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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JDN who wrote (379970)	3/27/2003 7:58:16 AM
From: Johannes Pilch	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769670

Anyhow, my recollection from those many years ago is that the OLD testament can get pretty rough (but, you have to remember that it was written IN THE TIMES). The OT is generally an historical account of God's deeds amidst a now non-existent theocratic Israel. Perhaps a Jew would tell you it appears "rough," as you say, only because you receive it without receiving the Oral Torah, which is perhaps even more important than the written form to which you here refer. Many Christians will declare it appears "rough," as you say, because it is indeed "rough," revealing the wrathful God Whose wrath was propitiated by the slaughter of Jesus in the stead of those who accept the slaughter for themselves. Those who reject the slaughter will have to pay it themselves on Judgement Day. The same "rough" God exists today precisely as He existed in the OT. Jesus came along and the thrust of his teachings was basically to love thy neighbor like thyself and to turn the other cheek to thine enemies. We tend to focus upon His Love because that is what we most need. But Jesus spoke of Love only in context of fulfilling God's OT law - a thing we must fulfill if we wish to escape the sort of wrath you see in the OT. Read the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:1 through 7:20). Lotsa love there, right? But it is not love because it sounds good. Read the end of the Beatitudes, you will find the sober warning of Wrath that so many people intentionally overlook. Jesus speaks of all this love and then says 'Whoever doesn't do all this stuff is gonna get wiped out!' (Matt. 7:26-27) The problem is, as He warns repeatedly, you cannot do any of it sufficiently without believing on Him as does a little child (Matt 18:3). Jesus warns of the wrath to come again in Matt 8:12. He also warns of it in Matt. 10:14-15, in 11:22-24, in 13:30, in 13:41-42, in 13:49, in 22:2-14, in 24:45-51, in 25:1-13, in 25:14-30, in 25:31-46. That describes warnings only in the first Gospel. Jesus warned us of wrath much more than He preached of love. Even His preaching of love was given in context of avoiding wrath. Thus, IMHO Christianity is a far more humble and loving religion then say Judiasm and Islam (both similar in that written about the same time I think). You are quite correct (except that Judaism is far older than either Christianity or Islam. Indeed Christianity is far older than Islam. Islam developed some 600 years AFTER Christianity.)