I am a Christian. For a long time I knew that Jesus was a man, who walked the earth, speaking about Goodness and Love.
Don't get your theology from the media.
Oprah for example, as exhibited on youtube, claims that Jesus did not
come to die and save us, as she always believed, but He came to show us
how to live ( a Buddha). To live in ''Christ Consciousness.''
Not have our own consciousness, but His, a God !
Not have our own consciousness, but His, a God !
It is a message which does not completely leave Christianity, as we are to be Christ-like, but not consciousness ''All Knowing'' gods ... It does though emphasize Live in the ethics of love as neighbor and yourself.
But there is much more ! Much more !
One question to ask you ???
If it is indeed Faith alone, why is it that the Jews needed a Messiah? Didn't they have Faith in God???
What sense it is that Jesus came to us to introduce Himself? Why
didn't God the Father tell Moses.... Hey by the way, there is a
trinity....
Well, there is some clues in the Old Testament that there was a Divine Counselor on the way...
But, What then does death of Jesus mean?
To be saved? Why didn't Jesus just come to us and say, Hey! I am Lord
of Lords believe in me and you will be saved.... poof, gone pecan?
I actually never clearly understood the death of Jesus myself, I never
understood what it was He was TRULY doing.. and why it was NEEDED...
Why that way?
There is an answer!
God has a plan.
I do not understand the Fall of Man completely, and do not feel ever
will, but I have heard it said that pain and suffering is God's 'megaphone' to us that there is something greater. As we would be absent minded to think that there was anything greater than a world without pain and suffering. The Bible describes the world as in labor. It is working with labor pains for a new life to come from it. As I understand it, in regards to what happened to make the world a fallen existence, has something to do with God’s plan, and
humans behaving in a way that had little Faith in that plan....
So humans ‘fell’ into a death of sin... thus we are mortal, and we suffer in our mortality.
So I won’t be answering exactly why there is suffering in the world
exactly, but what a Christian should understand about suffering. What are we to do as Christians is to take comfort in
Him in the suffering that we do feel.
One of the greatest expressions of Faith is still having HOPE in a scenario where there seems to none.
To have that HOPE acknowledged.... means to be Rescued
To be rescued, means to be Saved.
Jesus
came to save the sins of the world, that is to place the greatest proof
that we are right in Hoping for the coming of being saved.
He rescued our human incapacity to cope with suffering alone.
Christian Faith is not only a feel good Faith, it is a real faith of the real experience of man.
How Glory is God’s blessings when we feel His blessings, but how frightening is the world when we only see despair.
God wants us to know that He is with us even in despair, not to take
us out of that despair, (although he can), but to say, Hey ! Have faith
in me that I will take you out of your misery when it is time to join me
in my Kingdom of Heaven.
He wants to soothe us in the hardest times we face here on Earth, but the reward is not promised on Earth, but in Heaven.
It is a promise of ‘’ you’ll make it if you have Hope in Me’’
And this resonates all throughout our lives...
When we hurt a friend, we need to tell ourselves that things will get better
When we afraid to move on from a boyfriend or a close one, that it will be okay.. Life will go on and I will be ok..
This is how we are rescued from our suffering... because God has given
us a comfort in His resurrection to ensure that He is waiting for us to
join Him.
In the old testament, God knew that His people would constantly struggle in His Mosiac Laws.
He sent prophets, that was not enough for eternal victory, just to get through some tough times... A God of healing...
God KNEW. God knew He wanted to show His people COMPASSION. He knew there would be time for Compassion.
God is consistent in this, that the savior whether prophet or the
Messiah was one to heal the pain by promising a new land, a new age, or a
new testament
He came to the world to SUFFER!
To feel pain and temptation, and experience it Himself. In Compassion..
Which means ''Suffer Together''
The prophets of the Old Testament proclaimed a Coming of the Messiah
... in the time of suffering... They promised VICTORY in the Lord...
that God LOVED them...
even in their suffering....
They were to be patient in their waiting... Patient meaning submit to the pain of yearning ...
Yearning to be relieved of the sufferings of the world,
To CONQUER DEATH
How do we conquer Death? We do not. We are destined to die...
materially. From the Fall of Adam and Eve, we are destined to die.....
die of suffering and choice.
This is especially true of the Jews in the BC years....
They didn't have hope of resurrecting..
So what did that do for them? The suffered in the Law of Moses...
for the sake of the law... not for True faith in God's Divine love...
They didn't understand God's Divine Love...
So their sin was only a sin against the law... the covenant
Covenant by the way is the same word as ''testament''
It is a LEGAL word. Anyone in those days knew it was a legal word.
And the Jews suffered much, in captivity and war even between the time of Moses and Jesus.
But God gave them prophets...
Saying -- You are suffering, BE PATIENT... meaning suffer in your
yearning... God will redeem you, be patient for His Messiah...
So they so yearned for that Messiah... suffering in patience in some of the worst conditions.
Then in the fulfillment of the prophecies, God came...
Suffered, Died, and was Buried....
Out of Compassion and Love He sent His only Son...
To Suffer with Us.. in his ‘Passion’ .. submission to the pain and death He faced
Why do we suffer? Because we do not understand death, we lose our
loved ones to death... and we have No earthly Assurance of its
meaning... so pain is anquish as we do not understand and have hope in
it...
Yet, God in His infinite wisdom and mercy.... Decided He would suffer with us... Compassion through the Passion of Christ
In raising He relieved our suffering showing that there IS more to this world...
You see, in the Jewish theology, some (I think the Sadducees) did not
believe in the afterlife... I think the Pharasees did... I may have it
backward.. but it is in the Bible...
So did Jesus save as the born-again Christians proclaim ...
Did Jesus take away the sins of the world?
Not in the way that there is no sin... that sin is not accomplished by Faith alone...
Jesus conquered Sin by conquering Death.... illustrating to us that there is ''Re Birth'' through death....
There is still sin..
We know this because human's are still not pure in spirit.
We are only in the kingdom when we are pure... Pure of Heart and Pure of Spirit....
We are not, even the strongest believers.
What Faith then do we have? We have faith that DESPITE our
impatience and suffering of our relief... Jesus is coming again...
Jesus is coming again either in our Own Death... Or at the end of Time...
So how did he save the world... BY SHOWING US THAT WE ARE INDEED GOING
TO HIS KINGDOM... HE LIVED IT, BREATHED IT, AND WE ARE SAVED IN
SUFFERING BECAUSE WE HAVE FAITH IN HIS PROMISE TO US... THAT JUST BE
PATIENT!!
JUST SUFFER WITH PATIENCE... BECAUSE WE ARE FALLEN, BUT HE HAS SAVED US
IN HIS EXAMPLE OF PROOF THAT LIFE CONQUERS DEATH, AND LOVE CONQUERS
SUFFERING... HE RESCUES US FROM THE ANQUISH OF NOT KNOWING.
So we in turn have Faith in Him.l
We are like the Jews as we wait for Jesus again.... suffering in impatient, but called to be patient....
The difference? We have assurance that sin is conquered through
death... That in death we are to meet Jesus assuredly, with proof on
Earth.....
So we are to have Faith... not in God will heal us on the Earth.,...
God makes no such promises... Some of the greatest Christians suffered mightily...
Doesn't mean he never helps.... of course he does... But it means there is no promise to help us in our healing
Only a promise of helping us in our suffering ... that He suffered too
to show us that there is a Light at the end of suffering...
In fact, news around the world say Christians are the most persecuted faith in the world TODAY!
Pray for mercy and relief... But do not have complete faith that He will do it... His will be Done.... Not ours...
We see this in the Our Father ! In the our father we ask to be taken
away from sin, not that we are saved by faith from sin. We are human,
God knows our nature.
To say that Jesus came and took away sin is to say that human nature changed at that moment.
It did not, Human suffering changed in the greatest display through
offering us Faith and Hope in the afterlife and demonstrating great
Love...
The Theology is in the Our Father
Our Father
Who art in Heaven
Hollowed by thy Name
Thy kingdom come (starting to say, be patient, ‘’suffer in yearning’’)
Thy will be done (When His will is done, there is no sin or fallen nature
On Earth as it is in Heaven (Earth is not Heaven, we are not perfect, but we are called to do His will as best we can even in our imperfections)
Give us this day, our daily bread (We
hunger for Him, He has shown Himself in Jesus who is with us today to
feed our souls in His sacrifice on the cross by the sacrifice of the
bread)
And forgive is our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us
Lead us not into temptation
And Deliver us from evil (Put
it together, deliver us from evil, as it still exist, but let us do
your will, live right, live by our Faith that you are with us in our
daily bread as promised and forgive us when we do not live by your Will
and sin) ... In other words, sin is still here, we are still to live by
His will to help us against sin and temptation
Our faith is in the promise... the covenant/testament... of the
afterlife and heaven, but also that He is with us today, as He did not
come to abandon us again, but give us His Word, and His Body & Blood in sacrifice to remember what He did on the cross...... suffered with us!
That we should find compassion in Him through His Son in all our suffering.....
In our suffering,... We should have faith in Him... that is what Jesus
has said is True... that there is a better life beyond our suffering
here in this world.....
That is HAVING FAITH.... Not that He exist, the Jews believed God exists....
But Having FAITH in the covenant, the promise... That God is there waiting for us...
He is suffering in waiting as well... to pursue Him towards perfection...
We will not go to Heaven unless we are purified...
This is True..... This is where purgatory comes in....
We are ONLY purified through living by His moral codes... his covenant (legal language)
And as Jesus said, as we have Faith in the covenant...
TRULY, TRULY, I say to you... Eat my flesh, drink my blood... and you will have Life...
We are to be perfect in Faith, before we enter the kingdom.... not
perfect in the faith of believing... but perfect in the Faith that if I
do what I am told, He will welcome me into His Kingdom
There is no better time to be faithful in the promises of Christ
(covenant/testament)THAN in our suffering (Beatitudes... happy are the
poor, those who mourn, the hungry, the meek)
Jesus wanted to make clear, there was a way out of suffering, not in this world, but the next.
It
should be JOYOUS to you that you will not suffer forever, that you will
not sleep in darkness after the injustice you experienced in the world.
Do NOT let others tell you your experience of the world. Do not buy
into things that say they will give you Heaven on Earth. Why not?
Because we will all suffer pain, NO MATTER WHAT WE DO! We will lose
friends, family, children, spouses, parents to DEATH!
This is why Jesus died, He didn’t NEED to die, He was God. He died to
scarifice Himself to the same fate we face, to show us that even in
death, there IS life.
In our death, and in our friend’s death.
The MOST Rich and the MOST Powerful will too. So if you pursue those lives..... It is your life !
All
I am saying is that YOU know THIS WORLD. You know what there is as we
get old, IT DOESN’T change whether we are a college student, a mother, a
boss, or a monk..
We will all feel despair and pain in something, at some point, the promises are not for this world.
How ! low are the promises if it is of this world ! as the promises will as it is said be done with at the End of days.
Yet ! Even in the pain and suffering, how beautiful is this world !
stunning ! So stunning that many will admire it and think it must be
greater than accident. As beautiful nature and our friends can be, just
imagine how beautiful a world without sin is !
But it is a lovely message, that not only are we okay after we die, but it is GOOD ! With our long lost family and friends.
That is the message ! There will be an end of days, for suffering and
sin ! That Jesus has come to suffer with us on the cross and in the
Bread ‘’in the hope of rising.’’
This is what the Book of Revelation is ALL about, Jesus will be victorious at the End...
I recommend reading the ending... It is celebrating on and on with the Glorious Victory of Jesus has over the end
End of suffering
End of despair
End of loneliness
End of life
End of sin
End of the world
How does LAW make us perfect???
It is the road map to becoming perfect in Christ .. Belief in His promises...
Law tells is what a perfect Christian is... it does not say we will
accomplish it, for we are not perfect, but to be perfect Christians...
and we have Confession to help us when we fail in our whole lifetime.
The same way we are freed from sin is the way we are freed from grammar mistakes.....
When we learn a language, we learn the grammar and rules so we can FREELY speak...
If we do not obey these rules, we go astray, and it is pointless to
learn and speak the language as no one will understand you....
As in science... only a good scientist is one who learns and
understand the Laws... so they can freely work JUSTIFIABLY as
scientist....
I wouldn't want to be in a room with a chemist who plays with
chemicals with only knowledge of the chemicals exist and not the rules
of the chemistry.....
That is the problem of Protestantism.... too many people are left
alone to make things up that there are sooo many denominations...
SO many that people are commonly becoming Non-denominational...
Indeed, the BIBLE is suppose to be TRUE.. and UNIFYING... not divisive
For 1300 years Christianity was ONE... but after Luther and until today... we have over 30,000.....
Indeed, it was this Unified Christian (Catholic) Church that put the Bible together....
And yet, it is said Catholics don't know the Bible, have no references in the Bible...
Why would they put things (by things i mean books, not words) in the Bible that is contrary to what they teach...
In fact they did... many books were rejected because the Church said it was not consistent with what the apostles taught....
That is all I will say for now.... There is much more to this story.... The Church is rich in spirituality which helps us cope with our realities, celebrate the Good, and live in Faith which is a great gift of the Saints who show us so many things in infinite unique ways.
