17 Apr 2016

A Stickler for the Rules Because We’re All Failures

Religious 15 Comments

Believe me, I understand the popular frustration with many Christians who are judgmental in a self-righteous manner.

Having said that, the Biblically correct position is to be (1) a stickler for God’s rules and (2) acknowledge that oneself can’t meet that impossibly high standard, either.

In other words, when a Christian warns the world, “Hey guys! These practices are all sinful! God is not happy about this!” the purpose should be to say, “That’s why we all need a Savior.” It’s not to say, “Man, I’m so glad I’m better than you heathens.”

In contrast, by watering down the rules to make them “reasonable”–things like, “Just don’t murder people or rob banks, and call your parents once a month”–then that’s actually attainable. So most people walk around thinking they’re basically OK, and it offends them to hear someone suggest God had to send His Son to die for their sins.

So to repeat: Correct Christian doctrine does indeed condemn the natural world as man has fashioned it, but that doesn’t mean Christians should feel smug. On the contrary, the sins they see surrounded them are just mirrors of how they were/(are?) without unmerited grace from God.

This also ties in to another of the huge problems people have with Christianity: “Wait, you mean some serial killer nutjob can just accept Jesus and then poof it’s all good? That’s crazy!”

15 Responses to “A Stickler for the Rules Because We’re All Failures”

  1. Tel says:

    Yup, those are exactly the problems I have with Christianity: inevitable sin once you get sufficiently strict about everything, which seems to be the way it works, and apparent lack of consequences, or at least lack of any principle of proportionality.

    That said, preferences are ordinal, and other religions have their own share of problems, including very strict rules that are often secretly honoured in the breach — who is going to survive 8 hours of hard work in the Middle Eastern summer without drinking any water during the day?

    Atheism also has problems, especially when a lot of the people calling themselves “Atheist” just latch onto some other superstition (like global warming for example) and pretend to themselves they aren’t behaving like a religion. Those guys are most annoying, especially when they start to insist you go along with them.

    So given that realism and common sense are so difficult to come by, Christians at least have the advantage they are easy to get along with.

    • Craw says:

      “Christians … are easy to get along with.”

      Servetus got a warm welcome from Calvin

      • Guest says:

        Puffed up Christians are some of the most difficult people to get along with. Not only do they think they have divine wisdom, they think they are absolved of all personal responsibility.

        Not al Christians are puffed up. Some are easy to get along with.

  2. Major.Freedom says:

    “In other words, when a Christian warns the world, “Hey guys! These practices are all sinful! God is not happy about this!” the purpose should be to say, “That’s why we all need a Savior.” It’s not to say, “Man, I’m so glad I’m better than you heathens.””

    There is really no way to tell that for sure though. In my experience, Christians who have said “those practises are sinful” followed it up with unsolicited declarations that they are not sinful in those ways. Or, they just so happen to call certain acts sinful that they happen to personally abide by, while other acts that are also sinful, are conveniently left out of their preaching because they happen to act sinfully in those ways.

    Ultra-egoist philosopher Max Stirner argues, I think correctly, that a person who praises and demands duty towards a rigid concept like God, as opposed to doing for themselves, are really doing so to satisfy their own subjective wants and desires anyway, as equally as an explicit egoist. They prostrate under a concept to sanctify their own self-image.

    I think it is possible in principle for a Christian to be thinking only of Gods will then they call out sinful behaviors in others, but is that actually what is going on most of the time? I so, how could we know for sure? I only have my experiences, so that above is just anecdote.

    • Guest says:

      Hi MF,

      Jesus was sincerely disturbed by mans hypocritical nature. He was saddened and baffled. All humans, not only Christians, are hypocritical by nature.

  3. Gil says:

    I thought it would more akin to road rules: driving on the left side or the right side isn’t better than either but we need to all pick one.

  4. JAN MASEK says:

    “Wait, you mean some serial killer nutjob can just accept Jesus and then poof it’s all good? That’s crazy!”

    Well is it not true? Does he Jesus nto absolve him of his crimes?

    • Guest says:

      Matt 7:23
      Jesus said : “Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'”

    • Craw says:

      Replying to criticisms with “well you know I am right” is unconvincing.

  5. JAN MASEK says:

    *does Jesus not absolve him

  6. Guest says:

    Bobs concept is a novice viewpoint designed to attract non Christians into the fold. However after years of Bible reading ( not church going) you learn God has high standards.

    The mature Christian would never believe he can act a fool.

    1 Corinthians 6:9-11New International Version (NIV)

    9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men[a] 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

    • Bob Murphy says:

      Guest wrote:

      Bobs concept is a novice viewpoint designed to attract non Christians into the fold. However after years of Bible reading ( not church going) you learn God has high standards.

      Guest, it sounds like you think you’re saying something different from me. Do you think that?

    • Bob Murphy says:

      Bob: God has impossibly high standards, so when Christians point out that non-believers are failing, they shouldn’t be smug. Without Jesus, the believers would fail too.

      Guest: Unlike Bob, I know that God has high standards since I read the Bible.

      ^^ Is that what just happened guest?

      • Craw says:

        By ” impossibly high standards ” you mean “standards freely chose by god so that no-one could meet them”.

        Sam Lloyd was a famous puzzle maker, and his most famous puzzle was a square with 15 sliding blocks. You had to exchange the 14 and 15 blocks. It is mathematically impossible and Lloyd knew that so he offered a huge reward for a solution. God is like a version of Sam Lloyd then, but one who punishes you forever for failing at the impossible task he sets you.

      • guest says:

        “^^ Is that what just happened guest?”

        I think he was trying to defend you by saying that your message was to a specific audience, and therefore was not intended to address the criticisms brought by some.

        I don’t think he was trying to make you look bad.

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