Christ forgave his enemies even on the cross.
He never asked people to Praise the Lord, the way pagan gods like Jehovah did. He told them to love God.
Jesus never asked for anything.
Except once.
Once he wondered aloud, “Why don’t people love me?”
Well, Lord, since you asked, I’ll tell you.
People don’t love you because of the theologians.
People don’t love yu because they have been taught to take very word you said as a threat.
When you said people should be better, the theologians told us that you meant that if we weren’t perfect, you would throw us into the Pit of Hell.
I heard a priest say that the Rich Young Man was damned, because he didn’t give all he had to the poor and follow you.
What you said was, “If you would be perfect, sell all you have and give it to the poor and follow me.”
He gave up the chance to be an Apostle. But theologians tell us that anybody who is not perfect is damned.
You told us you hand out salvation. All the churches tell us you hand out damnation.
Who could love a Calvinist Christ?
Who could love a God who allows the pope to damn people because they do not pay him the money he wants for armed forces to protect the papal states?
Fear is easy. Any pope or any Puritan can inspire terror.
But love is an entirely different matter.
The Christ who can be loved is the one who can forgive even those who put him on the cross.
But if someone preaches a salvation that is “free and without price,” how can he make a living being a theologian?
#1 by joe rorke on 11/11/2005 - 8:39 pm
These are the kinds of questions my son asks. All the time. It took me awhile to figure out what it was all about. I finally saw that he wanted God to be who he wanted God to be. He wanted to do what he wanted to do. His will. If he wants to find God he looks in the mirror. He reads the Bible all the time. Bible in one hand, Jack Daniels in the other hand, off he goes telling people what God’s will is. He loves to talk. Blah, blah, blah. But he doesn’t care much for the walk. Doesn’t give a whole lot of thought to repentance. The day he was baptized he sent me a load of pornograpy on the internet and ended the day stewed to the gills. He claims to follow Christ. He loves to ask the kinds of questions that will keep him from walking the walk. He will die with a bottle of Jack in one hand and a Bible in the other saying, “God will understand.” Meanwhile, there will be a pack of stupid questions designed merely to stimulate the intellect and having nothing to do with the spirit. That’s his answer to Jesus.