So today marks 8 years that I’ve been doing this blog. That’s a pretty big milestone! I had two posts on November 14, 2006, and I thought it would be fun to repost them here (along with a little commentary).
Here’s the first:
Wish me luck… 🙂
So that was innocuous enough. Now here’s post number 2:
I think 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 best explains the way in which Christ’s gospel was/is a mystery. As vs 18 says:
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
We can see from this passage that God’s plan of salvation makes no sense to those who refuse to believe it, but to those of us who accept it, it’s brilliant! Verse 21 goes on to say:
21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
See, because the world is so “wise,” it views the concept of God as foolishness. They have been blinded by their own pretensions. For the Jews and Greeks of the day, it wasn’t that they didn’t believe in the supernatural; it wasn’t that they didn’t believe in deities. Their problem was that they thought they already knew what God would do. The Jews already had a fixed idea of what the Messiah would be, so when Christ appeared and didn’t lead them to victory against the Romans, they refused to accept him. The Greeks didn’t accept Christ because they couldn’t conceive of a god allowing himself to be put to death by his own creation. And because they already had things “figured out,” they missed their chance.
Today, people do the same thing. They would rather put faith in scientific theories that have not been proven. They would rather believe that all of the order we see in our universe (the fragile food chain, vast differences throughout the animal and plant kingdoms, the very specific orbits of planets, etc) was created through a giant explosion (something that, in all practical applications, has only been shown to destroy, not create). Have they been blinded by their own “wisdom?”
Too often, even those who profess to be religious only listen to their own ideas about what God wants. Many times they view the Bible as a collection of stories or suggestions, and not the “wisdom of God that leads to salvation” that 1 Corinthians purports it to be. How is that different from what the Jews and Greeks were condemned for?
Throughout the Bible, passages talk about truth and understanding. I firmly believe that God gave us understanding and intellect for a reason. We are supposed to be able to understand God’s message for us. It’s not supposed to be “mysterious” any longer. It’s not supposed to be some “better felt than told” experience. No, God’s word is supposed to be powerful and undeniable. It’s supposed to move us and touch us in a way that nothing else can. But for it to do that, we have to read it, study it, know it.
It’s a little painful to read through that. I cringe when I read how badly I understood things about evolution and the Big Bang back then, or when I alluded to non-Christians as just being those who “refuse to believe it”. It’s kind of funny, but I was guilty of the same thing I was accusing others of. I thought I had the answers, but I had never taken time to really examine any other point of view.
The one decent thing from the post that serves as a bit of foreshadowing about where I would eventually wind up is the last paragraph. You can see that while I was firmly ensnared in Christianity, I believed that it was not supposed to be utterly mysterious. It was supposed to be consistent and “undeniable.” It took a while, but I finally realized that Christianity just didn’t deliver in that regard.
Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed this little jaunt down memory lane. Someone suggested to me recently that I should think about doing this kind of review with more of my old posts. I’ve been considering it… Thoughts?
Finding Truth 
I went over there and left a tweet for P&T – she seems like a cool chick, and while I’m very much into politics, I have too much on my plate right now to invest still more time following her account.
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tee hee hee.
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St Pauli Girl, as you have pointed out yourself, it doesn’t matter whether or not she returns – she will answer the questions, if she even bothers, to her satisfaction only. Kathy may have the luxury of time in which to troll around the internet, but I have decided my time and energy is too precious to even try to communicate sensibly with her. It is difficult because it seems that voices like hers do need to be countered. Truly though, I do not know to whom she makes sense, except other people who already think like she does.
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The Tweet I posted about Kathy was “Favorited” on the Twitter link you sent me to.
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lol, thanks arch I could kiss you
and gliese, you’re a star!!!!
” It is difficult because it seems that voices like hers do need to be countered.”
yes, indeed they do, that’s why I have been following her troll career for so many years,
she embodies all that is wrong with the hateful Christian.
they’re not all like that, but too many are, and I’m gonna set them bitches straight.
Kathy promotes bigotry against gays, blacks, muslims, liberals, well, pretty much anyone that doesn’t have her same hateful mindset. and I’m calling her out on it, even if I have to spend the rest of my life doing it.
let her suffer, she’ll never get rid of me. and she doesn’t live that far from me, one day I’m going to meet her and spit right in her face, with my AIDS spit.
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“lol, thanks arch I could kiss you” – appreciate the offer Pablo, but I’m really not the demonstrative type – now if gliese had said that, I might have to rethink my position —
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arch, lol, what’s the problem, is it the AIDS lips?,
(just kidding).
anyway, it’s “the war on Christmas”, the most wonderful time of the year.
maybe everyone here can share their most memorable, cherished “war on Christmas” moments
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I don’t particularly have a “War on Christmas” story, but I usually share this each year about this time, and if we’re going to get al Christmasy, I may as well start here —
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lol, that was priceless.
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Christmas: Behind the Curtain: http://youtu.be/kenbgMjRvlY
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Excellent!
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that was excellent.
of course, no christian is going to agree with that.
they are going to consider it an attack on their faith, regardless how thoughtful and true.
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Arch, there have been times I could have said that I could kiss you, if I were prone to saying that type of thing. : )
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Ribbitt —
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Oh gliese, if you’re thinking it, you’re already prone. 😆
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pucker up boys!!!!!
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/12/04/the-florida-capitols-holiday-display-will-include-a-festive-message-from-the-satanic-temple/
looks like florida is leading the way in the war on xmas.
I love this type of thing because it enrages the xtians. fox and friends did an entire segment on it this morning, “xtianity under fire”. they are so offended, yet the buybull tells them not to be.
immediately after, they did a segment where hillary Clinton said we should try to have some understanding for our enemies, fox and friends say, “no way”, but didn’t jeeezzzuuuussss actually tell them to “love your enemies”?
so, who really is attacking xtianity, the Satanists, or the xtians themselves?
lmao.
I’m going today to see the Picasso exhibit at the Salvador dali museum. yea!!!!
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Cool! My son and I went to see a Monet exhibit some years ago. Monet did not paint for the near-sighted.
Nate – the comment frequency is dropping off, you need to invite another idiot over for us to play with.
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it was great, I’ve been to the dali museum at least 6 times, but I had never seen a Picasso in real life. it moved me. he was a sloppy painter, it was so cool. I know, never enough idiots.
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where did everyone go?
you just dissappeared.
were you all raptured?
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Are you feeling lonelier than the last living cell in a dead body? I think the thread is dead, Fred – it’s in a better place —
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well, i miss kathy.
One may think that she left for good because she realized that she had been painted into a corner and decided to bale, so that she could reevaluate the course of her life.
But I think that she left, telling herself, that she had better things to do than to cast her pearls before swine.
oh kathy, is it hard for thee to kick against the pricks?
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Raptured? No, I think I missed that flight.
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Ruth, LOL, raptured?
I think I missed it , too,
along with everyone else.
yes, the thread is dead, Fred.
so tragic,
so young,
only 8yrs old.
let’s all hope for a “resurrection”.
I had a xtian tell me he was more of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth christians than a turn the other cheek Christian.
why I didn’t pluck out his eye and his tooth, i’ll never know.
i’ m going to chalk it up to laziness,
it certainly wasn’t lack of desire.
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William, if they put all of us in a police line up,
including Kathy,
only one swine could be identified as the “perp”
and I’m being as honest and objective as the laws of physics will allow.
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