March could be my favorite month. Where we live and have lived March is the best month, dynamic, promising, exciting, we start thinking of Spring and Christians start thinking about Easter. The strange holiday that you never can pin down. You have to look each year on a calendar to know where it lands. It could be in April but might be in March, I don't know, crocus pop up and Christians are drawn toward a passion at the beginning of March. You can feel it, the feeling is palpable.
The beginning of March, the last weeks of his life were dynamic and highly energized for Jesus and his apostles too. As we enter the season of Spring and of Christian Easter let's stop and look back again at what the group of apostles and Jesus were doing at this same time of year way back then that we are living in now.
This is a rather long post about the doings of Jesus the last few weeks before his appearance in Jerusalem and the unfortunate events that followed.
What did Jesus do these preceding weeks? Jesus taught at Pella not far from Jerusalem. And what did Jesus teach? Jesus taught the love of the heavenly Father and brotherhood of man. And how did Jesus teach that? Through parables.
The three parables most often used in this period all lean on the topic of being lost; the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son, they are parables about different aspects of the Father's acceptance.
Jesus and ten apostles arrived at the Pella camp for the last week of Jesus's time there the end of the first week of March. He was active in teaching this week, attending the multitudes afternoons and instructing the apostles at night.
Word of Lazarus resurrection reached the encampment before the arrival of Jesus and the assembly were nearly beside themselves with excitement and energy. No such tremendous event had occurred since the feeding of five thousand. This is the height of the second phase of Jesus' ministry, the plan is to teach one week at Pella then tour southern Perea leading to the last week in Jerusalem. In Jerusalem the priests were alarmed and organizing themselves to action.
The Pharisees and chief priests had formulated their charges against Jesus.
1) Jesus is friend of sinners, receives ungodly people and even eats with them
2) He is blasphemer. Talks about God as Father and teaches he is equal.
3) Jesus is lawbreaker. Works on Sabbath and disregards sacred laws.
4) Works wonders by power of the devil.
Jesus speaks to the crowd about the grace of salvation including the story about the lost sheep and the lost coin and a favorite of his, the parable of the prodigal son. This parable along with story of the good Samaritan were Jesus' two favorite stories, they are means of teaching about the love of the Father and concomitant neighborliness of man.
Jesus is here teaching on top of what the previous prophets taught about always seeking truth and in so doing you seek God. Now Jesus is teaching that as you search for truth and for God so too God searches for you.
Jesus reminds the crowd first of the shepherd with ninety-nine sheep safely put up went looking for the one that was lost. How the shepherd tenderly carried the sheep back on his shoulders and when restored called his friends and had everyone rejoice over the one sheep that had been lost and now is found. Jesus tells them there is more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner than for all ninety-nine just persons who need no such repentance. That souls are lost only increases the interest of the heavenly Father. Jesus tells them that he has come to do his Father's will and indeed Jesus does actively seek and make friends with sinners.
Jesus instructs them that although they have been taught divine acceptance comes by way of repentance resulting from works and from sacrifice and penitence, Jesus assures the crowds contrarily that the Father accepts you even before you've repented and sends the Son and his associates among you to find you and with rejoicing bring you back to the fold of the kingdom of sonship and spiritual progress. You are like sheep gone astray and Jesus has come to seek and to save those who are lost.
These are strange teaching to the crowd that equates goodness and truth with abiding with religious laws. The same lesson is drilled with another example. Jesus tells the story of the woman who had a necklace made of ten pieces of silver. Having lost one piece of silver she lit a lamp and carefully swept the place and kept looking until she found it, then rejoicing, called her neighbors in saying, "Rejoice with me. I found the piece that was lost." Jesus tells these stories to impress upon them the Father and his Son go out and search for those who are lost and they use every influence available to find you. And so, while the Son of Man goes out in the wilderness to seek the one lost sheep, he also searches for the coin that is lost in the house. The sheep wanders off, the coin is covered with dust and covered by time and by the things of men.
Jesus taught the crowds of the prodigal son. This story differs in that the sheep wandered off, the coin accidentally fell, now a thoughtless man purposefully wanders off by his own free will into foreign lands and gets himself into trouble.
A well-to-do farmer had two sons. One of the sons was upright and hardworking respectful sober, thoughtful and responsible, and the younger brother was the opposite.
The younger brother was unreliable and irresponsible, happy and carefree good natured and easily given to laughter, pleasant to be around. The older brother serious, dour, unhappy. self-centered and egoistic but responsible and reliable. The two brothers did not get along. They argued.
The situation became untenable. The younger brother asked his father for one third the household assets, his eventual share, and let him take off and seek his own fortune. He did so. Went off and completely blew it. Everything gone within weeks. Famine struck. He was out of luck.
He thought about all the servants at his father's house and how much better off they are than he is. He made up his mind to return home and beg his father to accept him as a servant. Understanding he blew his birthright, he was willing to accept his lot as servant.
The boy didn't know how badly his Father grieved missing him, missed his laughter and his carefree nature livening up the place. The boy had no idea how much his father loves him. The father was always on the lookout. When the father saw the boy in the distance he ran up to him, grabbed him and squeezed hard as he could and kissed him all over his face.
The boy was crying and said, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no more worthy to be called a son … he didn't finish his confession. His father was so overjoyed about his return he already signaled the servants bring his best robe, put his ring on his hand and sandals for his feet.
The father wanted to party big time, he wanted the best celebration ever, he ordered the fatted calf butchered for the occasion and that means a very big celebration.
Then the elder son threw a fit.
He was hurt, and angry. He would not participate in the celebration. He told his father, this whole time I served you never transgressing and you never even gave me a lamb for celebration. You never rejoiced in my service, but when this deadbeat brother returns having squandered your substance on harlots you hurry to kill the fattened calf to celebrate him.
The father could not get through to the loyal son. The father really did love both sons. The father told the loyal son, "This whole time you have been with me and all that I have is yours. You could have a kid any time you had friends to celebrate any time you wanted to make merry. Now, it is only proper that you join me in rejoicing your brother's return. Think of it, your brother was lost and now he is found. He has returned alive to us!"
This is one of the most effective of all the parables that Jesus used to impress upon hearers the Father's openness to receiving all who seek entrance to the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus would tell these stories together to show by the lost sheep some men unintentionally stray, that the Father is mindful of such lost ones and goes out. Then he'd tell of the lost coin to illustrate divine searching for all who are confused or spiritually blinded by material concerns. Then he would tell the parable of the lost son to show complete restoration of lost soul into his Father's house and heart.
Those are the parables taught to the crowds. Jesus also ministered directly to his apostles at night. One of the evenings Simon Zelotes inquired of Jesus what Jesus meant by an immensely confusing earlier remark. Simon Zelotes asked, "What did you mean when you said that many of the children of the world are wiser in their generation than are the children of the kingdom since they are skillful in making friends with the mammon of unrighteousness?"
What an amazing remark! How in the world are they to process this? How can it be that eternal creatures created in perfection are not so wise on certain matters as Earth creatures created from mud?
Jesus answers because they never had to deal with imperfection. He explained that experience on spiritually backward place as material Earth is spiritually unique and beneficial in ways. This type of experience of dealing with and sorting corruption is one such benefit unavailable to creatures created in perfection. This is quit a lot for his apostles to process. They simply cannot grasp what Jesus is saying.
Jesus reminds them before they were apostles they were shrewd with business, that even when they were unjust and unfair they were still prudent and foresightful in transaction with an eye on present profit and future safety. Likewise now they provide for present joy while ensuring the treasures laid up in heaven. And since they are so diligent in making gains for themselves in the service of self, being self interested why would they show less diligence in gaining souls for the kingdom since now they are servants of the brotherhood of man in service to the kingdom of heaven?
Jesus relates to his apostles not to the crowd, the story of the unjust steward. The steward blew it for his master's clients for his own selfish gain. Not only that but he squandered his master's money. When the master found out he called the steward in to explain himself.
Knowing he'll be fired when he responds to his master he ponders what he should do. Thinking of all the ill that will befall him, the steward called in each of his master's debtors and asked them how much they owed. One by one when they told the steward how much they owed then the steward reduced the debt. The steward made friends with the debtors that he could seek out after he was discharged from his stewardship. And when he learned of all this, then even his lord and master had to admit that his unfaithful steward at least showed cleverness in the manner he sought to provide for his future. It was messed up and error stricken from beginning to end, but he did look out for his future.
Jesus told his apostles by way of clarification that in this way the sons of the world show more wisdom in preparation for the future than do the angels of heaven. Take lessons from those who make friends with the mammon of unrighteousness and likewise conduct your lives that you make eternal friendship with righteousness so that when all earthly things fail and fall away you will be received into your spiritual home.
Jesus affirms that whoever is faithful in little is also faithful in much, likewise whoever is unrighteous in little will also be unrighteous in much. And If you have not shown foresight in the affairs of the world then you cannot hope to be faithful and prudent when trusted with true riches of heavenly kingdom. Again Jesus asserts that no man can serve two masters, he will hate one and love the other, hold one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
When the Pharisees present heard this they protested scoffed and sneered as they were involved in using the temple to generate personal wealth. They tried to engage Jesus to argue but Jesus refused to debate with them. They fell into wrangling among themselves their yelling attracted the attention of some of the multitude camped nearby. They disputed and Jesus withdrew.
When the meeting became too noisy Simon Peter took charge. "Look. Stop arguing. The Master has spoken, you'd do well to heed his words. And all this is nothing new to you. Haven't you heard about the rich man and the beggar?"
Peter Simon tells the unruly disputative crowd that this is a parable picked up from John the Baptist that is not a part of the gospel they're preaching, nonetheless listen and heed.
There was a rich man named Dives clothed in purple and linens living in mirth and splendor every day. And there was a beggar named Lazarus laid at the rich man's gate who was covered with sores and starving for crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. The beggar died and was carried away by angels to the Abraham's bosom and shortly after the rich man died and went to hell. The dead rich man looked up and saw Abraham with Lazarus and the dead rich guy yells, "Hey, send Lazarus down here to touch his finger in water to cool my tongue." And Abraham said back to the dead rich guy in hell, "Hey, remember when you were alive and rich and you didn't care about Lazarus? Besides, look, there's too great a distance between us. We cannot come to you neither can you come over to us." Then Dives yelled up to Abraham, "Would you at least send Lazarus back to my house so he can warn my five brothers about all this?" Abraham yelled back, "No! They have Moses and all of the prophets, if they cannot listen to them now then they wouldn't listen even if they rose from the dead!"
Peter recited this ancient parable of the Nazarite brotherhood, the crowd quieted down and Andrew rose and dismissed all for the night. Both these apostles and his disciples often asked Jesus about this parable of Dives and Lazarus but Jesus never consented to comment.
Mid March Jesus preached his last sermon at Pella. This is among the most notable addresses of his ministry, a complete discussion on the kingdom of heaven. Jesus was aware of confusion regarding the term kingdom of heaven. Although the words "of heaven" should make clear enough that Jesus is not talking about an earthly kingdom the idea of a temporal king was too deeply rooted to dislodge on the spot and took up a good deal of discussion.
Jesus impressed upon his listeners that the kingdom of heaven is centered upon the dual concept of the truth of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. He declared that the acceptance of this teaching will liberate man from the bondage of animal fear and enrich human experience with endowments of spiritual liberty.
1) The possession of courage and additional spiritual power. The gospel of the kingdom will set man free and inspire to dare to hope for eternal life.
2) The gospel is a message of new confidence and consolation for all people even the poor.
3) It is a new standard of moral values. A new way to measure. It shows the ideal of a new order of society.
4) Teaches preeminence of spiritual over material. It glorifies spiritual realities.
5) The new gospel hold up spiritual attainment as the true goal of living. Human life receives a fresh endowment of moral value and divine dignity
6) Man's mortal sojourn on earth acquires new meanings upon the recognition of noble destiny.
7) New gospel affirms human salvation is the revelation of divine purpose fulfilled in future destiny of the endless service of the salvaged sons of God
The apostles were unable to grasp the meaning of Jesus' kingdom of heaven. The concept of the gospel writers was colored by the belief that Jesus was absent from the world for only a short time, that he would return soon to establish the kingdom in power and glory, the same thing they thought while Jesus was living. Jesus did not connect the establishment of the kingdom with his return to this world.
The effort of this sermon is to have the concept of the kingdom of heaven become the ideal of doing the will of the God. That is the kingdom of heaven for you; you setting your will in alignment with God's will. You in charge of your own personality setting your purpose in alignment with God. Your kingdom come, your will be done. At this point Jesus earnestly desires his followers to abandon "kingdom of God" in favor of "will of God" but he is not successful.
Jesus wanted to substitute the concepts of kingdom, king, and subjects to the the concept of heavenly family, heavily father and liberated sons of God in voluntary and joy filled service to their fellow men.
At this late point in his teaching this is the change that Jesus is trying to bring about. The apostles held a double view of the kingdom.
1) As a matter of personal experience in the hearts of believers.
2) As world phenomena the kingdom is in the future.
They looked at the kingdom in the hearts of men as a gradual development, as yeast in dough or like a growing mustard seed. While they believed the kingdom of the world will be sudden and spectacular. Jesus was constantly trying to get through that the kingdom of heaven is their personal experience in realizing the higher qualities of spiritual living and that the these realities of the spirit experience are progressively translated to new and higher levels of divine certainty and eternal grandeur. Jesus taught this in two phases, first that the kingdom of God in this world is the supreme desire to do the will of the Father and second, the kingdom of God in heaven as goal for mortal believers, an estate of God perfected. By faith the kingdom is entered now accessed by faith sincerity and faith hunger.
Jesus was trying to get off this kingdom conceptualization of heaven as it caused too much trouble for believers. He tried variations, kingdom of life, the kingdom of God within you, and family fellowship of God the Father. He used the terms, the family of God, the Father's will, the friends of God, the fellowship of believers, the brotherhood of man, the Father's fold, the children of God, the fellowship of the faithful, the liberated sons of God, the Father's service Jesus sought many substitutions without success. He could not escape the kingdom idea. It was not until fifty years later until after the destruction of Jerusalem that the concept of kingdom began to change into the cult of eternal life as its institutional aspects were taken over by rapidly expanding Christian church.
This final teaching about the kingdom of heaven Jesus places emphasis on five main points.
1) Jesus taught here of the preeminence of the individual
2) personal will is the determining factor in man's experience
3) Jesus emphasized spiritual fellowship with God the Father
4) Jesus taught of supreme satisfaction of loving service of man
5) Jesus taught of transcendency of spiritual over material in human personality
Next: to Jerusalem.
37 comments:
March is my favorite month. It used to be the first month which explains the names September, October, November, and December.
Sounds like somebody.
Wouldn't it be interesting if there was any evidence at all that any of this actually happened.
I think if there was you'd reject it due to so much corruption in religious relics market. Entire medieval cathedrals were dedicated to their relics and depended on them for pilgrims. It was hopelessly corrupted. Bits of the cross, things like that. The things they put in super ornate and expensive reliquaries. The vatican has tons of reliquaries that are bits of proof to faithful but not to anyone else.
Rhythm and Balls said...
Wouldn't it be interesting if there was any evidence at all that any of this actually happened.
Actually, there is.
We have the old Roman records of Christ's execution and the testimony of people who were at these events.
Of course, Ritmo only believes testimony of those who support his agenda.
Which is why he's going to Hell.
Wow, you really are a nastily hemorrhoidal piece of shit.
There's as much evidence for "hell" as there isn't for these bull puckey "Roman records" you mention. Which is why I don't even bother asking you to cite them, since they don't exist and you would never cite them anyway. You don't read, you don't cite, you don't know anything but how to judge.
Crucifixions then were as commonplace as ed's failures today. Monty Python's Life of Brian is probably about as accurate as whatever you condescend to me about for simply questioning.
Testimony is a funny word. Like Kato Kaelin's testimony at the O.J. Simpson trial?
Wouldn't it be interesting if there was any evidence at all that any of this actually happened?
Would it matter? To those with open eyes and ears, the truth and grace revealed in the parables Jesus taught can seen and heard happening in current reality on a daily basis.
When people aren't able to find the heart of the story valuable, what evidence would be required to invite or convince them to take a second look? Simon Peter, in the story above, succinctly captures the age-old problem of need and the refusal of evidence that would provide meaning, with this exchange:
Then Dives yelled up to Abraham, "Would you at least send Lazarus back to my house so he can warn my five brothers about all this?" Abraham yelled back, "No! They have Moses and all of the prophets, if they cannot listen to them now then they wouldn't listen even if they rose from the dead!"
For those who are genuinely interested in hearing from Lazarus there are two books I'd recommend to anyone curious about what evidence has been gathered and researched to date on Near-Death Experiences.
Consciousness Beyond Life, The Science of Near Death Experience, by Pim van Lommel M.D. From the blurb:For more than twenty-five years he worked as a cardiologist at an eight-hundred-bed teaching hospital in the Netherlands, where he began to studying near-death experiences in patients who survived cardiac arrest. He interviewed hundreds of heart patients who had all clinically died , some for five minutes or longer, before being resuscitated. Half were aware they were "dead" and some had out-of-body experiences in which they witnessed the actions of the hospital staff around their bodies. In 2001, he and his fellow researchers published a study on Near Death Experiences in the renowned medical journal The Lancet. He, then, wrote the Dutch bestseller Endless Consciousness in 2007; over 100.000 copies were sold in the first year. The NDE is an authentic experience which cannot be attributed to imagination, psychosis or oxygen deprivation. After such an profound experience, patient’s personalities underwent a permanent change.
Lessons From the Light, What we can learn from the near death experience, by Kenneth Ring and Evelyn Elsaesser Valarino
Both are fascinating.
Wow, you really are a nastily hemorrhoidal piece of shit.
I do believe I've quoted a rare R&B grammatical error in context.
Why does something have to be true for you to derive meaning from it? Aren't we saying the same thing?
And just when you had that outpouring of love for you over at TOP, you had to come here and kick Chip like you did Father Fox.
Grammar? Adverb (nastily) modifies adjective modifies noun (piece).
And just when you had that outpouring of love for you over at TOP, you had to come here and kick Chip like you did Father Fox.
The "love" there is for being honest. There was no "kicking" here, just a refusal to give a hand-job.
You'd best be careful with your phrasing when it comes to affection/hostility and pharisees, chickens.
Fox is someone who abuses his authority in a way that might be less insidious than his colleagues have done, but is just as ever-present. I don't believe that being a dogma enforcer entitles anyone to special treatment. It's pretty unfortunate that you do.
Rhythm and Balls said...Wouldn't it be interesting if there was any evidence at all that any of this actually happened.
I think people reacted as if you believed it to be demonstrably false. I got the same meaning from your words.
You'd best be careful with your phrasing when it comes to affection/hostility and pharisees, chickens.
Why always such admonitions? You've been doing this for years now. Time for you to explain.
I think people reacted as if you believed it to be demonstrably false. I got the same meaning from your words.
So what? "Not in evidence" could mean either not true or not proven. Either way, no one is as illogical as you are in demanding that bureaucratic, conventional organized religion (as opposed to spirituality or morality or ethics or traditional goodness - all perfectly defensible things) get some sort of arbitrary praise simply for being what they are. But you never say why that is. How is it that you got to be such an expert in what magical bureaucracies get immunity from criticism and which don't? Is it just that the more fantastical something is, the more literally true you need it to seem? Man, you sure are strange when it comes to what you decide to defend and what not to. I thought you might have respect for the truth, instead of for bureaucracies of magic and arbitrary social compulsion. Boy, was I wrong about that.
Rhythm and Balls said...Grammar? Adverb (nastily) modifies adjective modifies noun (piece)
Commonly bad practice.
BTW, I left out myths and fables when I mentioned "perfectly defensible things". Story and narrative is important to the human experience. I just was wondering how detailed a retelling would indicate how literally someone took said story - which would be entirely beside the point and not infrequently defeats the purpose.
I think what your issue is... sometimes you just need to be insanely illogical. I take it your adherence to ritual, form, routine and logic is so intense that you actually need a certain form of illogic to surrender to in order to get a break from the mundanity and insanity of it all. The bureaucratization of spirituality must simply be one of those neatly defended outlets for you, it seems.
I think what your issue is... sometimes you just need to be insanely illogical. I take it your adherence to ritual, form, routine and logic is so intense that you actually need a certain form of illogic to surrender to in order to get a break from the mundanity and insanity of it all. The bureaucratization of spirituality must simply be one of those neatly defended outlets for you, it seems.
You are constantly drawing such conclusions about me in public forums from such little actual data.
Why do you remind me so of r,l R&B? Is it just me?
A man who goes to the mat defending the idea of religion (rather than any specific religious principle) seems to forget the golden rule. Interesting.
Since you forget, it's to do unto others as you'd have them do unto you. A principle which you forget when you subject me to endless inquisition without even bothering to so much as explain what your reflexively defensive fixation with religion is all about.
"r,l"? Can you be so civil as to explain this code? At least I'm doing you the service of requesting clarification of what you'd like to infer or inquire about me. Which is more than I can say for you.
Unlike you it seems, I'm willing to actually explain myself and/or where I'm coming from. Is that something you find it difficult to do, in turn?
"r,l"? Can you be so civil as to explain this code?
You're saying that you can make sense of the last half dozen or replies she's left in my (and other's) blog posts? Go ahead then. You explain. I'm going to bed now, but I'll check back tomorrow.
Go to bed, I don't blame you. That last reply was even more inscrutable than what preceded it. Who (or what) even is "r,l"? She? Who? What? Was there even a female taking part in this conversation (apart from a more interesting/less confrontational aside from MamaM?) Sometimes I really wish I understood what the heck you were talking about. But I'm not even sure you know half the time...
Out of body experiences are interesting but there is one problem with them: Resuscitation brings them back to life, at which point there is no way of knowing whether their "memory" was formed during clinical death or was afterward and placed mentally (as in, by the mind itself) to occur during the lapsed mortality - after the fact. The existence of deja vu and the fact that the mind re-creates and updates old memories makes it difficult to assume that memories that "shouldn't" have had an opportunity to occur weren't just formed afterward. The mind does powerful things to justify what happens to it.
Although like Fox Mulder, "I want to believe."
Old Chinese Proverb
You can tell who's losing the argument, he's the first to raise his voice.
Pipe down, Ritmo.
I just was wondering how detailed a retelling would indicate how literally someone took said story
You're right here. You're also exceedingly silly.
But I was thinking the same thing. The whole time. Because I too am very silly. And not just regular silly either. Very silly.
In honesty it's actually much worse than presented here. Your remark aligning with my own thoughts as it does forces me to admit this is an obscenely abbreviated version of all the parables mentioned. The details are actually much richer. I left out a lot. I left out so much it made me feel badly for distorting the stories, they're that well discussed historically. But none of that, none of that will satisfy anyone steadfastly opposed to faith.
All of these things are discussed at such length that it would blow your mind and have been discussed since they happened. The events are that mind blowing. The events changed people's lives at the time they occurred and immediately thereafter.
There is much to object to. Object away. I don't care. Pearls, swine, brother's keeper, all the rest.
Would you like the fuller version to compare? You'll see how deeply I abbreviated things. I left out a lot of juice of the stories, details that do not address the gist of the tale.
The reason I did that is to get on with it. The best part is next. Jesus did things you might not have heard about. He is a very interesting character. More interesting than some people know.
Incidentally, my four brothers and sisters are all more religious that I in the study-the-bible sense. All of their families are. But none of them actually read the bible from beginning to end as a series of books. The thought of it seems impossible to them. I think. They study bits and pieces through their churches. Their spiritual path is formally guided. I think they would consider anything outside biblical text to be apocrypha and since already culled a long time ago by scholars then not worth considering today since there're already far too much to handle.
But that is not so. There's actually a lot more to discover. This bit of religious history I find incredibly fascinating. But not so fascinating to spend the rest of my life in the Vatican library with Greek and Latin and Aramaic and Hebrew as some scholars have.
This abbreviated version is offered for whatever it's worth to you.
And you know what made me think of it? March. The stats on my bunny passion pop-up page jump to the top. It's a small heap, and short top, not much interest in that stuff, but the page leaps to the top nonetheless. And from all over the world too. I thought it might interest Americans but it does not. It interests British and other Europeans and Asians.
Thanks for posting, Chop. Did you write all of that? I am impressed.
Chip! (typo!)
"Then he'd tell of the lost coin to illustrate divine searching for all who are confused or spiritually blinded by material concerns. Then he would tell the parable of the lost son to show complete restoration of lost soul into his Father's house and heart."
Don't we all need reminding.
I'm not real smart, or well read in the bible, and I'm not a Christian, but I believe Jesus existed and lived the life pretty much as told, minus the miracles. I think Christianity has been an incredible force for good in the world, with some notable disasters of course, but are the miracles really relevant to the value of Christianity,
He might have even risen after the crucifixion, but probably wasn't the only one in history. They weren't real good at determining the moment of death at the time. I think the miracle parts of various religions had their power and use at one time, but what constituted a miracle is gonna get common place eventually. I find the miracles unnecessary, and even counterproductive today. More people could join the faith if it was faith in the goodness and rightness of the principles, rather than faith in the miracles.
Central to it all, I never understood how it could be so significant for God to sacrifice a single human out of the millions he does every day.
Like I said, I'm not well read in the bible, but generally like and respect those who are for how they live, and that's what matters to me.
March is a wonder with the earth coming back to life. Charles Burchfield, a genuinely great American artist who is practically unmentioned today, made March central to his work and especially his miraculous watercolors of wind and sunlight coming and going and the plant life of fields and swamps responding to the warming. Lived most of his life in upstate New York, God's country.
I live and learn, ricpic. I've not seen anything by Burchfield before and was absolutely surprised and delighted by what came up.
Vibrant! March is the month of transformation.
Charles The Great!
"Which is why he's going to Hell."
Paradoxically, anyone who considers himself Christian who truly believes in Hell would not make such a statement.
Even in jest. Especially in jest. If you truly believed in Hell, you would not take lightly or even suggest that you know who is going there and who isn't.
Thanks for this clarification (and the previous one) of your interesting post, Chip, and sorry about my crankiness last night.
Sometimes a comment will serve as a springboard, and that's how I experienced Rand B's 8:55 comment. I appreciated the bounce it provided, as it helped me focus on forming a response out of the many varied thoughts that came up as I was reading ChipA's post.
While the "nastily hemorrhoidal piece of shit" remark made later leaned heavily toward crankiness, it too, in the long run, ended up paradoxically fitting part of the picture being presented here, as Pogo once aptly noted that the yellow beak in the bright red bird avatar showing up here again in this thread bore a strong resemblance to a hemorrhoid!
Oh, the hell of it, running right alongside kingdom stories and moments of levity.
Unbeliever here. I once read a book that suggested that the miracles of Jesus did not occur out of a natural context. That is, the supernatural was really just nature accelerated, e.g., the loaves and the fishes. I thought that was a really cool distinction.
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