NationStates Jolt Archive

seem to focus on the Death of Jesus rather then what he said and or tried to teach?


On a less serious note? Do thread hijackings make you a terrorist?


Back to bit counting! :cry:

because The death of Jesus is what atoned for mankind's sins.

because The death of Jesus is what atoned for mankind's sins.

Translation: because people don't like to be good, moral people. That requires work! They like to be jerks with the almighty Get Out of Jail Free Card of Christian salvation.

because The death of Jesus is what atoned for mankind's sins.

Translation: because people don't like to be good, moral people. That requires work! They like to be jerks with the almighty Get Out of Jail Free Card of Christian salvation.

i am sorry your interpreted my statement that way....

On a less serious note? Do thread hijackings make you a terrorist?
Maybe.... I don't know, good question.

seem to focus on the Death of Jesus rather then what he said and or tried to teach?Good question. Why do you think you will never find a cross in a mormon church? :)

On a less serious note? Do thread hijackings make you a terrorist?

Back to bit counting! :cry:It doesn't scare anyone, only annoys them.

That depends heavily on the church, and especially the denomination. I am Episcopal and we don't focus on Jesus' death except for a couple of prayers that mention it and the time right around Good Friday when he actually got killed.

Well yeah, footnote, our Sacrament prayers every week are in rememberance his death.

because The death of Jesus is what atoned for mankind's sins.

Correct.

Being Catholic, I'm tempted to preach a bit, here.

God loves us so much that he allowed His son to die for our sake. Christ is a reminder to us that, no matter how bad things get, we must always have faith in God. Doing what's right is usually not easy, but if we try as best we can, and if we are repentant of our sins, God will be waiting for us in the end.

Being a good man or woman doesn't mean that nothing bad ever happens to you; after all, Jesus Christ was the perfect man, and look at what happened to him: He was nailed to a tree and left to die. However, being a good person does mean that we try our best to follow Christ's teachings, no matter what. God will forgive us if we try, fail, and repent, but we are expected to try.

...

Okay, I'll stop preaching now.

--The Democratic States of Cogitation
"Think about it for a moment."
Founder and Delegate of The Realm of Ambrosia

because The death of Jesus is what atoned for mankind's sins.

Correct.

Being Catholic, I'm tempted to preach a bit, here.

God loves us so much that he allowed His son to die for our sake. Christ is a reminder to us that, no matter how bad things get, we must always have faith in God. Doing what's right is usually not easy, but if we try as best we can, and if we are repentant of our sins, God will be waiting for us in the end.

Being a good man or woman doesn't mean that nothing bad ever happens to you; after all, Jesus Christ was the perfect man, and look at what happened to him: He was nailed to a tree and left to die. However, being a good person does mean that we try our best to follow Christ's teachings, no matter what. God will forgive us if we try, fail, and repent, but we are expected to try.

...

Okay, I'll stop preaching now.

--The Democratic States of Cogitation
"Think about it for a moment."
Founder and Delegate of The Realm of Ambrosia

o_0 coggy not making a joke out of that 0_o

Personally I think that the christian faith focuses on the death of Christ for three simple reasons.

1) the most altruistic, The ultimate sacrifice (though debatable) done as the ultimate show of love.

2) Because focusing on the teaching shows them thier short comings, focusing on his death does not make them feel bad.

3) It is an egocentric point of view. He died for ME

Egocentric maybe, but still true.

And I am not exactly sure why we focus so much on the death over the ressurection.

The reasons that have already been given are good but personally, I see it as a partially negative thing. Paul said that if Christ has not risen from the dead then all our faith is in vain.

The Crucifixion was an incredible thing. Because of it, we have the opportunity to live in enternity forever. But it wasn't all. If Christ died and that was it, then there is no victory, no completion, no real faith there.

And yeah, I'd partially agree with Celeborne when he says
2) Because focusing on the teaching shows them thier short comings, focusing on his death does not make them feel bad.

Sadly, that's how a lot of people see it.

My opinion, we need a better balance in the church.

Oh, and by the way Cog, thanks for taking the time to make your opinion known despite the possible backlash for having faith/being a mod. Was a true inspiration.

seem to focus on the Death of Jesus rather then what he said and or tried to teach?
His death and ressurrection is what Christianity is all about.

seem to focus on the Death of Jesus rather then what he said and or tried to teach?
His death and ressurrection is what Christianity is all about.His Life teaches us how to be saved, and his death allows us to BE saved, and his resurrection allows us to be resurrected

seem to focus on the Death of Jesus rather then what he said and or tried to teach?
His death and ressurrection is what Christianity is all about.His Life teaches us how to be saved, and his death allows us to BE saved, and his resurrection allows us to be resurrected
Christians do not believe they are ressurrected.

seem to focus on the Death of Jesus rather then what he said and or tried to teach?
His death and ressurrection is what Christianity is all about.His Life teaches us how to be saved, and his death allows us to BE saved, and his resurrection allows us to be resurrected
Christians do not believe they are ressurrected.Really? That kinda sucks.

seem to focus on the Death of Jesus rather then what he said and or tried to teach?
His death and ressurrection is what Christianity is all about.His Life teaches us how to be saved, and his death allows us to BE saved, and his resurrection allows us to be resurrected
Christians do not believe they are ressurrected.Really? That kinda sucks.
Yeah, and I thought the point of Jesus dying for your sins was so you could go to heaven. I guess the Christians you know get buried and that's it?
(edit: agreeing with Raysia, arguing with xomicron)

because The death of Jesus is what atoned for mankind's sins.

Translation: because people don't like to be good, moral people. That requires work! They like to be jerks with the almighty Get Out of Jail Free Card of Christian salvation.
wow, that was very very well said. BRAVO!

Egocentric maybe, but still true.

And I am not exactly sure why we focus so much on the death over the ressurection.

The reasons that have already been given are good but personally, I see it as a partially negative thing. Paul said that if Christ has not risen from the dead then all our faith is in vain.

The Crucifixion was an incredible thing. Because of it, we have the opportunity to live in enternity forever. But it wasn't all. If Christ died and that was it, then there is no victory, no completion, no real faith there.

And yeah, I'd partially agree with Celeborne when he says
2) Because focusing on the teaching shows them thier short comings, focusing on his death does not make them feel bad.

Sadly, that's how a lot of people see it.

My opinion, we need a better balance in the church.

Oh, and by the way Cog, thanks for taking the time to make your opinion known despite the possible backlash for having faith/being a mod. Was a true inspiration.


I agree with Persecuted Redeemed but I want to take it further.

It seems to me there is a misunderstanding in the question and more misunderstanding in some of the answers.

Not all Christians view the details of their faith identically; the precise emphases of belief and worship and practice tend to vary somewhat between denominations and cultures, around a central core of distinguishing and defining doctrines. The historic Christian faith has held on to that core despite the efforts of a wide variety of people and movements down the centuries to redefine it.

Not all Christians focus on the death of Christ more than his life and teachings. Most churches spend a lot of time emphasizing his life and teaching, but a lot of people -- non-Christians as well as Christians -- don't pay attention. Many/Most non-Christians, for example, annually hijack Christmas and completely ignore the person whose birth is being observed. (Some of them can even be found on boards like this one around Christmas time, hammering on about how tired they are of preachers trying to talk about "that religious stuff" during a family holiday season. :) ...)

The whole life of Jesus is a huge topic, capable of being looked at under various topic headings such as: birth, teachings, example, ministry and miracles, death, resurrection, ascension. That requires the attention of the hearers, as well as diligence by the preachers, to cover properly.

BTW, most non-Christians don't spend enough time in church to hear what's being preached or taught week after week, so attempts by non-Christians to make authoritative claims that "Christians don't teach this, they teach that", and then to explain why, sound a touch hollow to me.

As for what Christians say specifically to non-Christians, it is not an adequate measure of the whole Christian teaching. The "preaching of the cross", as it is sometimes called, is an apostolic practice that has as its aim the presentation of nature and depth of God's love and the nature and depth of the human capacity for sin, to people who may never have thought about it before. But the whole teaching of Christ is more than the cross.

Not all Christians focus on the crucifixion more than the resurrection. The Eastern Orthodox churches, for example, pay a great deal of attention to the balance of the crucifixion with the resurrection. This has its root in the realization that the two things are really a single movement by God on behalf of the world. The Eastern rite churches aren't necessarily alone in that; but they are quite deliberate, and more conspicuous than some other parts of the Church.

Actually, it's a function of liturgy to help maintain the balance of teaching. Part of what has been lost as Protestantism has shifted to what is sometimes called "non-liturgical" or "low" church worship is the loss of that balance. This is especially pronounced under the influence of North American individualistic cultures which emphasize the individual's preferences to the diminution or exclusion of the corporate and traditional aspects of Christianity.

Not all Christians "choose" only certain things according to whether it makes them "feel bad" or not. Being a Christian means trying to learn to choose all that we believe to be true, regardless of our tastes in the matter. As a parallel: 2+2=4 is true whether it makes me glad or miserable, and I have to learn arithmetic correctly to balance my checkbook and stay out of debt, not to feel good. So also with the Christian faith.

Not many non-Christians are really in a position to describe the teachings of "Christianity" (that really is a very big topic) with anything more useful than sometimes vacuous stereotypes of some aspect of Christianity that has caught their attention at some time in their lives. (For example, someone's comment about a get out of jail free card is either ignorance of what Christians really believe about salvation, or is deliberate misrepresentation, or is a poor example by a Christian. Its implication contains a level of silliness that takes it below the level of discussion.)

That isn't a criticism of non-Christians especially; it seems as though not all Christians can be bothered to know their faith all that closely, or in all its breadth, either. While it's not reasonable to assume a non-Christian will know more than the surface of Christianity, Christians really ought to take the time to get the big picture and to go deeper than we tend to do.

What this does mean though, is that when some people say or write "Christians" this or "Christianity" that, they really mean "some Christians I know" this, or "a part of Christianity I encountered" that. And too much of what they have seen is Christians behaving badly -- if you like, they've seen Christians proving in our own behaviour the existence of sin. If we were more careful to live according to what we believe, it would be easier for non-believers to understand the teaching they disagree with. Nevertheless, our failure to be perfect doesn't make perfection less desireable, it just reminds us that we aren't the measure of perfection. That's outside us, and we should be more honest and more humble than we often are about that. For what it's worth, I'm sorry that we can be like that.

Christianity is more than the sum of its parts and more than the sum of its adherents. At its heart is Christ.

PT

Oh, and by the way Cog, thanks for taking the time to make your opinion known despite the possible backlash for having faith/being a mod. Was a true inspiration.

Thanks, but I have to ask: What possible backlash?

Under NationStates rules, the worst anyone can do is disagree with me and lay out logical counterarguments. If someone steps outside of NationStates rules and flames or trolls me, I can always ask another Moderator "I think I have a personal bias in this; could you check this out for me?" If the flaming or trolling is severe and obvious, I'll issue an official warning myself on-the-spot.

I'm an American in the 21st Century; I'm not likely to be physically persecuted like the early Christian Church. There are other forms of persecution, but I'm not really quite so worried about them. :wink:

Pure Thought: Well said. :)

--The Democratic States of Cogitation

Yay for Pure, very Gnostic.

A few more Pures, a couple less MKULTRAs and Labradors, and we'll have a nice forum.

The death of Jesus is the lesson.

Man caused His death, man was given a second chance by Him, and yet, man still sins.

His crucifixition is the reason why man is saved, and thus, Christians focus on that because of that fact alone to start with.

Yay for Pure, very Gnostic.

A few more Pures, a couple less MKULTRAs and Labradors, and we'll have a nice forum.


"Gnostic"? To what do you refer? And in which sense do you use the word?

PT

Being Catholic, I'm tempted to preach a bit, here.

As a Catholic shouldn't you leave that to those who are officially ordained by your church apparatus?


Edit: spelling mistake - I left out the 'a' in Catholic and you looked like a follower of the Great God Cthulhu... a Ctholic?

As a Catholic shouldn't you leave that to those who are officially ordained by your church apparatus?

They should but they don't.

As a Catholic shouldn't you leave that to those who are officially ordained by your church apparatus?

Nah. While those who are ordained have formal lectures on morality, spirituality, and theology in their job description, that does not preclude others from trying to disseminate Church teaching in an appropriate and loving manner.

Sorry, back to the beginning, I dont feel like reading everything.

Most focus on the death of Christ because its easy too. Most do not focus on the teachings of the new testement or the old testement because many people do not want to make the comitment, the sacrifice. Most go to church on sunday and go "i did my job" and thats it. They dont read the word, they dont live the word. They just go "I am saved, dont need to do much more."
But some make the commitment, the sacrifice and "die to flesh" so that they may spend their afterlife in Heaven. Those that dont make the commitment, the sacrifice, live immoral lives, go to either outer darkness where they sit so close to heaven yet not in, where there is wheeping(sp) for eternity, and regret for they can-not be with the lord. And then there are those in hell that burn with the devil forever, and once he is locked, they are locked with him. All of this I have just said is straight from the King James translation of the Good book so its not like I am making it up. anyway, thats what it says and thats what I believe in.