Musings on the Gospel

[Chronicler1701]

In this, I'll be sharing some of my thought of the Gospel of Grace, the Message of Salvation.
Feel free to comment and share your thoughts, as well.

Here's my first few.
#1

Truth is not relative. Think about it. Is 2+2 ever not 4? Is 9 squared ever not 81?

Likewise, where we come from is an absolute. There is nothing that can change it, and it doesn't matter what you think about it.

And regardless of what one may think, what happens to us after these bodies cease to function depends on one, single, solitary decision. Based on that and that alone, NOTHING else, you will either spend eternity in Heaven with Jesus living out the biggest party to ever exist, or you will spend eternity in Hell with countless demons and other vile creatures that hate you beyond imagining, separated from any possible source of joy forever.

That choice is the simplest, most important choice you will ever make. There are only two options: either accept the free gift of Salvation by Jesus' precious blood shed on the cross, or don't. I won't cost you anything material, and if anyone says it does, they're trying to scam you. No action you ever take, no deed you ever do, will overrride that decision, at all.

If you say yes, and go off and do things that make Adolf Hitler look like a good samaritan, but still say yes, you will still go to heaven. Granted, you will be one of the last, but you still get in. That's how much God loves us.

On the other hand, if you say no, and live the most charitable, sacrificial life ever, solve all the world's problems, but still say no, that willl not change the fact that you're going to hell. That's how bad we need Him.

You can change your mind at any time in your life. But once Jesus comes back, if I'm not mistaken, it's too late.

Today is the day of Salvation.

#2

In the Bible, there are two people referred to and addressed as "son of man": God Incarnate, Jesus, and the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel.
Ezekiel is the only person to share a title with God Himself. What does that say about him?

#3

An extreme example of exactly how much God loves each and every one of us.
There was a man who made a living of hunting down Christians and throwing them in prison, or worse, killing them. He said, essentially, that they were heretics and pagans. And he said he did this for the glory of God.

After a bit of chistisement and one of the biggest tangible manifestations of God, this man became one of the most successful evengelists to the gentile world.

And his name was Paul.

#4

During His last hours before death, Jesus was thinking about you, me, the girl down the street, the boy up the block, and everyone in between. Even if they never came to know Him, He STILL died for them. He died for each and every one of us, personally. He died for me; He died for you; He died for that cousin of your's you never liked; and He died for them because He LOVED them. He died for them to pay for their shortcomings, failings, and sins.

Then, three days later, He was resurrected to redeem them from Death, Hell, and the Grave. His face was so disfigured from His beatings, that one of His closest disciples, Mary Magdalene, didn't even recognize Him.

Those who say that God is out to get us, or is mad at us, are just plain wrong. The Gospel is a message of untamable love, and grace beyond comprehension.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, Mary Magdalene was, to be perfectly frank, a whore possessed by seven demons. If Jesus can take care of THAT, do you really think He can't take care of your stuff?



So, what'd ya think?

[K. Ayato]

John penned the Book of Revelation, not Paul.

[Chronicler1701]

Yes, he did. I apologize for the discrepancy.

[ClaecElric4God]

I like it. It's filled with truth, and very uplifting. And even if you messed up with the part about Paul writing Revelation, he did still write a handful of epistles that were all incredible and a huge blessing.
I love hearing the salvation message put so simply and accurately. It's very well done.
The only thing I would have to disagree with would be the part about Christ being so disfigured that Mary didn't recognize Him. I don't believe that was the case. I believe it was simply that He withheld his identity from her, until He spoke. He did the same thing with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. If they didn't recognize Him because He was beaten beyond recognition, they probably wouldn't have been holding a regular conversation with Him. They would have been horrified, and probably asked Him if He needed medical attention. They didn't react to His appearance at all. And the passage puts it in a way that sounds like there was some sort of divine intervention that kept them from knowing Him, not because of His appearance. But I'm open to being wrong, since I don't necessarily have solid backing for that. And I'm nitpicking anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

One thing, though. I know these are your writings, but this kind of thing would probably be better placed in the "spiritual growth" or "devotional readings" forum, rather than the writing forum.

[Chronicler1701]

It very well have been that, it's just that's what I was taught.

[DaughterOfZion]

You really should give them titles or something to make it more clear when you switch topics, double spacing after you finish a "musing" isn't enough. Until now both Okami and I have been trying to read them as one unit, which made things really confusing for both of us.

[Okami]

I'd personally like to see citation of references, because I think more than the "accidental reading as one unit" as DOZ pointed out, I'm having difficulty seeing where these all came from. Like, where is it stated that Mary Magdalene was a whore? For example, we see in Luke 8:2 that she is a woman who followed Jesus by whom had been healed of seven demons, but I'm not seeing anywhere any sort of position to say she was a whore...

[K. Ayato]

If memory serves, a lot of places teach that her background was of that sort because of where she was from (Mary Magdalene = Mary of Magdala), plus early historians (probably Josephus) described the city having that kind of reputation. Regardless of what it was, it's clear in all Gospels that she was a woman who beyond a doubt loved Jesus with everything in her.

Other possible reasons some believe Mary Magdalene was a whore come from concluding she was either the woman caught in adultery (John 8) or the sinful woman weeping at Jesus' feet while He was having dinner at a Pharisee's house (Luke 7). However, there is not enough evidence to state one or both of these examples depict Mary Magdalene's background. Plus, Jesus is shown healing more than one woman whose name is not recorded. Why Mary Magdalene's name shows up in all four gospel accounts, I'm not sure, but God wanted to let us know it means something.

[Chronicler1701]

#5

Jesus, because He was the incarnation of God, must have had access to every piece of information, except one: when His Return would be.
That means that He must've known exactly how long ago the Creation was.
It also means that the uncertainty principle was meaningless to Him.
If someone were to go back in time to meet Him, no matter what language they used, He could respond in the same language.
He knew that the majority of those He would die for would never even hear His Name, much less accept His sacrifice, but he still died for every one of them, and every one of us.

[Xeno]

1: This depends on how you want to understand truth, and using numbers in this is misleading and the incorrect way to do it. If there was an island tribe that believed the moon was only ever 30 feet above their highest tree, and never developed the technology to discover that the moon is actually 363,295 km to 405,503 km away from the Earth, then that is truth for them.

You are claiming it is true that people will either spend eternity in heaven or hell upon their death depending on whether they have accepted Jesus, but you cannot verify this claim. You're basing the factuality of this entirely off of an unscientific book, much the same way the island tribe bases it's belief that the moon is only ever 30 feet above it's highest tree. You cannot prove that what you claim is the truth or that it happens, so either truth is relative or what you claim is not true but a belief.

One may not personally lose anything by choosing to live in a particular lifestyle consistent with the teachings of the Bible, but the claim that they will be punished for not doing so is unverifiable since we can't ask any dead people if they are in heaven or hell.

He loved us all, and died for us all. Too bad he's sending nearly all of us to burn in hell for not knowing who he was, or not accepting him because we don't find the proof to be strong enough.

2: The phrase "son of man" in Ezekiel is a akin to calling the prophet a "human". There is no respect intended in it, but it's intended more as a humbling term. The phrase in the NT as applied to Jesus has been interpreted many different ways, but it is most likely not in a degrading or abject way as was intended towards Ezekiel.

3: Pagan - a person holding religious beliefs other than those of the main world religions.
Technically, Christians of the day would have been pagans. And you gave a recap what happened to Saul/Paul who went on to craft Christianity into a very different religion than what Jesus talked about in the gospels.

4: Others have already addressed the Mary Magdalene thing, but Jesus died thinking about humanity and those that comprised it as a whole. According to scripture he died for all of humanity, period. The idea that he was literally thinking about every single person that would ever exist until the end of time is frankly ridiculous.

The gospels themselves have a good amount of fairness and love in them, but you can't just say that is all there is to the Bible and forget the horrors that exist in the Old Testament or that some of the New Testament doesn't exactly go out of it's way to be inclusive of all members of society.

5: If he knew everything except the time of his own return, he should have then been able to take the remaining data and extrapolate from that the time of his return. It makes more sense that he would have had a much more limited, human-like knowledge.

-------------------------------------------

You need to construct stronger arguments to your points. Some of the points show you probably have a pretty decent method of abstract thought, but they just aren't the right way to go. You should read more on concepts of why the Bible doesn't prove itself and where theology comes from. It would give you a stronger grasp on what you're trying to do.

[mechana2015]

Moved to correct location.

[Chronicler1701]

Thank you, mechana.