People often wonder why I am so hard on Christianity. Usually it is because people are hiding behind a banner and using it for an excuse.
One old saying goes; "Good people will always do good things and bad people will always do bad things. When good people do bad things, that takes religion."
That is the way I feel about it. Also, they don't understand the teachings. Let's take Jesus discussing saving a sheep on the sabbath.
Matthew 18:12-14 (NIV) "What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.
Do they get what it means? Nope. Not one little iota.
Here is the skinny. IF some one in your congregation were to be attempting to get ready to go to sermon and something happens, say their water heater stops working. Or, if they live in an area where they don't have city water and they use a pump and the pump fails. Should that individual call you for help what would you do?
A) Go to church and say "I will call you to see if you need help after service."
B) Go to church and not call because you know it will be fixed by the end of service, they are resourceful.
C) Go help them and miss service because they are more important at this moment.
If the answer was C, then you might understand the above scripture.
Why do I give Christians a difficult time? Because most would have picked A or B for an answer. C was not an option because if they missed service, oh my God, the circumstances!
That is part of the reason that I don't like Christians that much, most will vomit up scripture but don't understand what they are saying. Or, if it is a real simple expression, they don't live by it.
Alas...I shake my head every time. I guess that is why A.W. Tozer once said. The Devil is a great theologian, yet he is still a devil.
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10 comments:
It's hard to believe most christians could be so unfeeling. But, on the other hand, I have met some. To them it's all about "salvation".
Hi Kim! Glad you found my friend! I'm doing your daughter's tree next by the way.
The whole Christian thing is such a sore point with me lately. I wonder if I'll ever be able to tolerate most of them again. I hate being so intolerant, but once burned...... and salvation boggles my mind. Salvation from what???? If you are a Christian, and especially if you are a Creationist, how can you believe that anything exists that wasn't created by God? Therefore, if you need salvation, then it's from something God created. How faulty must a god be if she creates things that you need to be saved from?
Put this on a t-shirt... "Salvation is God's Recall Program... he made a little oopsie when he created All That Is."
Welcome to the blog Kim and thank you for your comment.
I think I like the questions the Huna's asked the Missionaries when they came to the Hawaiian island in the late 1800's.
"As small and insignificant as we are, how do you sin again a God?"
As for your t-shirt Genie! I will put one together soon. I love that recall concept.
Yet my question there is, if God is perfect, how can perfection create imperfection? You can't create something you can not conceive.
More to the point, for me, is, how can anything exist that is against God's will? If he willed us to be/do _____, how could we not? I get so sick of people saying that God wants us to do this or that. If he wanted it, how could it not be? Unless our will IS God's will.
It is indeed a quandary - all these questions about christians and god. What always amazes me is how SURE these chrisitans are. They call it faith, I call it failure to use your brain - or hubris.
Genie - Vanessa is really looking forward to her tree reading, of course!
Hubris... righteousness... tomato, tomaato....
Well Genie if your talking about sin, i heard it explained like this: there is no such thing as darkness. If there was, you could put dark into a room and make it darker. But you can't. You have to take light from it. See, sin is just the absense of God.
oh yeah, and God didnt make us to be his little robots and do his will. we have a choice.
Hey Shortstuff,
If I believed in God, I could totally get what you were saying. I simply don't see Life that way. Your point is a good one for a believer.
And, yes, Christians have a choice to follow Him or not. Just like the the prisoner of war has a choice when he's strapped into the torture chamber. He can either talk/conform/submit, or get tortured. In Christianity, if you don't conform, you are sentenced to an eternity in hell. I don't see that as a choice, I see that as duress.
Shortstuff,
I like the question that the Huna's asked the missionaries when they first came to the Hawaiian islands.
God being the creator, me being the created, how can the lesser sin against the greater?
That being the question, how can the lesser sin against God?
Unless you begin to put "sin" back into perspective for what the concept was.
This is the greek word for sin. Strongs #266 : hamartia
1) equivalent to 264
a) to be without a share in
b) to miss the mark
c) to err, be mistaken
d) to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honour, to do or go wrong
e) to wander from the law of God, violate God's law, sin
2) that which is done wrong, sin, an offence, a violation of the divine law in thought or in act
3) collectively, the complex or aggregate of sins committed
either by a single person or by many
Hebrew:
Strongs #2403: chatta'ah
1) sin, sinful
2) sin, sin offering
a) sin
b) condition of sin, guilt of sin
c) punishment for sin
d) sin-offering
e) purification from sins of ceremonial uncleanness
That one doesn't give a definition, just keeps repeating itself so let's back up a little.
Strongs # 2398 : chata'
1) to sin, miss, miss the way, go wrong, incur guilt, forfeit, purify from uncleanness
a) (Qal)
1) to miss
2) to sin, miss the goal or path of right and duty
3) to incur guilt, incur penalty by sin, forfeit
b) (Piel)
1) to bear loss
2) to make a sin-offering
3) to purify from sin
4) to purify from uncleanness
c) (Hiphil)
1) to miss the mark
2) to induce to sin, cause to sin
3) to bring into guilt or condemnation or punishment
d) (Hithpael)
1) to miss oneself, lose oneself, wander from the way
2) to purify oneself from uncleanness
Much better, now we have matching definitions. Short of the end of the greek one that reminds me of the definition of the word GAY. 8 definitions regarding happiness and then 2 lengthy definitions discussing homosexuality.
Now that you have a common ground, if you drop the points that don't match between the two you find that the general definition is someone who has "missed the mark" or "err'd" or "brought guilt on themselves". Guilt from what? Going against the societial norms of that time.
Advance years later, give the religion to a controlling, egotistical, male dominate nation who may of inspired the God to a be a God of fear and the next thing you have is Sins against God and the outer darkness.
You see, what is really interesting is that the Jews have a redemption at judgement, many many scholars miss it entirely but it is there, minus the need for a messiah "annointed king". Which in itself is alot of interesting history and mythology. I degress.
Ezekiel 18: 21 - 24 (NIV)
21 "But if a wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die. 22 None of the offenses he has committed will be remembered against him. Because of the righteous things he has done, he will live. 23 Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?
24 "But if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits sin and does the same detestable things the wicked man does, will he live? None of the righteous things he has done will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness he is guilty of and because of the sins he has committed, he will die.
And if Sin is the absense of God. How can God, who is omniscient, omnipresent and omnisentinet be absent?
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