Some thoughts in response to Laura C. Keeling's Poster about Jesus' return show below.
General consideration. Typical straw man argument designed
to generate a feeling of guilt by Christians.
All Christians eagerly await the return of Christ, but because all
Christians hate brown-skinned, non-English speaking, Middle Eastern immigrants,
all Christians thwarted Jesus’ return out of His fear of being crucified again
by all of His followers. The unthinking
reader is to click ‘Like’ in agreement. Kind of like a universal public confession of sin. Painless and totally meaningless.
Hogwash. Here’s why Keeling’s missive is wrong:
1)
The moral condition of Jesus’ followers has no
bearing on the second coming of Christ.
When the Father says it time, it will be done. Period.
2)
Having all followers of Jesus being sinless is
not one of the prerequisites to his return.
Actually it’s impossible: For all have sinned. For all will sin. For all
will keep right on sinning until the time of Jesus’ return.
3)
God does not change His mind. Only on one occasion did God do an about
face. This was in Exodus, when God decided to blot out the Jew due to their unbelief
and start anew with Moses as his model. Moses begged God not to do so, and God
relented from His wrath.
4)
God has made it quite plain that He hates those
that worship a false god and idols. The Christian and Jewish God is not the
same as the god of Islam. As study of
the Islamic god, Allah, would reveal this god has few of the character traits
of God of the Bible. Given that 99% of
brown-skinned, non- English speaking, Middle Eastern Immigrants worship in the
cult known as Islam to the extreme whereby the slightest negative word
regarding their ‘prophet’ results in rioting and beheadings, no doubt God would
hate this practice. He would love the people, but abhor their sin.
5)
Jesus was not crucified because of the color of
His skin or inability to speak the common tongue of his day. Those of His own ethnicity crucified him
because His theology was radically different than the accepted view at the
time. While radical, it still met every test of what it means to be a follower
of the God of Abraham, Issac, Moses, David, Solomon, right down to Jesus
himself.
6)
Hate is not necessarily a sin. It is how one
hates and the action taken therein that may make it sinful. From the NASB Exhaustive Concordance there
are 93 instances of the use of the word “hate” within the Bible. Many of them
are things that God specifically “hates”, therefore in general to hate
something is not automatically a disqualifier for Jesus’ return, nor for His
acceptance of a believer.
7)
Most followers of Jesus do not ‘hate’
brown-skinned, non-English speaking, and Middle Eastern immigrants. What they
do ‘hate’ are the actions perpetrated by some brown-skinned, non-English speaking,
Middle Eastern immigrants. Further
Christians should hate actions by any ethnic or nationality behaving savagely. Christians should ‘hate’:
§
Peoples who perpetuate their religion or
political theology at the point of a gun, who say, “convert or die”.
§
Peoples who persecute those who align with
different views of religion and/or political thought.
§
Peoples who imprison in mass based on race,
ethnicity, or political view.
§
Peoples who denigrate women and treat them as
chattel.
§
Peoples who organize flash mobs for the purpose
of sexually assaulting women.
§
Peoples who physically or sexually assault
children.
§
Peoples who deny basic human rights to others
different than themselves.
§
Peoples who standby while the above actions and
others are perpetrated in the name of their religion or political belief.
§
Peoples whose barbarity is far beyond the pale
of acceptable civilized behavior within the community of nations.
8)
Christians who hate these behaviors should use
the Gospel of Jesus Christ to turn those who are willing away from such
practices and embrace a theology more inline with the character of God the
Father as revealed through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Non-religionist can do likewise in adhering
to the golden rule of treating all with respect just as they desire respect.
We are doomed to the future of our pasts and equally our future will become our past, until the Lord of time comes, when He shall make all time new.
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