JRod wrote:Teal wrote:JRod wrote:
It's what he did and taught.
Much like the constitution wasn't prepared for certain current day problems it provides a foundation to base justice and democracy upon.
The teachings of Jesus have been perverted into being self-serving. While the bible doesn't address global warming, health care and poverty (actually the bible does address this in parts), the teachings of Christ do lend themselves for individuals to take on humane issues like the ones mentioned.
Nope. Sorry. I was a pastor for over 20 years, and have been a believer in Christ for nearly 30. What Christ came here to do has nothing to do with what you've said here. None of it is BAD, really (although the global warming stuff is just lunacy), and people who ascribe to our faith should want to bring light and life into dark places...but Christ's mission had nothing to do with that. He didn't engage politics at all, even though he was born into a society under the thumb of an oppressive Roman government, and his people (the Jews) were in constant conflict with the Roman government. He was asked about political matters, and he brushed them aside.
In the book of Mark, Jesus heals a girl in a little town. The next morning, the WHOLE town showed up to receive the same kind of healing. The disciples couldn't find Jesus anywhere. When they DID find him, he was off by himself, praying. After they breathlessly reported that the WHOLE TOWN was there to see him...he said 'Let's go somewhere else'. Just left all those sick and hurting people behind. Why?
Because of what he said next: "I must be about telling the good news of The Kingdom-for that is why I came."
There WILL be social justice, equality, healing, restoration, all that. And through his people, we can enact a LITTLE of that here and now, and should. But Jesus' cause was to redeem his people, to bring them back into friendship with Him-not to take up social causes. But the utopia stuff? We won't ever get that here. Because He's got plans to restore EVERYTHING...but not now.
To shrink him down to the level of a social rights activist is to totally miss what he was about altogether. And besides, it's not the job of government at any level to do all this stuff. Individual responsibility is the key, and community living from a heart that has been transformed to be able to. But the point is for US to do it, not whine and moan for the government to.
I never shrunk him down to a social rights activists. There's a common thread in Christ's teachings, one that is lost in those that can only talk about gays, marriage, family values and abortion.
And just because you are a pastor doesn't mean you know more or less about the bible. There's no doctoral training, no state license or whatever. You follow the guidelines of you church. Some churches anyone can call themselves a pastor with no more knowledge of the bible than rock.
Christ teachings were about how men and women should treat other men and women. These tenants must be expanded to included things beyond of what the bible teaches us. To do good to others and leave the self out of doing good. The Christ you talk about is one of a selfish god and a selfish Christ. I will never interpret the bible in that way of that Christ nor of that God.
You're talking out of your ass here, John. You can't take what I just wrote and make it into a selfish God and selfish Christ. He is only who He is...not what you want to make him. Jesus is not now, nor was he then, some social activist. Revolutionary? You bet. But not against governmental anything. Against religious nonsense.
The biggest problem you have is that you rely on yourself to 'interpret' something that wasn't written, by and large, so as to be 'interpreted' privately. Again, never was, never will be. It is what it is, and it says what it says, but the bible isn't God.
You can have all the nutty political views you like, but you can't just get God to endorse them by vaguely referencing the bible, as if I haven't read the thing myself extensively. And your painting of me as some sort of right wing ideological theocrat just shows your general ignorance on the subject. Christianity isn't subjective, John. You can't make it say what you want it to. You can't make it be what it isn't. It is profoundly Objective. It is what it is regardless of the way your experiences 'color' it.
For the last time, Jesus was NOT a social activist, and your myopic viewpoint which paints Him as such is in no way accurate. It's like saying the moon is made of cheese, "because it sure looks that way from here!"
Tell me...what do you think of Jesus? What was He, in your thinking? Just a man? More? Less?
