Re: Religion Thread: ...and suddenly, everyone's a theology scholar
Good stuff. My opinion...
What you say is mostly valid. Jesus set the priorities with the most important commandments 1) belief in God 2) respect others (golden rule). Now carrying that forward...
Jesus is God because of who He is. If we were asked to believe in a meaningless lightpost God, the Bible could be a lot shorter. To get to meaning, the Bible is still arguably the best teaching tool in history and relies on a total mastery of storied lessons, analogies and parables. Having said that, the #1 issue with the Bible is that its PHD level stuff...and the primary take aways are frequently misunderstood and can be easily co-opted for personal gain. So...the way to guarantee real meaning of it is to assume its pretty much a parable in its entirety. In the end, John finally gets to the point of the ultimate parable - God is love. This position is validated by Jesus' entire ministry.
So...why would Jesus call out both belief in God (love) and the golden rule (respect)? There's no better way to make love and respect 'sacred'. The stakes are raised. Can you seriously love your enemy if love is just a good idea? Not likely. How does the love concept make it through millennia? Past the extreme human power/selfishness of the dark ages? If it becomes the basis of your belief system...truly amazing things are possible - universities, hospitals, valuing individuals and addressing tragedies such as child labor, human trafficking.
Its a parable. God is love.
Good stuff. My opinion...
Originally posted by Kepler
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Jesus is God because of who He is. If we were asked to believe in a meaningless lightpost God, the Bible could be a lot shorter. To get to meaning, the Bible is still arguably the best teaching tool in history and relies on a total mastery of storied lessons, analogies and parables. Having said that, the #1 issue with the Bible is that its PHD level stuff...and the primary take aways are frequently misunderstood and can be easily co-opted for personal gain. So...the way to guarantee real meaning of it is to assume its pretty much a parable in its entirety. In the end, John finally gets to the point of the ultimate parable - God is love. This position is validated by Jesus' entire ministry.
So...why would Jesus call out both belief in God (love) and the golden rule (respect)? There's no better way to make love and respect 'sacred'. The stakes are raised. Can you seriously love your enemy if love is just a good idea? Not likely. How does the love concept make it through millennia? Past the extreme human power/selfishness of the dark ages? If it becomes the basis of your belief system...truly amazing things are possible - universities, hospitals, valuing individuals and addressing tragedies such as child labor, human trafficking.
Originally posted by Kepler
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