They did (denounce Him). Publicly. Years ago. In fact, they did so THREE TIMES. Curious, eh?
Christ’s message is a complex one, and simple at the same time. He made it clear that being what God wishes us to be goes well beyond rules and ritual. I don’t think you can get there so easily, and it requires a lifetime of reflection and efforts to grow - however long ones life might be. He also made it clear that none of us can ‘earn’ our way into heaven, and must be forgiven. That’s also a lesson for us to forgive as well. In saying that, I’m not arguing against your points at all.
Merry Christmas!
“When a Christian dares deviate from this, liberals pounce and call someone’s faith into question...”
If Liberals said anything worth listening to, I’d be worried about my soul. However, their utterings are literally farts in a windstorm, and worthy of no consideration concerning my life’s religious pursuits. Personally, I wonder why they even bother going to church. They are liars, thieves and murderers...and have no chance of passing thru the Pearly Gates. Church attendance for them is wasted energy...
“After these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him.” —John 7:1.”
Since “Jews” and “Judeans” are the same word in Greek, a more logical translation would be, “...because the Judeans (likely a political faction) were seeking...”
Since everyone in the scene is Jewish, including Jesus and his disciples, and (most of) the people in Galilee, the former translation seems unlikely.
For later
16). Jesus said, “Perhaps people think that I have come to cast peace upon the world. They do not know that I have come to cast conflicts upon the earth: fire, sword, war.
“For there will be five in a house: there’ll be three against two and two against three, father against son and son against father, and they will stand alone.”
Gospel of Thomas
Jesus also had convictions and a faith that He was willing to, and did, die for.
Jesus followed the will of the Father and also had convictions and the past, present, and future saints (the Bride of Christ) that He was willing to, and did, die for.
He died for us so we might live.
“The modern world, which denies personal guilt and admits only social crimes, which has no place for personal repentance but only public reforms, has divorced Christ from His Cross; the Bridegroom and Bride have been pulled apart. What God hath joined together, men have torn asunder. As a result, to the left is the Cross; to the right is the Christ”. […] Communism comes along and picks up the meaningless Cross; Western post-Christian civilization chooses the unscarred Christ.”
“Communism has chosen the Cross in the sense that it has brought back to an egotistic world a sense of discipline, self-abnegation, surrender, hard work, study, and dedication to supraindividual goals. But the Cross without Christ is sacrifice without love. Hence, Communism has produced a society that is authoritarian, cruel, oppressive of human freedom, filled with concentrantion camps, firing squads, and brain-washings”
“The Western post-Christian civilization has picked up the Christ without His Cross. But a Christ without a sacrifice that reconciles the world to God is a cheap, feminized, colorless, itinerant preacher who deserves to be popular for His great Sermon on the Mount, but also merits unpopularity for what He said about His Divinity on the one hand, and divorce, judgment, and hell on the other. This sentimental Christ is patched together with a thousand commonplaces. […] Without His Cross, He becomes nothing more than a sultry precursor of democracy or a humanitarian who taught brotherhood without tears”.
He had sympathy for the sinner but had no acceptance of the sin.
Liberals always misquote His sympathetic tone leaving out the other half of his message, to go and sin no more.
Just a minor edit.
I call it the Jimmy Carter School of Forgiveness. Just forgive everyone anything they do because it feels (and looks) good.
Jesus, however, hinged forgiveness on repentance.
‘Go and sin no more.’
‘Go’ just doesn’t cut it.
He IS alive today. He lives in every one of us. In Him we move and breathe and have our being. Point well taken though. There are times when we need to upturn the tables of the money launderers...upp, oops... I mean money changers.
He left this world as a lamb but will return as a lion. So..ya better be good.
Nice people don’t make enemies …Of course they do. How long did non-enmity exist between Neville Chamberlain and Adolf (Schicklgruber) when the former was running to the media boasting of “peace for our time”?
President Trump did the same thing! MAGA!
Then, Taylor, you're mis-reading the Bible.
The only people Jesus weren't nice to were the Pharisees and Sadducees. They were holding themselves up as the religious elite and turning God's house into a den of thieves.
In every instance with His encounters with everyone else Jesus was kind and forgiving. He was honest with them, but he was nice.
Knocking over the tables of the money changers in the temple pretty much sums it up.
JoMa
Jesus said you’re going to hell unless you accept and follow him.
bump