Peace n Safety
Banned
I remember the Harry Potter book burnings by Republican Christian fundies!
Like you, I am fascinated with the history and philosophies of world religions. One cannot understand history and the human condition without understanding religion. That religious thinking is part and parcel of being human, goes back to the Druids and Stonehenge and even farther into the mists of time.
The New Testament is an extremely important piece of world literature worth the attention of any educated person. To me, the thing that is really radical about the NT is its treatment of the poor, the dispossed, the opressed. It is literally the first piece of literature in the western canon to treat the poor and oppressed with dignity and humanity, to advocate for them.
Prior to the NT, to the extent peasants and poor people ever appeared in literature, they were two dimensional caricatures, subjects of humour or even of scorn
The difference between our faith and every other belief system is the difference between "advice" and "news". Yeshua didn't just come to give advice. He came to bear our debt, to pay for the penalty of our sins (the wages of sin is death), so that we could be free to forgive one another as he forgave us. Its not advice that is the message of the bible, but it is news, good news. The news that God has intervened on our behalf, and has provided forgiveness for our sins.
We are beings that need unconditional all accepting love. Our problem is that none of us know how to give this kind of love because all of our love is conditional in some way and is self serving. But God who is the embodiment of love, and who does not need love, became a willing sacrifice and gave his life as a ransom for sin. Why? Because we needed love. And so that we could receive the kind of love we as human beings so desperately needed - unconditional, accepting love and so that we could become the kind of people He created us to be.
It's not what we can do for God but what He has done for us. He entered "our world," He took on
"our humanity," He bore "our sins," He died "our death, "He was resurrected for "our life," He's coming again for "our glorification."
Paul in his letter to the Romans is urging us on the basis of all that he taught on, on the basis of all that has been done, he urges us to become living sacrifices:
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God". (Romans 12:1, 2 KJV)
"therefore" meaning all Paul taught concerning grace and mercy, we have become thru Christ the objects of God's omnipotent, eternal love.
If we have not understood all that the mercies of God has done, if we have not understood doctrinally and theologically deep enough, all that Messiah has accomplished for us, then we have become useless to him. God is calling us to live our lives as living sacrifices unto him. Our problem is, we are so prideful that we are not willing to give up anything for others. When a sacrifice was laid upon the altar there was a great deal of suffering involved, the animal experienced pain and suffering. What are we willing to give up? What are we willing to place upon the altar? So that we can become a blessing to others, and become servants of the Most High God?
Blessin’s