The way this meme struck me was - here you have two young women, apparently friends, both doing their best to follow their faith. The girl on the left reads the Bible and the girl on the right reads the Quran, and both are told that those of another faith are going to hell.
What a pity.......
My interpretation of the Bible is more generous.
Jesus said, "I am the Truth."
In a world like ours today, we can be baffled, confused and mislead; truth is no easier to find today than when Pontius Pilot asked Jesus, "What is truth?"
But as Christians we have a sure foundation in Christ, He was clear in His words and actions, and He told the religious leaders of His day when asked what is most important -
‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
This is the foundation of all Biblical truth, without this all else is but a husk, hollow and without substance.
Some go so far as to say, that how we treat our neighbor is the entire substance of loving God. But I will simply say, we cannot claim to have truth without both of these commands, there is no other commandment greater than these.
It was said of Bishop Fenelon - "Few men have influenced more powerfully the person with whom they have come in contact than Bishop Fenelon. The secret of his sway over hearts was his uniform courtesy, a politeness springing from a profound love for his fellow-beings, of whatever rank or class. Lord Peterborough, the distinguished English general, said of him, that he was "A delicious man," that "he had to run away from him to prevent his making him a Christian."
"Luther confessed he was often tempted to ask for signs, apparitions, and revelations from heaven to confirm him in his way, yet he tells us how strongly he did withstand them, "I have faith" he said, "I have agreed with the Lord my God, that he would never send me dreams, visions, angels, for I am well contented with this gift, that I have the holy Scripture, which does abundantly teach and supply all necessary for this life, and the life to come." Thomas Brooks.
"A man may lack the feeling of his faith, and cry and call again and again for it, and feel nothing all the while, and yet nevertheless have true and sound faith; for the feeling of and mourning for the lack of faith, and the earnest and constant desire of it, is an infallible sign of faith.
A spark of fire is only little, yet it is fire as well as the whole element of fire; and a drop of water is but little, yet it is water as well as the whole ocean. If there is only one grape on a vine, it shows that it is a vine, and that the vine is not dead; so put the case that there is only but the appearance of a little grace in a Christian, perhaps the Spirit of God appears but in one grace in him at that time, yet that one grace shows that we are vines, and not thistles, thorns or base plants, and it shows that there is life in the root."
Thomas Brooks.
It's so important to remember there are four kinds of Christians; there are "babes," "children," "young men," and "old men."
Remember, as there is a 'strong faith' there is also a 'weak faith'. ----
Matt. 15:28 "Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith!"
Matt. 8:26 "But Jesus said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?”
So when we explain the evidences of faith in a true Christian we must always remember there are evidences that are proper to a strong faith, but also there are evidences that are proper to a weak faith.
Now a "babe" will not find within the same evidences of grace that are found in more mature Christians, and if you expect from them the same grace "you will certainly grieve and sadden those precious lambs of Christ that He would not have grieved and saddened.
Now if someone cannot find the evidences of a strong faith within, he must not conclude that he has no faith, for he may have in him the evidences of a weak faith even though he has not the evidences of a strong faith in him.
In Christ's school, in His house, His church, there are several sorts and ranks of Christians, there are babes, children, young men, and old men; and accordingly ministers in their preaching and sharing should sort their evidences so that babes and children may not be found bleeding, grieving and weeping, where they should be found joying and rejoicing." Thomas Brooks.
C.S. Lewis made this comment --
“Finally, though I have had to speak at some length about sex, I want to make it as clear as I possibly can that the center of Christian morality is not here.
If anyone thinks that Christians regard unchastity as the supreme vice, he is quite wrong.
The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of all sins.
All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual: the pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronizing and spoiling sport, and back-biting, the pleasures of power, of hatred.
For there are two things inside me, competing with the human self which I must try to become. They are the Animal self, and the Diabolical self. The Diabolical self is the worse of the two. That is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute.”
C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity (Book 3, Part 5)
You must be rescued from this proud conceit, not simply by counting yourself lower, but by valuing more highly the spiritual natures of these fellow-men.
You must value them as Christ valued them, who gave his life for them, before you can be as humble in their presence as He was; and that can come only by making yourself their servant.
Only he who puts on the garment of humility finds how worthily it clothes his life. Only he who dedicates himself to the spiritual service of his brethren, simply because his Master tells him that they are worth it, comes to know how rich those natures of his brethren are, how richly they are worth the total giving of himself to them. Phillips Brooks.
What disturbed me was not them parading their cultic like actions, but rather the responses from the Christians, the same people who are charged to win the lost by the love of Christ.
Paganism during the times of Christ was truly disturbing, wickedly evil and dangerous, but no match for the message of Christ! Sadly, many have lost the vision as demonstrated by these comments ---
They all need meds and padded cells and a nice straight jacket.
What a bunch of freaks, what the f---- is that?
WTF???
They want us to take these forest dykes seriously? Extreme mental illness is all I see.
Am I the only one who thinks that video is the result of a bunch of pretentious morons with no talent nor self awareness larping as "artists"?
What the heck did I just watch?
This needs a warning label for high stupidity content.
Starting to understand the whole annoying witches angle.
WTF, ho wait, Who Cares, dead soon, all of them, moving on to the stolen election ???
"Imagine if you will, that you should see a man that had a large pond of water, yet lived in continual thirst, not allowing himself to drink half a glass for fear of lessing his pond.
If you should see him always thirsty, yet always carrying a bucket of water in his hand, watching early and late to catch the drops of rain, gaping after every cloud, and running greedily into every mire and mud in hopes of water, and always studying how to make every ditch empty itself into his pond.
If you should see him grow old and grey in these obnoxious labors, and at the end of his life he ends his anxiety ridden, thirsty life by falling into his own pond; would you not say that such a one was not only the author of all his own disquiets, but was foolish enough to be reckoned amongst idiots and madmen?
But yet, foolish and absurd as this character is, it does not represent half the follies and absurd disquiets of the greedy, covetous man." William Law.
"His success in winning the lost lie in his perpetual recognition of the spiritual, immortal nature of the poor, and it gave to all his intercourse a character of tenderness and respect. He spoke plainly, boldly, but still as to the children of the same infinite Father.
He trusted in man's moral nature, however bruised and crushed; he was sure that no heart could resist him, if he could but convince it of his sincere brotherly concern.
One rule he observed, he always spoke encouragingly. He felt that the weight under which the poor man’s spirit was already sinking needed no addition from the harshness of his spiritual guide.
He went forth in the power of brotherly love, and found it a divine armor.
He proved how much can be accomplished by a generous, affectionate mode of speech and action among those classes of society which it has been thought can only be reached by menace, sternness, and terror.
Dr. Tuckerman and his successors in their labors with seamen, have taught us that men, in the most unpromising conditions, are to be treated as men; that under coarse jackets, and even rags, may be found tender and noble hearts; and that the heart, even when hardened, still responds to the voice of a true friend and brother. His words were steeped in his heart before they found their way to his lips. And flowing warm and fresh from this fountain, they were drunk in as living waters by the thirsty souls of the poor.
A great secret of Dr. Tuckerman's success lay in his strong interest in individuals. It was not in his nature to act on masses by general methods; he threw his soul into individual cases. Every sufferer whom he visited seemed to awaken in him a special affection and concern. I remember well the language which he once used in regard to a man who had gone far astray. He said to me with deep emotion: “I want that man's soul; I must save him."
He made the worst feel that they had a friend, and by his personal interest linked them anew with their race.
Let me add another explication of his success. He sought for something to love in all.
He seized on anything good which might remain in the fallen spirit; on any domestic affection, any generous feeling, which might have escaped the wreck of the character. If he could but touch one chord of love, one tender recollection of home, one feeling of shame or sorrow for the past, not mater how faintly, he rejoiced and took courage, like the good physician who, in watching the drowned, detects a flutter of the pulse, or the feeblest sign of life. His hope in such cases tended to fulfill itself. His tones awakened a like hope in the fallen. "He did not break the bruised reed, or quench the smoldering wick." William Ellery Channing.
The Search for Father:
How Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, search for his father is a picture of one of the most formational aspects of a man's life.
In ancient times a man's name was connected to the man who fathered him: Achilles, son of Peleus; Agamemnon, son of Atreus; Hector, son of Priam, Odysseus, son of Laertes; Telemachus, son of Odysseus.
In the Home:
But today it is not so, father and son have often been severed from one another by work, divorce, neglect or abuse. It seems the very social structures of our culture are working to separate men from their sons and one another. Many men have grown up without fathers and disconnected by distance or distraction from their grandfathers, uncles and cousins.
In Education:
The age old concept of a teacher instructing students face to face has been reshaped in such a way to further isolate people from one another with distance/online education and ‘independent’ study.
In Work:
The idea of apprenticeships has been diminished with the push of technology and entrepreneurial pursuits.
In Friendship:
Men searching for Mentors often come up short these days. Content learning has displaced character formation and the idea that a man would have a relationship with another man to grow into maturity is becoming a rare experience anymore. Google is the new Gandalf.
In Sexuailty:
Men no longer need to commit to a woman in marriage to experience aspects of the delights of the sexual life. Even the sex act has been reshaped by the porn and hook-up culture, men can independently indulge without having to be placed into a real relationship with a woman.
In Spirituality:
Our churches have followed the patterns of this world and now provide platforms of media consumption that replace a pulpit or a pastoral relationship. Men can "go to church" and never enter a circle of meaningful relationships that facilitate the difficult work of transformation.
All of these issues have a profound influence on the soul of a man and shape his relationships with others." Eric Blauer.
"Encourage the exhausted and slack of hands, and strengthen the feeble.
Say to those with anxious heart, "Take courage, fear not.
Behold your God will come with vengeance, the recompense of God will come, but He will save you." Is. 35:3-4
We must broaden our understanding of evangelism: we evangelize when we help the weak in faith stand; when we restore the struggling Christian and encourage the doubting brethren.
"Those things we see in scripture that we morally admire; we are practically bound to pursue. Human duties ...
