A Sir Lankan Christian and a Jew walk into a bar ;..;.

Dear Brother, ........writes a very nice and good man from Sri Lankan heritage who now lives in Hong Kong with his British-born Caucasian wife and their two adopted daughters from mainland communist China:....


Your letter criticizing the Christian church as a whole and its theology  indicates that you have never been in a church. It's all in your head. In our church here in Hong Kong, we take the children to the synagogue to teach them the magic of Jewish mysticism. Some of us learn to read and write Hebrew, because of our reverence for Hebrew culture. Our church is not unusual.

My challenge to you: go to any mainstream church in Hong Kong or Taiwan. You'll be surprised to find that the pastor doesn't once blame "the Jews" for "killing Jesus".

How can I guarantee this? Because it is fundamental Christianity: "WE killed Jesus: WE hammered in the nails. WE were blind to his message. He died for US."


We never blame the Jews! The BIBLE never blames the Jews. We never say the Jews will not go to heaven because they do not accept Jesus as their savior. We love the Jews and we accept that fully as they are and we do not require that they convert to Christianity to becme whole or saved.

Jews are saved in their own way, as are Hindus and Buddhists and Moslems. Christianity is just one religion among many, and in NO WAY is our way the only way to heaven or grace or salvation or redemption, depsite what the Bible in some chaoterrs and verse  teaches. The New Testament Bible is wrong about those things;. God lives ijn many mansions and Jesus is NOT the ONLY way to grace and salvaftion. I believe that.

Cheers,

A CHRISTIAN FRIEND whose father was a member of the Subud Community: RE


But there was one other element in his  writing that
influenced the others and bound them into a voice with its own
distinction - his deep spirituality, springing from his membership of
the Subud Community. He  talked more about religion than
anyone else I know, and it influenced his entire approach to work and
life. But his son became a Christian. But he carried it lightly and with joy. It was integral to his
thought, his behaviour and to his outlook. He travelled voraciously,
he linked people and ideas, and he did so without thought of private
aggrandisement or personal vanity. He was warm, he was loving, and he
was funny. That was why he could be so deeply serious as well.


History
Bapak Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo

Pak Subuh explained (in talks to Subud members given beginning in the
1940s) that during 1925 he was taking a late-night walk when he had an
unexpected and unusual experience. He said he found himself enveloped
in a brilliant light, and looked up to see what seemed like the sun
falling directly onto his body, and he thought that he was having a
heart attack. He said he went directly home, lay down on his bed, and
prepared to die with the feeling that maybe it was his time, and that
he could not fight it, so he surrendered himself to God.

According to the story, however, instead of dying he was moved from
within to stand up and perform movements similar to his normal Muslim
prayer routine. It seemed that he was not moving through his own
volition; but was being guided by what he interpreted as the power of
God. This same kind of experience reportedly happened to him for a few
hours each night over a period of about 1000 days during which he
slept little but was able to continue working full-time. He said he
experienced a kind of 'inner teaching' whereby he was given to
understand a variety of things spontaneously.

As these experiences proceeded, Pak Subuh explained, he gained
spontaneous insight into people and situations that he did not possess
before. Around 1933, as he reported, he received that if other people
were physically near him while he was in a state of 'latihan', then
the experience would begin in them also. While still in his early
thirties, Pak Subuh's reputation as someone with spiritual insight
apparently grew, and people went to him to be 'opened'. They in turn
could open others, and this is how Subud eventually spread around the
world.\

Husein Rofé in 1955 in Hong Kong

In Jakarta, Husein Rofé, an English linguist who had been living in
Indonesia since 1950, met Pak Subuh. Rofé had been searching for a
spiritual path and became the first non-Indonesian to be opened. Subud
moved outside of Indonesia when Rofé attended a religious congress in
Japan in 1954. Subud first spread internationally into Japan, followed
by Hong Kong and Cyprus. In 1957, Rofé (who was then in London)
suggested that Pak Subuh visit Britain. Pak Subuh accepted the
invitation and visited the home of John G. Bennett in Coombe Springs.
It was at this time that many UK followers of G. I. Gurdjieff were
initiated into Subud (including Bennett himself, though he later left
the group). Over the next 14 months Pak Subuh visited many countries
before returning to Indonesia.