Thursday, April 28, 2011
Jesus was Evil
Jesus was one of the most evil characters in religious fiction. Today, his followers take pride in presenting him as a loving, caring, mild-mannered desert magician/redeemer, but in reality he was cruel and vengeful. He is the first to mention “hell” in the Bible (Matthew 5:22, Mark 9:43, Mar 9:43-44, Mark 9:45). The context is always the same—it’s a consequence for not abiding by his/God’s commands. The threat is used to influence behavior and this makes him cruel and evil in my opinion. He does not love unconditionally as he is portrayed. His daddy/he establishes an unrealistic set of rules and then threatens to cast us to hellfire for eternal torture if we do not abide them. This is the epitome of love with condition.
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According to the new testament, the only "unforgivable" sin is blasphemy, which means not accepting Christ as your savior. Meaning, if you die without accepting him, you are left in hell for eternity. However, sinning while/after having accepted him as our savior is forgivable and not worthy of eternal damnation. Basically, this just means that God won't let you into your house if you do not know him, but if you do know him, he will let you in even if you've made mistakes. Only in the Old Testament, before Jesus came and "fulfilled the prophecies" were people cast into hell for sinning, and instead of being forgiven for your sins, you were to make sacrifices to pay for them... such as slaying your cattle, or burning plants, and other stupid shit. You know I am on your side of things about religion and I love your blog, but I think that you are interpreting things incorrectly in this instance. I only know this because of all my time spent in church. Correct me if I am wrong.
ReplyDeleteI was a Christian for 25 years, went to 2 Baptist universities, studied religion, was a youth minister, worked in a large denomination for 8 years, so I spent a lot of time in church as well. There are numerous interpretations of Scripture. I think you're probably aware of this. The one you provided is the standard evangelical one, whereas the one I presented is one I haven't seen before.
ReplyDeleteI'm not making distinction between sinning/not sinning while accepting Christ. Rather, I'm pointing out God's conditional love. God/Jesus should also forgive blasphemy without prerequisite.
I think the point is that death is the cut-off. If you haven't accepted by the time of your demise, then it's too late to be forgiven for not accepting Christ. It's too late to accept him, because judgment day as arrived. Speaking from a Christian's point of view, I mean. I am actually really surprised to hear that the view I spoke of wasn't the universal Christian view. I know that in Catholicism the "you're going to hell if you do this and that wrong" thing is pretty much agreed upon, but at least in the Methodist, Non-denominational, and other non-Catholic churches I've been involved in, there was always a strong focus on forgiveness and how God forgives, and that the pathway to Heaven was to legitimately accept Christ. It was also taught that it's not reversible, unless of course you never meant it in the first place.
ReplyDeleteBack to the issue of the conditional love, you are basically saying that if it was really unconditional, forgiveness and allowance into Heaven would be extended by God even after death without acceptance? If that is the case, you do certainly have a point and I've never thought of that before. However, I am sure that some Christians would chalk that up to two things. One being an example of tough love, and the other being looking at eternity in hell as a consequence and not necessarily a representation of the lack of God's love. In other words, just because our parents punish us for mouthing off at them as a young child, that doesn't mean they don't love us.
I find myself defending Christianity even though I've abandoned it, but that is only because I want to make sure I have an accurate view of Christianity and Christians in general so that my criticisms hold ground. You obviously have a lot more experience than I, but I was a Christian for around 10-12 years and was a youth leader for several of them. It was in a non-denominational church where things were relaxed, the people were very accepting and polite, etc. I hear horror stories about oppressive churches and preachers and I never went through anything like that.
I'm just gonna have post a series on Hell. i was raised Fundamental Southern Baptist in a cult like setting I'm telling ya the key to the scriptures is "translation" There are "versions" There is more out there.Every reference from Jesus in the bible to hell is either Sheol or Gehenna . Sheol could mean grave or firmament either and Gehenna is a valley that used to be a city dump for Jerusalem and that separation from is compared to that awful place . he idea that this was a hell for men to be tortured by the devil came with the need to control its people.
ReplyDeleteGod/Jesus definately love conditionally. According to the theology I studied (Calvin, Luther), Jesus only died for those whom God predestined unto salvation. Romans 9 talks about this in detail. Verse 21-24 talks about the objects of mercy vs. objects of wrath. The whole chapter pretty much makes me sick. I can't believe I ever saw anything good in it.
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ReplyDeleteI've been a "born again christian" for more than 20 years and I really have been disappointed by Jesus who pretended to be the "good shepherd". this man was just a liar, and I never been so bad when I was so indoctrined and expected of him and his "goodness". Brainwashing is the worst thing when you know that so few realize they are. As soon you have not enough and do not rebel you cannot go out of a cult and start recovering. Rebellion and anger helped me to go out. I was angry because things never happened, moreover when I needed emotional healing. You feel like manipulated. I also realized how people are not themselves anymore, they speak differently and it sounds so fake. they have like 2 different personnalities. Jesus is not love, is not the truth, and I regret I lost my youth years because of him when I was interested by spiritual beliefs. It has taken me 5 years to realize why I had so difficulties to go out of brainwashing, I was paralyzed by fear, the fear of hell and it was so difficult to like again stuff like astrology that was so forbidden. Biblical brainwashing is a mental jail and it can be difficult to go out and you need a lot of time. But you can be tempted to return because once you are out you are very alone, moreover when you are single. You can notice that struggles and good things happen to everyone, believers or unbelievers!!. There are just gift from life for everyone. Jesus'beliefs are dangerous : you must die to yourself, you must accept his doctrine otherwise you are lost, you must suffer to deserve to be with him.. In fact you cannot exist anymore !...Gurus act like that, they blow cold and warm (love and threats)and there is nothing better to unsettle people.
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