01
Feb
2015
“Why Jesus?”
I’ve been watching a lot of Ravi Zacharias lately. If you’ve never heard him, try giving him a chance. He is very educated and of course his voice is transfixing.
I’ve been watching a lot of Ravi Zacharias lately. If you’ve never heard him, try giving him a chance. He is very educated and of course his voice is transfixing.
Why are most Christians so saddened by death anyhow? Shouldn’t they remember that it’s all part of God’s plan and God inevitably gives the deceased their just deserts?
Probably because they are humans that experience emotions like everyone else. You can believe someone is going to heaven, but still be saddened that you will have not them around for the rest of your life.
Dan, that is apologizing for Christians being selfish is it not? The dead are in heaven, a place of everlasting bliss and happiness. For a Christian to be saddened at not having the dead still on Earth, is to be saddened that the dead are not in a less desirable place (from the dead’s perspective).
If the dead really are in heaven, then Christian principles which are anti-egoist, would seem to justify being happy rather than sad, since the dead are in a better place.
If we are entitled to think our sadness is justified, then that justification is egoist.
No, you can be happy that someone is in a better place, but saddened that you no longer get to see them for the rest of your life on Earth. I don’t believe there is anything about being a Christian that requires you to void of normal human emotions.
I’m not disputing the notion that one is able to feel saddened, nor am I disputing the notion that it is OK to feel saddened.
All I am saying is that to feel saddened at someone being in a better place, is an egoist, Earthly emotion that I submit is not consistent with Christian morals. You seem to be suggesting egoistic feelings is consistent with Christianity. That is what I dispute, and I don’t see how reasserting the same point that “you can feel that way in Christianity” is a serious challenge to that.
“Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him, but weep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall returne no more, nor see his native country.” – Jeremiah 22:10
They don’t feel sad that their loved one is in a better place. They are sad for different reasons. Just like a mom isn’t sad because her kid is going to college, she’s happy about that part, but sad for different reasons.
Nobody tell MF that a lot of mothers cry when their kids go off to college. I’m not sure he could handle the realization of how many awful parents there are, walking around.
Nobody tell me that kids going off to college is the same thing as them dying and going to heaven, which was the limitation of my critique.
But then again, college wasn’t as cracked up as I expected it to be…
But few parents consider their child going off to college a tragedy.
People cry at a funeral even when it isn’t considered a tragedy (i.e., death as the result of old age).
Few people consider a love one going to heaven a tragedy.
Have you ever been sad when a loved one leaves on a long trip? What if you were not to see that person for 40 – 60 years? Does not the parting create an emotional pain?
I know of few Christians that are truly sadden by death. So I guess your comment makes me curious. Death is simply something that is to be expected. Can you imagine a world without death? Scary…
Honestly your comment is pretty… Sad lol.
I lost a sister right her after birth. Unlike some who grow angry at God for such thing ( I was only 7 or 8 ) I fell to my knees and demanded to know why he had allowed such a thing to occur. I remember the answer and shall never forget it, “My son, my son, be at peace for she is with me, and it is wisdom in me that these things have been done.”
Look, I know it is hard to believe in something that it seems like there is no way to ‘know’ that it is there. But to be honest all science is founded on belief and then accumulation of evidence. It is the same with God but the evidence that you obtain is unfortunately not something you can demonstrate to others easily. It is ubiquitous while at the same time impossible to see with the eye or hear with the ear. It is hard to explain and yet when someone finds it they cannot help but know what it is they have found. It is easy to lose and hard to rediscover. In short God has made it VERY easy not to believe in what He is and does while at the same time giving people an easy way of finding Him if they will take the journey.
I suppose like with the death of my sister it is wisdom in Him that these things have been done. I admit I have learned and come to understand many things because of that death for my own spiritual well being. Perhaps He knows what He is doing…
It’s still saddens people to see someone die, there will always be a sense of loss. The Bible does not say not to grieve at all, but it does exhort to Christians not to grieve as if there is not hope.
1 Th 4:13: “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.”
Also,
http://infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/about_the_holy_bible.html
is pretty good at dismantling Christian praise for Jesus.
That link contains an interesting quote:
“X: Why Should We Place Christ at the Top and Summit of the Human Race?
Was he kinder, more forgiving, more self-sacrificing than Buddha? Was he wiser, did he meet death with more perfect calmness, than Socrates? Was he more patient, more charitable, than Epictetus? Was he a greater philosopher, a deeper thinker, than Epicurus? In what respect was he the superior of Zoroaster? Was he gentler than Lao-tsze, more universal than Confucius? Were his ideas of human rights and duties superior to those of Zeno? Did he express grander truths than Cicero? Was his mind subtler than Spinoza’s? Was his brain equal to Kepler’s or Newton’s? Was he grander in death—a sublimer martyr than Bruno? Was he in intelligence, in the force and beauty of expression, in breadth and scope of thought, in wealth of illustration, in aptness of comparison, in knowledge of the human brain and heart, of all passions, hopes and fears, the equal of Shakespeare, the greatest of the human race?”
The answer to X seems to be a false premise.
Keshav Srinivasan
Jesus is the only sinless human, which is what God deserves from every human, absolute obidience.
All acts of kindness are our obligation. They do not make us better or worse before a Holy God. The problem is that we have sinned despite the fact God deserves our perfect obidience. Jesus did not sin. So he was the only qualified to be punished instead of us.
Pretty lame. Ingersoll does not understand the purpose of many of the books he deems worthless. http://www.tektonics.org/gk/ingersollr01.php