Date: 21 Sep 1997
From: Carmen Chimento
Date: 21 Sep 1997
23. You can't be sure that anyone who tells you that they have seen God have really seen God, because you must take their word for it. But if someone is writing about the truth, you can be sure it is the truth by simply analyzing what it is they are saying or writing. You know that God, for example, has many attributes. The more attributes you study and learn about, the more evidence you have to weigh against what others are claiming to be the truth. For example, if all you know about God is that He is eternal, then you know that God existed from and to all eternity. If someone says that a rock is God, you know that a rock could not have existed from all eternity and will not exist to all eternity, so you can disprove the claim that a rock is God. If someone tells you that a human being is God, you can disprove it the same way, because a human being did not exist from all eternity and will not exist unto all eternity, no matter how many passages they quote from Scriptures, it is a fact that God existed from and to all eternity. He cannot be a human being, it is impossible. They will then tell you that God is all powerful and can make Himself into a human being, and that is false, because God cannot change because being eternal means always being what you are for all eternity.
You cannot be God one moment and a human being the next, because then you would be eternal one moment, and temporal the next, and that can never be, because God cannot change, He is eternal forever, He is unchanging, immutable. This is only one example of how to throw light on false doctrines that darken the soul. The more you learn about God, the more you will learn about truth, because God is absolute truth. Never worry about knowing too much about God, because God is infinite. So to answer the question "how does one know that Carmen Chimento is writing the truth"? Simply learn more and more about God and then you will find out if Carmen Chimento is writing the truth, because as I have said, God is truth, absolute truth. I am simply trying to report the truth.
24. I wanted to emphasize to Christians the world over, that they need not throw away Christ's teachings just because they cannot accept his divinity, as I cannot for the reasons I have given in my book. To me, a Christian is not someone who believes in Christ's divinity or in his being a redeemer or whatever, to me a Christian is someone who follows the teachings of Christ, namely, the two most important commandments, in addition to his other teachings he gave called "the sermon on the mount", and so many other teachings and parables on how to get to Heaven, including the prayer he taught his disciples, "the Our Father". The way to Heaven taught by Christ is not unlike the way taught by Lao-tze, not unlike the way taught by Muhammed, not unlike the way taught by the Buddha, not unlike the way taught by leaders of the Hindu faith and other religions. The way to Heaven is the way to the infitely pure and holy Being, Who created Heaven and earth, Who is all powerful, all merciful, all just, all goodness, absolutely perfect in all of His attributes.
When people use the terms "redeemer" and "messiah", make sure they define these terms. As I mentioned in my answer to a previous question, only God can redeem sins, only God can forgive us for any transgressions of ours against Him, against His spirit, against His truth. If Jesus was able to bring people to the Father and away from sin, so can you, because you have the same power, it comes from the same source, but that is because as Jesus said so many times, it was his Father Who did these things, through him. If a doctor performs a miracle, it is God working through the doctor Who performs the miracle. We do not deify the doctor for something that was caused by God. In the same way, Jesus should not be deified just because he was able to perform miracles. If he emphasized that it wasn't he who was performing the miracles but God, then it is obvious he was attempting to tell those who would hear that he himself was subservient to God and therefore was not divine. How could he be God if he were less than God? Concerning the fact that Jesus believed he was the messiah is very understandable. Many people believed they were the messiah and at least a dozen were either crucified, stoned to death, or killed in some other manner, such as beheading. I write about a few in my book, such as Mani who believed he was the "holy spirit". The question isn't whether or not Jesus was the messiah, the question is what does being "the messiah" connote? To some it connoted a leader, to others it connoted a happening, such as peace in the world, to others it connoted some kind of deity. To me, from reading the New Testament, I simply believe that Jesus thought he was "the messiah" in the sense that he was a spiritual leader sent by God, for example, when he says in Luke 22:28:
"It is you who have stood by me in my trials; and I confer a kingdom on you, just as my Father has conferred one on me, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom; and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel."
Jesus is saying that God, his Father, has conferred a kingdom on him, and he is conferring a kingdom on them, a spiritual kingdom. Now if God is conferring a kingdom on Jesus, and Jesus is conferring a kingdom on his apostles, it does not mean that the apostles are God if they have a kingdom conferred upon them, neither can one suppose that Jesus was implying divinity because he believed that God was conferring a spiritual kingdom upon him. Then again in John 18:36:
"Jesus answered, 'My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants (would) be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.' "
There is more proof that Jesus believed he was a spiritual leader, and more proof that he was not nor did he believe he was God, for God would not be handed over to anyone, because God is omnipotent and could simply will to have done what was in His will. Please refer to Chapter 4 of Beyond the Universe, and then refer to Chapter 5 for additional information on this subject.
So for anyone to advocate that Jesus had powers reserved only for God cannot be proven theologically, because God's powers are eternal. If God is infinitely just, it is for all eternity. If God is infinitely merciful, it is for all eternity. If God is the Creator and Judge of all His creatures, it is for all eternity. Infinite means just that. No one can limit God's powers, nor can God relinquish His powers, for then they would not be infinite. There is a fine line that some may want to cross, and that fine line is the difference between God's essence, and God's creations. When a creature thinks he/she is so much like God that they are no longer creatures, or created beings, and have now become as God, believing they have powers belonging only to God, then they join the ranks of the proud spirits, the ingrates, the hopeless and despairing. The fall is fast and precipitous. It is not for us to judge who may or may not have fallen into that trap, but for us, let us be eternally vigilant concerning Who God is, and who we are. What other people believe concerning Jesus, or the Buddha, or anyone else, is of no consequence to us, what matters is that we know our God, because then He will know us, if you know what I mean.
Yours in the one true God,
Carmen