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Simple or simplistic?

2007-08-14

Hi.

Jesus here for today and at least tomorrow too.

surrogate is annoyed. His friend Pastor Dave has implied that I'm a humanist and that MY message, as opposed to the one Pastor Dave and his folk believe - the one that came to be as a result of a conference that took place four hundred years after I died - is a simplistic one.

Makes me laugh. That's why these folks love the Bible more than people - a nice book put together by simple compromise and negotiation.

Ever notice how these folks will use Bible verses to justify just about anything? Well surrogate, my message was - IS - simple. It's certainly not simplistic, as it's a very difficult one to internalize when living in this world, but it is simple.

It's hard to learn to turn the other cheek, but it's simple. (Watch out for folks who try to complicate it. The minute they do? -ignore 'em.)

It's hard to learn to love your enemies, but it's simple. (Watch out for people who justify the killing of others, especially the killing of innocent civilians and call it "collateral damage." Remember, it wouldn't be collateral damage if it was YOUR family, would it?)

It's hard to take care of the poor, but it's simple. (This is really a no-brainer.)

It's hard to understand that we will never ever know what or who God really is, or what happens after we die, but it's simple. (Watch out for people who claim to know, especially those who describe it in detail. They are the worse kind of liars and deserve nothing less than their own version of hell.)

Want simplistic?

Simplistic is believing that all I wanted was for everyone to "get saved." Did I want people to be "born again?" Yes. But the meaning has been so corrupted and made simplistic by people who have an axe to grind regarding the practice, that it's become a silly thing; a magic bullet; arriving at home base in a game of hide and seek; a get out of jail free pass. And what I really dislike about it is that people have made God into a vindictive, petty, and  murderous entity by suggesting that he'd set up a scenario whereby if you don't jump through the right hoops, or come to have "their" version of faith, that God will send you to an eternity of torment.

THAT makes me angry. "No!" -they'll claim, shouting, "God gave us free will. We CHOOSE hell by not following the rules as outlined."

Uh, no.

Sorry, that thinking is simplistic and evil. Period.

Think about this: I taught forgiveness, but supposedly, God's timetable, known to him/her/it alone, means some people get eighty years to come to the "right" conclusions, while others, - perhaps cut down suddenly - if they've not "been saved," in time - are cast by God forever into hell. How dare people who claim to be serving God further this thinking. Rubbish. It's nice and easy to preach that gibberish, I'd guess. Nice and simple. Black or white. Fear or security. Heaven or hell.

Simplistic.

Relax surrogate. My message was simple, but it wasn't simplistic in the least. That's why people who've swallowed the easy route get mad when they read something different. They want to keep choosing who to love, who it's okay to kill, why I didn't really mean we should turn the other cheek. THAT stuff they love to make complicated and couch it as "the richness of the message."

Let 'em. Either they'll figure it out one of these days, or they won't and for goodness sakes, don't get mad. They believe what they believe because it's what they've been taught. Either they'll eventually use God's most precious gift, or they won't.


Be good to everyone.

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Bishop\'s Fantasy? (2007-08-15)
It's true, lots of people pick and choose what they want to believe and then find the scripture references to justify their beliefs and actions. I can't say I have everything figured out, but if a person embraces all of the "good" messages in the Bible (love, kindness, forgiveness) and ignores the unpleasant ones (consequences for pursuing selfish ambition), isn't that basically the same thing?

Buddy Ter (2007-08-14)
Umm, Jesus? What you said about turning the other cheek, loving our enemies, and taking care of the poor is stuff you taught us to do, and it's work you left for us to do. And shame on us if we don't do it the best we can. So, why do you say here that no one can really know God? Didn't you say that he who has seen you has seen the Father? If we can't believe that, how can we believe what you said about those other things? There's lots more I'd like to ask you, but I've made enough trouble for surrogate this week. I'd better not push it.

Barnabus (2007-08-14)
Hopefully they won't use God's most precious work to further the plans of the evil one!

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