This helps to underscore the fact that this is someone who tried to study Buddhism a little bit once perhaps to write this article but who could not get his facts straight. Yes, even a novice monk would know that it was an oral tradition until the Tipitaka was written down at the forth council around the first century B.C.E. This is what he previously mentioned as the “TRIPATAKA”.

3. “Stubbornness and pride are major sins. In Buddhism, with the wheel of reincarnation, you simply try to be good, but as you might come back as an ant, or tiger, it doesn’t really matter. By the continuing process of reincarnation you are not held accountable for your actions, even though your conscience tells you when there is something wrong”

It would take no more than anyone who has given a cursory study to know that the process of reincarnation is exactly about being held accountable for your actions, by way of an impersonal process of cause and effect.

Early on as well we are given this:
" Yes, for a while in the monastery, away from every day problems I felt at peace, after all I didn’t have to cope with reality".

And just what "reality" are we talking about here? The reality outside the monastery as opposed to the reality inside the monastery. Oh yes, that's right, that would be because he was presumably living in a monastery!

"However, I didn’t feel satisfied, nor was I taught how to cope with life outside the monastery."

I see, so he was coping with life outside the monastery before he got to the monastery, but once there he needed someone to teach him how to cope with life outside the monastery? If you were to believe this story, you would have to think that before he joined the monastery he was the boy in the plastic bubble!

The rest of this story is filled with folk superstition type material I believe to help influence a psychological identification with many that this individual would like to convert.
As an example, we have this as a part of the story: “ The ’spirit’, asked to protect my family in fact was a demon and a bone from the dead boy’s body gave it the right to be in our home.”
Just where does Christianity ever teach such a thing?

Then she commanded the ‘boy demon’ to leave my body. Because I had forgotten to give the demon its offerings it had come into my body as punishment. This explained my childish tantrums considering I am now 38.
When Mendo, Marlies and I met again the next day she had an interesting story to tell me. Apparently the ‘boy demon’ had followed her home after leaving Mendo’s place that night and just as she was about to go to sleep it stood by her bed and told her to invite it into her life. In no uncertain terms she told it to go back to the Laotian village where it had come from! As it couldn’t go into Marlies it decided to force its way into my life again. After the prayer session on Monday night I expected a spiritual battle and was ready for warfare. I dreamt that I was in a house with a teenage boy. Not until what appeared to be sunrise did I realise that my dream had become reality, because as I was pushing the boy out of the window I noticed that he was wearing my white and blue striped flannelette shirt which ended up in my hand as he vanished. Then I realised that the boy in my dream had not been a human being but the spirit of the dead boy who my father had asked to protect my family over 30 years ago. Instantly I rebuked it and commanded it to leave in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I had evidence that the spirit impersonating the dead teenage boy had been living in my soul and had been holding back my life’s progress and joy.
Lets take a closer look at this: The story tells us when he became a Christian...

..."on Monday 27th Dec 1999 I met a lady who told me about Jesus Christ. On this day I made Jesus Christ my Lord, Master, Saviour and God."

Then he writes.....

"God later told her the following: 'Marlies, you think it was your good witnessing skills that led Souk to Jesus!
No, when Jovanka prayed in tongues she bound the demon sitting on his head that had stopped him from turning to the Lord Jesus Christ.'"

However the story tells us that a demon was chased from his body at a prayer session about 2 years 7 months later!
..."on the 13th July 2004, we sought God in order to have the root cause revealed, which had hindered my walk with Jesus"

Then he writes .....

"Then I realised that the boy in my dream had not been a human being but the spirit of the dead boy who my father had asked to protect my family over 30 years ago. Instantly I rebuked it and commanded it to leave in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I had evidence that the spirit impersonating the dead teenage boy had been living in my soul and had been holding back my life’s progress and joy".

If what the Christian's say is true, then this would be impossible because the moment he converted to Christianity there would have been no place for the “demon” in this man's body at all! I'll let the thinking Christian him or herself look up the relevent Bibical scripture on this one....... that way they might see for themselves how this man's story doesn't add up even as a Christian!

“I look back now at how much I’ve learnt from the Lord Jesus through his Holy Spirit. Jesus won the victory over death at the Cross ( Luke 24: 7)”

The author here refers to Luke 24:7 he may wish as well to check out 1 Cor. Chapter 15 where it is declared by Paul that the last enemy that will be conquered after the presumed second coming of Jesus by Jesus is death. 1 Cor. 15:26: “The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.” If there is a distinction between victory over death and death being destroyed then what of 1 Cor.15:51-54? Has the last trumpet sounded? Have the dead been raised? If death is still with us then it has not been conquered. Why should we believe otherwise? Because we now have a chance to go to heaven if we become a Christian? According to their own Christian Bible, others went to heaven long before Jesus was ever born!

Although John 3:13 tells us that no one else has ascended into heaven:

John 3:13

13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.

This is contradicted by:

2Kings 2

11 As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. 12 Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his garment and tore it in two. (Italics mine)
We also have...
Hebrews 11:5:

5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.”[a] For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.
Footnotes:
a. Hebrews 11:5 Gen. 5:24
And while we're at it let's not forget about:
Gen:5:24
24 Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.
(Italics mine)

Now let us make sure that we remember that last one the next time a Christian tries to tell us that “NIBBANA MEANS NON-EXISTENCE!”

The concept of “non death” or to put it another way, “ eternal life” is visited upon again in the New Testament such as:

Luke 10:25-28

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
(Italics mine)
Of course, at the end of the article he does not miss the chance to call us people who "serve the devil”, in the same league as witchcraft and Satanism!

“Oh Lord my God I ask you now to forgive me for the sin of having served the devil (name the areas eg Buddhism, witchcraft, Satanism etc.) in the area of … and that you would wash me clean with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ from that sin.”" Then say: “”Devil the Lord Jesus Christ has forgiven me for serving you …. He is my Master now, and I tell every foul demonic spirit to get out of my life now and stay out. I take the Sword of the Holy Spirit and cut off every association with the devil once and for all. Amen”
Now I would like us all to just stop for a moment and think about something. Here someone goes and fabricates this nice fairy tale for the gullible to believe and while he's at it will put us in the same catagory as witchcraft and satanism, while refering to us as those that serve the devil . Meanwhile when I respond to this there will be those who will tell me that I'm being too provocative or aggressive for a Buddhist monk or that I'm engageing in "self-aggrandising" behavior!

Excuse me? Please kiss my ass... O.K.?

I have made an effort to contact "Bruce" at the e mail given but to no avail.
I would like to say now that it is certainly not impossible that a Buddhist monk has or ever will convert to Christianity for there may be many reasons for such a conversion, but when a story like this is apparently fabricated we have to ask ourselves what can these people have that is worthy to offer spiritually if they must believe it necessary to create such a story to help them win converts? To say the very least, our author here “Bruce” does not know very much about the Buddha dhamma to make such judgements of us, but what he does believe is that because we aren't Christian we are in the company of the devil. This is typical of the “people of the book” perspective and why there has been such tremendious needless bloodshed in the name of Jesus. Christianity is currenty the most overt with this as an idealogical offering. They say that is not real Christianity but then partake in the idealogical construction to offer it anyway. With Christianity and it's ultra self righteous, we are the only real devine and worthy religion of an almighty God type behavior, this is like helping to build the foundation and first floor or so of a house and then not wanting to take responsibility when somebody comes along and adds a few rooms to their mansion! “Why, they're not real house builders like us” they might as well say!
All of this with the typical "people of the book" genre of scripture that condones and encourages the torture and murder of others because they don't believe in religion the way they do.1

If anyone believes that I have taken any scripture out of context please leave a comment and discuss the relevent scripture as well as why you believe that it's being taken “out of context”. Please be specific! For many this is just another blanket excuse for not wanting to acknowledge what they may not wish to look at. Christian web sites tell me and others all the time regarding correspondence to be specific when such an assertion or something of the like is made and I do just that. I include all such information in my correspondence with them and you know what they do? They ignore me! You will not have to concern yourselves with such behavior here at this blogsite I can assure you. (Has anyone heard from "Contender Ministries" lately? I know I haven't!)

Before signing off I will make a brief mention of another couple of things, including the fact that the author here make a reference or two in this article to the concept of rules. That is, rules that intail "work".He seeks to downplay the necessity of works and emphisize the saving "power of grace" as they say."Buddhism with all its rules and regulations was not satisfying me spiritually or emotionally." You see, we relize that if your driving down a highway and don't follow a requirement of what are called rules or laws you might have trouble getting to your destination! It's that simple. Who or what makes the rules? It's called cause and effect... that is, you don't plant the lemon seed and get the orange tree.This reminds me that there are many who come to me on a daily basis and request that I "bless" some sort of amulet or charm for them, and I inform them that the most powerful blessing that they could ever possibly receive is the work that they do with their own meditation. They need to apply the effort. They seem very disappointed sometimes because they aren't being offered the "easy way out". They would rather carry some sort of lucky charm around with them instead. Anything worth having will require some sort of effort, otherwise everyone we know would be walking around with the the winning lottery ticket! This type of message is clear, that is, why work when you can take the "easy" way out instead? You should think that you shouldn't need to apply any real effort of your own to obtain spiritual salvation but that perhaps after the fact, it would be nice to commit a good work or two as a Christian. I can only say that I wish these sort of people the very best of luck with their "Free Ticket Lucky Charm Styled Christianity".

“In the Bible however it is written: Hebrews 9:27 “Everyone must die once and after that be judged by God.”

However we also have ....

The 4 very different deaths for King Saul!
1 Samuel (31:4) says that Saul "Took a sword, and fell upon it".
2 Samuel (1:2-10) says Saul, at his own request, was slain by an Amalekite.
Later in 2 Samuel (21:12) we read that Saul was killed by the Philistines on Gilboa.
But then in 1 Chronicles (10:13-14) we learn that Saul was slain by God!

Again, we must ask, is the Christian Bible really the perfect and un erring word of a perfect and un erring God? If that were true and that indeed everyone must die once and after that be judged by God, the fact that King Saul dies four different times and four different ways is certainly a strange way of showing it!
I will add here as well that if one were to take God to be something impersonal as opposed to personal or not, the process of reincarnation could be viewed as a “judgement” prior to ones rebirth in Samsara (the process of being bound by ignorance to a classification of form).
Every different incarnation within samsara would then be considered a different incarnation of birth and death.

"Buddhist monks might have a higher standing in society, but ultimately they will stand before God and be accountable for their sins. The Bible says: Romans 3:22 God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all: 23/ everyone has sinned and is faraway from God’s saving presence. 24/ But by the free gift of God’s grace all are put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free."

"Bruce" along with his Christian friends won't be held accountable for their sins? Oh yes, that's right, they believe that they have nothing to worry about because all of their sins have been forgiven. Which of course even includes the ones that they haven't commited yet! In other words don't even worry about going to jail...when they lock you up, just show them your Christian lucky charm free get out of jail ticket! Ha! What a discouragement to crime!I have had Christians tell me that there is a difference between being weak and falling into sin, and not actually having a change of heart so to speak on the other. So how many times can one be weak and fall into sin before being judged as not having had a change of heart? And just who would do the judging? As long as someone can use this as an excuse to "sin" when they can find no scripture available to justify their actions, I doubt there to be any meaningful difference, especially for those being harmed. We need to remember that the only change of heart that the Christian needs to be a Christian is believing that Jesus died for his or her sins and that Jesus is their lord and savior. Any other talk of "being made new in Christ" or something is an interpretation to be applied, and will be applied as the individual sees fit because any new behavior will or will not be demonstrated after the fact of their conversion in the first place. There should be no wonder that there has been so much needless bloodshed in the name of Jesus, as they talk of who they now choose to conveniently consider a "real" Christian or not.

While this man and his ilk are busy calling us those who "serve the devil" we would be wise not to forget that fact.
Before I sign off here I'm going to leave the link to a site that has a story about a Christian group targeting elementary school kids in America, apparently they were giving out t shirts, balloons, and sweet cakes to the little children and one of the leaders of this group actually went and volunteered as a kindergarten teacher so that they could go and “evangelize and disciple” these very young children.
..... you think that lying about once having been a Buddhist monk to con people into a Christian conversion is bad?.....




http://christianaggression.org/item_display.php?type=ARTICLES&id=1298391991


I sincerely wish all of you the very best of all good things spiritual!



Bhikkhu aggacitto:)



Notes:
1. For todays Christian you may want to start with Deuteronomy 20 Vs. 10-18 as one of many places and then when they tell you that this is just that Old time Old Testament, discuss the book of Acts Ch. 5 with them and ask them just what type of a moral God would slaughter two people for telling a lie and not "coughing it all up" for the apostle Peter after having sold some land?