Philosophy Discussion Forums | A Humans-Only Club for Open-Minded Discussion & Debate

[Loveyoubeloved]

I am looking for open minded conversation.

Is it rational to believe that I can become the Messiah?

Let me explain myself. I have some special beliefs as to what the Messiah truly is. I do not believe the Messiah is God. I have spent time studying the Jewish, the Christian faith, and the Muslim faith. All are given my most honest reverence. I believe each faith has their truths and I believe each faith has made some mistakes in their dogma or how they understand religious texts.

I believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a prophecy waiting to be fulfilled and none of the story has actually happened yet. I believe that the miracles of Christ are metaphorical in meaning, so when it speaks of him walking on water, or turning water into wine, or feeding thousands with a loaf of bread, or even dying and resurrecting, then these are all symbolic in meaning and are not to be taken literally. I believe when Christ is said to give his body and blood, then the meaning of this is to give his prayer and my body and blood would be the word of scripture that I give as a prayer for all people.

I believe the miracles in the story of Christ are all symbolic of the miracle of writing a Holy Scripture. The prayer I give would be me asking that God grant me strength to be the Messiah. No religious text forbids one from praying to be a Holy Prophet. One who believes this is their destiny and that it is the divine will of Heaven that they become the messiah, would in fact pray that God gives them strength to fulfill this purpose. I believe that in any circumstance this is a righteous prayer to make and all prophets who have ever been inspired with divine revelation has indeed made this same prayer that God gives them the strength. And if that prayer is accepted then it is the will of God and none has any right to speak against such a prayer.

My question is, do I have the right to pray to fulfill this divine purpose and is this a rational pursuit considering my perspective of who the Messiah truly is?

God Bless You All.

[A Material Girl]

I am looking for open minded conversation.

Is it rational to believe that I can become the Messiah?

Let me explain myself. I have some special beliefs as to what the Messiah truly is. I do not believe the Messiah is God. I have spent time studying the Jewish, the Christian faith, and the Muslim faith. All are given my most honest reverence. I believe each faith has their truths and I believe each faith has made some mistakes in their dogma or how they understand religious texts.

I believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a prophecy waiting to be fulfilled and none of the story has actually happened yet. I believe that the miracles of Christ are metaphorical in meaning, so when it speaks of him walking on water, or turning water into wine, or feeding thousands with a loaf of bread, or even dying and resurrecting, then these are all symbolic in meaning and are not to be taken literally. I believe when Christ is said to give his body and blood, then the meaning of this is to give his prayer and my body and blood would be the word of scripture that I give as a prayer for all people.

I believe the miracles in the story of Christ are all symbolic of the miracle of writing a Holy Scripture. The prayer I give would be me asking that God grant me strength to be the Messiah. No religious text forbids one from praying to be a Holy Prophet. One who believes this is their destiny and that it is the divine will of Heaven that they become the messiah, would in fact pray that God gives them strength to fulfill this purpose. I believe that in any circumstance this is a righteous prayer to make and all prophets who have ever been inspired with divine revelation has indeed made this same prayer that God gives them the strength. And if that prayer is accepted then it is the will of God and none has any right to speak against such a prayer.

My question is, do I have the right to pray to fulfill this divine purpose and is this a rational pursuit considering my perspective of who the Messiah truly is?

God Bless You All.

Yes, you do have the right to pray to fulfill this divine purpose, even though it is a completely irrational pursuit regardless of any perspective whatsoever, mine or yours, my lovely beloved.

If you believe that you can become the Messiah, then go ahead and do it, because if you don't, God might be seriously pissed-off with you, and we all know that according to Dr. Richard Dawkins:

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

[Thomyum2]

I am looking for open minded conversation.

Is it rational to believe that I can become the Messiah?

Let me explain myself. I have some special beliefs as to what the Messiah truly is. I do not believe the Messiah is God. I have spent time studying the Jewish, the Christian faith, and the Muslim faith. All are given my most honest reverence. I believe each faith has their truths and I believe each faith has made some mistakes in their dogma or how they understand religious texts.

I believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a prophecy waiting to be fulfilled and none of the story has actually happened yet. I believe that the miracles of Christ are metaphorical in meaning, so when it speaks of him walking on water, or turning water into wine, or feeding thousands with a loaf of bread, or even dying and resurrecting, then these are all symbolic in meaning and are not to be taken literally. I believe when Christ is said to give his body and blood, then the meaning of this is to give his prayer and my body and blood would be the word of scripture that I give as a prayer for all people.

I believe the miracles in the story of Christ are all symbolic of the miracle of writing a Holy Scripture. The prayer I give would be me asking that God grant me strength to be the Messiah. No religious text forbids one from praying to be a Holy Prophet. One who believes this is their destiny and that it is the divine will of Heaven that they become the messiah, would in fact pray that God gives them strength to fulfill this purpose. I believe that in any circumstance this is a righteous prayer to make and all prophets who have ever been inspired with divine revelation has indeed made this same prayer that God gives them the strength. And if that prayer is accepted then it is the will of God and none has any right to speak against such a prayer.

My question is, do I have the right to pray to fulfill this divine purpose and is this a rational pursuit considering my perspective of who the Messiah truly is?

God Bless You All.

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Your first post is a thought-provoking question (and a timely one for the Christmas season), though it's a hard one to answer without knowing a little more about you and about what you mean by a 'Messiah'. You've said you don't believe the Messiah is God, but beyond that you haven't said more specifically what you do think that actually is (or will be). The 'Messiah' in these Western faiths is usually understood to mean the 'savior' of mankind, the one who has or will come to reconcile man with God. Since I come from within the Christian faith, my thoughts on this will of course reflect my own understanding which includes that man cannot achieve salvation by his own efforts alone and for that reason the Messiah cannot be understood as a mere human being. But, of course, the three faith traditions you mention here are not monoliths and there can be a lot of variation and dissent even within the faiths as to how to interpret or understand this concept. If your pursuit is to be the Messiah, what exactly does that mean to you? How do you envision that happening and what would it involve?

All that aside, I will say that I do believe that every person does have a 'divine purpose', in that we all bring God's light into the world by the way that we live our lives and how we treat others, although that doesn't make any of us a Messiah. So, to your question, I would offer just a tentative answer for now - that it is certainly right to pray that God's will and purpose for each of us be fulfilled. But at the same time, I would pair that with a caution that as humans, we don't always know or see clearly what that divine purpose is, and we can easily mistake the desires and ambitions of our own ego for God's purpose for us, which in turn can lead us far astray from fulfilling any purpose. As we find in the Biblical readings that tell the Christmas story, Mary's response to the angel that announced that she would carry the child was "“Behold, the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word." Which of course is echoed in Jesus' own words before the crucifixion that "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." The approach that makes sense to me is to follow these examples and be humbly open to whatever might be asked of me rather than asking that my own wishes be fulfilled.

God bless you too and hope you find the forum to be a good place to continue to share your thoughts.