Daniel:   The Pharisees knew more Scriptures than any of us.  They could recite the 1st five books of the Bible – and yet they didn’t have a relationship with Jesus.

 

Scaughdt:   Hmmmm … That statement is a bit odd coming from a guy who apparently has relatively little relationship with Jesus’ teachings himself (see 2 John 1:9), much less an understanding of the life Jesus lived before his crucifixion – and it is even more odd coming from a guy who is actually adhering far more faithfully to the dogma of the Pharisees’ primary modern-day champion (that would be the fundamentalist sect of the Christian church – a church founded on the teachings of Paul)!

 

Now I will admit that the modern-day church does not adhere to exactly the same dogma that the Pharisees of Paul’s day were preaching (e.g. Paul himself almost single-handedly invented both the doctrine of original sin & the dogma of vicarious atonement), and yet Paul did fully adopt the Pharisees’ judgmental tone and he did willingly adopt their wrathful version of God … I mean, did you even read the comments I just wrote above (most recently, on pages 202-203) where I listed over 260 verses showing quite clearly how Paul was actually an opponent of Jesus’ Way?   You didn’t really respond to it, so I am still wondering what you make of that quite significant collection of Scripture – a massive proof that seems to pretty clearly side with my opinion on this particular point … Do you have any thoughts on the matter now?
P.S.   Do you also not see how intriguing your statement is that “[The Pharisees] could recite the first five books of the Bible”?   My Friend, do you not see that the first five books of the Bible contain all 613 of the Old Testament laws?   Do you not see that the first five books of the Bible were the very “yeast” Jesus was mentioning when he said “beware the yeast of the Pharisees” (Matthew 16:6 et al)?!? … Indeed, do you not see that the first five books of the Bible were exactly what Jesus chose to openly (and radically) amend, edit &/or discard over & over & over again during his ministry?   And do you still not see that the first five books of the Bible also happen to contain the very two verses in Leviticus that you are using to found your own personal condemnation of homosexuality?!?!?

P.P.S.  I’m curious, my Friend:  how can anyone have a “relationship with Jesus” when that relationship violates everything in the Gospels for which Jesus stood (e.g. Humility, Peace, Love, Forgiveness, Mercy, Kindness etc)? … Now, if you are talking about the “Jesus” that the “angel of the Lord” apparently quoted in the book of Revelation, we’d be having a completely different conversation. That “Jesus” most certainly was judgmental – fed up and pissed off at sinners to no end.  And he is not even a faint shadow of the majestic Love shown by the true Jesus Christ of the Gospels (please refer to the 38 specific examples of this Truth illuminated on pages 207-210 herein)… And yet he (if he does come in wrath to judge and condemn the damned) at least does seem to resonate with what Paul was saying in many of his epistles … Most interesting, that is … I wonder which of those two Jesuses will show up on that fateful day – should it ever arrive.

Filed under: Burnishing Bigotry by Scaughdt