Why do people pretend good things about Jesus ?

by mP 418 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  mP

  Ive had a few discussions both here and in real life and often find people excuse the OT with all its vile, violence and only concentrate on Jesus because he was good. I try and assk them to show me an example and they of course they quickly tell us about the miracles, and thats fine. However when you ask them about slavery, violence, women and so on they make excuses. They really really believe he was a peaceful person, even after you show them several scriptures like where he advocates violence in Matthew or where he knowingly allows Peter and others to carry their swords on the night of his arrest ? I appreciate there are a lot of people who want to believe, but dont they realise they are only lying to themselves and the truth in the real world is simply not there ?

  Why do people make and accept good things about Jesus but always have excuses for him. With slavery they say that was the norm in those times and yet they still argue he was revolutionary with his ideas of love. They of course never can explain why he failed to see or comment about this evil.
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  EntirelyPossible

  Because they are invested in the idea emotionally and no matter how bad it looks, they make excuses because people don't like to be wrong and they don't want to feel like they wasted their time and effort.
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  peacefulpete

  Jesus (or God) is a projection of a culture's ideals. He becomes the mascot of all that is locally or personally regarded as noble or exemplary. There are presently quite a few Jesuses. For the Capitalist Jesus is the giver of prosperity and blesses with wealth, for the Humanitarian, Jesus blesses the oppressed with peace and comfort. For the militant minded, Jesus is iching to kick ass, For the ...............
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  tec

  People are not pretending. Points from your OP:

  Christ did not endorse slavery. By his words, one must BE a servant... so kinda hard to make people slave for you and follow His teaching. By his deeds... He had no slaves.

  He also did not dictate the behavior of his disciples, that he would tell them they could or could not carry swords. When Peter drew his sword and struck the servent of the high priest, Christ stopped the action and healed the injury on the other man. He said to put your sword away... for he who draws his sword dies by the sword.

  He also treated no woman as less than man. He spoke to women, included them in his discussions and healings and revelations. (women were the first among those he revealed himself to after he had been resurrected, and they carried the good news of this to the others) He praised Mary for having chosen to listen with the other disciples over doing 'woman's work'.

  Peace,

  tammy
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  tec

  And on the other hand, it is very easy to see the love in Christ.

  He spoke up for the downtrodden, the 'sinners' (rejected and judged by others), the poor, the weak, the outcasts, the hurting.

  He did not repay wrong with wrong; but forgave those who wronged him (including torturing and killing him).

  He did heal, of course, and teach. He taught and lived mercy, forgivness, faith, love for others... laying his life down for others (whether you understand that or not, he did it).

  He gave... and asked nothing in return. Those who gave forgiveness to; those he healed; those he fed; those he taught.

  Peace,

  tammy
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  The Oracle

  I agree with entirely possible.

  Plus I think they genuinely want it to be true. The alternative is less appealing to them so they won't allow their own minds to seriously consider that they might be wrong.

  The Oracle
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  Snoozy

  I was reading a scripture someone posted the other day about how we should all "Fear God" because that was what he wanted..really turned me off to god. How can a supposed god of love expect his "followers" to fear him? Shouldn't their reason be out of love for him?

  Snoozy..just wondering..

  Quote:

  Proverbs 1:7

  King James Version (KJV)

  7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

  Psalm 147:11The LORD takes pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy
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  elderelite

  Oh no oracle... They will tell you they have considered that they may be wrong, but they asked jesus and he said they wernt.
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  Diest

  We don’t really know that much about Jesus so how can we know he was good. Did he spend the time from 12-29 fucking women and doing drugs? We don’t know. He could have led a Jewish underground group resistance, or he could have had an orphanage. I have no idea why the Son of God and his disciples couldn’t be bothered to tell us what he was doing. If he was the first born of creation who could argue with the Jewish Religious Leaders at 12, by 17 I bet he did some amazing things. But once again we have no idea. His biographers were either hiding something or they were incompetent and lazy.

  We could take a 3.5 year snapshot of many people’s lives and be impressed, but we would not have the full story. We could tell a nice story about an Austrian artist or a young Russian seminary student and have no idea what type of people these me really were. We can speculate and talk about the few things Jesus said. He could have been the Greatest Man Who Ever Lived or he could have been a rather plain man with an embellished biography.

  It is not like the apostles were above plagiarizing other people's ideas. Just look at the Apostle Paul's scripture about bad association spoils useful habits, he took that right out a play by Menander, a Greek playwright. A play that was written 300+ years before Paul came along. What other thoughts were stolen from ancient writers? These men whose work was not so fortunate to survive the fires of Alexandria or purges from the Catholic Church.
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  WTWizard

  It is extremely vague about what kind of person Jesus is. At best, his sayings must not be taken literally--Paul provides plenty of proof about what happens when you try that. With more information that Jesus was stolen from at least 18 Gods and Goddesses that supposedly had similar lives, I now believe he merely represents the sun. The details can be altered into anything they want. Some paint Jesus as pure white, which he could not possibly be if Tyrant David (a pure Jew) was in his ancestry. Others paint Jesus as black, again not possible for the same reason and he cannot be pure white and pure black at the same time (mixed, possibly, but not pure). Others paint Jesus as homosexual, others as celibate. It all depends on how they interpret the LIE-ble.

  The original Jesus (the sun) is indeed good. It is what makes life possible on this planet. The sun provides salvation from eternal winter (with temperatures near absolute zero), eternal darkness, and wandering aimlessly through the universe to collide with another body. This "Jesus" is totally forgiving, and doesn't give a damn about whether you practice fornication and homosexuality. And the sun doesn't sin--true, it will one day expand and swallow the earth. And true it does put out solar flares and mass coronal ejections. But, the sun provides the best possible light for us, and gives each of us the appropriate amount of light (or would have, had the churches not insisted on moving groups of people into latitudes that do not provide enough sun for their group).

  If one thinks "the sun" when they hear "Jesus", they would be so much better off.