Is this your own original work, our did you lift it from some web site and not give credit to its author?
Jesus giving his blood and the new covenant story has never made any sense to me.
Repentance is one thing and itās good to recognize wrong doing and be sorry for it.
However, isnāt the idea to not continue the wrong doing?
And why should anyone want to be forgiven for wrong doing? Isnāt this an attempt to escape the consequences of our wrong doings?
Isnāt it better to face judgement and pay the price?
Forgiveness is something that we should do and it has a positive effect on our being but it donāt really help the person who we forgive.
Looking around I see a lot of suffering in this world. And self proclaimed born again Christians are not immune from bearing some of this suffering.
Would it make more sense that Jesus was here to show that the way back to the father is through obedience to him. Regardless of the earthly consequences of being obedient to God. In Jesusā case, obedience led to his death.
True.
Repentance for the forgiveness of sins is such a given in the modern world we forget the price Jesus paid for getting this message out into the world. Two thousand years ago this was a startling idea, and religious authorities of the time demanded to know by whose authority this assertion was made. (Sounded man-made to them, as Temple offerings/sacrifice was the norm for the forgiveness of sins. Imagine sins being forgiven with no price to be paid!)
A covenant with God required blood. Jesus gave his own blood on behalf of this new covenant of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and God validated this new covenant when Jesus was raised from the dead.
āRepentanceā means to turn away from the sin (stop doing it) and instead turn towards God. Jesus made this point in one of his parables. It did no good for a man to clean house (sweep away all demons) and then leave it empty for three times as many demons to crowd in. Sweep away wrong-doing, replace it with good works which we do for the love of God and for love of neighbor.
Three nuns die in a car wreck. At the pearly gates they are met by an angel who says that he will ask each ONE question, and their success or failure will determine whether or not they get in.
So he asks the first nun: āWho was the first man?ā
The nun replies, āAdam.ā
And bells ring, and trumpets blare, and the angel says, āYou may go in.ā
He asks the second one: āWho was the first woman?ā
The second nun replies, āEve.ā
And bells ring, and trumpets blare, and the angel says, āYou may go in.ā
He asks the third one, "What was the first thing Eve said to Adam?
And the nun thinks, and thinks, and mutters to herself, āThis is a hard oneā¦ā
And bells ring, and trumpets blare ā¦
The life and teachings of Jesus was an epochical revelation, he came here to teach us many things, not to be murdered. The authors of the NT tended to dwell much less than they should have on his life and teachings and I believe it was bacause they were still Jews and regardless of the time spent with Jesus and the personal instruction they recieved, they could not break away completely from their previous religious backgrounds and this was a huge influence on their NT writings imho.
When he said āFollow Meā he did not mean that we should do as he did or copy him.
This covenant concept was obviously developed from the ashes of so much blood sacrafice that was popular with the Jews of the time and was designed to bring Jews into Christianity.
Jesus died on the cross because he was betrayed and murdered by his enemies, thats all imho.
The idea of God the eternal father demanding blood sacrifice of his children is a primitive man made concept that needs to be interpreted on a higher level imho.
Isnāt a more logical sacrafice one that gives up so much potential sin related selfishness, learns to deal with that constant clamoring for self gratification and learns to love God and our fellow human beings?
Makes more sense to me than bloodshed.
Forgiveness of sins did not require a blood sacrifice. Covenants required blood.
Certainly human to human covenants.
Iād leave our maker out of that one.
Jesus was a failed prophet. It was only after he was killed and ārose from the deadā that Christianity began to take hold, because people thought, āOh, I donāt have to die, I can live forever like Jesus.ā
If Jesus hadnāt been crucified, thereād be no Christianity today.
And the idea of a covenant with God suggests that people of the times think they had enough dignity to bargain with God.
Now thatās so typicall of these early religions, isnāt it.
Much more than a prophet and certainly not a failure.
Donāt you think he would have liked to died of old age?
People created Christianity, not Jesus.
Bargaining? Agreement defines it more accurately.
People who believed in Jesus and followed his ways were termed Christians by others.
Well
Miriam Webster agrees with you so I give on that one.
But it was bloodless.
Purgatory is found in 1 Corinthians 3:15 and 2 Maccabees 12:46.
2 Maccabees 12:46 āIt is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.ā
1 Corinthians 3:15 ābut he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.ā
But believe in him and following his ways is quite different than the organized religions that later attempted to capture and dogmatism same, therefore altering the nature of his teachings and life purpose
Not really. When a group of people gather for a purpose, organization follows. Complaining about āorganizedā religion is like bellyaching about organized/traditional families.
As Iāve said many times before, St. Theresa of Avila nailed it back in the sixteenth century. She compared oneās spiritual life to an interior castle with seven levels, each level with many, many rooms. The Church part of anyoneās journey barely gets people to Level Twoāif they are very lucky. The Church is involved with the basics, the foundation, the doorwayāand this is needed. Verily. However, I suspect the reason the Church loses so many in their teenage years is that very few teens can make the leap to another level on their own, and many have level two down pat, and are bored with it.
Moving on takes lots of time. Lots of effort, just at the time people are busy enough trying to enter into and figure out adult life.
No teachings have been altered. Some may be missed or misunderstood by individuals, no doubt. No oneās life is exactly the same. We are all unique people in unique lives. God reaches out to each of us. People who reach back, have a chance at connecting.
For me, it was the Catholic Church that landed me in the arms of God (so-to-speak). I think Judaism could have done the same for me. I have real doubts about many Protestant denominations, though some are okay. I donāt know enough about Hindus, Buddhists, Islam, and others to judge.
My own observation is this: People who stick with the faith (not necessarily the same denomination) in which they were raised often do best at reaching out to God. Iāve seen people who keep reaching out to other faiths trying to find God are reaching for the wrong thingāanother faith instead of God.
Itās not so much the organizations as it is the subtle deceptions.
Reading scriptures tends to reveal a relatively minor history of Jesus life and teachings and itās obvious, think about the gospels of the apostles. Itās about their experiences, their gospels.
The churches built a wall around these writings.
No question that the relatively minor amount of Jesus life and teachings, filtered through the apostles and dogmatized by the churches has had positive impact on many peoples lives and civilization.
Canāt help but imagine the impact on same had the authors attempted to capture more of Jesus life and teachings as opposed to their personal experiences.
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I donāt see anything pertaining to a purgatory in 1st corinthians 3:15 and i checked out quite a few commentaries on the verse and none of them mentioned anything close to a purgatory either.
Maccabees is of no interest to me as it isnāt in my bible at all.
