Questions for People of Faith - A Serious Discussion

These questions matter greatly to we of New Hope.

Sorry for the long post - but we need to think about these three things. In summary, we would like to learn more about your opinion on these three points of misunderstanding.  The detailed discussion topics point-by-point follow this brief contextual introduction.

1. We believe God is universal, and reaches out to all people everywhere equally - and was not selfish with his truth.

2. The 4th commandment may forbid going forth to convert.

3. The original bible has survived, and is being ignored on
purpose, perhaps to justify for-profit religions and predatory greed by the corporations and the wealthy.

Yours in Faith,

John Hubertz, Foundational Elder, 
New Hope Anabaptist and Peace Academy,
Fort Wayne (worldwide)

The discussion in detail:

1. How do you react to the concept (that we believe) that God was not selfish, and has reached out to man in all places, at all times, and indeed - continuously does so.

In other words, for a person from India or China, is it actually appropriate or even morally correct to imply belief in Jesus is required for access to God's grace and truth?

2. How do you feel about respecting the fourth commandment (honor thy father and mother) in the context of discouraging the almost universal modern Christian culture pushing of our Christian beliefs into other people's lives?  

These people of Hindu or Islamic or Buddhist or Primitive faith have perhaps thousands of years of family ties and faith traditions - traditions that at the heart are not different than our own.

We are concerned this violates the fourth commandment by failing to encourage our brethren of other cultures and faiths to "Honor their father and their mother."

Is it not true that leading someone into grievous sin is sinful?  Of course, if someone approaches us hungry for our truth, we share, but only then.

3. Why do traditional Christian faiths, including our own Anabaptist brethren (amish, old-order mennonite) consistently ignore and even argue over the Dead Sea gospels known as the Nag Hammadi?

How do you explain that people think our King James Bible, which sprang from an early Pope and Emperor Constantine's choices to assemble a "bible" and a religion/government partnership is superior to recently (1947) discovered Gospels - which are original Aramaic texts that emerged from a cave intact?

How do you explain that the original Jewish Talmud and Torah, the roots and wellspring of the faith Jesus practiced, are ignored except in heavily edited form within the traditional Christian/Catholic Biblical traditions?

If the Gospels are sacred, why was it not cause for celebration in the streets and our houses of worship when the originals were finally found, and 1700 years of "corporate" faith and government abuses of believers could be no longer justified, and thus cast aside in favor of Jesus' unaltered words and instructions?