Where did the doctrine of eternal punishment come from?

Did Jesus believe in or teach this?

Don Rogers has a WONDERFUL post about this doctrine at his place.

A sample of what you’ll find there is:

“We should bear a fact in mind. When the doctrine of endless punishment began to be taught in the Christian Church, it was not derived from the Scriptures, but from the heathen converts to Christianity, who accepted Christ, but who brought with them into their new church that doctrine which had for centuries been taught in heathen lands, but which neither Moses nor Christ accepted. And having received the idea from heathen tradition, it was natural that the early Christians should transfer it to the Bible, and seek to find it there.”

It’d be well worth your time to go read the rest at Don’s place.

Last night I was in a discussion with some friends, and we got to talking about reality.

We were talking about how no one and nothing is separate, but are all part of the whole…but not even separate parts, mind you. Why then are we confined in our separateness?

Why do I have a different physical makeup than you? My physical makeup isn’t really me is it? Can you dissect my body and find “me”? Of course not.

What happens to a person when they cease to rely on the sensory world as reality? Can someone reach this point on their journey? If we are spirit/source/energy/etc, why are we even confined in a body to begin with?

Just some questions I’m pondering today…and i’m sure i will be for a long time coming.

Is there such a thing as destiny? Are we in bondage to a master plan where “all the right choices” must be made or the fruits of them are lost forever?

My good friend Hilary asked me to muse on this topic back in a post about the conflict between mind and heart, back in January.

My answer (or at least my thought at the moment) is, “No, there is no such thing”.

What if, instead of trying to figure out “why am I here, what’s my purpose, etc”, we were fully present at all times.? What if we didn’t waste time chasing a feeling of euphoria brought by “doing the right thing”?

What if life were about BEING who we are, the divine life and essence of God, all the time?

Doesn’t that sound much more freeing, fruitful, enjoyable, and purposeful than to spend our lives wondering how to be free, how to bear fruit, how to enjoy life, and what our purpose is?

I think it is often difficult for many of us to disconnect from the religious dogma of “do, do, do” that has been instilled in us from our youth. What’s more, is that “doing” may be a result of “being”, but I do not think it’s most beneficial for the “doing” to be the focus…lest the cycle begin to repeat.

So if there is no destiny, if there are no pivotal choices one must make for our lives to be “on track”, what does life look like?

Photo by Shavy

Technorati Tags: spirituality, destiny, Jeffrey Davis

The more I learn, the more serious I grow about strength training…and the higher I set my goals.

Heck, this week I even twittered about putting power cleans back into my routine after swearing them off forever years ago after a string of injuries related to them…which of course were all due to pitiful form, as most strength training injuries are.

I’m really a visual person, so I’ve been searching for a body builder with similar body composition as myself to set my sites on.

I NEVER expected that person to be a Bulgarian Olympic power lifter!

The man pictured here is none other than Ivan Stoitsov. We are both:

• similar in height
• have rolling posture (shoulders set further front on the body, strong arch in lower back, and hips tilted forward)
• have a more square torso (instead of a natural “V”)
• have wide hips
• and what appears to be very similar muscle structure (albeit his are MUCH bigger than mine, ha)

It is a physical impossibility to achieve the results that a professional body builder has. They are INCREDIBLY juiced up on steroids and are near death from dehydration at the time their pictures are taken.

BUT, an Olympic power lifter like Ivan is a little more attainable. Sure he probably trains 8-9 times a week at an intensity level that I can’t even fathom, but his stature is much more my goal.

Do I want to be completely as big as him, nah, especially those massive quads he has, but somewhere in the direction of where he is will be my new goal.

Thanks for the inspiration Ivan.

Technorati Tags: Ivan Stoitsov, Jeffrey Davis, strength training, power lifting

…When you incorporate a blog bud (whom you’ve never met in real life) into your dream last night, and construct their physical appearance and conversational tone by their various avatars, flickr pics, and writing style.

So, nice to meet ya last night Ginger, you sure are nice. Ha.

Technorati Tags: blogging, bloggers, dreams, Jeffrey Davis

Good And Evil Homer
Originally uploaded by Drkangeltex

In several conversations recently, the concept of dualism has arisen–specifically in the context of the “epic struggle” between “GOOD” and “EVIL”.

I had forgotten that I wrote a post about this, Can We Know Good Without Evil?, early in 2007. I was refreshed to go back and peruse the comment thread with a reader named Brent. He had some great insights.

Well here we are, over a year later, and the discussion of that concept (or problem?) has arisen once more.

My friend Jim Palmer, author of Divine Nobodies and Wide Open Spaces, posted about this at his blog just the other day.

I was considering making this next thought into a separate post, and maybe I still will, but here it is nonetheless…

I’ve recently become acquainted with Jim’s neighbor Mike, who resonates primarily with the teachings of Buddhism. Mike was mentioning the other day that we often find ourselves at a roadblock when we get consumed with “maintaining a state”.

He meant that religion tends to foster the dependency on some blissful state, “right” living (again, what is right without wrong?), etc, etc. Instead, what if the goal were to “know God”, and let the circumstances be as they are.

If the result of this “knowing” is a change of lifestyle, decisions, etc, then great, but that would be not the end goal. Neither would it be a problem if one slipped/backslid/messed up/whatever if the focus were not the derailment of “maintaining a state of ______”.

Some how in my mind these two thoughts were related, but I’ve forgotten how.

What do you think?

Steven Bush, a rocker, friend, and kick ass photographer has got your hookup for all those senior pic or graduation portraits.

No one can beat his eye for the setting and the shot or his prices. Contact him about your senior picture needs here.

Technorati Tags: pictures, photos, graduation, Steven Bush, Jeffrey Davis