All posts by Tony

Pick ‘n’ Mix

Quotations, Insights, Others' stuff

Another collection of short, bite-sized pieces of wisdom. All of these quotations are used with the kind permission of their authors.

—

Just because someone in a Bible study answers all your questions, it doesn’t mean that those answers are right
 – Me

Human judgment often condemns and crushes.
Divine judgment always helps and heals.
Why don’t we get this?
Jesus is Jehovah-Rapha (the God that heals), not Jehovah-the-Ripper.
 – Richard Murray

Faith expressing itself through love, not fear, is the manifestation of the life of Christ within.
 – Jeff Turner

[Replying to a friend who is undergoing cancer treatment but nevertheless pushed his limits in going to an event he really wanted to go to] Some things you just have to do. I have a relative who also gets exhausted quickly and easily (although not for the same reason as you) but sometimes they just have to say, Look, I’m doing this…I might regret it later in terms of pain but it would be worse to forever regret missing the opportunity. Glad you had a good time. Sometimes, that’s as good a medicine as all the drugs in the pharmacy.
 – Me

Your questions aren’t dangerous. The people telling you not to ask them are.
 – Jeff Turner

And when challenged about this, they will produce proof text after proof text to continue driving you into the ground with the piledriver of weaponised Scripture. But by that time you should be out of earshot, because you will have walked away 😀
 – Me

When you find your belief system to be the thing keeping you from becoming a better person, summon the courage to become a better person than your beliefs.
 – Jeff Turner

Isaiah 30:21 says, “Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying “this is the way, walk in it.” Sadly, these days it’s usually the Pastor…
 – Me

I have been saying this for years now, but the notion that sin can separate a ”sinner” from God is as absurd as the notion that cancer can separate a cancer-sufferer from the oncologist. If cancer were to separate an oncologist from a cancer-sufferer then the oncologist could never separate the cancer-sufferer from cancer. Likewise, if “sin” could separate the “sinner” from God, then God could never separate the “sinner” from sin.
 – Jeff Turner

“You don’t know everything” is an axiom that everyone should live by.
Unfortunately, many people in the world are thick as three short planks – I call them the ‘Unintelligentsia’. They usually do think (and that’s being generous) that they know a lot, and usually that they know more than everyone else. For me, being an actual recognised genius, it has always been a problem to cope tactfully with the ignorant, especially when these people can influence others’ lives.

But still, I openly declare that “[I] don’t know everything”. And part of humility is being willing to defer to those who have the better knowledge in all cases where that applies. And that’s how we learn.
 – Me

For so many, the thing that ruined Jesus for them wasn’t the lure of sin, but the lovelessness of Christians.
 – Chris Kratzer

The irony of the song ‘Oceans‘ is that it actually goes against the way that Church leadership like their people to behave. Sure, let’s sing about God being top of the list; about Him being Number-One in their lives; or about how much they love Him. But Oceans sings about being out in the deep waters, away from human control (even our own) and trusting entirely in God. At the end of the day, that is the kind of thing that gets Christians kicked out of these churches, because when God starts showing the believer things that they can only learn out in the deep waters of faith, those who have not been there do not understand, nor can they ever do so until they have been there themselves. And human leadership doesn’t like it when the Spirit gets real control of people like that, because the Spirit blows where He wills, not where humans want Him to.
 – Me

We might have been created the same, but we have not become the same.
 – Chris Kratzer

“Could the disobedience [of Adam and Eve] have been part of an expected and desired process that would lead to a greater state of mankind?” Yes, I think that’s exactly what it is. I think the fall was an essential part of humanity realising its godliness. ‘You will become like God…’ says the serpent. And yet that’s the point all along; to be transformed into His likeness. No-one ever seems to notice the parallel there.
 – Me

If fear of eternal fire is the only thing keeping you from living a morally bankrupt life, you have more pressing matters to attend to, and bigger questions to answer, than does the one who rejects the concept of eternal conscious torment altogether.
 – Jeff Turner

Who is God? This is the first question we need to try to answer on our faith reconstruction journey. Where do we turn for ideas? If God is real, then we don’t get to decide who He is. We just get to discover Him.
 – Christy Lynne Wood

I have to jokingly say that [a preacher from a church I used to attend] would be a preacher I would invite to speak if I thought the congregation was getting too happy. He’d soon put the kibosh on that.
 – Me

“Blessed are the cracked, for they let the light in.”
 – Dave Tomlinson

—

As a professional laboratory scientist, I could never allow my kids to eat ‘Pick ‘n’ Mix’ sweets. Because the boxes containing the sweets were wide open to the environment, the opportunity was rife for kids literally to pick [their noses] and mix [the products of those excavations with the sweets]. That’s just asking for it… 😉

We are Not the Same

Insights, Others' stuff
This entry is part 7 of 7 in the series Speaking Truth to Power

Here’s an excellent piece from Chris Kratzer, a man whom I consider to be a modern-day prophet. He speaks truth to power by exposing the things that modern-day Fundagelicals[1] don’t think about – indeed are blind to – because of various reasons, two of which are 1) believing that they are always right, and 2) never examining their own thoughts or beliefs to discover whether they are their own beliefs, or beliefs they have been told to believe. Over to Chris:

—

Dear Evangelical Christians.

This is what separates us.
This is the discord.
This is what’s different between me and so many of you.

Indeed, we are both human and divinely created, to be sure. But in heart, mind, and soul, we are not the same. Your path has taken a different way.

As a child, I learned the same Christian teachings as you and anchored them deep within, yet here we are, two very different people whose hearts and minds are clearly at odds with one another.

It is my experience that you believe the world is you and your beliefs. That without you and your faith the world has no hope, value, or redemption. You see the world and its people as inherently flawed and depraved. To you, people are broken and need fixing. At your core, you believe nothing will get better until people believe as you do, become like you, and you hold all the seats of power and privilege.

But I believe the world is far more than you and your beliefs.

I know the world to be good, whole, holy, and divine, as is, without you and your faith, even in spite of you. You and your beliefs do nothing to make it any more sacred or pure. The beauty, purity, and divine majesty of creation and its humanity is not codependent upon you, your faith, your brand of God, your creeds, your power, or your opinions.

In fact, all too often, it has been my experience that your path of faith has served to corrupt the world and its people, and increase its suffering in service to what is your clear and apparent quest for power and control.

In contrast, I see the earth as my sanctuary, love as my worship, humanity as my community, and truth as the light of goodness within me and all things.

I know that God does not punish nor use hardship or suffering to teach or influence my life. I see no evidence for hell in the afterlife, but only in the here and now, especially among the religious. I know God to bend his heart toward the poor, not the rich; to the broken-hearted, not the proud; to the abused, not the abuser; to the follower, not the leader; and to the humble in heart, not the self-righteous.

I have come to know and understand the Divine intimately and in truth by looking earnestly to the creation around me and the Light within me. I don’t trust the faith opinions of dead men or those that are alive to guide me. But instead, I rest in the Spirit I see in all things and deep within me to be the light unto my path. I have no desire for world conquest or colonizing the world into my beliefs.

Instead, I understand my grand and everyday purpose as being to serve, not to be served. To put the needs of others above my own. To be last, not first. To love my neighbor as myself. To seek justice and speak truth to power. And to see the least of these among as the most important among us.

This is the difference between us.

We might have been created the same, but we have not become the same.

Your path of faith has convinced me that Christianity resembles nothing of Christ; it is not anchored in love, compassion, goodness, or truth, and therefore has nothing for me.

My path of faith has convinced me that Love is the all and everything. And if what I believe, pursue, or become does not resemble love, it is not of God, Jesus, or anything or anyone that is holy, whole, or good.

For love is unconditional; Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

This is the difference between me and you.

May it be known.
I love you.
But we are not the same.

Footnotes

Footnotes
⇧1 Fundamentalist Evangelicals

Gehenna and the Persistence of Mistranslation

Insights

Here’s a great piece, by the brilliant Jacob Wright, on the unsustainability of the Hell doctrine. This is from one of his Facebook posts.

Unfortunately, the comments on this piece from the usual bunch of Infernalists[1] matched exactly his predictions. Obviously these people have it so set in their minds that their Hell exists, that they are completely unable/unwilling to countenance any other opinion[2].

Over to Jacob:

“Hell” is not in the Bible. “Gehenna” is. “Hell” is a mistranslation. “Gehenna” is the right translation. Either you’re ignorant of this, or you’ve read it and yet choose to deliberately go with the mistranslation. Now you know.

The concept of “hell”, or eternal torment in the afterlife is literally and exactly nowhere in the Old Testament. “Gehenna” however is in the OT just a few times. It is a literal place, right outside of Jerusalem, where Israel practiced gross idolatry and later became called “the Valley of Slaughter” because of its reputation of idolatry and loathsomeness. Dead bodies were thrown in Gehenna and they were eaten by worms and turned to ashes by fire. This provides the context of Jesus usage of “Gehenna”.

Jesus quotes Isaiah when talking about Gehenna when he says “where the worm doesn’t die and the fire is not quenched”. He’s referring back to the valley of Gehenna, directly quoting Isaiah 66:24, which says “…the dead bodies, the worms that eat them up will not die and the fire that consumes them will not be quenched.” This literally happened. Dead bodies were eaten up by unquenchable fire and worms fed on the dead bodies until they were consumed to nothing.

Interesting thing is, go to that Valley of Slaughter today and look in it and you will not see the fire still burning nor will you see immortal worms feeding on miraculously preserved dead bodies. The bodies are gone, the worms are gone, the fire is gone. The point is that the fire would not be deterred in burning up the dead bodies to nothing, the worms would not be deterred in eating up the dead bodies to nothing. And keep in mind these are mortal dead bodies in this life, not immortal conscious souls in the afterlife.

To read eternal torment into that is either gross ignorance or deliberate deception.

Even “eternal fire” or “eternal punishment” is a mistranslation, as “eternal” is a mistranslation of the Greek word “aionios”, which does not mean “never-ending” or anything of the sort. It means “of the age to come”, or to Plato, who may have invented the word, it means something which has its origin in God, or the unseen realm. It has nothing to do with ongoing, never-ending time. “Other-worldly” is a pretty good translation of “aionios”. “Eternal” is not.

There is literally no verse in scripture that can prop up the ridiculous, pagan, non-Jewish concept of eternal torment.

Spread the word to try to get rid of the ignorance on this issue.

This is not some new politically correct idea that people are making up because they don’t like hard biblical truths. There is a long list of early fathers who rejected eternal torment because they understood these correct meanings of words, they didn’t believe in the immortality of the soul (a pagan Greek belief), they had a touch of sanity (a good thing to have for theology), and they recognized that the scriptures either taught conditional immortality and/or final universal reconciliation. Eternal torment was the minority belief in the early church, and amongst those who were less familiar with the original meanings of the text. It did not become the prominent belief until after 500 AD, with the help of the violent organized institutional church under Constantine.

Hell is not a good translation of Gehenna and it never will be. Gehenna was a real place with a real history in the Jewish mind, and it must be read in that context. Once it is read in that context, the idea of eternal torment falls to pieces, as it should.

I predict now that people will come on here quoting mistranslated verses ripped out of their context to try to prop up their beloved tradition of humans being tortured forever for not believing the same things as them. It is an evil and demonic idea which finds no basis in reason, love, justice, the scriptures, or the universe we observe. I have found that most of these people have not studied without confirmation bias nor have seriously considered the existential weight of this issue. They just accept what they are told. Nor have they probably ever had a dearly loved one that died an unbeliever. For them, it is completely fine that a bunch of dumb humans they don’t know or have empathy for burn alive forever. Such a thing they wouldn’t give a second thought or shed one tear over.

It is normal for us to not want to go through the discomfort of questioning and reconstructing what we believe, because of the fear drilled into us for years, or facing the rebuke of our religious community, so we protect the only thing we’ve known and stay uncontroversially within the bounds of groupthink.

Hell is not a good translation of Gehenna and it never will be. Gehenna was a real place with a real history in the Jewish mind, and it must be read in that context. Once it is read in that context, the idea of eternal torment falls to pieces, as it should.

– Jacob M. A. Wright, used here with his kind permission

 

 

Footnotes

Footnotes
⇧1 Infernalists: People who believe in a literal place of torment – ‘Hell’ – that lasts forever and ever after death, and that the people who will be in there are everyone who does not believe the exact same things that they themselves believe.
⇧2 So why aren’t these people out shouting it from the rooftops??

The Outsiders

Insights, Others' stuff

Be careful of listening to the outsiders.

People who only know you from a distance.
People who aren’t invested in your life.
People who profit from your stress or pain.
People who take more than they give.

The news… outsider.
The Bible… outsider.
The pastor… outsider.
The influencer… outsider.

Nothing outside of you should rule or define what’s inside of you.
Instead, filter and discern everything through the insiders.

The Divine within… insider.
Your chosen family… insider.
Your inner voice… insider.

Live and love, only from the inside out… always.

 – Chris Kratzer, shared with his kind permission

All Means All

Insights

Here’s a piece by the brilliant Richard Murray, where he explains – using many Scriptures – that in fact ‘All’ means ‘All’, Christ died for ‘All’, and all that. So many Evangelicals deny that, wanting to claim that, when it all boils down to it, He only died for people who agree with their doctrines.

They even go so far as to say that when the word ‘All’ is used more than once in a passage, the second ‘All’ can mean a different ‘All’ from the first one. You’ve really got to use some pretty serious mental gymnastics, as well as some severely twisted and intentional dishonesty, to want that to be true and to continue to claim that it is. The best example is in 1 Corinthians 15:22: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive”. For those so keen on the ‘plain reading of Scripture’, which most of these Fundamentalists are (except when it suits them, as in this case), this should be a wrap. Cut and dried. All died in Adam, therefore all are made alive in Christ. But no, of course not. They say it’s a different ‘All’. Sure, all died in Adam, but only the ‘all’ who agree with their doctrines are made alive in Christ. Now I don’t know about you, but ‘all’ is an absolute term. How twisted is that? There is no ‘All, except’, because then that isn’t ‘all’, is it? I’ll pass you over to Richard now:

So many brimstoners and infernalists who argue for Hell as a place of eternal conscious torment seem to suffer from a Vitamin “ALL” Deficiency.

They simply can’t seem to absorb (or even acknowledge) the pervasive use of the word ALL (or EVERY) used in the following passages, all of which point to a “better end” instead of “bitter end” for ALL.

I once received the following comment from one such critic.

“Richard, the New Testament NEVER teaches that ALL men will be reconciled to God. I understand that you think God uses His postmortem judgment fire to cure, purge, and prepare humanity for heaven, not torture them for eternity. I understand that you believe God’s punishments are rehabilitative, not retributive. It’s a nice thought but it’s nowhere taught in the New Testament. You have no passages to support your position.”

Really? This myopic viewpoint never ceases to amaze me. People have been so indoctrinated with a view of Hell where God sends those who displease and disbelieve Him into eternal conscious torment.

This reductive indoctrination comes from endlessly chanting a handful of passages about Hell which have largely been mistranslated (at least from the ways the early church fathers understood them, Patristic scholars who knew Koine Greek far better than do we moderns). Those indoctrinated by Hell’s hive mind have been programmed to completely ignore so many other Scriptures, no matter how specific and on point they are.

The verses below say what they say. Notice the use of “all” and “everybody.” Notice there are no exceptions given.

“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance. For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, Who is the Savior of ALL MEN, ESPECIALLY [Greek: “to the greatest degree”] of those who believe. These things command and teach.” (1 Tim. 4:9-11). [this passage clearly includes even those who do not believe as being within the ambit of salvation].

“Jesus, was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for EVERYONE.” (Heb. 2:9)

“This is good and acceptable in the sight of our God our saviour; Who WILL have ALL men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus: Who gave himself a ransom for ALL, to be testified in due time.” (1 Tim. 2:3-6, KJV).

“He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might GATHER TOGETHER IN ONE ALL THINGS IN CHRIST, BOTH WHICH ARE IN HEAVEN AND WHICH ARE HEAVEN AND WHICH ARE ON EARTH— IN HIM.” (Eph. 1:9-10).

“He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of His glorious body, by the power that enables Him to subject ALL THINGS TO HIMSELF” (Phil. 3:21).

“EVERY MAN’S work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be BURNED, he shall SUFFER LOSS: but HE HIMSELF SHALL BE SAVED; yet so AS BY FIRE.” 1 Cor. 3:13-15. (Key passage on the postmortem judgment fire of God, where there is suffering and loss for the errant soul, but ultimately salvation, yes as by fire).

“For as in Adam ALL DIE, even so in Christ shall ALL BE MADE ALIVE. But EVERY man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put ALL enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put ALL things under his feet. But when he saith, ALL things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put ALL things under him. And when ALL things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put ALL things under him, that GOD MAY BE ‘ALL IN ALL.’ Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?” 1 Corinthians 15:22-29.

“I heard EVERY creature IN heaven, ON earth, UNDER the earth, ON the sea, and EVERYTHING in them say: Blessing and honor and glory and dominion to the One seated on the throne and to the Lamb, forever and ever!” (Rev. 5:13). (Angels here are included in the restoration– no creaturely exception.)

“Then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make ALL things new'” (God will dwell with men and he will wipe every tear from their eyes, death, mourning, crying, pain and the old order of things will pass and everything and everybody will be made new. Rev. 21:5, 3-4).

“At the name of Jesus EVERY knee should bow, of those in heaven, and those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that EVERY tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil. 2:10:11).

“ALL Israel will be saved.” (Rom. 11:26)

“Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for ALL, and therefore ALL died.” (2 Cor. 5:14)

“Just as the result of one trespass was condemnation of ALL MEN, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for ALL MEN.” (Rom. 5:18)

“And I, if I (Jesus) am lifted up from the earth, will draw [“drag” in the Greek, helkuo] ALL MANKIND unto Myself.” (John 12:32).

Read this passage together with, “No one can come to Christ unless the Father who sent Him draws him.” (John 6:44), and we are left with the unavoidable promise that Jesus WILL draw all men to Himself.

In Jesus Christ is “the restoration of ALL THINGS, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.” (Acts 3:21)

The Gospel is “good tidings of great joy will be to ALL people.” (Luke 2:10)

Believers in Christ are “born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:13)

God appointed Jesus “heir of ALL THINGS, and through whom He made the universe.” (Heb. 1:2)

“As God gave Jesus authority over ALL FLESH, that he should give eternal life to as many as God have Him.” (John 17:2)

The Father “has given ALL THINGS into Jesus’ hands.” (John 13:3)

Jesus “was the true light which gives light to EVERY MAN who come into the world.” (John 1:9)

“Just as the result of one trespass was condemnation of ALL MEN, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for ALL MEN.” (Rom. 5:18)

Jesus is “able even to subdue ALL THINGS to Himself.” (Phil. 3:21)

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering towards us, not willing that any should perish, but that ALL should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)

“God was Christ reconciling THE WORLD to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God.” (2 Cor. 5:19, 20).”

–  Richard Murray, shared with his kind permission.

I think that says it all. Explaining away Scriptures is one thing; denying that they exist is a completely different matter. Doubtless, the person that Richard mentions in his opening words there, who said there is no Scriptural evidence for ‘All’, is going to have to eat his words. I would be happy to provide the cutlery 😉

Grace and Peace to you

True Gospel

Insights

Here is a beautiful passage by Brad Jersak:

“Christ did not come to change the Father, or to appease the wrath of an angry judge, but to reveal the Father.

“God is like Jesus, exactly like Jesus. God has always been like Jesus. We did not know that, but now we do.

“Paul said God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. It’s not the Father that needed to be reconciled to the world. It’s the world that needed to be reconciled to the Father. Jesus, perfectly revealing the heart of the Father, confronts the sin of the world this way: I forgive you.

“Even when we turn away from God, he is always there, confronting us with his love. God is always toward us. Always for us. He comes, not as a condemning judge, but as a great physician.

“Jesus was saving us from Satan, sin and death; not saving us from God.

“God never turns away from humanity. God is perfectly revealed in Jesus. When did Jesus ever turn away from sinful humanity and say, ‘I am too holy and perfect to look on your sin?’ Did Jesus ever do anything like that? No. The Pharisees did that. They were too holy and turned away. God is like Jesus, not like a Pharisee.

“The gospel is this: when we turn away, he turns toward us. When we run away, he confronts us with his love. When we murder God, he confronts us with his mercy and forgiveness.”

– Brad Jersak, ‘A More Christlike God‘

You Are Not Evil

Insights, Others' stuff

One of the founding pillars of Evangelical Christianity is not so much Jesus, not so much the Church, not even a firm belief in Hell[1], but in fact the firm belief in what we call ‘Worm Theology'[2].

The whole idea is that ‘we'[3] are no better than worms; we are the lowest of the low, the dirtiest of the dirty, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9)

And I don’t believe that. I don’t remember ever believing it. Even in my Fundieculty[4] days, I may have outwardly agreed with it, but deep down I knew that most people are good. Most people would call the emergency services if you were in a road accident. Some would even try to pull you out of the wreckage, even at the risk of their own health or lives. People let you out of road junctions when it’s not really your turn, with a simple wave of the hand. People hold doors open for you, rather than letting them drop back in your face[5]. Granted, to the Fundieculty, none of this counts, because as far as they are concerned, your righteousness is ‘as filthy rags’ (Is 64:6). In fact to a Fundieculty, nothing counts, because no matter how clever you are, no matter how good you are, no matter how helpful, kind, generous or loving you are, you are simply not good enough[6]. How to encourage people 101, guys. And when challenged about this, they will produce proof text after proof text to continue driving you into the ground with the piledriver of weaponised Scripture. But by that time you should be out of earshot, because you will have walked away 😀

No. This is simply not true. Granted, when I am driving a  car, I’m afraid I adopt the same attitude that my mother had: they are ‘The Enemy’ and they’re all out to get in your way and obstruct your intended course of action 😉 But other than that, no. People are usually good. There are exceptions, of course, most of whom are well-known; there are evil people. But just your average everyday ‘man in the street’ citizen, these are good people.

So in case I haven’t hammered this home enough, here’s a great piece by the incomparable Jeff Turner. You are not evil!

You are not evil.
Your heart is not deceitful, wicked, or untrustworthy, despite how badly Old Testament verses, taken out of their contexts, have been preached at you.
You may have been told this your entire life, including at those pivotal moments in childhood when your brain was in pure receiving mode, and was storing and creating the program that would later run your life.
You may have had it suggested, if not spelled out plainly, that you were conceived and brought forth in original sin, and would occupy a space of total depravity until you were able to make a conscious decision to follow Jesus and accept salvation.
This is pure fiction, and not even a part of the narratives found in either the Old or New Testaments. But it doesn’t matter what’s true as far as your experience of life and reality is concerned, it matters only what you believe is true.
When you believe you are of a fallen species, hopelessly bent in the direction of evil, unrighteousness, and sin, and, ultimately, a target of the eternal wrath of God, it’s difficult to trust yourself, recognize blessings and opportunities when they appear, and to take decisive action when you need to.
Such thinking and programming can literally take a life that could have changed the world, and turn it into one that goes unrecognized, both by the liver of said life, as well as by those sharing a planet with it.
Not that changing the world and greatness according to certain standards is even the goal, but I think most would like to live at least slightly above mediocrity, and mediocrity is, at best, what a mind convinced of its broken and untrustworthy nature can hope to achieve.
This week, speak to yourself of your goodness, trustworthiness, and ability to see a good opportunity when presented with one.Think on these things morning, noon, and night, and then anticipate opportunities to test them out.
One can hear corrective theology and deconstruct the bad all day long, and still have the stymying effects of the bad clinging onto them like barnacles.
It is often only in the arena of real life, wherein we act, move, and see for ourselves that what we thought to be true of ourselves simply is not, that real change occurs.So study theology, correct the errors in your belief system, but, also, prepare yourself to experience practically the truth of who you are. Once you begin to see, little by little, that you are capable of recognizing the good, acting on instinct and intuition, etc., you will naturally begin to know yourself for who you truly are.
You are capable of so much more than the program you’re likely running on is able to help you achieve.You are good.Your heart is trustworthy.
So, may opportunities find you, and may they find you prepared to take hold of them.
Life doesn’t have to be one drag after another.
You were created for more, and have the capacity for more.
Peace.
 – Jeff Turner, shared with his kind permission.
Wow. How do you follow that?

Maybe only by quoting St. Paul, who seems to have been of a similar mind, when he said this:

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” – Phil 4:8

Header picture is of one very relaxed Jeff Turner. On a bench.

Footnotes

Footnotes
⇧1 Which, sadly, is in some places a more required belief than a belief in Jesus
⇧2 How the hell did we get to that point in our belief system??
⇧3 I despair when I see forum and Facebook posts referring to ‘We’ as if everyone in the entire world, and certainly the readers of that particular post, are all somehow collectively included in whatever nefarious plot the poster has in mind, whether it is a ‘We must…’ leading insidiously back to legalism (or into more legalism), a ‘We are…’ which ropes everyone into the same category of whatever misery the writer is pushing… and so on. I’m sure there are many other examples.
⇧4 A fundamentalist Christian with a cult mindset. I’ve just invented that word now, and I like it 😉
⇧5 My friend Richard has a great story to tell on this point. Out on lunch break, he was just coming out of the Merrion Centre in Leeds and as he went through the door, he looked back and saw a young woman a few yards back, and heading in the same direction. True to his generous nature, he held the door for her, only to be given the admonition, “I hope you’re not doing that because I’m a lady!” Quick as a flash, his rejoinder was “No, I’m doing it because I’m a gentleman”. No answer for that, of course! 😀
⇧6 Actually, I sometimes think that peple like to drag others down to their own level of misery, which, apparently, loves company. In effect, they don’t like to think of anyone else as being better than them, so they find ‘Biblical’ proof to show that others are, indeed, just as bad. What it must be like to live like that…

Bits and Pieces

Insights, Others' stuff

More bite-sized[1] pieces of wisdom, insight, humour and just general sagacity from across the Internet. I’m afraid a lot of them are from that character ‘Me’ again 😉

We are so blessed. No matter how hard we try, there are no loopholes [in salvation]. – Me

The religious fanatic is not one who takes religion too seriously, but one who does not take it seriously enough, and so never realizes that it is not to be taken seriously. They who cannot laugh at the inherent silliness of their own belief system, while still seeing its inherent value and beauty, are they who will be tempted to over compensate for their lack of joy with an abundance of zeal. The most dangerous people are those who will kill in the service of a joke, whose only purpose was to make us laugh, and in the process heal our hearts. – Jeff Turner

The idea of infant damnation and infant baptism is just as ridiculous as its counterpart, the equally non-Scriptural idea of the ‘age of responsibility’. You see, if people invent doctrines like Hell, they then have to invent other doctrines to prop it up. Sooner or later it gets too implausible and it implodes like it’s doing today. – Me

Sometimes I wonder if people like those quoted in the OP [who say, “What’s the point of being a Christian if eternal hell isn’t real?”] have any proper knowledge of God at all; if they ‘know’ Him or have experienced Him. That’s not for me to judge, of course, but they often seem to assume that everyone else’s experience of God stops at the same place theirs does. – Me

You cannot have a God who seethes in anger awaiting his day of vengeance but has also already forgiven you. One is love. The other is not – Barry Smith

[Legalism] of course presumes that having a joy-filled, happy life on this Earth is incompatible with the idea of ‘attaining’ paradise. They are not incompatible. It also presumes that anything that makes us happy in this life is inherently bad. This too is incorrect. I have the assurance of going to that Paradise when I die, *and* I am living that future paradise life – the life of the age to come – here on this earth right now. This is the life in all its fulness; the life of the age to come that Jesus taught. It’s something a great preacher I know once said is ‘…not just pie in the sky when you die, but meat on a plate while you wait’. – Me

I became a Christian because I felt a strong sense of God’s love, and of His call on my life. I didn’t need the Bible, nor anyone telling me I am a ‘sinner’; I simply responded to the love of Jesus. Belief was automatic; how could I not believe, given what I had experienced? [Hint: This is a rhetorical question; no answer is required] – Me

Wheat and tares (weeds) always grow together, and true freedom is not feeling the need to uproot the latter in the name of saving the former. The obsessive weed-picker is a person who is chained to insecurity and fear, and feels as though it falls to them and them alone to keep the field pristine and clean. The truth, though, is that in their scramble to set things right, they uproot and destroy the very things they aim to save. – Jeff Turner

[In response to a post that claimed that a Satan does not exist] Even ten years after my fifteen-year deconstruction, though, I have to say that I still believe there is a ‘master’ evil spirit, whatever it’s called. Tbh I don’t give it the time of day (this is the first time I have done so for ages) but I do believe it exists. But it is impotent because of the Cross, however that works. Far more potent, I believe, is the ‘accuser’ which to my mind is a religiously-indoctrinated conscience which never feckin’ shuts up – Me

Not all of us Christians think our way is the only way. Many of us respect people of all faith traditions or none at all. We don’t think we have the answers, and we’re on a journey of discovery. Not all of us belong to or attend a church regularly. Some of us are much more spiritual than religious. -Rosalie

I actually no longer believe that God cares about ‘correct doctrine’. Let’s face it; He shows up at the church down the road as well as at this church, and He shows up with people alone in their houses, He shows up in eclectic groups like this on the Internet. All these people will have ‘incorrect’ doctrines somewhere in their persons. But He doesn’t care; He shows up anyway. To me, that’s the evidence. – Me

There’s nothing righteous in being more committed to your beliefs than you are to the people they are supposed to benefit – Barry Smith

To me it says a lot about the perceived authority of Scripture when our modern translations require interpretations from concordances, which then are (in a way) placed above the ‘inerrant’ translations we hold in our hands. In reality, the only true arbiter is the Spirit of Truth. – Me

If Paul was being honest when he said “Where sin abounds, grace abounds much more”. Then how has religion duped us into thinking that sin will send you to eternal torment? – Don Keathley

Just seen a great new word out there: ‘Upseterosexuals’. People who get upset about others’ sexualities – as if it’s any of their business. If anything, they’re the perverts for being nosy about such things in the first place! – Me

You can’t accurately critique your beliefs until you step outside of the religious system that forms and reinforces those beliefs – Mo Thomas

[In response to someone saying that anything that goes against Mother Nature is a ‘sin’ (especially homosexuaity)] Mother Nature isn’t married, yet she’s still a mother. This means Mother Nature is a SINNER! Either she’s become a mother out of wedlock, or she’s divorced, both of which are SINS. Who’s going to condemn her, then? – Me

It is not “religion” that makes men feel like worms, but men who feel like worms who make “religion.” – Jeff Turner

I do believe that much of what many of us write [in spiritual forums] is inspired, and that also teaches me about where the Bible came from – from people just like you and me who have had encounters with God and try to put into words our experiences, and what we have learned. – Me, in response to a forum poster

Fundagenitals: Christians who have an unhealthy obsession about other people’s private parts. – Anon

[And the related] Evangenitals: Christians who consider it their business what other people do with their private parts – Anon

Footnotes

Footnotes
⇧1 Although Lego, like that featured in the header photo, is indeed bite-sized, I do not recommend that you eat it. 😉

The Third Dratted Verse

Insights

There are several verses in the Bible that I wish weren’t there, because they have (of course!) been severely weaponised and abused, by vicious Christians, to beat broken people over the head. People who are damaged and sensitive, people who are hurting. People of whom that same Bible says in Isaiah 42:3,

“A bruised reed he will not break,
    and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice”.

In short, verses which have caused much suffering among ‘bruised reed’ people, and ‘smouldering wick’ people, when wielded by the ignorant; those ignorant of the goodness of God and also ignorant of how their words affect and damage others. Two other verses I have written about which fall into this category are here and here.

I call these verses the ‘dratted verses’.

So, today, I present the third such ‘dratted verse’, found at Matthew 10:28, “Fear Him who has the power to destroy both body and soul in Hell!”

Hmph. Ok, then.

For some years now, a young man named Jacob M. Wright has been posting a daily ‘thought’ on Facebook, and I highly recommend his work. I have quoted it before.

And today’s blog post on Flying in the Spirit is such a piece. A lot of infernalists[1] hold up the verse at Matt 10:28 as evidence of the existence of this blasphemous place, and, additionally, that we should fear God who, apparently on the merest whim, could cast us into such a place.

And they also use the verse to terrify others about what God is like.

Well, as is my custom on this gentle blog here (the only people I am even remotely harsh with are the religionists who are, of themselves, also just as harsh[2]) I offer here Jacob’s piece on why this passage of Scripture should not be used for fear purposes; indeed, the only way to do so is to rip it out of its context and present it in a contextually inaccurate light.

Here we go:

“Fear him who has the power to destroy both body and soul in hell!” (Matthew 10:28)

Ever hear someone quote this verse as the one time Jesus explicitly promotes being terrified of his Father? It’s not what it looks like. Well, only if it’s excluded from its context. Quoting this verse by itself would be like quoting what the friends of Job said about God and then excluding the fact that later on God says that they were wrong in what they said about him.

If you read the whole chapter, you will see the point Jesus is making. Let’s do a brief overview of the context leading up to Jesus’ words here. First he tells his disciples to go and proclaim the kingdom of God, the coming of which has the effects of restoring people, not destroying them:
“As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand!’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.” (Matthew 10:7-8) That’s what the kingdom coming looks like, restoring the broken world.

Since this kingdom is a kingdom of restoration and peace, it doesn’t come by violent means, so Jesus tells them he is sending them out as sheep among wolves. Wolves tear sheep to pieces. The powers of this world are established on violence. But the kingdom of God is established on martyrdom, because it is come to plant the seed of forgiveness and peace which will eventually be like leaven that works all through the dough. Jesus doesn’t tell them to fight. He tells them they will be flogged and persecuted in both the political and religious centers, and that they will stand before the powers of the world and declare in the power of the Spirit the true kingdom of God. Jesus tells them they will be put to death, but it’s okay, this is how the world treated him.

Then he tells them “Do not fear.” Do not fear these people that can kill you. Then comes the dreadful verse.

“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear the One who has power to destroy both soul and body in gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So fear not; you are worth more than many sparrows.” (Matthew 10:28-31)

Wait a second, the verse didn’t end at fear? Nope. Notice how Jesus goes from one extreme to the other. First, if you’re gonna fear anyone, fear the One who has power to destroy you in gehenna (the valley of hinnom), but guess what, you don’t even have to fear him because he is a Father who loves and protects every hair on your head. So don’t fear. In other words, all these other guys may be able to kill your body, but there is only one who has power to destroy your actual person, and he would never dream of doing such a thing because he is your Father who cares for even the birds.

Jesus concludes with “Fear not” and affirming our immeasurable worth beyond that of birds. The words “Fear not” are the most repeated words of Jesus.

Brilliant, eh?

I must add something else here. In my search using Google Images for a suitable header picture to use on this post, I simply typed in ‘Matt 10:28’. Try it yourself and see what comes up. There is a some nondescript stuff, and some fairly bland. But there are two other result types that particularly stood out to me. One is where they have made the emphasis on Hell, and made it a fear thing. Essays on how you should be terrified of God. And the other is where they have kept the terror of the verse, but dressed it up to look all jolly, ho-ho-ho and ‘nice’, sometimes even involving cartoons, kids and rainbows???. To be honest, the whole thing makes me feel sick.

Christianity has come so far from Jesus in these times.

Grace and Peace to you

Footnotes

Footnotes
⇧1 In short, people who believe in Hell; an everlasting place of fiery punishment for those who die without conforming to their particular belief structure
⇧2 This is what Jesus did. He was gentle with the needy, the damaged and brokenhearted, but he came down hard on the religious