Thoughts and Prayers: The Religion Thread

I don’t think the Gospels are inerrant. The stories of who visited the tomb, who Jesus appeared to after resurrection and what he did were different in each version.

Despite that, I believe in the story as told in the Apostles’ Creed. I believe.

 

@Inky_Wretch I love the elegant simplicity of The Apostles' Creed.

@Alma Every one of the behaviors I mentioned can be found in The Bible. As for my statements being "political," tell me when The Bible HASN'T been political. Some parts of it are more baldly so than others. Look at The Book of Revelations. Look at parts of Hosea, especially Hosea 8. FWIW, I think Hosea 8:7 speaks to our current situation.

 

Lots of religions.

Lots of gods?

One god?

 

I read the Gospel of Judas a few years back.
Consists mostly of a dialogue between Jesus and Judas Iscariot.
So much of it is in the abstract, but the gist of it is Judas was following Christ's instruction to betray.

 

Personally (and, to some, I'm a heretic), I've always thought there was just one God - who revealed himself to the many different cultures in ways they could understand. Then man got a grip on religion and bent it to suit their purposes and screwed everything up.

 

I know I'm being pedantic when I write this but "Some Christians don't believe in Hell while others get a chubby little mantwig at the thought of the damned roasting for eternity" isn't in the Bible. Your dichotomy there sort of reads as "some Christians are cool and others are weirdo losers." Maybe that's me projecting a little, but I look at the previous two dichotomies and I doubt I'm far off.

The Bible has a hell in it. The "some Christians" who don't believe in hell are either lukewarm, "weaker" brothers and sisters who are in need of being taught up or they don't understand very well the religion they follow. (There are simultaneously weaker Christians who use their faith as "fire insurance," which can lead to legalism.)

 

You are welcome to your opinion, but that post is absolutely dripping with the arrogance you were attributing to others earlier in the thread. That is your interpretation of Christianity, not the only one.

 

No, it's a basic observation of the Bible, which is the primary text for all Christians. Hell is in the Bible. The end.

 

Where are you from? You need some exposure to good old Southern Baptist "If you don't believe like we do you gonna BURN!"

My wife gratefully moved from her Southern Baptist roots to becoming a good Episcopal church lady, largely based on a message of redemption and forgiveness instead of "You goin' to hell, sinner."

 

My take on religion:

*Well, you say it’s the gospel, but I know it’s only church.*
— T. Waits

 

I entirely reject the premise of an angry God.

 

My reference to "fire insurance" is in part reference to precisely those kinds of Baptists. The gospel is not fire insurance.