Since you can’t prove to others the experience you claim, why do you mock others experiences that they can’t prove. Faith, by definition is something that can’t be proven. It seems to me that everyone here has differing beliefs and we tend to hold on to those beliefs rather stubbornly. Isn’t that ego?
I clearly responded in kind, and then left it at that. 
Learning how to come out and share my experience in the Lord’s presence, and practicing speaking about it around people that are clearly the reason why the Christian church’s membership continues to bleed to death across all denominations.
It’s frustrating, but helpful to discover where the more fundamentalist types fail to attract the “unsaved” to God (the rude competitors and polite scholars alike).
It becomes more and more clear every time, and easier to focus and express the non-petty aspects of faith. Being a middle child, it’s easier for me to avoid making other people’s mistakes (not that I don’t still have my own bad habits lol).
The Jews lived by sight. God called them a stiff necked people. They were chosen- to be the oracles of God, to be the example to the world of the blessings God would bestow upon people who trusted and obeyed, yet time and again they failed and rebelled, and were sent into captivity, and were freed. This cycle continued until God essentially had enough. The Jews would be set aside for a time and the message would pass to and through the Gentiles. The message hasn’t changed- trust and obey. The same message in both the Old and New Testaments.
I’ve asked a few questions in this thread which I believe tie some ideas together, But the main idea I’ve been trying to get across is the idea of sin.
One of the criticisms I have with modern Christianity is that most churches ignore sin, or place very little emphasis on it. One of the criticisms I get is that I believe in a literal Hell and that unrepentant sinners will end up there.
The entire OT sacrificial system was about dealing with sin. And the theme was continued in the NT by Jesus. The method was exactly the same, namely by blood. Your description of the yearly sacrifice was inaccurate and incomplete and it is necessary to understand it and how it ties into what Jesus did on the cross to see the whole picture.
Another question I asked in my description of a courtroom scene was " WHO WAS THE JURY"? People, and that includes Christians, tend to be very ego centric in their beliefs. It’s us and God only that we need consider and yet scripture says we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. When I asked how does God prove that He is right without using force or coercion, imagine a jury that has to be convinced. All that Jury has is God’s viewpoint, an opposing viewpoint and all of human history as evidence. The sentence to be considered is life or death. What is the verdict?
I would say it’s impossible for any of us to completely lay our egos aside, especially when it comes to our deeply held beliefs.
It’s entirely impossible to “lay our egos aside” at all when everything about our waking consciousness is precisely what the Ego is.
However, it’s entirely possible to not completely fall apart when one realizes that someone else had an experience that didn’t involve their waking mind.
It’s also entirely possible to accept that God doesn’t just appear before the “righteous”.
On the question of where or what is hell?
It is answered, Hell exists inside the person body and mind.
The Early explanations from The Buddha
"N 15.1 Tinakaṭṭha Sutta
Grass and Sticks
How many mothers have we had in this saṁsara?
This is how I heard. At one time the Blessed One was living in the city of Sāvatthi, in Jeta’s park, at Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. The Blessed One addressed the monks, saying, “O monks!”
“Bhante!” those monks replied.
The Blessed One said, “Monks, this cycle of rebirth is endless. The beginning of this extremely long journey cannot be discovered. These beings, hindered by lack of knowledge of the true nature of life and bound by craving, roam and wander on in this endless journey.
Suppose, monks, a person would cut up whatever grass, sticks, branches, and twigs in the entire Indian Sub-Continent and collect them together into a single heap. Then, he cuts them off into four-inch pieces. Then, he would put each piece down, saying for each one ‘This is my mother, this is my mother’s mother.’
“The generation of that person’s mothers and grandmothers would not come to an end, yet, the grass, wood, branches, and twigs in all of India would be used up and finished.
What is the reason for that? It is because, monks, this cycle of rebirth is endless. The beginning of this extremely long journey cannot be discovered. These beings, hindered by lack of knowledge of the true nature of life and bound by craving, roam and wander on in this endless journey.
“For such a long time, monks, you have experienced various types of suffering, tragedies, and disasters. You have filled the cemetery with your dead bodies.
Therefore, monks, the time has come for you to understand the meaningless nature of all conditioned things. The time has come for you to become detached from them. And the time has come for you to be liberated from them.”
The idea is, that people or other animals cannot recognize hell in Samsara. The very nature of Samsara and Maya is like a prison house. People forget where they are because there are various pleasures in Samsara and their desire binds them to make the causes that produce the effect. It’s automatic cause and effect.
The Sutta above is a Theravadin Sutta so it contains partial and expedient teachings. The troubles and sufferings of usual Samsaric life causes beings to aspire to Nirvana and extinguishing their load of negative karma (sin). There is also good karmic causes but the Law is the same.
There is also Grace in Buddhism. It is called in Japanese, Tenju Kyoju=Lightening the karma and Hendoku Iyaku= changing poison into medicine.
A basic list of Hells in Buddhism. The 8th hell is called Avici Hell and means The Hell of incessant Suffering.
(1) Saṁjīva, the Hell of “reviving,” where winds resuscitate victims after torture.
(2) Kālasūtra, named after the “black string” that cuts inhabitants into pieces;
(3) Saṁghāta, where inmates are “dashed together” between large objects;
(4) Raurava, “weeping,” and
(5) Mahā-Raurava, “great weeping,” which describe how denizens behave;
(6) Tāpana, “heating,” and
(7) Pratāpana, “greatly heating,” which describe the tortures applied to residents; and
(8) Avīci, “no release” or “no interval,” where there is no rest between periods of torture.
Each Hell has 16 smaller compartments, named after the method of punishment:
(1) black sand, (2) boiling excrement, (3) five hundred nails,
(4) hunger, (5) thirst, (6) copper pot,
(7) many copper pots, (8) stone mill, (9) pus and blood,
(10) trial by fire, (11) river of ashes, (12) ball of fire,
(13) axe, (14) foxes, (15) forest of swords, and (16) cold.
This is a very basic list of Hells.
The Life State of Hell is a momentary state of life that can continue for a long period. It is the lowest lifestate of the 10 basic lifestates:
Hell, Hunger, Animality, Anger, Humanity/Tranquility, Rapture/Heaven, Learning/Arhat, Absorption/Pratyekabuddha, Buddhahood/Enlightenment.
These Ten Lifestates all have each of the 10 and each has 10 Aspects and 3 Principles of individuation (all ten contain all ten10x100x3= 3000) making 3000 Life States in what is called Ichinen Sanzen (3000 lifestates in one single Moment of life)
Hmmm…I don’t know…every religion is based on a set of spectacular and extraordinary claims, right? That Christianity is based THIS particular set…I’m not sure that’s radical.
How long have you been a Buddhist?
Christianity was radical in temporal time and place. It completely upended the corruption of existing, establishment Judaism and challenged the Roman world for a time.
1 Like
I discussed that earlier in this thread in terms of temporal time and transient identity. Labels themselves are transient. For me, Jesus was/is a Buddhist. TLDR: all my lives.
For me, Jesus refuted existing Judaism, just as Shakyamuni refuted Brahmanism/Hinduism. The goals were to teach the perfect Law of cause and effect and spread this to all beings living in Samsara. In both cases, existing terminology was used so that people could begin to understand.
God chose the Jews as the family on earth that would bring Jesus into the world.
His apostles were Jews. Jews from every nation were gathered in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost - (one of the Jewish holidays) Peter preached the first gospel sermon that day and 3,000 Jews were baptized. 5,000 Jews in the next days and 1,000’s more day by day. For the first 8 years from Pentecost, the early disciples were only Jews.
The Jews preserved Scripture from Genesis to the Revelation. The gospel went forth from Jerusalem. It didn’t land in the USA until many years later. We are not special or chosen.
Jesus had a quarrel with certain Jewish religious leaders because they had neglected the weightier matters of the law … Matthew 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, **justice and mercy and faith; ** these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!”
Since our relationship is personal between us and God, I think the question of sin is also personal. We have many examples of sin and people who sin in Scripture and what their punishment was if anything.
The difference in punishment in the OT was different than in the NT.
Sins of the heart like pride, jealousy, arrogance, etc, is dealt with more harshly than sins of the flesh.
The sin of willful ignorance is dealt with more harshly than the sins of Sodomy.
There is always three fingers pointing back at us.
Some people have quarrels with others who sin differently than they do . 
1 Like
That courtroom scene was judgement for Jews. Notice the word “tribes.” Jews were called sheep and goats.
God said He would JUDGE the NATIONS. And he did.
All the top Jews tried to murder Jesus. Top Jews during Moses, turned the people against Moses. “Jew” should mean people who believe the Religion, not “Jew” by custom or race.
The specialness and chosen-ness, is debatable, you are talking about people writing things.
Who was the jury?
