The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum

=> Some answers

Some answers
Posted by The Nineveh Kid (Guest) - Monday, March 1 2004, 16:29:23 (EST)
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Kid Questions

2. Is the person who accepts stolen goods also a crimminal?

Answer: YES

3. Why isn't it enough to just follow Christ's "teachings"...why does he have to be killed and eaten?

Answer: The human race, collectively is responsible for Christ’s death. It was a collective act of rebellion against the Creator. If He lived in any generation He probably would be dealt with the same way because the power structure in this world is such that it does not tolerate Truth and Justice and Peace.

4. What would have happeded to Christianity if Jesus had lived? Was there nothing of benefit to it otherwise?

Answer: Wouldn’t that be pure speculation? God being God, He knew what would happen and allowed it. He has all the pieces to the puzzle, I don’t. I can’t answer this question.

5. What makes Christianity different from Judaism and Islam...Buddhism and Shintoism...in other words what does Christianity teach its followers to practise that NO OTHER religion teaches?

Answer: My opinion – All of these religions have beneficial elements and contain wisdom that if followed would benefit mankind. However, none of the founders of those religions could have atoned for the collective sins of rebellion against the Creator. Could the Creator have chosen another way to save mankind. I don’t know, but I guess He could have – I can’t presume to know the ways of God. What distinguishes Christianity from all other religions is that Jesus Christ (here we go again) is God and took upon Himself our human nature to expiate our sins before a Just and Holy God. No mere human could expiate those sins, for himself or others. It makes sense to me, but what does a kid know?

6. If there had been no books available, no eyewitnesses and no memory of their own past among Native Americans...would you believe they accepted Jesus joyfully or willingly and the state they find themselves in today is a result of the natural curve of their development?

If the leadership of the Native Americans willingly shared their tax-free Casino billions with the rest of their people, then they would be better off than the average middle-class American. They were brutalized and exploited just like every other group of people on the face of the earth at one time or another. This brutality, exploitation and genocide has been going on since the beginning of time. If anything it just serves to prove that no group is any better than any other group, These traits can be found among all peoples.



7. Were Native American children taken way from their parents and raised in Christian boarding schools and were they denied the use of any and all of the customs that made them who they were for hundreds and maybe thousands of years before that, including their own religions?

Answer: I don’t doubt that this happened, just as it has happened to others.

8. Is this a good thing to do to people?

Answer: No, it isn’t. Down through history and still today, humans continue to treat their fellow man in this fashion, but you can’t deny that there is a concerted effort to stop it from happening. In every generation, there are always some who through poor family conditions or for a million other reasons, fail to learn what history clearly teaches. They, of course, are doomed to repeat it and the innocent continue to suffer with them.

9. What do you think the chances are that the Assyrians threw away their own god, customs and cultures for a Jew? Was it a Jewish army that brought Christianity or a Christian army?

Answer: When the Assyrian Empire was overthrown, it had dissipated its rich heritage. Berosus, Ctesias, Diodorous, Eusebius and others have attributed the destruction of the Empire to Ashurbanipal, the last Assyrian king. They hold that he was responsible for “the total destruction of an empire which had endured longer than any other known to history.” I could go into the details regarding the depth of his depravity, but to what end? If the Assyrians were worshipping Ashur or any other gods at that time seems doubtful and if they were they had become totally impotent by that time. The king was so weak by then, that he was unable to defend the ramparts of his kingdom without calling on the barbaric Scythians, who promptly betrayed him.

The details of the conversion of the Assyrians are sketchy, it seems to me, but in my opinion, it may have happened something like this. During and after the fall of Nineveh, the surviving remnant fled into the mountains. The nobility probably escaped first, when they realized that the end of the Empire was certain. Those that hid themselves or were spared probably followed after the dust settled. During those next 600 years they established themselves into tribal communities, preserving among themselves a loose confederation for protection. Then, as one account would have it, Mar Toma, brought the message of Christ to that region and they were converted.

I don’t see that they traded their customs, cultural traits, language or identity in the process. Had they done so, they would have adopted Hebrew as their language and taken upon themselves a Jewish identity. But, the Jews are from Mesopotamia originally also. Why is it so necessary to blot out all of the cultural similarities between us?

10. If it could, do you think your Church would prefer to cover up what really happened to all the Native People in the New World..that includes, South America, North America, Central America, Canada, Alaska and the icy stuff above that all the way to the Arctic Circle not to mention all those islands in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans? Where did they all go to? What happened to all of their culture and languages and Native gods?

Answer: Before this modern age, it might have been possible and maybe some, not all would have attempted to do so. Today it is virtually impossible. Hollywood and modern technology has seen to that. When many of those injustices occurred, modern communication systems didn’t exist. Whatever was happening in the new world was not relayed via satellite systems and did not have the benefit of investigative journalists. I don’t think all of the old gods were stamped out either. Many of them still worship the old gods. And their customs and language are still intact for the most part. What about the Assyrian policy of deportation and assimilation to subdue and pacify their neighbors?

11. Do you think other people are entitled to listen to their own gods, the ones that inspire them and hold them together the same as you believe you should be allowed to listen to and believe in your own?

Answer: Yes, if that is their wish, but they shouldn’t be denied the right to adopt a different belief if they want either. I don’t think it is fair to assume that all of them, including their descendants today, adopted the Christian faith against their will.

a. If "yes", then why did so many people who never heard of Christ till the Romans marched down on them...suddenly lose interest in their own? Do you think the Romans were kind people who inspired confidence?

Answer: Not all Romans were kind people who inspired confidence, nor were they all cruel and domineering. There were excesses to be sure, but as people became more enlightened and educated, they also began to think more for themselves and relied less on the authoritarian structure imposed upon them. Many of those people adopted Christianity and unflinchingly gave their lives for their faith before the time of Constantine.

b. If "No", then what is your church willing to do to enforce compliance?

12. Had there been newspapers and news shows and printing presses and independent eyewitnesses...what might they have seen to report in Betnahrain at the time Christianity first appeared?

13. Knowing how the Native Americans were brutalized...and then pretending for a moment not to know it...would you be able to guess by looking at what has become of the majority of Native Americans...still living in squalor on Reservations...that something catastrophic happened to them when they were introduced to Christianity through its followers?

Answer: I don’t think it had as much to do with the effect of Christianity as it did the policies of the secular government and their westward movement to take control of the land. The settlers probably believed that they had as much right to settle the land as the Indians. Life at that time was harsh and should not be compared to our modern times. There were many injustices perpetrated upon the Indians, but I fail to see the connection with Christianity. During that era there was far less organized religion, especially in the wilderness. Law and order was nonexistent in many places at that time.

14. Looking at what our own Christians have become...would you assume something wonderful happened to the children of Ashur, or a catastrophe?

Answer: I believe it is very difficult to trace what happened to our people since the dissolution of the Empire. Very little research in the field has been done in this area and I think it is important that we learn more about those 600 years. Obviously, what has happened to the Assyrians is a major catastrophe, but we don’t know where this is all leading yet. Our people need more time to adapt to the changes. I think you are too unforgiving and too demanding of them. A lot of the things they do and say are the result of confusion and frustration. They feel like an invisible people. They want answers, but they feel like they are searching in the dark and are hopelessly divided.

15. Do you believe that only Christians know of self-sacrifice...of selfless love? Do you think Muslims and Jews and Buddhists know these things too?

Answer: Absolutely, there are many Muslims, Jews, and Buddhists that I would trust my life to before a fellow Christian.

16. Why does Christianity only, of all the religions in the world, have to kill its founder and eat him before any of them can get eternal life?

Answer: I’ve already answered that question. It is pointless for me to go over the same ground again.

17. Since there are so many failed Christians, as even you agree...could it be possible that Christianity has failed and not the people? And what can be done if it is the people's fault...drown them again? Burn them all? Where will this end?

Answer: I believe that to a great extent technology has been our undoing. Add to that the tendency in the developed nations of the world to overindulge in material comforts and excess in sensual pursuits that have been so intensely elevated by modern technology.

18. Why did so many people have to be forced into Christianity?

Today, I don’t think anyone is forced into Christianity. In fact, the trend throughout the world is either to adapt the practice of Christianity to a libertine lifestyle or to abandon it altogether.


...get through these and I've got a few million more. And by the way...ask me anything you care to...just don't lecture me and load the dice in the guise of a preamble...keep it direct and simple. Now mind you...when you ask me, I will give you MY answers...when you answer, I'm afraid we'll just be hearing "His" answers all over again...but give it your best shot...if you get stuck, let us know.

THE FOLOWING IS WELL SAID... I AGREE.

just to leave you with something...when you follow people...I don't care how wonderful or perfect they are...you don't become yourself...you become an approximation, an imitation of someone else. The person you follow didn't do that or we would still be living in caves. When you pattern yourself after others, you fail to develop a self...and you are stuck repeating what you memorized of other people's words...this makes you liable to run out of things to say quickly...especially when you come up against someone who isn't following anybody but spends his or her time finding out what HIS or HER voice is...when this happens to the inauthentic person, the mouthpiece of someone else...they are quickly angered and reduced to tears of frustration and the only way out for them is an ignominious retreat, hurling insults as they go and making dire threats and the rest of it.

AS I LEARN A LITTLE MORE ABOUT YOU, I THINK LESS THAT YOU ARE THOSE THINGS I ACCUSED YOU OF, BUT I STILL DISAGREE WITH YOUR MAJOR BELIEFS

You've accused me of being an egomanaiacal leader with just such follwers and liable to lure more...I'd suggest that the two you've had exchanges with are most polite, thoughtful, decent, gentle and calm...so obviously you are mistaken...they are nothing like me. They are their own...you are not...you are God's.

I ALWAYS TRY TO SPEASK WITH MY OWN VOICE. IT MAY BE THAT WHERE I AGREE WITH OTHERS IT MAY SEEM LIKE I AM SPEAKING IN THEIR VOICE.

It's best to find your own voice...then you won't have to shout so much to be heard. And the nice thing is, if you dig deep enough and are honest and curageous...you'll go so deep within yourself you'll strike that common river that flows though us all...but at depths most people are afraid, or were made afraid, to go looking...that river is God and it's a god you don't yet know.



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