LOVE

Whoops, I lied. THIS is the final blog post to cap off everything I've typed. :)

Look around the internet and you'll find all kinds of examples of people hating on Christians. My anonymous internet response to those people would be this: "You've got a negative perception of them, but look into the Bible itself. It contains the greatest example of love; and it's not a touchy-feely or flimsy example, either, if that's what you think that statement means. If you say you've studied it, can you tell me what the gospel is? What the terms mercy and grace mean? Stop having preconceived notions."
Read my post dealing with preconceived notions & hypocrisy.

Well, it's not exactly the #1 example of love anywhere in the world... If there was a positive integer before 1, the Bible would be THAT number of an example of love. So, if it's true, the gospel is simply the most wonderful news ever.

If I haven't been changed by the God of the Gospel, then all of my video gathering and information posting is just rooted in a cerebral pursuit and humanism: theology, Hebrew history, and the continuity of the Bible being genuinely interesting to me and fun to learn about, and then spreading the gospel online just in case it is true. Like I said, that's more of a humanitarian/humanist motivation than one of worship and obedience, the main drive for spreading the Gospel.

On the other hand, if I just happen to be such a new-born spiritually that I don't have assurance about the truth yet, then my online Good News spreading is something being caused by the spirit of God inside me.

If the first is true and the Bible is true, then that's more confirmation that God will even use the mouth of a donkey. But if the first is true and the Bible isn't true, then more people will just have the hugest example of sacrificial love as something to follow and learn from. (But if there is no theistic God then why would feelings and actions, such as love and sacrifice, logically matter at all? What's the grounding? See my post below dealing with the deistic god and Ravi Zacharias' lectures on worldviews, morality, and the origin of human worth.)
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Getting a full understanding of the Gospel out there would hopefully get rid of most of what I like to call "unicorn objections." Those are objections people make to the Bible's validity that are easily debunked. Like the fact that the Bible mentions unicorns. That's only because of English translation in the 1600s; the ancient Hebrews were writing about rhinos or some other creature and had no idea about the mythical European one-horned horse (source). Another example is when people pull out verses without the cultural, spiritual, and/or textual context:

"Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Matt. 10:34

Look at the rest of the passage; immediately afterwards, Jesus continues:

"For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law..."

speaking about the persecution of believers – not the advocation of slaughtering unbelievers, which would be murder. Elsewhere, he says "Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. You will be hated by all because of My name..." And don't forget "Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword will perish by the sword."

The Bible wasn't written in verses! Those were added for easy reference. That little piece of information should also help out all those heath & wealth preachers. (Speaking of those verse-twisting televangelist teachings, probably about 80% of TBN's content is anti-Bible or non-Christian: www.bit.ly/love-truth).

With all of that said, there are even some really good and sound answers to the hard questions. Check out the quote from James MacDonald in my "Skepticism" post and John Dickson's lecture on Theocratic Judgement and other violence in the Old Testament. (Scattered in various nations and under various governments, Christians have no authority to carry out any form of sentencing – they are to be simply Gospel preachers and walking descriptions of the beatitudes.)

So, let me end with a couple of GREAT Gospel-themed videos and an encouragement to study everything I posted. Be sure to double-check, triple-check, and centuple-check my stuff for accuracy using quality sources.

 The Law of God (Matthew 5:17)

start at the 2:38 time mark or the beginning of the video

 

Taking the Bullet

main scene at the 8:20 time mark

 

The REAL Story of Christmas

 

 What Does It Mean To Be a Christian?

It's Only Good News to a Needy Person

"Crucifixion" by Nikolai Ge - public domain
For many, this would lead to death by asphyxiation.
According to the video above,
it was more than just physical in this case.

Never take their word for it...

2 Important Points:

never take their word for it &
start with the beginning / context matters

 

1) When people wanna spread what they've learned (including me) you can never know for sure if they might have made a mistake in their research, were slipped tainted information, or are deliberately spreading misinformation until you check up on the information.

So, back up whatever you hear with your own research. Even sources that you, after time, realize are reliable will sometimes tell you to be their check and balance; and if you correctly analyze a mistake in their teaching and bring it up, they will change.

Trustworthy sources can err,
Tons of bad sources are out there,
So have a good filter under your hair... :\
(Use your noggin. Activate those precious critical thinking skills and don't let your own prejudices or emotions let you reject and push away something without objectively analyzing it.)

2) And when it comes to confirming spoken and written teachings through your own reading of the Bible, you've got to remember this one word: CONTEXT. For example, when given references (such as Hebrews 9:22 or Isaiah 53:5), reading the surrounding verses helps to get a clearer and more accurate picture of what's being conveyed in the original text. The author isn't trying to say multiple opposing things with the same statement. 

You can go the light route with the “20/20 Rule” (reading the 20 preceding verses and the 20 following ones), or go even further and deeper into your study.

The subject of context has a lot to do with Jesus as well. Some people don't realize it, but He didn't just pop up out of nowhere into a random land with a random message of "follow me!" There was 2000 years of Hebrew History behind Him. And that's why it's important to start at the beginning of the story. Without prophetical passages and events such as Exodus 12, Jeremiah 31:31, the Levitical Sacrificial System, and the Jewish/Israelite Holidays, Jesus' appearance and death don't mean anything at all.

There is continuity through it all...

The Meaning of Christmas, The Symbolism of Passover: www.youtube.com/watch?v=csAt90woBXI