philosophizer
New member
I know this was posted on the 24th, but I just read it today and it made me cheer! :thumb:
AWESOME POST, CROW!!!!!
CONTEXT
AWESOME POST, CROW!!!!!
Originally posted by Crow
Love is not feeling good and standing by and speaking platitudes while another fails, or cheering him on down the path to ruin. Love is true, not a soothing lie or silence when watching another pursue self-destruction. One of the most hateful things we can do is allow our brother to fall by aiding him in error when he is weak, and reassuring him that all is right when he is wrong. Love does not cower from offending another if it saves them.
Love does not buy a junkie a fix. Love does not buy an alcoholic a beer. Love does not help a woman pay for an abortion. Love does not allow one's children to grow up without limits or correction. Love warns people of pitfalls. Love puts the well-being of another above one's need for acceptance and gratitude.
So is it loving to tell people that those who do not accept Christ have the "spirit of Christ" and will be saved because of their good words or peacefulness? Is it kind to deceive them into belief that they have no need for Christ because they are "good people" and possible be the stumbling block that sends a fellow human being to hell because you obscure the need we have for Christ to obtain salvation?
No. That is a sissy false love where one smiles and grins and does not attempt to intervene when someone is on the path to hell because appearing or feeling "loving" is more pleasant than showing true love and trying to steer one's fellow man from damnation.
We are to be perfect as our heavenly Father is. Can you pull that off, bW? No. The only perfection we can possess is the righteousness of Christ. If you let people believe that the Dalai Lama, Buddah, or whoever achieves righteousness without Him, then you mislead others, possibly to their eternal woe. That is not love, no matter how loving you feel you are being when you do it.
No human, save Christ, has ever kept the Law, because God's standard is perfection. The hearers of the Law who do not accept Christ as savior are just as damned as the doers who do not accept Christ, because all fail to keep the Law. When Christ was talking about wanting to murder someone is the same as killing someone, He was showing just how stringent God's standard for righteousness is. How we will never meet the requirements of the Law, no matter how hard whe try. Once we admit that it is impossible for us to keep the Law, then we are ready to understand how desperately we need Christ as savior. Paul explains this, telling us that the Law was a tutor, and we who have grace are dead to the Law.
The Pharasees were the biggest zealots for the Law in Israel, and Christ had nothing much good to say about them, and in fact called them sons of Hell. Yet Christ showed them love. Not the coward's love, but real love--He spoke the truth to them. He showed them their error, shamed their wickedness, and this gave them the opportunity to see their error and accept the truth.
Christ is the author of the Bible, bW, so you can't just pick out the red letters to discern what the Shepherd's voice teaches. John tells us that Christ has existed from the begining, and through Him all was made. No man has seen the Father--Christ told us that when He lived in human flesh. No man can know the Father except through the Son. It was Christ who walked with Adam and Eve. Christ is THE WORD. He gave us the scriptures by working through human beings.
It was Christ who told Noah to build the ark and leave the evil people behind to perish. Christ who rained fire and brimstone upon Sodom, and killed wicked people.
John 1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
Christ is the light which shone in the darkness but the darkness did not understand. The Jews hoped and waited for the Messiah when in reality the Messiah had guided all who would follow since He made mankind.
Christ gave every command and instruction in the OT as well as the new. No man can know the Father except through the Son, Remember when you said that the red letters in the Bible were more important to Christians? Christ authored those letters, black and red alike, through people He inspired. He worked through men who recorded the OT and the NT and He works through us if we allow Him to live through us.
Christ desired all to come to His fold. But He has already told us that many will not. Don't add to that number by deceiving others. Being a good person does not get you saved. The Dalai Lama is not going to heaven unless he accepts Christ, despite your opinion that he is a better Christian than many Christians.
Those "bloodthirsty OT Christians" you rail about know that Christ was not a new improved version of God, but that He has been with us since the begining, and that He did not confine His wisdom and teaching to a period of 3 years. If you wish to confine Christ to red letters, you toss out much of what He taught. Christ did not address many issues in his 3 year mission. Many of these had been addressed previously. And some issues He addressed were specific to that period. One needs the whole Bible to understand those red letters fully.
CONTEXT
Gee, thanks, y'all! I can't tell you how much I appreciate your encouragement.
