“I suggest that, if you truly believe in the Bible, you are not living up to what Jesus had to say.”
I suggest you have a selective reading of the totality of the Bible’s teaching about false religions.
You may try reading Peter and Paul, as well as reading of how Jesus treated those in the Temple who
were defiling it...
The Good Samaritan was almost certainly a PAGAN!
Yet Jesus held him in high regard.
Jesus was very hard on the “rules and regs” types of his time, Jesus had little patience with the Pharisees, or those that minded the Temple, you are correct.
And those who wished to stone the Adulteress? Jesus said, “You who are without sin, cast the first stone”.
Jesus will be very hard on those who do not understand these passages, in my opinion.
I suggest you have a selective reading of the totality of the Bible’s teaching about false religions. You may try reading Peter and Paul, as well as reading of how Jesus treated those in the Temple who were defiling it... [AMPU]
Per this Catholicdefense Web site, which as a caveat, I am not endorsing overall...merely am quoting their historical quotes for easy access purposes: ...the Sadducees accepted only the first five Books of the Bible, the Torah, also known as the Law of Moses. We can know this from a number of early Church Fathers. St. Hippolytus of Rome (170-235 A.D.) said that the Sadducees “do not, however, devote attention to prophets, but neither do they to any other sages, except to the law of Moses only, in regard of which, however, they frame no interpretations.” Likewise, Origen (184-253) said that “although the Samaritans and Sadducees, who receive the books of Moses alone, would say that there were contained in them predictions regarding Christ, yet certainly not in Jerusalem, which is not even mentioned in the times of Moses, was the prophecy uttered.”
Theologically, the Samaritans -- whom you, Kansas58 reference -- were probably closest to the Sadducees (as Origen above references).
Even Jesus condemned the Sadducees at one point:
And to the Sadducees: Jesus replied, “You are IN ERROR because you DO NOT KNOW THE SCRIPTURES OR THE POWER OF GOD. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you... (Matt. 22:29-31)
To be consistent, then, Kansas re: your comment that "you are not living up to what Jesus had to say" -- you would have to likewise condemn Jesus for not living up to the "Kansas" version of "Jesus."
Kansas, are you guilty of trying to both outnice Jesus -- as well as condemning the historical Jesus for what He said in Matthew 22:29-31???