Here's our 2024 Holiday Greetings letter

I'm not a Christian, but I have no problem with saying "Merry Christmas." After all, tomorrow is as much a secular day devoted to giving and receiving presents as it is a celebration of Jesus' supposed birthday.

The problem with this celebration is that it's virtually certain Jesus wasn't born on December 25. Wikipedia says:

In the third century, the precise date of Jesus's birth was a subject of great interest, with early Christian writers suggesting various dates in March, April and May.

Steven Hijmans of the University of Alberta writes that "cosmic symbolism" inspired the Church leadership in Rome to choose 25 December, the Roman date of the winter solstice and the birthday of Sol Invictus ('Invincible Sun'), as the birthday of Christ.

Regardless, my wife and I are pleased to flow with the Christmas river, even though we have no interest in the religious side of this holiday. For me, it's a reason to write an annual Christmas letter, which we prefer to call a Holiday Greetings.

Here's this year's letter in PDF and JPEG formats. Because I've written a Christmas letter since 1995, as documented in my regularly updated Collected Christmas Letters post, I didn't feel like breaking that string this year. I do note in the 2024 letter that I'm feeling increasingly like a soon-to-be-extinct creature. 

Download 2024 Christmas Letter PDF

Comments

[Tej]

A Merry Christmas to you and Laurel.
Sending joy and appreciation all the way from Bangkok, Thailand.

[Jim Sutherland]

Merry Christmas, Brian, Laurel, and all other Atheists, Skeptics, and especially those who might still have a little Curiosity about the possibility that Christ not only exists, but loves Atheists too!

This is a long shot, but I’m posting this Link to a 3 hour podcast, fresh and just released today in time for Christmas. The Podcast can be listened o on 1.5 speed, so doesn’t need 3 hours.

https://youtu.be/nczxm1EH_hw

What’s unique about the Podcast is, the Interviewer is Shawn Ryan, an Ex Navy Seal/CIA Contractor, who is a newly converted Baby Christian, who is recovering from Alcoholism, and Drug use, but is now impressed with supervised Mushroom type therapy, such as you tried, Brian. But he heeded it and Jesus more than most! He was suicidal, after many tours to Afghanistan! He has one the largest Podcasts on the Net, and he not only interviewed Kash Patel, but Trump on his Podcast.

He is interviewing an Ex Atheist who is a converted Christian Journalist turned Jesus Bible Thumper for Christ! Who better to introduce them both here, in this Churchless Church on Christmas Day than me, a real Born Again Ex Preacher who walked my talk, WITH earned Credential to prove it!

Enjoy. Don’t pass up listening to it.

Dr. Jim Sutherland, B.Min., M.Min. , Th.D.

[Jim Sutherland]

For those Atheists and Exers who take the risk of listening to this podcast for fear of being converted to Christianity, and wonder what being a Christian has to do with Sant Mat,….well the next step is to read the book, published by RSSB “The Mystic Bible”, which connects the Bible to Sant Mat. The book is now, long out of print, and rare, but can be still found on pdf sections on the Internet. I still have my hard cover copy, one of only a few Sant Mat books I still kept.
Jim Sutherland

[Jim Sutherland]

I should not forget to mention, if, after any one listens to the Podcast, and starts to feel you want to really want to know exactly HOW, to become Born again, as a Christian, to become an Heir of the Kingdom Within that Jesus shared with his Desciples,….the best place to find out exactly how, and where in the Bible to find instructions, are right on my Blog, scrolling back to the beginning, and working forward, by reading the sections of my Master’s Degree and Bible Doctor’s Seminary Degrees. Of course, I might be biased, but I still think it’s the best!
Jim Sutherland

[sant64]

I'm pleased to report that you don't have to be a Christian to have gratitude and to express gratitude.

[Jim Sutherland]

Here is the pdf on the Book the Ex Atheist authored, for the real Seekers to investigate.

https://ia800402.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/0/items/CHRISTIANBOOKSCOLLECTION_201711/CHRISTIAN%20BOOKS%20COLLECTION.zip&file=The%20Case%20for%20Christ%20by%20Lee%20Strobel.pdf

Jim Sutherland

[Jim Sutherland]

https://youtu.be/zDlgWC49iqA

The Documentary regarding the book.

Jim Sutherland

[um]

@ Jim S.

Imagine for a moment that the new Jezus would walk into the varcan or any other christian church of whatever denomination and would perform what is recorded in the Gospels, what do you think the devout clergy men and the faithfull would do?

Do you think they would act differently as is recorded in the bible and leave him in peace?

My guess is that they will lock him up, in prison an asylum or just kill him.

To believe in a person of flesh and blood, is not that easy.
Having faith in your own imagination is available to many.

What to think of the theologians of today?
Do you believe they would be able to act differently than those of the Sanhedrin?

[Jim Sutherland]

@um,…I unfortunately am unable to down load my personal Faith in to yours, or any one else’s spirit.

All I have been able to do, was, and still do, is share a little of my Spiritual search here, and there. I think I have done a fairly decent job, sharing what the English translation taken from the King James Bible teaches , but that’s all I have been able to do.

I’ve won a few converts, occasionally, to both Christianity as well as Sant Mat. As you have stated many times, Crows can never become Eagles. They are born Crows, and will die Crows.

I can take your teaching and make it the Bible Teaching:
Reprobates can never become members of the Marked Elect. They have been born Reprobates, and will die Reprobates!

If you want to see their difference, I explain it by the Bible on my blog.

But we members born as Members of the Marked Elect don’t know the Reprobates from the Marked Elect, other than by their actions. None of us have Tattoos on us , that can prove which ones we are. Those Marks are hidden in our hearts, which can only be seen by The ONE who OSHO ROBBINS imagines he Is.

But, each Member of The Marked Elect are many, Works in progress , awaiting the Calling, by THE ONE,…..Who is IN the many, but NOT the many.

The Many have THE ONE, but are now, now will ever be, THE ONE, other than Members of the ONE. 😇

To answer your question, if Jesus showed up today in any of the Churches, claiming to be Jesus, the Paster most likely would call the Cops and have him arrested.

Jim Sutherland

[Jim Sutherland]

Typo: should say, NOT NOW, NOR WILL EVER BE…..

Jim Sutherland

[um]

@ Jim S.

What I wrote was not about you.

It was just an invitation to ponder on making the pas come to live in the present and in doing so reflect on how we attribute meaning and value, to what has been presented to us as facts.

In those days, when he was alive, only a few people were able and willing to listen to him.

The miracles etc that are presented in that video as proof, for Mr. Strobel e.o, were not enough for the masses of the devout of those days .... other wise they would not have screamed for the roman Prefect to hang him ....

Bring the past alive in the present and you will understand.

All those, kind and respected people in that video ... would have Jezus killed again if he appeared on the stage to day

[um]

@ Jim S.

The speaker in that video makes an interesting statement about Christ:

He sais, that most teachers use the authority of somebody else and Jezus just spoke out of his own book, being his own authority.

Now have a look at all those authorities in the video and the speaker ..they all dirive their authority from somebody else, that is named by them as authority.

That is what scientists and theologians do .. and every priest and minister that speaks in the church ...

All mystics say sometimes somewhere .... Your believe has saved you

Faith, believe is or can be as stron as an factual innerexperience.
and yes ...
those that have it are as is said ..BLESSED .... no doubt about it.

Again for the record it is not about you and there is nothing wrong with devout people

[um]

@ Jim S.

To state it correctly ...

as far as I am concerned ...
nobody will ever be aske by me to prove his
thoughts,
feelings,
dreams,
innerexperiences or
faith

If they want to share it with me I will hear upon them

[Jim Sutherland]

@um,….We Preachers always assume, there are still a few Members of the Marked Elect who have not yet awaked to their Inheritance, because they have yet to be called, or have not responded to their Call.

I still assume that at least, all the Readers here, are unawakened Members of the Marked Elect, as long as they, and I, are still above ground, and still in our bodies sucking Air.

If they aren’t, they wouldn’t still be hanging around here waiting for confirmation of having their Ticket to Sach Khand stamped, to board the Viceroy Express. There is always a few vacant seats left.

Years ago, when I was in my early 40s, I went in to the Los Angeles County Jail with a Chaplin, and gave my Born Again Testimony to a packed Chapel of 300 Inmates, all packed in, shoulder to shoulder. II carried in my Guitar with a big JESUS SAVES sticker on it, and played a few songs on it before I spoke to the Inmates. I wasn’t a Licensed Minister then, only a Born Again Believer, who was on fire for God after being called to serve.

With that said, I viewed every last Inmate as a possible Member of the Marked Elect, still asleep, and awaiting their Call.

When I had my little Street Church in Laguna Beach, The Homos had a favorite Hook Up spot on the beach, where they would go at night to meet other Gays. That was one of my Preaching depots to win Gays to Christ! Most of them ran away, when they saw my Sword, the Bible!

I’ve never preached to the Choirs. I’ve always gone to the places where the hidden Elect might be waiting to be called.

That’s how I still view every one I ever cross paths with,……i..e. , as possible another possible Member of the Marked Elect. ( until they prove other wise).

Jim Sutherland

[Jim Sutherland]

Here’s me, now:

1 Corinthians 9:19-23

“For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.”

Jim Sutherland

[Jim Sutherland]

And here is why I am still motivated to preach. My Name is even on this Bible Verse.

James 5:19-20

“My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”

Jim Sutherland

[um]

@ Jim S.

I understand. ..IF ....if I would think and feel that way, I too would act as you.

Siting with the late MCS, his secretary said:
He] The pull must come from within.
[Me] and if it is not three?
[He] If it is not there , it is just not there, [and here it comes] ...what can you do!?!?

Life has to taught it to be true and I do accept it for what it is.

And what was said is the very kernel of the teachings, the narrative about the sheep, the Sheppard the dogs and the owner ...or ...the lost son.

The lost son doesn't seek the father or his home.

Pull, calling or whatever ... reason for me never to tell anybody what to believe or not.

[Jim Sutherland]

@um,…I felt like you are feeling now, when I was rebelling against answering my personal call from God. I kept running until April 1977, when I has hung over, from a drunk , and had the dry heaves so bad, from vomiting every thing expect my A-hole out, and had a black eye from vomiting that made me afraid to return home and convince my wife that I had not been in another Bar fight.

I was at my dark Night of my soul, and was finally ready to SURRENDER to my Call that I had been ignoring ever since rebelling against God at 17, after joining the Air Force. I “controlled my “ drinking, until age 28, of which I woke up in Jail for drunken driving with my car confiscated after being towed, and having to call my new Boss Employer to come bail me out of Jail , if he wanted me to come back to work!

I was the newly hired Plant Manager of the Industrial Plating shop of about 25 people. The Company Attorney Plea Bargained my DUI down to Reckless Driving, and I lost my drivers license for 6 months, and had to have my wife drive me to work and pick me up, and I had to drop out of Night College, where I was going 4 nights a week after work. ( I continued to graduate the next year, which was 1972)

But, I joined Alcoholics Anonymous as soon as I got out of Jail, and got a Sponsor who shared his 12 Step AA Program with me.

It was at that time where my Inner Call returned to me again, when we had to admit publicly, that we were powerless over alcohol, and in order to ever be able to recover, we had to turn our lives over to a Higher Power, when we chose to call God!

So, before getting any thing from this unseen Higher Power, WE HAD TO FIRST SURRENDER!

I did, as best I could, but being still infected with rebellion, I stayed with AA, going to 3-5 AA meetings a week, for the next 7 years, and slipping and sliding, back and forth, drinking, then not, until my final Dark Night of my Soul, hung over as described above!

It was then, that I totally surrendered to that Higher Power, got down on my knees alone in that hotel room, and begged Christ to come in to my heart, and take over my life, what was left of it, and allow me to become a better husband to my wife and father to my children.

COMPLETE SURRENDER was, and still is, always the Key to Salvation.

I recovered from my hang over about a week later, after my black eye started returning to normal, and I never have attended another AA meeting since then to date, nor tasted another drink of alcohol, nor smoked any tobbacco , or chewed any, as I was addicted to cigarettes, cigars, pipe, and chewing tobacco!

Of course my Wife never believed I would never drink again, but since April 1977, when I responded to my Call of God and SURRENDERED in that hotel room, My Wife no longer worries about my coming home again drunk.

Y’all know the rest of my Journey that I have shared here.

I’m through tonight, since Christmas is over, by this last challenge: How do those Seekers SURRENDER, to their Higher Power, while being too ashamed to even dare to reveal and use there own real Names among Bother/Sister initiated Current or Ex Satsangis?

Jim Sutherland

[um]

@ Jim S.

With great interest I read your story, impressed by what many things you had to go through in life and how you managed to do so ...and ...then then out of the blue that ..anti-climax ... in the form of that last question.

And ... maybe due to my poor command of English or just my way of expressing myself ... but I never had a feeling of rebellion against anything ..so I do not think you and I are facing the same problems in life.

Nor do I walk around with shame or remorse about how I lived ..even in understanding that my RE-actions towards others did not deserve always to be applaud. ... just by way of speech.

Maybe it should be said that:
Those that feel ashamed etc can decide to hide their identity,
but not all that hide their identity,
have reasons to feel ashamed,

I was raised RK ...in that environment the word ...SINNER .... was never used.
Sinning before God etc is in my understanding typical Calvinistic, protestant ...reason why, in my opinion so many Satsangi's are scared to death about eating something wrong, believing if they can prevent themselves from ..sinning ...everything will be alright.

If there is a god he certainly is not interested in what we eat.

[Ron E.]

My message – whether Christmas or otherwise – is the message which reminds us that, like every other creature that inhabits this world, all we can ever know and all we ever are is the world which we access every day, in every moment, is the world that we encounter through our senses, through touch, sight, sound, taste, feel and awareness.

Any other ‘world’ is the product of imagination, belief, desire and wishful thinking. It takes only a little insight to see that such pretend worlds are formed through abstract thinking. Our total organism is built to navigate our environments, this includes thinking – the ability to plan, asses and predict. As humans, and driven by our fears and insecurities along with the knowledge that we will eventually die, we can and have taken thinking into the realms of unreal and imaginary realities.

When we find ourselves believing or thinking along such lines, the remedy is simply to focus the senses on what is real and apparent in the natural world we live and exist in. The moment a desire, wish or fear takes us away from this actuality, we can see the falseness that our minds are throwing up and how our thinking desires to change what is into what we wish or think we want it to be.

Our problem in this context, is not the world as it is but the world that we want or imagine it to be. It is not the real world but a world made up from our fears and insecurities. The real, everyday world is one that we can all access, unlike the numerous mind-made worlds and beliefs that separate us, the real world is the world we can work with together.

[um]

There have been people that were terminal diseased and not finding an medical cure, took steps to find one themselves. and some of them managed to do so and got "miraculous" cured.

Among those cured some, came to conclude that the cure they found would be a cure for "everybody and everything" and published their cure as path to take.

It seems to me that all paths mystical started with a human being having a problem inside or outside. Inside the severe mental agony related to themselves or things outside themselves for which they are responsible.

As with those that were terminal bodily ill, some had an so called inner revelation in the form of experiences and among some of them that found a solution there were some that made themselves believe or were made to believe that, it would solve all human problems for everybody.

Take as an example the roots of the state of Israel. It started out with a revelation to an tribe elder that was seeking for a territory where his tribe could live. Only that elder had that revelation and nobody else. So the revelation by itself was a matter of problem solving , related to survival. As such real and functional .. the meaning and value that was attributed later to the CAUSE of that revelation was also reel and functional, even to this very day.

It is a form of self fulfilling prophecy.

My problem or objection is ..that those supposed causal forces outside themselves, did not inform me .. and me in this case means everybody else. If there is an benign force for everybody, like the sun giving its warmth to all and everybody, it could, and should have informed all they others and offer the same solution for every individual problem.

Yes, some in agony, victim of this or that addiction have found the power to give up that addiction by converting themselves to a divine power but not all. So what cured them was some survival mechanism inside themselves they managed to activate and not any divine power ...and yes if such a thing happens to one it must be a miracle and reason for gratitude etc.

[Jim Sutherland]

@um,….what RSSB Masters have ignored, including Charan, and teach , is that real Spiritual Seekers should also ignore, are exactly what Christian Evangelists such as the late T.L. Osborn, an American Red Neck Preacher from Oklahoma, once used in his Crusade in India to demonstrate the Power of God. There have been many others, but T.L. Was one of my early Mentors.

https://youtu.be/yPh02Z_EWxI

Jim Sutherland

[um]

@ Jim S.

I have never been interested in "powers": and they would not have meaning for me.
If somebody would levitate, I would see a person floating in the air, without understanding how he did it ...and .. that is it.

The person in the video can be whatever and whomever he is, but I would not be attracted as I was never attracted to characters as Sai Baba, Osho and many others that arise many emotions in the public.

That tells something about "MY" preferences and NOTHING about the spiritual and other qualities of these people.

It is just not my cup of coffee.

The fact that I felt comfortable with others, for the same reason does not tell anything about them but just about my personal preferences.

[um]

@ Jim S.

What I wrote is not complete without stating that I am interested in is body language. Reason for me to watch, great chefs at work in their kitchen and top performers in different sports. They tell something about these people like that lovely story of chef ding by Hon. Zhuang Zi:
https://en.daoinfo.org/wiki/Cook_Ding_Cuts_the_Beef#:~:text=The%20story%20%22Cook%20Ding%20Cuts,the%20%22sounds%20of%20nature%22.

With that interest I have always observed those that teach. What they don't say, but express with their body, is much more intriguing .. it reveals something about how they live their life.

Crafts men at work is a joy to observe.

The carrot gatherer
with the carrot in his hand
he has shown me the way

[Jim Sutherland]

@um,….”cutting beef” after it mysteriously appears on the Chef’s Butcher Block , to cut and portion saddens me to even think about it.

I have not eaten meat since 3 months before I was initiated by Thakar Singh early 1988. I hope I will never eat it again.

Of course, I gave up meat eating because it was a requirement to become initiated, but it didn’t take long to become aware of the horrors of animals being slaughtered in factory slaughter houses.

In one of my positions as V.P. -Sales , working for an Engineering Company that designed, sold and installed Industrial Waste Water Treatment Systems, which included Waste Renderings from Slaughter Houses, I refused to have any thing to do with that part of the Business, of which I managed as V.P. Sales for 9 years.

ONE Tour of a factory Slaughter House should convert all Visitors to becoming Vegetarians!! I only took one tour, which was more than enough. That tour was through Swift Meat Slaughter House in Kansas City, Kansas.

It’s amazing how those workers become numb to working the production killing conveyor lines! Horrors up on horrors!

Jim Sutherland

[um]

@ Jim S.

That depends on who you are, how you are born and raised.

With my brother I was born vegetarian, in the sense that the both of us were unable to eat any meat that had the slightest color or red inside. In those days, the word vegetarian let alone vegan was not known to the world I grew up in. Our parents took their time and with a lot of patience the learned us to eat meat ... it took many years ... to overcome that resistance.

Nobody knew where that resistance came from and it had certainly nothing to do with feelings and thoughts in relation to animals ... i will refrain from writing here what all my eyes have seen in those days.

Even to day, I have no problems with people's need to consume meat in terms of their idea's on staying alive....there are area's in the world where it is impossible to live a vegetarian / vegan way of life.

So the resistance we had, was related to the consumption; the taste and the smell

An to be frankly I have not a lot of love and understanding for those that stand up for animal rights ...they make me feel that they even hate animals ...I do not like their aggressive ways with with they want to force their views upon others.

That said ...if some body wants to understand something .. grab your pet, your cat or dog with two hands firmly by its throat .. feel with your hands what happens .. than you have understood everything ..no words need .. the cat will teach you a lesson for life.

Nobody should take what is not his, the life force of anything created, unless he has to do so to stay alive. ...as that is the fundament of survival on earth ..consume the life energy of something else ... plants are probably the only species that transform energy without killing as they take it from the sun. but all the rest has to in order to survive.

If there is a creator ..it was his or her idea and it must have a deep meaning, and not or little understood by humanity ...and probably it is related to what you people like to talk about ..LOVE

[Jim Sutherland]

um,….you wrote,….” With my brother I was born vegetarian, in the sense that the both of us were unable to eat any meat that had the slightest color or red inside. In those days, the word vegetarian let alone vegan was not known to the world I grew up in. Our parents took their time and with a lot of patience the learned us to eat meat ... it took many years ... to overcome that resistance.”

I don’t understand. Are you saying you were born in a non meat eating family, but then raised by another family who were meat eaters? Were you and your brother refugees, or adopted,….. or do you mean you were vegetarians from a past life, which you remembered ?

Did you give up meat to be initiated?

Please clarify?

Also, the red blood in meat confuses me. Is that a Muslim, or Jewish concern? Or does that mean White bloodless meat is acceptable, such as Chicken breast?

I know the Bible indicates that “Life is in the blood”, so if all the blood is drained out of the meat, does that make it legal?

Or,…is the blood issue a Jehovah Witness , where they refuse to take blood transfusions?

Jim Sutherland

[um]

@ Jim S.

Hahaha ..your imagination makes you ask questions and suggest things that were not there for us.

Just do read my answer and you will that there was nothing out of the ordinary of those bygone days ...so most of the questions can be answered with a "no" and the word re-incarnation was not known to us nor did any of us have any recollection.

[Trez]

Merry Christmas

A nice time of year with warm feelings

Not bad vibes like Gurinder Singh Dhilion and Radha Soami cult. Where constant lies and a acts of Power and Greed by Gurinder sends a heart renching stench throughout the year.

Thus enjoy what is a good time of year to remember the real God who is beyond us all and still here with us all

God you bless!

[Jim Sutherland]

@um,…so your “no” answers, mean, you did NOT go Veggie, or did you NOT get Initiated by Charan Singh, but only visited the Dera as a Seeker,….and you have never found what you were looking for, and never asked to be initiated?

Or,…as a RC, do you still go to Confession to a RC Priest, and believe you are given Absolution every time you confess your newest unconfessed sins to your RC Priest? I have a few Catholic friends left, that have not written me off as a Heretic, that still go to Confession and believe they are safe from the Pit.

One of us is confused. It might even be me! If so, help me to become unconfused.

@Trez,…..what do you think would happen, if a Christian Charismatic Preacher would preach any good Christian Salvation Sermon, STANDING on the Dias at the Dera , behind Gurinder’s Microphone, in his absence, and preach to the entire Sanghat, that Gurinder isn’t coming for them at death, as he has admitted, but if they ask Jesus Christ to come in to their hearts and ask Him to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, that Jesus , not only will come for them at death, but will forgive ALL of their Sins immediately, and they will Instantly, become New Creations , in Christ, and would be healed!

How many Satsangis do you think would stand up, raise their hands and respond to the Salvation Invitation Call by the Preacher?

Jim Sutherland

[Jim Sutherland]

If a Christian Evangelist was ever allowed to preach the most effective Sermon ever preached, standing on the Dias at the Dera, at Beas this Sunday, for a TEST, ….here is the Sermon I’d recommend!

It would either cause miracles, or riots!

https://youtu.be/TtHijgqceXo

Jim Sutherland

[Kranvir]

Merry Christmas Brian, hope you and everyone have allot of laughs and rest time with your real families.

Keep away from bad babas , wolves in sheep clothings , especially RSSB cult and gurinder and jasdeep. They obviously want people to believe they are the second coming of christ when it you look at their actions, they more resemble the antichrist. Actions such as: siphoming billions from their own nephews; land grabbing from poor farmers ; wife murderer ; mafia tactics; selling false promises and blasphemy to true God, to name but a few. Never make gurinder your baba, a family member of your own, this is a crafty deception. Direct your love to your own families and real loved ones. Gurinder and his narcissist like minded cronies will face their karma very soon.