The Bible and Love and Christians

[Drtooth]

Gotcha, that makes sense. I think I also wasn't being clearly enough. I'm not here to deny that there is hypocrisy in religion. Of course there is. Where there's humans, you get hypocrisy. It just bothers me when most of the talk about religion in society is about the people who screw it up. You hear a ton about the radical evangelicals or some random person on YT spouting nonesense. And suddenly they're the prime example of religion. You never hear about the people who do get religion right and actually do good things with religion. And there certainly are many people like that. I'm not saying I'm always one of those people, lol. Just saying it's far from balance.

Hypocrisy is a paradox... the only way to not be hypocritical is to accept the fact someone's denying something towards you... basically, you have to be extremely passive for that to work. It's only human to want or deny something that makes life easier or to protect you from something... but what bugs me is when everyone calls everyone else on it to make a point,... then only the loudest loudmouths come out looking good because they just make the argument better.

That's why I see everything as gray... varying shades, and a darker gray is worse than a lighter gray, but everything is gray. It's probably me... I think I patterned myself after Oscar a little too much, and I just wanna be left alone and I only take whatever side doesn't, or whatever side against the one that will do the most damage.

The truth is, there are things in life that HAVE no answer or justification, and sometimes taking sides is all about someone doing the wrong thing for the right reasons or the right thing for the wrong reasons. Sometimes you have to defend against something you believe in or defend for something you don't... and sometimes you find the argument on both sides idiotic and polarizing, and the common ground is NOT met.

And I'm agreeing with Monsterateme, we all have to admit everything's wrong and we're all screwed up and imperfect. Perfect perfection doesn't exist and can't exist, because striving for perfection IS an imperfection.

Seriously... Paradoxes are BEST left to confound evil robots, not to screw us up even further...

 

[GonzoLeaper]

A lot of interesting and good ideas here. While I don't agree with everything, I did want to quickly note a few things.
I'm not sure that the afterlife should be looked at as a reward.
That puts people in the wrong mindset to begin with- because one has to do something meritorious and worthwhile to receive a reward.
A better picture is a gift. Heaven is a gift that God wishes to bestow upon everyone- if they are willing to receive it. However, He does have one requirement for entry to Heaven- perfection. Since God is holy, He requires us to be holy.
Of course, no one can ever match up to God's standard of perfection. And God knows that. This is why He gave His Son Jesus to come to Earth- to have a perfect birth, live a perfect life, die a perfect death, have a perfect burial and have a perfect Resurrection! Then He had a perfect ascension into Heaven and will one day have a perfect return!
These are the basic tenets of Christianity of course- and the main important thing to know is that Jesus paid for all of our imperfections through His death on the cross and His Resurrection. Because He lives, we can live also- if we put our faith in Him and ask Him for salvation, He gives us salvation from sin and punishment and free entry into Heaven. It's a totally free gift. We can do nothing to earn it.
Now, it is important to note that once we have accepted God's gift, there should also be a repentance from our past wrongs that comes with that- but this is an obedience to The Bible that comes out of a natural desire to obey God in gratitude for His free gift.
However, even after one has decided to follow Christ, one still winds up making mistakes and falling into sin again. And that's why God says He is still willing to forgive us when we confess those sins to Him and ask for forgiveness.
And Jesus made it clear that Christians should get the plank out of their own eye first before trying to remove the speck from their brother's eye. Let whoever is without sin cast the first stone. (TheMonsterAteMe said this really well- I totally agree with his post.)
So yes- hypocrisy happens. Not just within Christianity of course, but in humanity in general. It is true that there are those who claim to follow Christ but their actions betray them- as their actions do not align with those of Christ. The Bible says that those want to follow Jesus must walk as He did.
This is why I point people not to my sorry attempt to follow Christ that is riddled with failures, but rather the perfect life of Jesus Himself. He is the standard to measure by.
Rather I just thank God for His grace that is still greater than all my sins and that He still loves me and is faithful to forgive me and cleanse me when I repent. And though I'm not all I should be, I press on and keep fighting the good fight and running the course striving to know Christ and make Him known more and more- I count everything else a loss compared to the all-surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior.
And I try to show the love of Jesus to everyone- because that's what is most important after all. Jesus said the most important commands are these- love God with all you've got and love your neighbor as yourself.

 

[CensoredAlso]

These are the basic tenets of Christianity of course- and the main important thing to know is that Jesus paid for all of our imperfections through His death on the cross and His Resurrection. Because He lives, we can live also- if we put our faith in Him and ask Him for salvation, He gives us salvation from sin and punishment and free entry into Heaven. It's a totally free gift. We can do nothing to earn it.

That's one interpretation of Christianity. Another is when Jesus died and resurrected he made it possible for us to earn Heaven by doing good works.

Jesus said the most important commands are these- love God with all you've got and love your neighbor as yourself.

Definitely can't argue with that.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

That's one interpretation of Christianity. Another is when Jesus died and resurrected he made it possible for us to earn Heaven by doing good works

But that goes directly against Scripture. Ephesians 2:8-9 makes it clear that salvation is a free gift from God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
The whole point of Jesus dying and rising was to provide salvation- He did all of the good works ever! We can't do enough good works to earn Heaven. Isaiah 64:6 says that all of our righteous acts are like filthy rags before the holy God.
Jeremiah 17:9 says that the heart is desperately wicked and deceitful.
Jesus stated it pretty clearly in the verse in my signature that He Himself is the only way to Heaven. This gets into a bigger discussion about free grace versus Lordship.
And of course, I agree with both. Jesus is Lord- once someone accepts Him as Lord and Savior and receives salvation through His free grace, they should live their lives for Him.

 

[CensoredAlso]

But that goes directly against Scripture. Ephesians 2:8-9 makes it clear that salvation is a free gift from God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
The whole point of Jesus dying and rising was to provide salvation- He did all of the good works ever! We can't do enough good works to earn Heaven. Isaiah 64:6 says that all of our righteous acts are like filthy rags before the holy God.
Jeremiah 17:9 says that the heart is desperately wicked and deceitful.

That's one interpretation and that's fine. Not every sect of Christianity interprets it that way, that's all.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

What sect of Christianity does not interpret The Bible that way?

 

[CensoredAlso]

What sect of Christianity does not interpret The Bible that way?

Catholicism advocates good works before faith. Not that faith isn't important. But that Jesus' entire ministry was focused on actively doing God's work, not just believing in him.

 

[beaker]

I have issues with materialism/commercialism in religion, but, for some strange reason that boggles my mind, in Dinosaurs I don't mind it as much. They made it fairly consistent throughout. I want to write an essay on it, actually. Every single time something "sacred" has been shown on that show, it's materialistic. The Council of Elders waffle between creepy cave-dwelling robed figures to modern political trappings. When Baby was turned into a kind of Messiah, they sold Baby merchandise and everybody paid homage to him with plastic toy fire trucks. Fridge Day deserves a thesis, really. What should be crass, calling a mere electrical appliance sacred, actually makes sense in their paradigm. The fridge helped save their budding civilization and made it possible. It would be logical that they would honor it. Potato-ism also had its merchandise and books and such. I applaud Dinosaurs writers for making a parody that actually made sense within the universe. It's meant to be mocking, but there's a certain level of respect present that I find myself admiring.

I have my religion on my facebook set to "Potatoism".
I swear, 20 years later the Dinosaurs series has so much relevance, especially with all the oil issues going on.

The "council of elders" reminds me of some shadowy Illuminati cabal rumored to be behind the seat of politics in the world.

When it came to war, oil, corporate greed, drugs, intolerance etc the Dinosaurs series really had its finger on the pulse of the cultural zeitgeist

As far as religion, I look at it from a more scholarly aspect of mankind's long running look toward something bigger. Be it primitive forms of spirituality and current animism, to forms of gnostic teachings on through the Abrahamic faiths, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. All faiths have a rich cultural tapestry, and I find it unfortunate people are resigned to not learning about other faiths(sadly there is a segment of Christians whose only interest in Judaism and Israel comes from a belief that it falls into end time prophecy, not out of a genuine love or respect for the people) But I do, I do think it'd be great if people got to visit a Hindu temple, a mosque, Catholic church, synogogue, etc.

 

[dwayne1115]

Catholicism advocates good works before faith. Not that faith isn't important. But that Jesus' entire ministry was focused on actively doing God's work, not just believing in him.

Well there is a verse in the Bible that says "For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselfs it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2:8&9 So there it clearly states that it is by Grace.

 

[CensoredAlso]

But I do, I do think it'd be great if people got to visit a Hindu temple, a mosque, Catholic church, synogogue, etc.

Agreed. My friend and I actually went to an inter-faith gathering in our community last year; it was a lot of fun. And my religion class in Middle School had an entire section on World Religions, which was fascinating. Well I was probably the only one who was fascinated, not because the other kids didn't care about other religions, but because they didn't care about school, period, lol.

Well there is a verse in the Bible that says "For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselfs it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2:8&9 So there it clearly states that it is by Grace.

Well I think what that verse is saying is people shouldn't boast of their good deeds in order to get to Heaven. They should just quietly do the good works. So it's about the dangers of pride, but it's not saying good works aren't the key.

Plus Ephesians, as I understand, comes from letters Paul wrote, not from Jesus himself. Paul was a great human being in many ways, but he wasn't the Son of God.