Posted on 08/04/2002 8:00:41 AM PDT by Commie Basher
Some Christians. I think Catholicism (as I was raised) currently teaches that "good works" will get anyone to heaven.
The late Father Malichi Martin said that Christ opened the door for everyone ("none enter the Kingdom except through me), but that it was not necessary for a person to know who opened the door for them to enter (i.e., you could benefit from Christ's sacrifice without accepting him -- your good works are enough to get you to heaven).
But yes, I can understand why some Jews would be upset over how some Christians think they'll burn in hell. Of course, when I was a child, I was upset at the portrayl of gentiles in the Old Testament. I was acutely aware that I was not Jewish, yet the Old Testament justified their conquest of Canaan simply because the Jews were God's "chosen." The message seemed to be "God blesses those who bless the Jews," but Jews were not required to bless me back. As long as the Jews obeyed God, it didn't matter how they treated the gentiles.
I was always relived to come to the New Testament, and hear that now everyone is chosen.
I think Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have all been harsh to non-believers -- I look forward to rabbis and mullahs, as well as ministers and priest, correcting the Torah, Bible, and Koran.
The Catholic Church has apologized for the Crusades (which resembles the Israelites conquest of Canaan -- because "God" told them to conquer those unbelievers). I don't think there's a religion on Earth that can't find something -- in both deed and "scripture" -- that they can be ashamed of.
(I see that The Remnant is also hostile to Catholicism. No surprise there. I've met fundamentalists who think the Church is "infiltrated by Satan.")
Chosen people? Chosen by whom for WHAT? Where in the Bible does it say that? C'mon Goldberg, answer the questions.
No offense, but that is NOT what the New Testament says or teaches. Nothing could be further from the truth. Again, let's go right to the words of Jesus Christ Himself:
Mat 7...13"You can enter God's Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose the easy way.14But the gateway to life is small, and the road is narrow, and only a few ever find it.
Again, as in post # 17, pretty straightforward and clear.
And the downside of this is...?
Well, the writer may get all worked up that "those people" believe that I am "going to Hell" because I don't believe in their version of salvation. So what??? They are not trying to inflict those beliefs on me and mine with suicide bombings, drive-by shootings, and crashing airplanes into skyscrapers.
If they want to believe that Jews all convert to Christianity when "the Messiah comes", I can still believe that righteous Christians will all convert to Judaism when that happens.
The New Age is pretty flakey, but meditating on crystals and doing yoga is a lot less destructive than the Judeao-Christian-Islamic tradition. (Of course, there are Good Things in the Bible, amid much bad.)
Of course, as Biker Scum pointed out, the message gets twisted.
Monty Python's Life Of Brian has a great scene wherein Brian loses a sandal, and within minutes of creating a new religion, his followers break up over interpretations of whether it's a "shoe" or a "sandal."
I think Chrust's message was pretty basic. Love one another. Don't worry about kosher, non-kosher. Don't worry about minor rules, or a person's status in life, or what they were born as. Just love one another, and act on it. It's that simple.
ROTFLMBO! In my opinion that would make for an uproarious comedy in style of Monty Python or Mel Brooks.
"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, {it is} the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." (Epesians 2: 8-9)
But the problem for the twisters is that people like me can come along and post the words that Jesus actually said DIRECTLY FROM JESUS'S MOUTH.
Now, people can still try to twist Jesus Word (and they do) but God caused the words to be written down so that those who seek to put their own meanings on them will first have to deal with their unpleasant existance.
It's like a contract. Anyone can say any contract means anything, but they have to deal with the words which are written down on that paper first, and those who can read and think can see they are just a bunch of shysters trying to twist the words for their own agenda. (Like the way liberals twist the Constitution).
It doesn't stop them trying, and doesn't stop them from SUCCEEDING, but those who seek the Truth, will go to the pre-written words no matter how much the spiritual shysters try to twist them.
That's true. The split between the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel was brought about in no small part by "elements of exclusivity and intolerance". They just plain didn't like each other.
Those same people today are mostly Celts/Europeans/Americans/Christians (Northern Kingdom) and Jews (Southern Kingdom).
WRONG! This was NOT a "Christian concept" but the work of the Roman Catholic Church.
Do not confuse the two.
Evangelical Christians like Jerry Fallwell and Pat Robertson would have been burned at the stake right alongside the Jews and other "heretics". That was the fuel that ignighted "Protestantism".
Okay, I'll bite. How is it that the Southern Kingdom has only about 15 million decendents, and the Northern Kingdom has about a billion (remember, many Europeans also settled in Latin America and Australia, etc.)
Even the Nazi Holocaust can't explain that disparity in population figures. If your theory is correct, the population numbers should be roughly more equivalent.
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