Who Knows "The Truth"? What is Truth? Where is Truth Found?

[Richard E Warren]

Bonita wrote:

Rick Warren wrote: Without these indwelling spiritual influences we would be unable to see beyond the animal level, much less seek, find and worship an invisible and transcendent God of Truth.

Don’t forget that the spirit of worship is what separates humans from the animal level of thinking and living. The worship trait is sufficient to evolve a system of morals and ethics which are superanimal, albeit subspiritual.

36:5.11 The spirit of worship — the religious impulse, the first differential urge separating mind creatures into the two basic classes of mortal existence. The spirit of worship forever distinguishes the animal of its association from the soulless creatures of mind endowment. Worship is the badge of spiritual-ascension candidacy.

101:5.10 Evolutionary religion is the outworking of the endowment of the local universe mind adjutant charged with the creation and fostering of the worship trait in evolving man. Such primitive religions are directly concerned with ethics and morals, the sense of human duty. Such religions are predicated on the assurance of conscience and result in the stabilization of relatively ethical civilizations.

196:3.25 Morality is the essential pre-existent soil of personal God-consciousness, the personal realization of the Adjuster’s inner presence, but such morality is not the source of religious experience and the resultant spiritual insight. The moral nature is superanimal but subspiritual. Morality is equivalent to the recognition of duty, the realization of the existence of right and wrong. The moral zone intervenes between the animal and the human types of mind as morontia functions between the material and the spiritual spheres of personality attainment.

Say . . . what happened to your last post? It disappeared. I wanted to comment on this statement of yours: “Morality continuously evolves in individuals and groups, but the Spirit of Truth and the Paradise Pilots are rock steady, their counsel does not change, waver or recede.”

 

The Spirit of Truth’s counsel does indeed change, that’s why it’s called living truth. The first mission of the Spirit of Truth is to personalize truth, which means each person perceives truth differently; truth is relative. The “Jesus message” must be restated anew to each generation because the “Jesus message” is alive and growing along with the Supreme. The Spirit of Truth is a living relationship between all things and all beings, just like the Supreme. The Spirit of Truth is receptive and reactive to all the emerging values in personality, and transmits them to the Supreme. If the Spirit of Truth did not constantly readapt the interpretation of relationships for us, we would be standing still.

 

Perhaps what you really meant is that the Spirit of Truth is always true to spirit. Spirit gravity never wavers or recedes. Spirit gravity presence will always draw us toward spirit, wherever it may be.

180:5.10 Love, unselfishness, must undergo a constant and living readaptative interpretation of relationships in accordance with the leading of the Spirit of Truth. Love must thereby grasp the ever-changing and enlarging concepts of the highest cosmic good of the individual who is loved. And then love goes on to strike this same attitude concerning all other individuals who could possibly be influenced by the growing and living relationship of one spirit-led mortal’s love for other citizens of the universe. And this entire living adaptation of love must be effected in the light of both the environment of present evil and the eternal goal of the perfection of divine destiny.

 

Thanks for the feedback, Bonita. Very strange, I posted yesterday, then the post disappeared, and then I couldn’t post at all. Will try again here:

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The spiritual provisions for such a fantastically complex, personal, diverse, unified and thoroughly administered Universe as ours are not mere decorations or accessories. They make it possible for us to have every divine gift we can responsibly use. In these gifts we find personal happiness, as we create the conditions for spiritual expansion, always by giving them away.

…Jesus was the truth made manifest in the flesh, and he promised to send his Spirit of Truth into the hearts of all his children after his return to the Father in heaven…. p.1594

This Spirit of Truth descended on Urantia several weeks after Jesus ‘drank the bitter cup’ and rose from death, and after Our Father on Paradise had approved. When the Spirit of Truth was bestowed it overtook the apostles, disciples, and all truth lovers–like a beautiful wind. They felt it in their souls. Forty days after resurrection morn, on May 18, AD 30, Michael, a Paradise Son with our Father’s blessing, sent his Spirit of Truth to everyone on Earth. This prepared the way for Father Fragments to indwell not just a few but everyone who has shown the capacity to make moral choice. But Michael didn’t bestow, and doesn’t maintain, the SofT all by himself:

…The Universe Mother Spirit also participates in this bestowal of the Spirit of Truth, and concomitant therewith there issues the bestowal edict of the Thought Adjusters. Thereafter all normal-minded will creatures of that world will receive Adjusters as soon as they attain the age of moral responsibility, of spiritual choice…. ^{(596.4) 52:5.6}

But our moral consciousness and our perception of the Spirit of Truth are not the same. Moral choice is a natural, evolutionary process that makes possible the reception of the Spirit of Truth and the Divine Indweller. Morality continuously evolves in individuals and groups, but the Spirit of Truth and the Paradise Pilots are rock steady, their counsel does not change, waver or recede.

…The Spirit of Truth is concerned primarily with the revelation of the Father’s spirit nature and the Son’s moral character. The Creator Son, in the flesh, revealed God to men; the Spirit of Truth, in the heart, reveals the Creator Son to men…. ^{(1111.8) 101:6.4}

This Spirit never falters, indeed it is available to us all the way to Paradise. It hovers around us even now, wanting to teach truth, give enlightenment, and inspire us onward in the long journey Home. It helps us know right from wrong, truth from error, in a world that offers so many perplexing choices, often fraught with ambiguity and dire consequences. Since Divinity has the greatest of all perspectives, therefrom comes the greatest advice.

When the Son came to this world, he was living truth. The actual living of God’s truth forever raised the standard for truth on Urantia. It opened the door of spiritual freedom for all humankind, because truth sets humans free–free from ignorance of our God who is the greatest and most loving of all beings and the most real of all realities. The Spirit of Truth Michael bestowed teaches that true freedom, genuine liberation, is choosing and receiving an eternal role in life and service to the Universe family of divine unfolding and Supreme achievement.

What can we do but express gratitude to God for his Creator Sons and Daughters who venture out into time/space to show us what living truth, beauty and goodness really is. In addition, the Spirit of Truth provides the spiritual framework for planetary progress that leads to the end of humanity’s long search for a utopian peace of global fraternity, the Fatherhood of God and the famlihood of all humans.

…Truth is made accessible to the wisdom-endowed individual by the bestowal on such a mind of the spirits of the Father and the Sons, the Thought Adjuster and the Spirit of Truth…. ^{(1111.8) 101:6.4}

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Richard E Warren

[George Park]

Rick Warren wrote:

Morality continuously evolves in individuals and groups, but the Spirit of Truth and the Paradise Pilots are rock steady, their counsel does not change, waver or recede.

Thanks for highlighting this difference between the moral-intellectual and spiritual domains of experience. Our moral assessments, like our intellectual interpretations, are always relative. In religious experience moral self-consciousness is always evolving toward the absolute values presented by the Spirit of God.

“Morality is the essential pre-existent soil of personal God-consciousness, the personal realization of the Adjuster’s inner presence, but such morality is not the source of religious experience and the resultant spiritual insight. The moral nature is superanimal but subspiritual. Morality is equivalent to the recognition of duty, the realization of the existence of right and wrong. The moral zone intervenes between the animal and the human types of mind as morontia functions between the material and the spiritual spheres of personality attainment.” (196:3.25)

If moral duty-consciousness of material mind “intervenes between the animal and human types of mind,” what is the nature of the morontia soul-consciousness intervening “between the material and spiritual spheres” and what is the nature of spirit-consciousness? If the moral intellect can only grasp relative truth, absolute truth is beyond its ability to recognize. How then can we be certain that God exists? This is an absolute truth which the material intellect cannot apprehend, and yet faith can and does apprehend it. This personally reveals to the self-conscious material mind the living presence of an indwelling absolute spirit consciousness, which does know the absolute truth. While self-conscious experience tends toward unity, it is a unification of mindal, morontial, and spiritual phases of consciousness.

The material mind is full of intellectual uncertainty, inaccurate interpretations, and imperfect moral assessments. The indwelling spirit is full of certainty, absolute truth, and divine goodness. Religion is experienced primarily in the soul, which is both absolutely certain that God exists while, simultaneously, being intellectually uncertain about his precise nature and attributes. It is only the uncertainty created by relative truth which permits the thrill of discovering higher truth.

“Uncertainty with security is the essence of the Paradise adventure—uncertainty in time and in mind, uncertainty as to the events of the unfolding Paradise ascent; security in spirit and in eternity, security in the unqualified trust of the creature son in the divine compassion and infinite love of the Universal Father; uncertainty as an inexperienced citizen of the universe; security as an ascending son in the universe mansions of an all-powerful, all-wise, and all-loving Father.” 111:7.1

[Richard E Warren]

George Park wrote:

Rick Warren wrote:

Morality continuously evolves in individuals and groups, but the Spirit of Truth and the Paradise Pilots are rock steady, their counsel does not change, waver or recede.

Thanks for highlighting this difference between the moral-intellectual and spiritual domains of experience. Our moral assessments, like our intellectual interpretations, are always relative. In religious experience moral self-consciousness is always evolving toward the absolute values presented by the Spirit of God.

“Morality is the essential pre-existent soil of personal God-consciousness, the personal realization of the Adjuster’s inner presence, but such morality is not the source of religious experience and the resultant spiritual insight. The moral nature is superanimal but subspiritual. Morality is equivalent to the recognition of duty, the realization of the existence of right and wrong. The moral zone intervenes between the animal and the human types of mind as morontia functions between the material and the spiritual spheres of personality attainment.” (196:3.25)

If moral duty-consciousness of material mind “intervenes between the animal and human types of mind,” what is the nature of the morontia soul-consciousness intervening “between the material and spiritual spheres” and what is the nature of spirit-consciousness? If the moral intellect can only grasp relative truth, absolute truth is beyond its ability to recognize. How then can we be certain that God exists? This is an absolute truth which the material intellect cannot apprehend, and yet faith can and does apprehend it. This personally reveals to the self-conscious material mind the living presence of an indwelling absolute spirit consciousness, which does know the absolute truth. While self-conscious experience tends toward unity, it is a unification of mindal, morontial, and spiritual phases of consciousness.

The material mind is full of intellectual uncertainty, inaccurate interpretations, and imperfect moral assessments. The indwelling spirit is full of certainty, absolute truth, and divine goodness. Religion is experienced primarily in the soul, which is both absolutely certain that God exists while, simultaneously, being intellectually uncertain about his precise nature and attributes. It is only the uncertainty created by relative truth which permits the thrill of discovering higher truth.

“Uncertainty with security is the essence of the Paradise adventure—uncertainty in time and in mind, uncertainty as to the events of the unfolding Paradise ascent; security in spirit and in eternity, security in the unqualified trust of the creature son in the divine compassion and infinite love of the Universal Father; uncertainty as an inexperienced citizen of the universe; security as an ascending son in the universe mansions of an all-powerful, all-wise, and all-loving Father.” 111:7.1

 

Much appreciate the insightful commentary, George.  Such a strange spiritual situation we ascenders find ourselves in, certain only in faith, believing that there must be something perfectly real somewhere, even at our invisible core.

 

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Richard E Warren

[Richard E Warren]

No wonder there is such confusion about our bestowed Spirit of Truth, including the name and source. This is from a Wikipedia page on:

Holy Spirit in Johannine literature

By the end of the 20th century, the theological importance of the Holy Spirit in Johannine literature had been accepted by New Testament scholars, overshadowing the early 20th-century views that minimized its role in the writings of John.[1]

First Epistle of John in Codex Alexandrinus, 5th century

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Three separate terms, namely Holy Spirit, Spirit of Truth and Paraclete are used in Johannine literature.[2] The “Spirit of Truth” is used in John 14:17, 15:26 and 16:13.[3] The First Epistle of John then contrasts this with the “spirit of error” in 1 John 4:6. [3] 1 John 4:1-6 provides the separation between spirits “that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God” and those who in error refuse it – an indication of their being evil spirits. [4]

In John 14:26 Jesus states: “But the Comforter, [even] the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things”. The identity of the “Comforter” has been the subject of debate among theologians, who have proposed multiple theories on the matter. [5]

Paraclete considered as the Spirit of Truth is used three times in the Gospel of John: in 14:15-17, 14:26 and 15:26-27, where it is viewed as the “Spirit which communicates Truth”. [6] The concept of “truth” in Johannine writings is then intertwined with John 16:13’s statement of how the Spirit of Truth acts as guide that leads believers to truth, building on the assurance given in John 14:26 that the Paraclete facilitates and confirms the memory of “all that Jesus had taught his disciples” and John 15:26’s statement that “Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall bear witness of me”.[7]

“St John the Evangelist” by Domenichino (Domenico Zampieri), 1620s

Text/image source: Wikipedia

Richard E Warren

[Richard E Warren]

…Animals have knowledge, but only man possesses wisdom capacity. Truth is made accessible to the wisdom-endowed individual by the bestowal on such a mind of the spirits of the Father and the Sons, the Thought Adjuster and the Spirit of Truth…. (1111:8) 101:6.4

Complementary Quote:

…Evolutionary religion is the mother of the science, art, and philosophy which elevated man to the level of receptivity to revealed religion, including the bestowal of Adjusters and the coming of the Spirit of Truth…. (68:8) 5:5.5

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Richard E Warren

[Bonita]

Rick Warren wrote:

No wonder there is such confusion about our bestowed Spirit of Truth, including the name and source.

Don’t forget that John was a Jew.  The Jews had their own ideas about the Holy Spirit, known as the Shekinah, or the divine presence, which is mentioned in TUB in 136:1.4.

Shekinah is derived from the word shakan, which means to dwell with or to pitch one’s tent. The ancient Jews were subject to an evolutionary concept of God in which they believed that Yahweh lived in the misty heavens above Mount Sinai. Progress was made when they realized that Yahweh’s presence was mobile, could be placed within a tabernacle and moved about the desert. They then fossilized this idea by surrounding him with stone on the Temple Mount; he was still accessible but no longer mobile. With the destruction of the Temple and the dispersion of  Jews to Babylonia, second Isaiah realized that the Shekinah was the “presence of God” which had been freed from the Temple in order to inhabit all of the earth, thus becoming a Spirit presence for everyone, a Holy Spirit. It helped the exiled Jews cultivate a sense of God’s presence wherever they went, no longer needing a tabernacle. It was a comfort and a revelation of a benevolent God.

After the destruction of the second Temple, rabbinic schools developed in order to preserve the faith. These new teachers, after looking back at history, comforted believers by pointing out that the Shekinah had always followed them and would continue to do the same in the absence of the Temple. In their own way, the rabbis were beginning to teach a new revelation, that the presence of God can be identified with the individual. They believed that the Shekinah skipped about to every synagogue and stood at the doorway to bless every individual Jew. It was believed that the Shekinah preferred harmony and unity among believers, hence devotion, “with one voice, one mind and one tone”, became the goal, lest God be angered and leave for the heavens again. Likewise, if the community stayed together and studied the Torah, the Shekinah would sit among them, not unlike the Christian notion of the Church being the body of Christ. John knew that Jesus taught  the Spirit would be poured out to all of mankind, not just the Jews.  John’s notion of the Shekinah as an individual source of comfort to the Jews naturally overflows into his idea that the Holy Spirit is one and the same Comforter for all mankind.

 

 

[Gene]

Rick Warren wrote:

One of the beauties, and functions, of revelation is to correct the accumulated errors of spiritual understanding and religious dogma, therefore do we, as a planet, have much remedial work to do. Before the Urantia Book arrived, the Roman Catholic Church might have been the final authority on the Spirit of Truth, at least in the West. Unfortunately the RCC has it confused with the third person of deity, a part of the Trinity. From the Catholic Encyclopedia:

The doctrine of the CatholicChurch concerning the Holy Ghost forms an integral part of her teaching on the mystery of the Holy Trinity, of which St. Augustine (On the Holy Trinity I.3.5), speaking with diffidence, says: “In no other subject is the danger of erring so great, or the progress so difficult, or the fruit of a careful study so appreciable”. The essential points of the dogma may be resumed in the following propositions:

• The Holy Ghost is the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity.
• Though really distinct, as a Person, from the Father and the Son, He is consubstantial with Them; being God like Them, He possesses with Them one and the same Divine Essence or Nature.
• He proceeds, not by way of generation, but by way of spiration, from the Father and the Son together, as from a single principle.

Such is the belief the Catholicfaith demands.

The Eastern Orthodox Church disagrees somewhat with the the Roman church:

Orthodox Christians believe in the Trinity. The Holy Trinity is three, distinct, divine persons (hypostases), without overlap or modality among them, who share one divine essence (ousia Greek ουσία)— uncreated, immaterial and eternal.[85] These three persons are typically distinguished by their relation to each other. The Father is eternal and not begotten and does not proceed from any, the Son is eternal and begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit is eternal and proceeds from the Father. Orthodox doctrine regarding the Holy Trinity is summarized in the Nicene Creed (Symbol of Faith).[86]

Source/more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Orthodox_Church#Trinity And there is yet more variation, and confusion, in Protestant sects:

The majority of mainstream Protestantism hold similar views on the theology of the Holy Spirit as the Roman Catholic Church, but there are significant differences in belief between Pentecostalism and the rest of Protestantism.[1][60] Pentecostalism has a focus on “Baptism with the Spirit”, relying on Acts 1:5 which refers to “now you will baptize with the Holy Spirit”.[61] The more recent Charismatic movements have a focus on the “gifts of the Spirit” (such as healing, prophecy, etc.) and rely on 1 Corinthians 12 as a scriptural basis, but often differ from Pentecostal movements.[62]

Source/more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Spirit_%28Christianity%29 Someday Urantia will know the Spirit of Truth, not as part of the Paradise Trinity, but as Michael’s Spirit who, ever and anon, works seamlessly with the other two indwellers of the human mind, the 7 Adjutants and the Adjuster. ***

is the implication that evolutionary religion precipitated even a crude concept of the trinity? This seems amazing to me.

[Richard E Warren]

Gene wrote:

 

is the implication that evolutionary religion precipitated even a crude concept of the trinity? This seems amazing to me.

Yeah! And monotheism before that. It’s all amazing, thank God for the truth of it.

Richard E Warren

[Richard E Warren]

Yesterday some of Christianity celebrated the coming of the Spirit of Truth, so called Pentecost. The actual date of its arrival is May 18.

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The Pope referred to him as the the “Holy Spirit” yesterday. But it’s interesting that the Pope mirrored this quote from the Midwayers, about us not being orphans, which itself is a mirror of John 14:18 (Bible, New Testament), where Jesus says: “I will not leave you orphans” (John 14:18):

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…The first mission of this spirit is, of course, to foster and personalize truth, for it is the comprehension of truth that constitutes the highest form of human liberty. Next, it is the purpose of this spirit to destroy the believer’s feeling of orphanhood. Jesus having been among men, all believers would experience a sense of loneliness had not the Spirit of Truth come to dwell in men’s hearts. (2060.7) 194:2.2

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May 15, Sunday 2016: Pope Francis

Homily during Mass for Pentecost Sunday

“I will not leave you orphans” (John 14:18).

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The central purpose of Jesus’ mission, which culminated in the gift of the Holy Spirit, was to renew our relationship with the Father, a relationship severed by sin, to take us from our state of being orphaned children and to restore us as his sons and daughters.

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The Apostle Paul, writing to the Christians in Rome, says: “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship, which enables us to cry out, ‘Abba, Father’” (Rom 8:14-15). Here we see our relationship renewed: the paternity of God is re-established in us thanks to the redemptive work of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

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The Spirit is given to us by the Father and leads us back to the Father. The entire work of salvation is one of “re-generation”, in which the fatherhood of God, through the gift of the Son and the Holy Spirit, frees us from the condition of being orphans into which we had fallen. In our own day also, we see various signs of our being orphans: in the interior loneliness which we feel even when we are surrounded by people, a loneliness which can become an existential sadness; in the attempt to be free of God, even if accompanied by a desire for his presence; in the all-too-common spiritual illiteracy which renders us incapable of prayer; in the difficulty in grasping the truth and reality of eternal life as that fullness of communion which begins on earth and reaches full flower after death; in the effort to see others as “brothers” and “sisters”, since we are children of the same Father; and other such signs.

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Being children of God runs contrary to all this and is our primordial vocation. We were made to be God’s children, it is in our DNA. But this filial relationship was ruined and required the sacrifice of God’s only-begotten Son in order to be restored. From the immense gift of love which is Jesus’ death on the cross, the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon humanity like a vast torrent of grace. Those who by faith are immersed into this mystery of regeneration are reborn to the fullness of filial life.

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“I will not leave you orphans”. Today, on the feast of Pentecost, Jesus’ words remind us also of the maternal presence of Mary in the Upper Room. The Mother of Jesus is with the community of disciples gathered in prayer: she is the living remembrance of the Son and the living invocation of the Holy Spirit. She is the Mother of the Church. We entrust to her intercession, in a particular way, all Christians, families and communities that at this moment are most in need of the Spirit, the Paraclete, the Defender and Comforter, the Spirit of truth, freedom and peace.

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The Spirit, as Saint Paul says, unites us to Christ: “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” (Rom 8:9). Strengthening our relationship of belonging to the Lord Jesus, the Spirit enables us to enter into a new experience of fraternity. By means of our universal Brother – Jesus – we can relate to one another in a new way; no longer as orphans, but rather as children of the same good and merciful Father. And this changes everything! We can see each other as brothers and sisters whose differences can only increase our joy and wonder at sharing in this unique fatherhood and brotherhood.

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 S

Source: http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2016/05/15/homily_for_pentecost_sunday_full_text/1229982

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Richard E Warren

[Bonita]

Pope Francis wrote: . . . . the maternal presence of Mary in the Upper Room. The Mother of Jesus is with the community of disciples gathered in prayer: she is the living remembrance of the Son and the living invocation of the Holy Spirit. She is the Mother of the Church.

Isn’t it fascinating the way he conflates Mary, the mother of Jesus, with the Divine Spirit?  It seems that humans really need a goddess as well as a God.  Being sex-creatures I understand it, but I just wish the Church would just stop with the Mariology.  I know several people who won’t read TUB because it denies the perpetual virginity of Mary.  Why do people hold on so dearly to pagan myths?  I’ve never understood it, not even as a child.

[Richard E Warren]

Bonita wrote:

Pope Francis wrote: . . . . the maternal presence of Mary in the Upper Room. The Mother of Jesus is with the community of disciples gathered in prayer: she is the living remembrance of the Son and the living invocation of the Holy Spirit. She is the Mother of the Church.

Isn’t it fascinating the way he conflates Mary, the mother of Jesus, with the Divine Spirit? It seems that humans really need a goddess as well as a God. Being sex-creatures I understand it, but I just wish the Church would just stop with the Mariology. I know several people who won’t read TUB because it denies the perpetual virginity of Mary. Why do people hold on so dearly to pagan myths? I’ve never understood it, not even as a child.

 

Evidently, she fills a gaping hole in our spiritual environment. Bet she’s happy to see revelational correction. Less having to fend off misguided worshippers :)

 

Richard E Warren

[Gene]

Rick Warren wrote:

Evidently, she fills a gaping hole in our spiritual environment. Bet she’s happy to see revelational correction. Less having to fend off misguided worshippers :)

makes me curious: ya think misguided worship falls on deaf ears?  I think the father sees through it just fine.

[Richard E Warren]

Gene wrote:

Rick Warren wrote:

Evidently, she fills a gaping hole in our spiritual environment. Bet she’s happy to see revelational correction. Less having to fend off misguided worshippers :)

makes me curious: ya think misguided worship falls on deaf ears? I think the father sees through it just fine.

 

Never! But, poor Mary. Makes me curious if she’s still in the local system.

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Richard E Warren

[Gene]

  ????Rick Warren wrote:

Gene wrote:

Rick Warren wrote:

Evidently, she fills a gaping hole in our spiritual environment. Bet she’s happy to see revelational correction. Less having to fend off misguided worshippers :)

makes me curious: ya think misguided worship falls on deaf ears? I think the father sees through it just fine.

Never! But, poor Mary. Makes me curious if she’s still in the local system.

new gravity circuits happen

[Richard E Warren]

Gene wrote:

new gravity circuits happen

Richard E Warren

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