Gee I don't know. Sometimes I think people are so obsessed with Jesus the lose sight of God. The word "Jesus" is an idol for many people. There is only one true all-powerful all-loving God and that God is God. My faith in God is probably stronger than most idol worshipers. I believe our omnipotent God of unconditional love allows everyone to enter through the gates of Heaven regardless of our Earthly sins or how we practiced our religion. This is my faith. You my not be trusting enough in our God of unconditional love to put this much faith in God but I do. My reasoning is God needs nothing from us. So God collects every soul because all souls are equally valuable to God. My other reason is I do not have as much faith in the Bible because the Bible was written by men no matter how divinely inspired people claim it to be. For example, it is just mind boggling to me the Bible got the morality of slavery wrong. Consider the following scripture verses:
No. 1:St Paul’s advice about whether women are allowed to teach men in church:
“I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.” (1 Timothy 2:12)
No. 2: In this verse, Samuel, one of the early leaders of Israel, orders genocide against a neighbouring people:
“This is what the Lord Almighty says... ‘Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’” (1 Samuel 15:3)
No. 3: A command of Moses:
“Do not allow a sorceress to live.” (Exodus 22:18)
No. 4: The ending of Psalm 137, a psalm which was made into a disco calypso hit by Boney M, is often omitted from readings in church:
“Happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us – he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.” (Psalm 137:9)
No. 5: Another blood-curdling tale from the Book of Judges, where an Israelite man is trapped in a house by a hostile crowd, and sends out his concubine to placate them:
“So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight. When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. He said to her, ‘Get up; let’s go.’ But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for home.” (Judges 19:25-28)
No. 6: St Paul condemns homosexuality in the opening chapter of the Book of Romans:
“In the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.” (Romans 1:27)
No. 7: In this story from the Book of Judges, an Israelite leader, Jephthah, makes a rash vow to God, which has to be carried out:
“And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord, and said, ‘If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be the Lord’s, to be offered up by me as a burnt-offering.’ Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah; and there was his daughter coming out to meet him with timbrels and with dancing. She was his only child; he had no son or daughter except her. When he saw her, he tore his clothes, and said, ‘Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low; you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow.’” (Judges 11:30-1, 34-5)
No. 8: The Lord is speaking to Abraham in this story where God commands him to sacrifice his son:
‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt-offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.’ (Genesis 22:2)
No. 9: “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:22)
No. 10: “Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel.” (1 Peter 2:18)
Concubines being raped and submission to cruel slave masters is just over the top for me. But please do not think I lack reverence for the way people like RJM think. All I am saying is the Bible needs to be read as a metaphor for morality and sin not to be taken out of the historical context in which it was written. The essential message is morality is important.
Jesus had some good thing to say. What I find amazing is how people always quote the verses with regards to loyalty to authority and fandom to Jesus. People hardly ever quote the Beatitudes. I find this just amazing. I think most Jesus worshipers are not religious at all. Most people treat religion and Jesus like their favorite NFL football team. It's not like people are on the field playing the game which is a completely different experience. Having faith in an omnipotent God is easy how can you lose. Having faith in your fellow man and the people around you is what takes serious faith.
My hope is RJM will be able to appreciate what I am saying. But my experience has been most serious Jesus worshipers claim I am possessed by Satan or some such nonsense. One time I had a very intense conversation about religion with a born-again holier-than-thou type person who was really mad at me for what I was saying and ask me, "Do you know where you soul is going to go when you die?" He was really mad at me and started talking about eternal damnation. I said, "How bad can it be, it can't be worse than living in New Jersey!" He did not crack a smile. :|
I have no fear with God. My faith is in a God of unconditional love. No conditions. I have no fears God will abandon me based on some condition or something that happens in my life. God will be there for me no matter what happens in my life.
No. 1:St Paul’s advice about whether women are allowed to teach men in church:
“I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.” (1 Timothy 2:12)
No. 2: In this verse, Samuel, one of the early leaders of Israel, orders genocide against a neighbouring people:
“This is what the Lord Almighty says... ‘Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’” (1 Samuel 15:3)
No. 3: A command of Moses:
“Do not allow a sorceress to live.” (Exodus 22:18)
No. 4: The ending of Psalm 137, a psalm which was made into a disco calypso hit by Boney M, is often omitted from readings in church:
“Happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us – he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.” (Psalm 137:9)
No. 5: Another blood-curdling tale from the Book of Judges, where an Israelite man is trapped in a house by a hostile crowd, and sends out his concubine to placate them:
“So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight. When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. He said to her, ‘Get up; let’s go.’ But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for home.” (Judges 19:25-28)
No. 6: St Paul condemns homosexuality in the opening chapter of the Book of Romans:
“In the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.” (Romans 1:27)
No. 7: In this story from the Book of Judges, an Israelite leader, Jephthah, makes a rash vow to God, which has to be carried out:
“And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord, and said, ‘If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be the Lord’s, to be offered up by me as a burnt-offering.’ Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah; and there was his daughter coming out to meet him with timbrels and with dancing. She was his only child; he had no son or daughter except her. When he saw her, he tore his clothes, and said, ‘Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low; you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow.’” (Judges 11:30-1, 34-5)
No. 8: The Lord is speaking to Abraham in this story where God commands him to sacrifice his son:
‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt-offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.’ (Genesis 22:2)
No. 9: “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:22)
No. 10: “Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel.” (1 Peter 2:18)
Concubines being raped and submission to cruel slave masters is just over the top for me. But please do not think I lack reverence for the way people like RJM think. All I am saying is the Bible needs to be read as a metaphor for morality and sin not to be taken out of the historical context in which it was written. The essential message is morality is important.
Jesus had some good thing to say. What I find amazing is how people always quote the verses with regards to loyalty to authority and fandom to Jesus. People hardly ever quote the Beatitudes. I find this just amazing. I think most Jesus worshipers are not religious at all. Most people treat religion and Jesus like their favorite NFL football team. It's not like people are on the field playing the game which is a completely different experience. Having faith in an omnipotent God is easy how can you lose. Having faith in your fellow man and the people around you is what takes serious faith.
My hope is RJM will be able to appreciate what I am saying. But my experience has been most serious Jesus worshipers claim I am possessed by Satan or some such nonsense. One time I had a very intense conversation about religion with a born-again holier-than-thou type person who was really mad at me for what I was saying and ask me, "Do you know where you soul is going to go when you die?" He was really mad at me and started talking about eternal damnation. I said, "How bad can it be, it can't be worse than living in New Jersey!" He did not crack a smile. :|
I have no fear with God. My faith is in a God of unconditional love. No conditions. I have no fears God will abandon me based on some condition or something that happens in my life. God will be there for me no matter what happens in my life.
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