I wholly am opposed to evangelism and missonaries, I think it's part of a newer Western philosophy that made Christianity into this thing where you are suppose to 'save ppl' it's utter bullshit, and completely goes against every traditional religious model not to mention common sense. Basically I'm kinda denouncing the New Testament of the Bible and its role in modern day 'Christianity', for it is the essence of the new form of Christianity, namely the four gospels really...The fact is that this is not Jesus' message...He taught the old testament...He was a rabbi, he studied the torahs and as a rabbi, rabbis answer questions with a question, they use different stories to draw from, they don't teach fundamentalism, they teach that there is not one meaning to any given text, but it is to be determined within a given situation. Basically the New Testament is a story, the story of Jesus. And it's not Jesus' story either, it's Jesus' story embellished and told by ppl long after his death... And I feel as though, this negates even Jesus' teachings, the irony is that If you accept Jesus' story without understanding the bigger picture, you lose what's truly important. Sorry I'm just rambling on, aren't I ? Basically I feel Jesus may have been exploited for the rise of modern day Christianity...irony at its best. Other religions accept Jesus as a mere prophet, and that seems to make much more sense to me, for this whole messiah business doesn't fly with me...and this is part of the Bible story that I find exceptionally not credible. So my question to you biblical scholars, is Why? Why the new testament? Is Jesus the messiah? or just an ordinary rabbi with an extraordinary life story? What are we to make of Jesus' story? Is it to be interpreted as one sees fit?
It's true, it's a shame. True Christians are ones who follow in his footsteps and live by what he taught. Not some asshole who calls himself a Christian by threatning you're going to burn in hell if you don't convert.
amen to that. the word "isreal" means "to struggle with god." the old testament is full of portraits of very imperfect ppl. many of the patriarchs and heroes of the old testament have broken the ten commandments, committed "mortal sins," etc. "children of isreal" does not just mean jewish ppl, isrealis. god changed jacob's (isaac's son - isaac was the one almost sacrificed by his father abraham cus god asked) name to "isreal" and it is his son's that are supposed to have spawned the twelve tribes. he was a flawed man - early in his life he basically stole his brothers birth right. his brother, being the elder, was entitled to his fathers inheritance, and the next head of the family. while his father was on his death bed and jacob and his mother tricked his father into blessing him rather than his older brother esau - thereby sort of passing the torch to him. this went totally against custom and beleif at the time - but is seen as god will. jacob was also supposed to have physically wrestled with god, and seen a ladder/ramp of angels going up and down from heaven. jacob is the patriarch in the old testament basically credited with spawning the race - and is revered. not because of his unquestioning faith in god like his grandfather abraham - and the jews were not called the children of abraham. i take the message as - there are rules- but they don't apply to every situation - sometimes whats right is not what the rules say. and we are all moving up or down - and are all struggling - as we should do. the message is that one's relationship with god is a living thing - not a just a static situation where one obeys and waits for salvation. and jesus being a jew - these are more the concepts he rose from - and he was calling for more tolerance for those who sin - i.e. "he who has no sin, let him cast the first stone." he was recognizing that the struggle with god is different for different ppl. one cannot understand the meaning behind someone else's path. although jacob is remembered in the bible and now revered - i'm sure his neighbor at the time of his stealing his brothers birth right as the eldest was apalled by his actions - unable to see it in the context of it's spiritual meaning for the jewish ppl.
uhh yea i dont know why people still follow something like that. no offence to any christians out there. whats a messiah? well im not a bible scholar, but i think they made it to continue the catholic regime. they need to have something different than the jews and islams. i dont know what a messiah is, but if its something other than a cool dude that helped people and loved people then no. i dont know why people blow this jesus thing so big, theres hundreds of jesus calibur people on the planet right now, they just arent walking in washington dc changing the system. learn from it. and yes
The New Testament is the foundation of Christianity and the Old Testament is also included to talk about stories of people and to talk about very important people (Judaic people) before the coming of Christ and the talk about the coming of Christ. The New Testament though was written mainly when Jesus was alive and when he was born and after Jesus was crucified basically talks more about getting salvation and that faith is the only way to get salvation. Also teaching the understanding of the 10 commandments and the end of the world. And seriously how did you come up with Jesus as a rabbi. He was a carpenter who preached to people on the outskirts of towns and did miracles to show he was the messiah. For some reason I guess over times Jews thought he wasn't Jesus and that they're still the chosen people and that Jesus hasn't even come yet and then there are Christians who believe he came and such. Really we should interpret the bible ourselves and not have priest give us indulgences (lol i can only laugh at how idiotic catholicism is). Really for me I'm a independent Christian. I'm protestant because i'm not part of the Catholic Church but I'm not Calvinistic, baptist, or episcopalian. I live my life trying not to do sins the best I can keeping faith and ignoring all criticism. Also for the people who are into religions who regard Jesus as just a prophet.... WTF theres alot more proof that he wasn't. A fucking earthquake erupted after Jesus's death and everyone there even the guy who nailed him and speared him believed that he really was the son of God after his death. Because remember they wouldn't believe he was the king of the Jews. All of that isn't in your average bible but it did happen. Also miracles were to show he was the messiah. Shit not that stupid to believe in. Muslims believe Muhammad went on a 23 year journey meeting Allah and receiving revelations from Allah and Gabriel. Yeah right ever read the Koran. You'd think the devil wrote it. The first words of it show hate and anger......... Like its trying to control you and make you do shit. Sry if anyone is Muslim here I'm not against it but I think its ok to show some of the flaws and unimaginable things of it because people here always try to tell me the flaws of my faith and beliefs though I don't give a shit.
THE QUR'ÂN. THE OPENING CHAPTER. (I. Mecca.) IN the name of the merciful and compassionate God. Praise belongs to God, the Lord of the worlds, the merciful, the compassionate, the ruler of the day of judgment! Thee we serve and Thee we ask for aid. [5] Guide us in the right path, the path of those Thou art gracious to 1; not of those Thou art wroth with; nor of those who err. have you ever read the 'koran'?