The post that was quoted here has been removedBut I don't think that distance is actually as far as it is perceived by some.
Christians, on the whole, are far more open in their religious practices than many world religions. It's not that hard to see exactly what a Christian is all about, as far as beliefs go. Any one of them will tell you. There's none of this "I really can't talk about it with an infidel" in their thinking. Most early Christians were Jews, by necessity, and Christians will accept converts from any faith. Similarly, there is no "racial" bias in Christianity, either. By design, ANYone can become a Christian. So, in fact, there is very little, if any, "cultural difference" to overcome.
Originally posted by SuziannePrecisely: "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3:26-28
But I don't think that distance is actually as far as it is perceived by some.
Christians, on the whole, are far more open in their religious practices than many world religions. It's not that hard to see exactly what a Christian is all about, as far as beliefs go. Any one of them will tell you. There's none of this "I really can't talk about it with ...[text shortened]... come a Christian. So, in fact, there is very little, if any, "cultural difference" to overcome.
Gnosis/Epignosis in the Koine Greek of the New Testament
"40. The perceptive process is different in the believer who is in fellowship with God from the unregenerate and the believer who is out of fellowship with God.
41. So the perceptive process is the same in the believer who is out of fellowship with God and the unregenerate.
42. The human spirit in the believer was designed by God to give the believer the ability to understand the Word of God and the capacity to store it as well.
43. The Holy Spirit reveals or makes understandable the Word of God to the human spirit of the believer who is in fellowship with God.
44. He reveals or makes understandable the will of God for the believer through the communication of the Word of God.
45. The human spirit is not operational unless the believer is in fellowship with God.
46. The believer who is in fellowship with God has no unacknowledged sin circulating in his stream of consciousness and is permitting the Holy Spirit to control or influence his soul by means of the human spirit.
47. The psuche or human soul was designed originally by God to be subordiante to the human spirit.
48. The believer who is in fellowship with God permits this to take place whereas the believer who is out of fellowship does not permit this to take place.
49. The unregenerate and the believer who is out of fellowship are said to be psuchikos, “soulish,” whereas the believer who is in fellowship with God is said to be pneumatikos, “spiritual.”
50. The believer in fellowship is said to be spiritual because he is permitting the Holy Spirit to reveal the will of God through the communication of the Word of God to the believer’s human spirit.
51. When an unregenerate person hears information from the cosmic system it enters his nous where it is gnosis information.
52. If he makes a decision to accept this cosmic information, it is transferred from then nous to the kardia where it becomes epignosis information.
53. Epignosis information is knowledge that is applied to the kardia, the dominant lobe.
54. It then becomes a part of the person’s frame of reference, their memory center, their vocabulary, and classification of their thoughts.
55. It forms their conscience where it becomes a part of their norms and standards.
56. Lastly, epignosis is the mental attitude of the person.
57. Now the believer who is out of fellowship with God goes through the same process since he is not permitting the Holy Spirit to reveal the will of God through the Word of God and he is not enabling his human spirit to function.
58. When a believer in fellowship hears the communication of the Word of God it enters his nous where it is gnosis information.
59. It is transferred to the kardia through the human spirit where it becomes epignosis information.
60. The epignosis information though is spiritual phenomena, i.e. divine viewpoint whereas the unregenerate and the psuchikos believer possess only cosmic information, i.e. Satanic viewpoint.
61. When the epignosis information in the believer is spiritual phenomena, i.e. the Word of God becomes a part of the believer’s frame of reference, their memory center, their vocabulary and the classification of thoughts.
62. The Word of God now forms their norms and standards since it becomes a part of their conscience.
63. It is also cleans out the subconscience of the believer where everything shocking, experiences in adversities, failure and disappointment are stored.
64. The believer’s mental attitude is now based upon the Word of God as result of being in fellowship.
65. So gnosis information is either cosmic or divine viewpoint and likewise epignosis information is either divine viewpoint or cosmic viewpoint.
66. The believer must make a decision to get in fellowship and then to either accept or reject the Word of God as it is revealed to the believer’s human spirit by the Holy Spirit." -Pastor/Teacher Bill Wenstrom
http://www.wenstrom.org/downloads/written/word_studies/greek/gnosis.pdf
Comment: Hope this explanation of the mechanics of learning the Word of God sheds light on the thread's topic.
-Removed-Surely, the Bible does not recommend further "seeking" once what you seek has been found.
You sound like all the fundamentalists here.
"The Bible says to keep seeking."
"But we've found what we were looking for."
"I don't care! The Bible says to keep seeking! So we seek!"
I'd say "to find" is better than "to seek". Are you saying that it's better to seek ones whole life, never finding? Then what's the point of seeking?