@ Anon-e-moose
As a person reconsidering AGAIN being a ChristoPagan (I did a lot of thinking about theological stuff concerning some subjects just now and had an epiphany), you’re friend sounds awesome.
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MY EPIPHANY (TEAL-DEER A BIT. THESE ARE MY VIEWS. PUT IN BULLET-POINTS WITH SPACES TO SIMPLIFY COMPLEXITIES AND BECAUSE I HAVE ADHD)….
* I realize now, even more, that Christianity can be a multi-faith faith. It’s a combo of Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Proto-Islamic, Dharmic, Classical Mystery School, Confucian, Taoist, etc. Dharmic, Zoroastrian & Jewish being the biggest ones.
* In Zoroastrianism, Ahura Mazda is the Good Deity while Angra Manyu is the Evil One.
* In Judaism, Satan isn’t evil and works for Deity as one of Deity’s chief Angels and has the job of sending trials, temptations and such to test humans.
* In Christianity, Satan rebelled and went rogue, becoming the “Angra Manyu” to Deity’s “Ahura Mazda”.
* Since Deity, Devil, etc. exist outside of time, the rebellion could’ve happened at anytime, thus the good Satan and the evil Satan could co-exist on the Physical Plane at the same time or the evil Satan could pull something (like ‘The Fall’) in a time period before the good Satan did something (Like testing Job).
* Thus; Some contradictions in The Bible really can be reconciled. This is why Deity can be both the creator of evil and against evil. This is why both Deity and Satan can inspire King David to conduct a census. This is also why Deity can sometimes come off as a huge jerk in the Hebrew Testament (apart from that stuff being Demiurgic fabrications made up by fallen, stupid, tribalistic humans).
* Since all is One (Monism or Qualified Monism, Pantheism, All Gods One God, All Goddesses One Goddess, Together are One, etc.) Deity & Devil were once "One” or worked together but then had a Dualistic Split. The effect is akin to the UrSkeks becoming Mystics & Skeksis in The Dark Crystal.
* This is also why Devatas and Asuras have switched alliances between Dharmic (Angelic & Diabolic, respectively) and Zoroastrianism (Diabolic & Angelic, respectively).
* Angels and Devils are all Daemons (Agathodaemons and Cacodaemons, respectively).
* The Gnostic Demiurge is merely a metaphor of both the split and fallen corrupted humanity becoming religious frum jerkasses and religion being used as a weapon or means of oppression.
* Evil and Duality is the result of The Split. The Split can be reversed, all things restored, Universal Reconciliation, Universal Salvation. Gehenna/Naraka/Tartarus is merely purgatorial, evil is not infinite or eternal. Satan can be redeemed. Matter returned to Spirit. As Above, So Below.
* All religions are merely blind people grabbing a different part of the elephant, a different piece of a puzzle. Traditional Christianity is one piece but my new understanding of Christianity is the whole elephant. All Faiths are valid and people have a right to religious freedom (as well as freedom from religion). Anyone of any faith or no faith at all can also become an “Honorary Christian”. Christianity can be both a faith and a philosophy, like as it is with Buddhism.
* Christianity can also be VedaDharma (‘Hinduism’) for The West. I’ve explained before on how I see The Trinity as Dual-Gendered and how both Christian and Hindu Trinities parallel each other (with both the Madonna and Magdalene being a part of the Divine).
* Some rules and regulations from scriptures (involving food, sex, etc.) can become obsolete over time. Many were created in order to curb stuff like disease, unplanned pregnancies, certainty of paternity, etc. However; Most are no longer needed, we understand disease and safer sex, sexism is unjust and the concept of Patrilineal inheritance and Patriarchy (thus certainty of paternity and resulting ‘sexual double standard’) is stupid.
* Christ-Vishnu manifested through the Avatar/Rabbi/Sage/Yogi, Jesus of Nazareth (he and his family likely lay-members of The Essenes with ‘Nazareth’ being a later name tacked-on to the settlement/kibbutz that would one day become the City of Nazareth). Deity became “kinder & gentler” due to finally understanding what it’s like to be a human.
* Sin & Karmic De-merit are one and the same. Some really adept yogis can be “victim souls” who can take on other’s karmic de-merit and atone for them. Jesus did this on a massive scale during the Passion.
IT ALL MAKES SENSE TO ME, NOW.
(I’m also Copy/Pasting this onto a document to save in my P.C. because this is some good stuff!)
I’m going to dub my understanding of “Universalist Interfaith Christianity” as “NeoNazarene” to differentiate from traditional “Christianity as a separate religion/blind guy grabbing an elephant-part”.
Oh; Scriptures are not meant to be completely literal and much of it is parables and metaphor. Historicity doesn’t really matter either. It’s the Spirit of the Message that counts. Even Deity, Devils, Angels, etc. should be seen as cosmic forces/archetypes than literal super-people floating around somewhere. All-That-Is is formless but we give it form.