Posted on 07/22/2014 2:22:53 PM PDT by Faith Presses On
Jesus certainly was not a “Bible believer,” as we use that term in the post Billy Graham era of American fundamentalist religiosity that’s used as a trade-marked product to sell religion. Jesus didn’t take the Jewish scriptures at face value. In fundamentalist terms, Jesus was a rule-breaking relativist who wasn’t even “saved,” according to evangelical standards. Evangelicals insist that you have to believe very specific interpretations of the Bible to be saved. Jesus didn’t. He undercut the scriptures.
A leper came to Jesus and said, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” If Jesus had been a good religious Jew, he would have said, “Be healed,” and just walked away. Instead, he stretched out his hand and touched the leper, saying, “I do choose. Be made clean,” even though he was breaking the specific rules of Leviticus. Two chapters teach that anyone touching a person with leprosy is contaminated.
The stories about Jesus that survived the bigots, opportunists and delusional fanatics who wrote the New Testament contain powerful and enlightened truths that would someday prove the undoing of the Church built in his name. Like a futurist vindicated by events as yet undreamed, Jesus’ message of love was far more powerful than the magical thinking of the writers of the book he’s trapped in. In Jesus’ day the institutions of religion, state, misogyny and myth were so deeply ingrained that the ultimate dangerousness of his life example could not be imagined. For example his feminism, probably viewed as an eccentricity in his day, would prove transformational.
Jesus believed in God rather than in a book about God. The message of Jesus’ life is an intervention in and an acceleration of the evolution of empathy...
(Excerpt) Read more at patheos.com ...
You realize, of course, you’ve seriously maligned middle-school drivel.
Indeed. If it weren’t for his wonderful, Bible-believing Christian father, no one would have the slightest clue who little Franky is.
Indeed. And Franky Schaeffer knows this but I think he’s desperately trying to convince himself otherwise.
General, I will not be flaming you, but you have asked some good questions that I am sure many average people might ask who are not very familiar with the Bible.
First, the Bible is not one book, but a collection of 66 books written over a 2000 year time frame.
The Bible Jesus had in the First century was the Torah, the Psalms, wisdom literature (Proverbs, Ecclesiasties, Job), history (Judges, Samuel, Chronicles, Kings, Esther, etc.), and the Prophets (Daniel, Isaiah, Jerimiah, etc.). I’ve probably missed some, but these are the books that are typically called by Christians, the Old Testament. These books were pretty well agreed upon by the Jews, by the 2nd century BC - that is about 200 years before Jesus’ day- to be the inspired, canonical Word of God. They didn’t call it the “Bible” as we do today, but usually it was called, “the Law, Psalms, and the Prophets”.
After Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection, and ascension into heaven is when what would become the books of the New Testament were written. The books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were biographical presentations of Jesus - not biographies in the same sense as we think of, but accounts from eye-witnesses of the life and ministry of Jesus. Only Matthew’s and Luke’s account mention the events of Jesus’ birth. Matthew and John were two of the original 12 Disciples, Mark (John Mark) was an early Christian convert who was a contemporary of the 12 Disciples, as was Luke (a medical doctor).
All the other books in the New Testament (except for Revelation), were letters written by various Apostles (the original 12 Disciples) except for Paul, who is often called the 13th Apostle, who wrote 13 books/letters of the 27 New Testament books. These books were letters written by the Apostles to specific churches to address specific problems or issues they were facing at the time. Often the letters were also intended to be passed on from church to church and read to all the Believers in attendance.
The Gospel accounts (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) were written within the first 50 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. The other books of the New Testament were written within nearly the same time frame, The “canon”, that is the books that are considered the inspired Word of God was settled upon by most of the Christian world, by the
2nd/3rd centuries.
All the early Christians believed Jesus to be God’s Son, the promised Messiah, God in human form, and the only source of salvation for mankind from the consequences of sin, death, and Hell. They believed this somewhat before and soon after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. It was not 30 years later.
I hope this clears up some of your questions for you. There are a myriad of Christian books and documents from Church history that go over the development of the Biblical Canon. If you are interested, I’m sure you can find all the information you could ever want on this subject.
Good description.
Thank you. I have saved your response.
The sad thing is that some people will believe it.
And you know this how?
God the Father is the only one who knows who is in heaven, hell or purgatory.
Because the Bible says ... “... that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Romans 10:9-10
And since he said he believed in his heart that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead and confessed with his mouth - both of which I heard him testify to ... then he is saved, according to the Scriptures.
Thanks for that response.
This guy has to be an unhinged idiot. Christ WAS/IS King and God, of course He takes His word seriously, as well doesn’t need “saving”.
He read the prophecies about Himself when He went home to Bethlehem, remember?
But today, reality is only in Frank’s mind. I wonder if he had a break down and lost himself. It is hard to be objective about who our parents were but as I age, and age, I see my parents through the eyes of an adult. I still react with fear when confronted by unbending, unempathetic women.
OSAS is a false doctrine. It doesn’t take into account the gift of Free Will that God gives to all mankind.
John 1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
I would have say that you are close to being right. Could you expand it to be best of your capability?
Sorry...Jesus acknowledged that he was aware of the finished canon of the OT as he was walking around the earth preaching the New Testament...
It just makes sense. A person can go to an altar call. Repeat the emotional words, get a copy of the New Testament or the complete Protestant Bible, and then because of his/her free will continue home and commit sin by yelling in anger at someone on the freeway, or treating his/her spouse rudely, or ignoring friends.....you name it.
To me it has always made sense that because of our free will we can choose good or evil....even after being “born again” with an altar call or a similar emotional experience.
Just my point of view.
Good point...So why do you guys pray to people who have died when you don't have a clue whether they are in heaven or not...They may be in hell, and yet you pray to them...
In those cases, does one need the Catholic Church to save them, or can a non-Catholic just repent of those transgressions to Christ?
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