Jennnnn!!! Thank you so much for introducing me to this amazing woman. Holding on dearly to Jesus, while really running from the hypocrisy and masochistic Christian church, has left me heartbroken and determined. Loved this!!!!
I stopped attending a church because churches seemed to move and shift with American public morality, whereas my sense was always that I should be able to find a rock that wouldn't shift even if everything else did. There was a huge push to "modernize," in both Catholic & Protestant churches, after ww2, and especially after the 1960s (following Vatican 2), where ancient doctrines were tossed aside and replaced with liberal political platitudes. Read something like Justin Martyr's "Dialog with Trypho the Jew," and realize that what he died for had very little to do with what passes for Christianity in most of our church buildings. But starting around 2010, the sermons I was hearing in my church were almost no different from the commentary I might hear on CNN -- and CNN, I might point out, is not exactly run and staffed by Christians. Note: I was raised Methodist, and still "feel" Protestant.
Well, what's the point of Jesus dying on the cross and his blood being spilled on the mercy seat if we are already good? Why would we even need Jesus' righteousness if we were righteous on our own merit? God called his creation good before the fall of Adam and Eve but after the fall...they were spiritually dead and their bodies would later die too. That's goes for all of us. The human spirit is not alive in Christ and it's nature is to rebel against him. That is why Jesus says "you must be born again". So the girl in her class saying "I'm evil through and through" meant "I can't clean myself up enough to return to God the Father. I NEED Jesus' righteousness imputed to me to be without spot to return to the Holy God who doesn't change just because society does. We live in a fallen world that doesn't know God nor can it because the Truth can only be spiritually discerned. The Book of John says Jesus was the light that came into the world and that the world at large could not comprehend him because the world is dark. The truth is only God is good and he sent his Son to save us. That's what the bible teaches. God bless.
Jennnnn!!! Thank you so much for introducing me to this amazing woman. Holding on dearly to Jesus, while really running from the hypocrisy and masochistic Christian church, has left me heartbroken and determined. Loved this!!!!
I am with you on what's causing the downturn in the number of people who have left the institution of the church!
What a great conversation!
I stopped attending a church because churches seemed to move and shift with American public morality, whereas my sense was always that I should be able to find a rock that wouldn't shift even if everything else did. There was a huge push to "modernize," in both Catholic & Protestant churches, after ww2, and especially after the 1960s (following Vatican 2), where ancient doctrines were tossed aside and replaced with liberal political platitudes. Read something like Justin Martyr's "Dialog with Trypho the Jew," and realize that what he died for had very little to do with what passes for Christianity in most of our church buildings. But starting around 2010, the sermons I was hearing in my church were almost no different from the commentary I might hear on CNN -- and CNN, I might point out, is not exactly run and staffed by Christians.
Note: I was raised Methodist, and still "feel" Protestant.
Well, what's the point of Jesus dying on the cross and his blood being spilled on the mercy seat if we are already good? Why would we even need Jesus' righteousness if we were righteous on our own merit? God called his creation good before the fall of Adam and Eve but after the fall...they were spiritually dead and their bodies would later die too. That's goes for all of us. The human spirit is not alive in Christ and it's nature is to rebel against him. That is why Jesus says "you must be born again". So the girl in her class saying "I'm evil through and through" meant "I can't clean myself up enough to return to God the Father. I NEED Jesus' righteousness imputed to me to be without spot to return to the Holy God who doesn't change just because society does. We live in a fallen world that doesn't know God nor can it because the Truth can only be spiritually discerned. The Book of John says Jesus was the light that came into the world and that the world at large could not comprehend him because the world is dark. The truth is only God is good and he sent his Son to save us. That's what the bible teaches. God bless.
Heresy.