The scandal of gloomy Christians

You know what Satan meant when he told Eve know and you will be like gods or God and you will know what is good or evil? He was telling Eve and all her children that it's what was in her head that counted, that her intellect was the key to knowing God and being Godlike but when Christ came He said through his life and in His words that it's in your heart that you become truly Godlike, that through Love you become like God and begin to know Him. I think modern Christianity relies far too much on the former, yet I feel that if it wasn't for Christianity the world would already have been destroyed through nuclear war.

I believe were not as Christian as we should be.Were not following in Christs footsteps but in our own.

Is Cumming must be up for a seat.

No doubt, should that be the case, crucifixtions handed out on a daily basis.

Search warrants required! in most cases!

SPIDERMEAN2 wrote: In a few years, some of the words in the Bible will be realized. Christ has warned of Doomsday and guess what? It's coming very soon. You can count it with your fingers in years. ___________________________________________
That's just what Paul said 1,900 years ago. Face it, pal, the game is over. Check the scoreboard.

Thomas, "The Hallucinator", professed Moses of the NT, professed talker/seer to/of god and founder of "Baumianity", Baum,

"In 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, he (Paul) wrote: "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."

Here, Paul seems to be referring to himself and some of the recipients of his letter as being alive when Jesus returns."

"In 1 Thessalonians 5:2-11, he wrote: "For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober."

Here, Paul urges the recipients of his letter to be on guard at all times, because he expected the second coming to happen within their lifetimes. "

Conclusion: Paul, the prophet, was simply another fortune teller. Made lots of converts and money with that bit of fortune telling. Christianity still does but that won't last much longer as we pew sitters finally see the stupidity of it all.

barferio

You wrote, "you christians have been claiming your god is coming, just around the corner, for almost 2000 years now.

you need another story, this one has passed beyond the merely stupid, to breathtakingly stupid."

What's your rush?

Take care, be ready.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

you christians have been claiming your god is coming, just around the corner, for almost 2000 years now.

you need another story, this one has passed beyond the merely stupid, to breathtakingly stupid.

In the RCC, the problem is not the religion but the RCC leadership.The RCC needs another Pope John XXIII to turn the RCC around.

God is here. Hold your new born son in your arms, and feel the love and protection. Hold your Mom in your arms as her life slips away, and feel the love. Look at your wife to be as you say the words of marriage, and feel the oneness.

These are only pale shadows of what God feels for you. You benefit from miracles everyday, but these are miracles you don't see and won't believe and turn away from.

However, you search for and find the loss, the lonliness, the anger. These emotions you recognize and remember. Revenge, resentment, hate, all keep you, not from the love of God, but from allowing yourself to benefit from them. This is your right under free will.

Like turning on a spigot of water, the water is always there, but you have to be willing to accept it. So it is with God. His blessings are always there, but we turn them off and refuse to accept goodness. Evil we accept, but we spurn God and His goodness.

Look for joy and wonder in His world, and you will find it. Look for evil and badness and depression, and you will find this too. So which ones will you look for? The choice is yours to make.

Thomas, "The Hallucinator", professed Moses of the NT, professed talker/seer to/of god and founder of "Baumianity", Baum,

You noted that the simple, preacher man uttered the following: "My God, My God why have Thou forsaken Me?", Matt 27: 45-46, but did he?

There were no Christian witnesses to the crucifixion, no CNN, no tape recorders, and no one writing down notes.

What really happened during the week of the crucifixion as per Professor JD Crossan, an On Faith panelist and NT exegete:

From his book, "Who is Jesus?".

"That Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate, as the Creed states, is as certain as anything historical can ever be.

“ The Jewish historian, Josephus and the pagan historian Tacitus both agree that Jesus was executed by order of the Roman governor of Judea. And is very hard to imagine that Jesus' followers would have invented such a story unless it indeed happened.

“While the brute fact that of Jesus' death by crucifixion is historically certain, however, those detailed narratives in our present gospels are much more problematic. "

“My best historical reconstruction would be something like this. Jesus was arrested during the Passover festival, most likely in response to his action in the Temple. Those who were closest to him ran away for their own safety.

I do not presume that there were any high-level confrontations between Caiaphas and Pilate and Herod Antipas either about Jesus or with Jesus. No doubt they would have agreed before the festival that fast action was to be taken against any disturbance and that a few examples by crucifixion might be especially useful at the outset. And I doubt very much if Jewish police or Roman soldiers needed to go too far up the chain of command in handling a Galilean peasant like Jesus. It is hard for us to imagine the casual brutality with which Jesus was probably taken and executed. All those "last week" details in our gospels, as distinct from the brute facts just mentioned, are prophecy turned into history, rather than history remembered."

See also Professor Crossan's reviews of the existence of Jesus in his other books especially, The Historical Jesus and also Excavating Jesus (with Professor Jonathan Reed doing the archeology discussion) .

Other NT exegetes to include members of the Jesus Seminar have published similar books with appropriate supporting references.

Fr. Reese has pretty well summed up the difference between fundamentalist and progressive Christianity. (And yes, there are fundamentalists and progressives in every denomination and faith.)

I agree with Fr. Reese and appreciate his writing. We can deplore much of what is happening in the world while also celebrating all that reflects God's love. Hope trumps fear.

Happy Advent, Fr. Reese! (from one of your Protestant brothers)

spidermean2

You wrote, "Hell is real and that's the reason why Christ came down to earth to warn us despite the knowledge that he'll be hanged on the cross."

Do you think that Jesus is a "warner"?

I was taught that Jesus is the "Saviour of the world" and I imagine that many of those that don't believe this, still have heard this, haven't you?

Don't you think that if all God was going to do by becoming One of us was to "warn" us, that God could have just stuck His Head, so to speak, out of Heaven and just yelled down?

You then wrote, "No God will let Himself hang on the cross if the severity of hell is not real."

Do you really think that what happened on the cross was only "physical"?

"My God, My God why have Thou forsaken Me?", do you think that Jesus thought that this was a good time to say a psalm or that this psalm was coming true before our very ears?

God's Plan which God has had since before creation and is unfolding before our very eyes will come to Fruition.

See you and the rest of humanity in the Kingdom, the new heavens and the new earth.

By the way, I look past "heaven" to the Kingdom.

Take care, be ready.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

Moving beyond the religious/athiestic argument, doesn't the Catholic church preach that we're all vile sinners and that life is pain? After the Declaration of Independence was written they tried to translate it into Spanish in Spain but had a great deal of trouble because they literally didn't understand the concept of "pursuit of happiness" due to the influence of the Catholic church. I recently went to a wedding at Georgetown where the Priest went on and on about how flawed we all are and how much suffering there is in marriage, but never countered that with any positives. That's why your flock is under a cloud. I mean, plus the molestation, opposition to contraception, human rights abuses,opposition to scientific progress, etc.
As for spidermean, dude you should get out of your bunker and enjoy life. It's a little chilly today, but very pretty. Go have a hot dog and a beer. Watch a movie. There's a lot of good out there. Yikes.

CCNL wrote "Nothing is determined in advance:"

That's because you are a fool who can't understand the Bible.

America is a lead character in the Bible and you have no clue where to find it.

WW3 is soon coming and it's in the Bible. Likewise you don't know where to find it in the Bible.

Iran is the next war front and being a fool, you can't find it in the Bible.

When all these things will come to pass, think of your soul coz the worst is yet to come.

I think I won't talk to you again. I'll just leave it to God whether he will show mercy on you or not. But I can say with 100% certainty that you are a very pitiful person unless God intervenes and show mercy on you. You should burn the books that you've read or they will cause you to burn.

Thomas J. Reese

You wrote, " When we die, God looses control just as parents lose control when a child grows up."

God does not "control" us when we are living, just as a parent should not "control" a child. Discipline is not the same as "control" and since every human being is different, disciplining needs to be "custom fit", so to speak, that is why "raising" children can be one of the toughest jobs on earth.

This is one of the reasons why one can not put in a "box" or a "book" how to "raise" a child, even tho many attempt to, since each child is different.

You wrote, " At death we can choose to embrace God or flee him. To flee God is to flee love; to flee love is to choose hell, but it is our choice not God's. God comes to us with open arms."

Do you even have a clue what "hell" is?

There is also "spiritual death" and it seems as if you are confusing "hell" with "spiritual death".

Jesus won the keys to both "hell" and "spiritual death" and He will use them in due time.

God "knows" more than we give God credit for, God will not fit into the various "boxes" that we try to cram God into, God has a Plan and has had this Plan since before creation and God's Plan will come to Fruition.

God's Plan is for ALL to be in God's Kingdom, the new heavens and the new earth.

The seventh "day" shall arrive but the night of the sixth "day" will precede this.

See you and the rest of humanity in the Kingdom.

Take care, be ready.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

The scandal of religious hypocrisy makes me sad.

"Christian" evangelical pastors using Psalms 109 to pray for the death of the President of the US.

Fred Phelps

William Donohue

Pat Robertson

Pope Benedict and his Cardinals and Bishops hiding pedophile priests.

The hypocrisy of using abortion as a political wedge issue while looking the other way at capital punishment, torture and pre-emptive war.

Murderous Islam Fundamentalist Terrorists

Abortion doctor murderers.

Mormons electroshocking gays to "cure" them and a huge multi-state PAC against gay rights formed by a Church fraudulently claiming tax exemption.

Catholic priests judging and condemning gays from the pulpit followed by a little tryst with a cute alter boy in the rectory.

The only smile that comes to my face is the joke about the two religious gays named Bob

(Oral Roberts)

Spidermean2 aka Canyon Shearer, Bible Thumper, Fortune Teller and Severely Brainwashed in that Old Time Religion,

A better view of God's/evolution's interactions with the human race:

From Father Edward Schillebeeckx, the famous contemporary theologian in his book, Church: The Human Story of God,
Crossroad, 1993, p.91 (softcover)

"Christians (humans) must give up a perverse, unhealthy and inhuman doctrine of predestination without in so doing making God the great scapegoat of history" . "Nothing is determined in advance: in nature there is chance and determinism; in the world of human
activity there is possibility of free choices.

Therefore the historical future is not known even to God; otherwise we and our history would be merely a puppet show in which God holds the strings. For God, too, history is an adventure, an open history for and of men and women."

The reality of it all is that the "pew sitters" and "bowers" are coming to grips with the flaws in their religions and in ten years the religions of today will be unrecognizable or extinct as the "pretty and ugly wingie flying thingies" are finally buried in the piles of utter stupidity.

"It's been 1,900+ years and the man is still a no-show."

That's because you don't understand the Bible. In a few years, some of the words in the Bible will be realized. Christ has warned of Doomsday and guess what? It's coming very soon. You can count it with your fingers in years.

The sun is very far from the earth. It's millions of miles from the earth and yet you can feel its heat. I can't imagine how hot a place God has prepared for CCNL for endlessly insulting Him.

I pray that God have mercy on this man and would show him a preview of things to come before it's too late.

Reese wrote: Why should we rejoice? Paul tells us that we should rejoice because the Lord is near! The Lord is coming, fear not, dismiss all anxiety from your mind. He is coming.
__________________________________________
The existential nausea plaguing believers has its tap root in their unconscious.
a.) It's been 1,900+ years and the man is still a no-show. Maybe our faith is based on a wish?
b.) If there is no god then we're on our own. We'll have to take personal responsibility.
Growing up ain't easy... but it's necessary and good.

Catholicism is not Christianity. It's a religion of the devil. You can read the Bible and you would know why. Thomas Reese's ideas is full of trickery.

Hell is real and that's the reason why Christ came down to earth to warn us despite the knowledge that he'll be hanged on the cross. No God will let Himself hang on the cross if the severity of hell is not real.

The Vatican is the seat of Satan. Im 100 percent sure that the place will burn in time. Doomsday is coming.

How many billions of people had this church duped? Pitiful.

CCNL was a former Catholic. The words of Christ to Judas can also be told to this man. "It's been better if you had never been born."

I dread the day when this man will finally taste the severity of hell. Waht a pitiful sight.

The scandal is not gloomy Christians, it's the ongoing saga of Christianity as a fraudulent enterprise engaged in brazen hypocrisy and the fleecing of the gullible flock of their money and other possessions.
What other enterprise so riddled with pedophiles can get away with excusing and covering up this practice?
What other entity with a history of killing and maiming those who don't chose to practice their mumbo jumbo is nevertheless held in high esteem by its followers (I mean, besides just about every other religion)?
What other organization in this country can unabashedly spout strictly political rhetoric and still remain a tax free entity?
Those and other practices make ME gloomy.

You talk about God as if he is taking an active role in human life. Sorry, but I haven't seen God around anywhere, though I have been looking for him. However, I did see the guy with the massive tumor on his belly yesterday, sitting in his wheelchair at a stoplight begging for money. Where was God for him? People want less promises of paradise in the afterlife and more paradise in their mortal life, the only life they will have. Telling people to grin and bear it only works for so long. Religion is a drug that works best for the small minded unthinking portion of humanity. Humans have been exploited by religion since the dawn of time.

As per Father Reese, "we rejoice that Christ has come, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again. This is the source of our hope and joy."

Hmmmm, that does not "wash well" with an updated synopsis of Catholicism/ Christianity.

To wit: (for those eyes that have not seen)

Jesus was an illiterate Jewish peasant/carpenter/simple preacher man who suffered from hallucinations and who has been characterized anywhere from the Messiah from Nazareth to a mythical character from mythical Nazareth to a mamzer from Nazareth (Professor Bruce Chilton, in his book Rabbi Jesus). Analyses of Jesus’ life by many contemporary NT scholars (e.g. Professors Crossan, Borg and Fredriksen, On Faith panelists) via the NT and related documents have concluded that only about 30% of Jesus' sayings and ways noted in the NT were authentic. The rest being embellishments (e.g. miracles)/hallucinations made/had by the NT authors to impress various Christian, Jewish and Pagan sects.

The 30% of the NT that is "authentic Jesus" like everything in life was borrowed/plagiarized and/or improved from those who came before. In Jesus' case, it was the ways and sayings of the Babylonians, Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, Hittites, Canaanites, OT, John the Baptizer and possibly the ways and sayings of traveling Greek Cynics.
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/theories.html

For added "pizzazz", Catholic/Christian theologians divided god the singularity into three persons and invented atonement as an added guilt trip for the "pew people" to go along with this trinity of overseers. By doing so, they made god the padre into god the "filicider".

Current crises:

Pedophiliac priests, atonement theology and original sin!!!!

Luther, Calvin, Joe Smith, Henry VIII, Wesley, Roger Williams, the Great “Babs”, Russell, et al, founders of Christian-based religions or combination religions also suffered from the belief in/hallucinations of "pretty wingie thingie" visits and "prophecies" for profits analogous to the myths of Catholicism (resurrections, apparitions, ascensions and immaculate conceptions).

Current crises:

Adulterous preachers, "propheteering/ profiteering" evangelicals like Oral Roberts, atonement theology, all male hierarchies and strange banking and funding.