(no subject)

[hummingwolf]

"There is enough misery in the world to make the message that a Messiah will come believable; there is enough misery in the world to make the message that a Messiah has come unbelievable. The first and major task of a Messiah is to get people to quit looking for one." -- Fred B. Craddock

Regarding the public's opinion that Jesus was the precursor of the Messiah who is to come, Craddock writes: "Perhaps this accounts for some of his popularity: that a Messiah is coming is always an exciting and welcome message. Everyone had a sermon under the title 'When the Messiah Comes,' a message including every hope, every dream, every ideal condition for which the heart longs. It is no wonder that the church's message that the Messiah has come and he is Jesus has not been as popular. To believe the Messiah has come means we can no longer shape him to fit our dreams; he shapes us to fit God's will."

Hmm. Maybe he can't be shaped to fit people's dreams, but people sure as Hell still try. Witness all the folks who flock to Christianity because they think they've found a clear and definite set of "family values" and rules for living neatly set out in black and white, when even a cursory reading of the Gospels shows that the man they claim to worship simply did not give straightforward answers to straightforward questions. Silly people asked simple questions hoping for simple answers about complicated lives; he responded with complicated parables and a simple life.

Comments

[madralaoi.livejournal.com]

Hmm, being a Pagan, perhaps I am not the right person to comment but...I have the feeling that some Christians follow what they know of the Bible because somebody taught them and often they haven't read the Bible themselves. This would explain the number of fanatics who are so twisted in their belief that normal Christians shudder when they think of it. These are the people who simply take a sentence out of its context and thus gets a whole different meaning.
And even when reading the Bible as a whole, one realises the huge differences between the Old and New Testament and has to choose really. :)

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Hmm, being a Pagan, perhaps I am not the right person to comment but...I have the feeling that some Christians follow what they know of the Bible because somebody taught them and often they haven't read the Bible themselves.

Oh, definitely. The Bible is the world's bestselling book, but hardly any of the people who claim to believe it have read very much of it.

And even when reading the Bible as a whole, one realises the huge differences between the Old and New Testament and has to choose really. :)

That I can't quite agree with--the New Testament was written by people consciously trying to integrate it with the Old. Sure, there are parts where some differences are obvious (which is why one is called the New Testament after all, from the belief that God had made a new covenant with people through Jesus' life and death), but even those parts emphasize the continuity with the promises made to Abraham. I think a lot of the reason people believe there are big differences between the Old & New is thanks to anti-semitism, honestly: bigoted people who don't want to seem even remotely like the Jews claim that the Old Testament is full of wrath and no mercy while the New Testament is the opposite, completely ignoring the facts that Jesus mentions Hell more than anybody and that the major stories of the Old Testament involve God helping the poor and oppressed & instructing his chosen people to do the same.

Yeah, I could get into a big rant about this. I'm sparing you. :-)