And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is to say, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
I too was raised Catholic, but took a 30 year detour into the Pentecostal Church. I always struggled with the Bible and marveled at thise who memorized great parts of it and painstakingly parsed over the text seemingly looking for ways to get closer to God. Or perhaps they were looking for ways to increase their UNDERSTANDING so to direct others on to the CORRECT PATH. I found many Christians liked to OUT CHRISTIAN others in their knowledge and wisdom. I could not compete with that. I found most of the Bible was made up of great stories that taught me lessons, whether the events actually took place or not. I was left with 2 things that I would say were unshakable with me. One is the 10 Commandments as a recipe NOT to gain love and salvation from God, but a message of love from God to protect me from hurting MYSELF and hurting others (whom God loves just as much as He/She loves me, though secretly I think I'm one if His favourites, LOL). The second thing is as I struggled in my reading, one thing rang true and came through to me. It was just how much God loved me. And not just me, but everyone and ALL of HIS creation. I wish I had something more profound and deep to add to that, but honestly I do not. It is though a book well worth studying and discussing. I believe it changes lives profoundly.
Albert Speer, in his memoirs, included a particularly astute observation of the main character portrayed in his tome. ”…Amateurishness was one of XXX’s dominant traits…Without any sense of the complexities of any great task, he boldly assumed one function after another…” and we all know of the tragedies that ensued.
The advent of internet expression makes Speer’s observation particularly important to keep in mind. While the Internet facilitates public voices, not everyone can or would want to inject their views. So the internet voices that do present themselves also do not fully represent reality. To illustrate this point, the same can be said about TV-Hollywood ‘entertainment’ and so-claimed objective western mainstream media. Artful and persuasive people, including amateurs and professional agents of undeclared interests can and do create disproportionate and questionable impact on the Internet.
We are living in unprecedented and very trying times where already less-than discriminating viewers may be particularly vulnerable and experiencing mental turmoil. Each of us has an impact on society to varying degrees. Regardless of our training and experiences, we are all amateurs to some extent and we should always qualify our opinions to avoid misrepresentation.
The main lesson of Jesus’s life example was that God loves us so much that he became a human, lived, endured and expressed the tribulations that humans can all identify with, and not as a living deity (e.g. like Greek, Roman, other gods) who could conveniently escape the unpleasantness of human existence of that time. In order to convince humans that despite our wretched existence and checkered histories, that God has forgiven our past and that we have a chance for redemption after this life, Jesus had to die and then perform a miracle that can be verified. His mortal life and resurrection is proof of eternal God’s love for us. God took on this task to the extent of enduring insults, as well as unimaginable torture and unnecessary suffering, leading to a slow, ignoble painful death. Crucifixion was reserved for the lowest of criminals by Roman and Jewish authorities. Do you not understand that Jesus, in expressing despair at the very height of his suffering, actually completed his assuming all of the suffering of humans? Despair is the ultimate human suffering.
Think hard about this.
As for the many versions of the Bible… do you not realize, that is also a part of and reflective of God’s challenge to his flock? So you would prefer everything spelled out for you, in divine perfection on this earth which is imperfect, and which is supposed to be a lesson and challenge to the erstwhile comfort-seeking nature of humans? How does that make any sense!?
You’ve missed the whole point of the eternal struggle of living an authentic mortal life.
Finally, since you appear amateurish in your knowledge of the Bible, I will school you on a very important caution to keep in mind. In Matthew 18:6 , Jesus said, "But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.".
It is unforgivable to knowingly lead another person astray. Keep this in mind.
I will leave you with this to ponder. You may respond as you wish but I will defer further comment as I have much work to do elsewhere. I will give you my opinion of LLM general AI “wisdom” some other time.
I too was raised Catholic, but took a 30 year detour into the Pentecostal Church. I always struggled with the Bible and marveled at thise who memorized great parts of it and painstakingly parsed over the text seemingly looking for ways to get closer to God. Or perhaps they were looking for ways to increase their UNDERSTANDING so to direct others on to the CORRECT PATH. I found many Christians liked to OUT CHRISTIAN others in their knowledge and wisdom. I could not compete with that. I found most of the Bible was made up of great stories that taught me lessons, whether the events actually took place or not. I was left with 2 things that I would say were unshakable with me. One is the 10 Commandments as a recipe NOT to gain love and salvation from God, but a message of love from God to protect me from hurting MYSELF and hurting others (whom God loves just as much as He/She loves me, though secretly I think I'm one if His favourites, LOL). The second thing is as I struggled in my reading, one thing rang true and came through to me. It was just how much God loved me. And not just me, but everyone and ALL of HIS creation. I wish I had something more profound and deep to add to that, but honestly I do not. It is though a book well worth studying and discussing. I believe it changes lives profoundly.
Albert Speer, in his memoirs, included a particularly astute observation of the main character portrayed in his tome. ”…Amateurishness was one of XXX’s dominant traits…Without any sense of the complexities of any great task, he boldly assumed one function after another…” and we all know of the tragedies that ensued.
The advent of internet expression makes Speer’s observation particularly important to keep in mind. While the Internet facilitates public voices, not everyone can or would want to inject their views. So the internet voices that do present themselves also do not fully represent reality. To illustrate this point, the same can be said about TV-Hollywood ‘entertainment’ and so-claimed objective western mainstream media. Artful and persuasive people, including amateurs and professional agents of undeclared interests can and do create disproportionate and questionable impact on the Internet.
We are living in unprecedented and very trying times where already less-than discriminating viewers may be particularly vulnerable and experiencing mental turmoil. Each of us has an impact on society to varying degrees. Regardless of our training and experiences, we are all amateurs to some extent and we should always qualify our opinions to avoid misrepresentation.
The main lesson of Jesus’s life example was that God loves us so much that he became a human, lived, endured and expressed the tribulations that humans can all identify with, and not as a living deity (e.g. like Greek, Roman, other gods) who could conveniently escape the unpleasantness of human existence of that time. In order to convince humans that despite our wretched existence and checkered histories, that God has forgiven our past and that we have a chance for redemption after this life, Jesus had to die and then perform a miracle that can be verified. His mortal life and resurrection is proof of eternal God’s love for us. God took on this task to the extent of enduring insults, as well as unimaginable torture and unnecessary suffering, leading to a slow, ignoble painful death. Crucifixion was reserved for the lowest of criminals by Roman and Jewish authorities. Do you not understand that Jesus, in expressing despair at the very height of his suffering, actually completed his assuming all of the suffering of humans? Despair is the ultimate human suffering.
Think hard about this.
As for the many versions of the Bible… do you not realize, that is also a part of and reflective of God’s challenge to his flock? So you would prefer everything spelled out for you, in divine perfection on this earth which is imperfect, and which is supposed to be a lesson and challenge to the erstwhile comfort-seeking nature of humans? How does that make any sense!?
You’ve missed the whole point of the eternal struggle of living an authentic mortal life.
Finally, since you appear amateurish in your knowledge of the Bible, I will school you on a very important caution to keep in mind. In Matthew 18:6 , Jesus said, "But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.".
It is unforgivable to knowingly lead another person astray. Keep this in mind.
I will leave you with this to ponder. You may respond as you wish but I will defer further comment as I have much work to do elsewhere. I will give you my opinion of LLM general AI “wisdom” some other time.