Tuesday, February 22, 2005
My second reply to Ron.
I can see how someone would see a Christian as having half-empty view point, but Christians don’t focus on the sin or wrath of God. We do focus on love, forgiveness and salvation. The part most people miss is that we are as offended by sin (all sin) as non-believers say they are offended by our beliefs. When Christians gather we talk about a lot of things, but I have rarely seen someone talking in a negative way about anybody or anything. That stuff does come tend to come out when we are “defending the faith”. Primarily because we are on the defensive, and sometimes we go to offence too. Just like any other willful human that is passionate about something. Do you always present your best (or most positive) when you feel attacked?
Let’s face it. The media focuses on the extreme and unusual on both sides. My guess is if I met you in a neutral environment I wouldn’t know you were gay just by looking or talking with you about general subjects. Depending on the conversation and environment, you may not learn that I am a Christian. (I’m actually working on my character so it is more obvious that I am a Christian, but it’s going to take a lot of work.) Ironically, I can agree with the words a Bible thumper is saying, but hate the message that is being delivered.
The Bible was not written by God. It was authored by Him. Think of the Apostils and followers as ghost writers. : ) The translations (at least to English) do miss something sometimes. For example, I just learned the other night that when God said to Eve (Woman) in Genesis 3:16:
… Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.
That a more accurate translation would be: You will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.
Until I learned this, I always assumed it had to do with a woman’s sexual desire for a man. This in my mind takes the forceful act/design of God.
Side note: I honestly don’t understand why women (or men) are attracted to men. I understand the desire to reproduce, but the actual physical attraction escapes me. I have seen some men in my day that have very feminine features and I don’t doubt I could be fooled by an illusion that a man is a beautiful woman, but with all the cards on the table I just don’t get it. (Don’t bother trying to explain. I’ve had several gay friends that have tried and they claim to be just as confused as to why I’m attracted to women. When they bring up their negative points I can’t disagree, but on the positive side they are squishy.)
Back on subject, this is why I continue to study an learn about God’s Word. Too many Christians depend on there minister to spoon feed them. You would be surprised by how many ministers, priest and clergy of all types are biblically ignorant. This in part is how some many travesties have been committed in the Lord’s name. It’s really not that different then the Islamic terrorist that tell young illiterate Muslims that they will get a “free pass” into heaven with 21 virgins waiting for them or whatever their prize is supposed to be. Christians were fooled with the same rhetoric during the Crusades and so were the early “Christian” settlers of America. There are people today being lead astray by such charlatans in every religion. That is man, not God! Satan gained control of this world when he successfully introduced sin into it. We live in this fallen world. It is our choice to choose Him or our own way and our way lead to destruction.
The shellfish, clothing mixing materials, slavery and all can be very confusing to non-believers and believers alike. I would venture that 90-99% of Christians don’t understand this stuff either and just jump in to the New Testament. I can’t answer all your questions, but the main purpose of all these laws given to the Jews by God was to make it impossible for them to follow them. God is our Father! He wants us to look to Him and only him for all things. It is our own rebellious hearts (sometimes with Satan’s help) that leads us astray. Until I had my daughter I didn’t really understand this, but now I get a glimpse of it everyday. She will be 14 month old on March 1. She is already the most rebellious and stubborn thing I’ve ever met. We think we outgrow this stuff, but we just learn to mask and justify it better. I know this did not really address your point directly and certainly not completely. To do that we would have to delve deep into the Bible and many other text and work diligently for approximately 10,000 years just to get to a point where we don’t understand God’s purpose and give up and pray for His forgiveness for wasting our time trying.
Romans is a great book, but it like everything else in the Bible should not be tackled alone. Do you ever see those disclaimers on TV where they say “Professional Driver on a Closed Track” or “Don’t try this at home; these people are professionals.” Well, the Bible should come with a similar warning. We all need spiritual guidance. I’m not Catholic, but I bet even the Pope depends on a counsel of earthly advisors as well as heavenly ones. Your friend is drinking himself to death out of his own selfish desire. God’s desire is for your friend to come to him and be forgiven and receive is grace, love, mercy, healing, blessing and all the wonderful things we can never provide for ourselves. Off the top of my head the only unforgivable sin that I know of that is specifically mentioned in the Bible is in Revelations where if people freely take the mark of the beast they are condemned, but I could be wrong about that too. We are not in the midst of the tribulation, but RFID technology is bring us ever closer, and with the developments in the Middle-East its getting scary, but then again its always like that!
Yes, Christ taught us to accept all sinners, but not the sin. Yes, sometimes it does seem that the Church leadership is pushing its flock versus leading it. The tithe is a very big issue. First, you must know that active church going Christians give an average of 2%. God and Jesus said 10%. We are hording and that too is a sin and it needs to stop. Most church leaders don’t spend enough time on biblical financial planning and believe me that has as much or more to do with our credit crazy society as the Banks. Yes, there are bad televangelists too.
Actually, the next time Jesus comes back we’ll all recognize him. It is spelled out in Revelations petty clearly that he comes back on a cloud in a glorious way judging the world.
Ron, it’s getting very late for me. I’ll be around tomorrow, I hope.
If you are interested, a quick, easy and enjoyable read is C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity. C.S. Lewis was very anti-Christian until late in his life. It won’t convince you to be a Christian or turn you toward or away from anything, but it explains the very basics much better then anyone I’ve ever read or listened to.
God is Love!
Let’s face it. The media focuses on the extreme and unusual on both sides. My guess is if I met you in a neutral environment I wouldn’t know you were gay just by looking or talking with you about general subjects. Depending on the conversation and environment, you may not learn that I am a Christian. (I’m actually working on my character so it is more obvious that I am a Christian, but it’s going to take a lot of work.) Ironically, I can agree with the words a Bible thumper is saying, but hate the message that is being delivered.
The Bible was not written by God. It was authored by Him. Think of the Apostils and followers as ghost writers. : ) The translations (at least to English) do miss something sometimes. For example, I just learned the other night that when God said to Eve (Woman) in Genesis 3:16:
… Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.
That a more accurate translation would be: You will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.
Until I learned this, I always assumed it had to do with a woman’s sexual desire for a man. This in my mind takes the forceful act/design of God.
Side note: I honestly don’t understand why women (or men) are attracted to men. I understand the desire to reproduce, but the actual physical attraction escapes me. I have seen some men in my day that have very feminine features and I don’t doubt I could be fooled by an illusion that a man is a beautiful woman, but with all the cards on the table I just don’t get it. (Don’t bother trying to explain. I’ve had several gay friends that have tried and they claim to be just as confused as to why I’m attracted to women. When they bring up their negative points I can’t disagree, but on the positive side they are squishy.)
Back on subject, this is why I continue to study an learn about God’s Word. Too many Christians depend on there minister to spoon feed them. You would be surprised by how many ministers, priest and clergy of all types are biblically ignorant. This in part is how some many travesties have been committed in the Lord’s name. It’s really not that different then the Islamic terrorist that tell young illiterate Muslims that they will get a “free pass” into heaven with 21 virgins waiting for them or whatever their prize is supposed to be. Christians were fooled with the same rhetoric during the Crusades and so were the early “Christian” settlers of America. There are people today being lead astray by such charlatans in every religion. That is man, not God! Satan gained control of this world when he successfully introduced sin into it. We live in this fallen world. It is our choice to choose Him or our own way and our way lead to destruction.
The shellfish, clothing mixing materials, slavery and all can be very confusing to non-believers and believers alike. I would venture that 90-99% of Christians don’t understand this stuff either and just jump in to the New Testament. I can’t answer all your questions, but the main purpose of all these laws given to the Jews by God was to make it impossible for them to follow them. God is our Father! He wants us to look to Him and only him for all things. It is our own rebellious hearts (sometimes with Satan’s help) that leads us astray. Until I had my daughter I didn’t really understand this, but now I get a glimpse of it everyday. She will be 14 month old on March 1. She is already the most rebellious and stubborn thing I’ve ever met. We think we outgrow this stuff, but we just learn to mask and justify it better. I know this did not really address your point directly and certainly not completely. To do that we would have to delve deep into the Bible and many other text and work diligently for approximately 10,000 years just to get to a point where we don’t understand God’s purpose and give up and pray for His forgiveness for wasting our time trying.
Romans is a great book, but it like everything else in the Bible should not be tackled alone. Do you ever see those disclaimers on TV where they say “Professional Driver on a Closed Track” or “Don’t try this at home; these people are professionals.” Well, the Bible should come with a similar warning. We all need spiritual guidance. I’m not Catholic, but I bet even the Pope depends on a counsel of earthly advisors as well as heavenly ones. Your friend is drinking himself to death out of his own selfish desire. God’s desire is for your friend to come to him and be forgiven and receive is grace, love, mercy, healing, blessing and all the wonderful things we can never provide for ourselves. Off the top of my head the only unforgivable sin that I know of that is specifically mentioned in the Bible is in Revelations where if people freely take the mark of the beast they are condemned, but I could be wrong about that too. We are not in the midst of the tribulation, but RFID technology is bring us ever closer, and with the developments in the Middle-East its getting scary, but then again its always like that!
Yes, Christ taught us to accept all sinners, but not the sin. Yes, sometimes it does seem that the Church leadership is pushing its flock versus leading it. The tithe is a very big issue. First, you must know that active church going Christians give an average of 2%. God and Jesus said 10%. We are hording and that too is a sin and it needs to stop. Most church leaders don’t spend enough time on biblical financial planning and believe me that has as much or more to do with our credit crazy society as the Banks. Yes, there are bad televangelists too.
Actually, the next time Jesus comes back we’ll all recognize him. It is spelled out in Revelations petty clearly that he comes back on a cloud in a glorious way judging the world.
Ron, it’s getting very late for me. I’ll be around tomorrow, I hope.
If you are interested, a quick, easy and enjoyable read is C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity. C.S. Lewis was very anti-Christian until late in his life. It won’t convince you to be a Christian or turn you toward or away from anything, but it explains the very basics much better then anyone I’ve ever read or listened to.
God is Love!
