The Quest For Eden

When God found Adam and Eve after eating the fruit... Did He say anything about sin? Did He say anything about hell? Did He say anything about needing to offer sacrifices as penance? Did He establish any system for "corrective action?" Nope. He just made sure to remove them from the garden before they ate from the tree of eternal life and lived forever in shame. Sin and punishment are not God's idea. They are man's.

Far too much of the systems of belief of the Christian Religion founds its base on the writing of Paul. When I read the words and follow the model of the love of Jesus, I see only remnants of this philosophy in the writings of Paul. In Paul, I see a push to retain the structure the Pharisees established; the structure that requires penance and hierarchy. When I grouse about the amount of focus the church has put into hell, punishment, and the need for "repentance," someone will almost always invariably say, "But did not Jesus preach repentance of sins to inherit the kingdom?" Sure. But did Jesus preach that punishment, payment, or homage was due to inherit the Kingdom? I don't think so. I believe that His message was that we need to repent and turn to living in love...to repent from judging, measuring, and defining what is or is not "sin..." And when ALL do this, we will BE His kingdom. When all live the kind of life Jesus modelled...or Ghandi modelled

When Jesus said this to the one (of ten) cured lepers... Did Jesus mean the other lepers would become "unwell," or that thankfulness is part of living a full "well" life? I'd like to think the second option is more likely; that Jesus is congratulating the one man for truly enjoying a full life by being healthy, loving, and grateful.