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Old 10-12-2004, 02:04 PM   #47
mriehle
 
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Dojo: New School Aikido
Location: Stockton, CA
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 320
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Re: Aikido and being Christian

A long time ago, in another life (alright, when I was a teenager) I spent some time in religious education. One of my teachers in this seminary made an interesting point.

Part of the message of Christ was prosyletizing. The message of the gospel needs to be spread to all peoples. But there are a lot of people in the world (and a lot more long dead) who will never get the opportunity to hear the gospel. What about their salvation?

His personal belief (and he was careful to characterize it as such, although I believe it to be consistent with conventional doctrine) was that there are some people who already earned their reward (or punishment) before they got here and time here on earth was simply a formality. Others will earn their fate in another way in the afterlife. These people are born into situations where the gospel is not available to them.

Okay, so if you accept this, you can go on to the next concept he presented me with. What if some number of those whose reward is already guaranteed are sent here to further the principles of the gospel even in the absence of its specific teachings? He believed (and I agree with him) that it's possible. How would you recognize these people?

Was O'Sensei one of them?

I believe he was. As was Gandhi. As were a number of other such historical figures.

Looked at like that, where is the conflict?

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