If You Can't Answer These 9 Questions Your Not A Real Christian

Try to answer every part of each question. Whether you want to do it in the comments, or on your own blog that's fine. Just link to your answer from the comments so others can read them.

Go!

#1. 

What are some secular historical records that mention, explain, or simply recount the miracles that Paul or Peter performed? What are the criteria for validating these sources? 

#2. 

Why are Paul's letters considered the word of God? What are the different views and criteria used to validate this? ie. how does one know to trust the source and to what degree?

#3. 

Why are Peter's letters considered the word of God? What are the different views and criteria used to validate this? ie. how does one know to trust the source and to what degree?

#4. 

What does the Old Testament say about how people will recognize the messiah? What are the different views and criteria explained? What are the criteria for validating these sources? 

#5. 

 What are secular historical records mentioning and recognizing Jesus' existence? What are the criteria for validating these sources? ie. how does one know to trust the source and to what degree?

#6. 

 What are secular historical records mentioning and recognizing Jesus's miracles? What are the criteria for validating these sources? ie. how does one know to trust the source and to what degree?

#7. 

Who were the people that decided upon which books to include in the Bible as we know it today? 

#8. 

What is the criteria they used to decided which books to include?

#9. 

What criteria is used to validate the authority of this group of people, and from where does it come from? 

Spiraling into what matters

I'm listening to Parry Marshalls' 80-20 concept right now.

The basic idea is that 80% of ALL the results in any case come from 20% of the causes.

If you don't know what fractals are go watch a youtube video on it. It's very fascinating. It's a form a geometry which explains chaos. It's used to calculate the spirals and ebb and flow of the growth of a rain forest or the slashing of water, or the formation of the universe at both an astronomic scale as well as at an atomic level.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. But what I'm learning is that whatever you focus on continually you 'go deeper', if you use the fractal visualization.

You've probably heard the typical sales team analogy, that 80% of the sales will come from 20% of the sales people, and 20% of the sales will come from 80% of them..

Lets say you focus on fostering excellence at an infinitely deep level. You find that top 20% of sales people and give them whatever they need to become even more successful. But you find out that 20% of what they are doing which produces 80% of their results and foster that. And then you keep doing that. You'll find a top 5% of what they do that produces more results. And then a 1% that produces something like 65% of their results. You can just keep going and going.

It's a spiral. My current hypothesis is that is begins with a certain focus. Lets say that you're focus, (and this has been my focus) is to become more powerful as a person. Power meaning the speed at which I can produce a result in any area of life. This is what makes guns so 'powerful' as they can end life, and a lot of it, in a very short period of time. This is also what makes Mahatma Ghandi, or Martin Luther King, or Steve Jobs so powerful, since they are a single SOURCE for the cause of what they achieved. They are the pinnacle of the movement.

This is my aim. To be a powerful source of movement in life.

So similarly, if my possibility is "power" then I'm finding that 20% of what I do, how I think, or what I focus on, that produces 80% of my power, and then I hone that infinitely. Eventually I'll find the 1% of what I think or do or say...etc that produces 65% of my power and do more of that much, much, MUCH, more often.

Transformation

I've been interested in Werner Erhard's life and what his life has been about. I realized that this man was the SOURCE for massive changes in the world. And interestingly enough, much like the beginnings of Ruthless Truth, he was ruthless about having people look at their own shit and let it go.

The last time I spoke with Ciaran I made a story up about him. That he's gone off the deep end. That he's being selfish and and and x, y, z...etc But before I had done that I knew that he'd been looking for a 'trigger' or mechanism or cure or SOMETHING that would snap people out of their mental traps and into what is so, and then into a life of love and being kind...etc being authentic and alive and set on doing good in the world, and sharing it with others.

Ok, so I added a few things to the last sentence, but the point is his intentions were coming from a place that I couldn't see.

So I'm sitting outside on the grass next to the gorgeous lake behind my apartment after dusk. I'm eating a tuna salad bowl and thinking to myself "What is important to me?"

You see, my life has been about making money. But that doesn't bring me to life. I used to be a die-hard christian, and being a christian I was more alive than I'd ever been. I lived the possibility of the world being saved, and I lived in the possibility that people would learn to love each other as Jesus' character portrays. Interestingly, I was being my true self - but within a fantasy paradigm/context.

Why my true self? Because I was the possibility of something. Not "Nick". I was whatever I needed to be to let the world know of the message I was so passionate to let the know. But why was I so passionate? Because of the euphoria and intense meaning I had it as. The context that I am a piece of shit who is loved with a love that would endure severe beating (compound that with a love to sacrifice a child who will endure that beating and torture).... it's overwhelming and euphoric.

Anyway, to experience that euphoria, and to see the possibility I saw, that's what drove me. And I understood that I needed to 'stay connected with the holy spirit' by singing praises to god all day and praying until the thoughts in my mind were just continual prayers as I sleep and wake in the night, and shower, and day dream...etc I surrounded myself with everything possible that reminded me of the possibilities of heaven and Jesus, and what I was thankful for..etc

These supported my transformation into being a born again christian. That's why they call it "born again"... it's a transformation.

If I look at Christianity as a framework for transformation and its perpetuation, as many religions basically are, I might be able to find something in that to use for my own life and the life of others.

In Landmark they talk about how sharing possibilities keep those possibilities alive. Also, it's the same with transformation. Sharing transformation with others keeps transformation going.

Gaining Power In Your Life

Lately I've been learning an immense about becoming a powerful person in my life. About fulfilling on what's important to me, and getting rid of all the wasteful thinking that occurs in my mind.

One of the realizations I had was that there are two kinds of trains of thought we can be on regarding anything in life. We're either on the couch or in the field.

These are two very different places to be, and we have a choice to be in one other the other.

The metaphor goes like this:

There is a war going on. Some conflict overseas. All kinds of things are happening. Things get blown up. Politicians make decisions...etc

When your on the couch, your watching it happen and you have an opinion about it. You talk about it with your friends and family. The new reporters and critics talk about it, and your in the conversation at home 'about' the conflict.

The conversation is totally different when your in the field. When your in the field, there is an objective to be accomplished. The conversation isn't around opinions. It's around what is so and what needs to be done.

If you find yourself complaining or having an opinion about something, notice how it makes you feel, and recognize whether your on the couch or in the field. The field is where things happen, and it's where there is a direct influence on what will be so in the future. There is only power, influence, when you change your conversation from the couch to being in the field.

Take a look at where you're complaining about things that you don't like. Decide whether you want to continue being on the couch, or if you will choose to be in the field, and make a difference with action.

Either choice is ok. There's nothing wrong with choosing to stay on the couch. It doesn't make you bad or wrong as a person.

The difference, however, is that once you're aware of where you're standing in terms of these two paradigms, you have a choice where a choice wasn't visible before.