Kent why are you fuming at us? Are you disappointed that you can't convince us to disbelieve the Bible as you disbelieve it? Are you frustrated that you can't persuade us to misunderstand the Bible as you misunderstand it?
Haven't you heard of HYPERBOLE, ANALOGY, ALLEGORY and other manners of speech used to highlight and accentuate a point? Do you think Jesus was ignorant of those oratorical tools? To the contrary, he is a master of those tools and seems to prefer them to speaking plainly. He even explained why, once, when he was asked why he didn't speak "plainly". Look at the beauty of all God has created, from sunrise, to sparkling ocean, to sunset. All the creatures and everything that grows. It is the work of the Poet of poets, the Artist of artists.
Jesus was talking of spiritual struggle and the struggle of the old nature versus the new nature a person receives only after he or she sincerely believes in Jesus and is born again of the Spirit. If he literally meant to get a physical sword and be warmongering against flesh, then why, for example, does the Scripture say:
(Don't feel bad, this is an example of the disciples completely missing his point, also) "... And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough." (If they had one sword, it would have been enough. If they had no physical swords, it would have been enough. Jesus was referring to the sword of the Word)
I could explain example after example that demonstrate to you why you shouldn't misunderstand the verses the way you do. But it would be a waste of your time and mine.
The disciples didn't fully understand until after the day of Pentecost, when they received the Holy Spirit whom Jesus sent and baptised them with. Before you can understand, you need to believe and receive the Holy Spirit. Until then, you can believe the way you insist on believing and join in with the Crusaders or the Witch-burners. They believed like you do, only used their misunderstanding as justification for doing violence against others and getting personal gain for themselves.
Kent, I DID tell you what Jesus meant in Luke 14:25. If you missed it, you must have skimmed my message very superficially.
Take it literally, and a person could only comply with it by hating the people specified AND committing suicide. Are you so naive as to believe that? Haven't you read any poetry. Aren't you acquainted with the theory of RELATIVITY. Apply a little of your thought, to the relativity of kinds of love. The total love that we should have for God would make any other love (though it would be love, nonetheless, and not hatred) be pale in comparison, or like hate, poetically speaking, in comparison.
What else in the Bible do you want to take literally? How about, "This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes." Song of Solomon 7:7 That would be one UGLY woman, if you want to take it literally also!
The person who advised you to buy that book was ignorant, at the very least. The Jesus Seminar participants deny the virgin birth, Jesus' diety, and basically are doing their sophisticated best to stifle faith in God before it can bear fruit. Beware of their leaven, as Jesus said to his disciples pertaining to the leaven (teachings) of the Pharisees and Saduccees, who were the hypocritical tv evangelists of the day.
John :-)= |
