Turning the other cheek

Well it was Jesus who said, whosoever believes in me shall not perish but will have everlasting life. Salvation is a gift that is given to all men freely. Yet it is a gift that must first be received. The God of the Bible has stated that most people will not receieve this gift. And that is why God asks the question, "how shall they neglect so great a salvation?"

 

I just emboldened some of the key points you made and let me assure you that you dont have a problem with Christianity or even my understanding of it.
Its almost like you were arguing with someone 'against' Christianity up there.

In fact, the 'core' of the ministry of Jesus and you might say the entire Bible from beginning to end is:
God loved the world so much that he sent his only begotten Son and whoever believes 'in Him' will NOT be lost but (and this is the key) go on to eternal life.

You have to ask yourself some questions and one of them is to ask why a superb and loving God (who truly loves humanity) would only want you to be 'partially corrupt'
or,
Partly flawed,
or,
Have some evil desires and negativity?

First our Christ does demand 'perfection' because of course he would want us to be pure, perfect, sinless beings.
But,
He cannot just 'wave a wand' because that would be the most UNloving action.
It would reduce us to 'robots' and make a joke of perfection and love.
So,
He most definately does 'condemn' us through his life but in these sense we are simply 'exposed' when held to the light of perfection.
Light will show the flaws.
Good!
Otherwise how do we see what needs to be cleaned and perfected?

Now IF that was the end of the story then you would have the right to complain.
IF it ends with Jesus simply showing us how far short we came then that would be bad news.
Instead the story goes on to triumph and trump everything that ever came before it.
Jesus now pulls off one of the greatest twists in all the Universe and reveals that we can be perfect IN HIM!
Amazing!

Do you know what might be considered UNloving?
How about a situation where God says "Oh you are only partly corrupt but I wont supply a way to fix that"
or
"Im gonna settle for allowing an eternity of flawed beings who suffer sometimes and never reach perfection"

You might think that 'sounds' good because then we are all releaved and no need for any 'condemnation' about our bad parts.
After all thats 'uncomfortable' and nobody wants to be told they have flaws.
But,
Thats not a God you really want.
You want a God that truly desires to find a way for you to be as perfect and spotless as possible.
Well I know thats the God I want. No I might not always 'want' it but I know thats the most loving God.

Indeed, Thank Jesus that his perfect light exposed the darkness inherint to me.
Good!
He also provided the way out of that too and now, ultimately I can be perfectly reconciled, perfected, sinless and spotless having no flaws... IN HIM.
Nowhere else.
Not through meditation or just 'loving myself' or 'accepting failures' etc.
Through Him.

Does this sound like bad news to you?
Isnt this GOOD?

If not please explain why this isnt tremendous and good?

 

I understand the Dogma, I grew up with it. I wholeheartedly accept and embrace the ideal.

However, the most basic question at the core of my argument is - What is the truest definition of humanity?

Many other questions are connected to this one. Is humanity flawed? In what way? Is it humanity, or our definition of humanity, that is flawed? Is the flaw, or flaws, inherently human? Or are our flaws simply errors of preception, perception and behavior? What is the nature of, or definition of, corruption? What do you mean when you say humanity is corrupt? Is humanity, by nature, born with or without divinity?

It seems to me that Christ's gift to the world was his inspired and perceptive meditation on the nature of God AND the nature of Humanity. I don't understand how it helps anyone to ignore or refuse to participate in this meditation in favor of merely turning the man into a symbol. The problem with symbols, of course, is the danger that, sooner or later, one may forget to transcend the symbol to get to the meaning.

To proclaim redemptive belief in the divinity, and humanity, of Christ, without actually learning, practicing and participating in his work is to mistake the menu for the feast, to mistake a book for a sacred artifact that is too valuable to read.

My whole point here is this - The belief that Humanity is inherently corrupt seems like a rather mean-spirited, and ultimately incomplete meditation on the nature of Humanity.

Peace and Love

 

Quick reply to say that I agree with most of the well-intended ideas you are sharing in the last post.
I would say its one of those 'inherint human flaws' that we can start forgetting about the real meaning, the substance of Christ and there is that temptation to turn everything into 'religious symbolism' and there lose the very value of it we started with.

When you look at the Judeo-Christian view on Humanity its helpful that we dont just stop and stay on the inherint corruption - as if that was the sole premise.
It goes more like this:
Mankind is made and intended and was for being flawless and perfect.
Mankind then rejects this for a flawed and at least partially corrupted state of being.
Now,
We have a situation where we can be redeemed back to that originally intended state of being.

I have to say it again... loitering around at the 'corrupted state' and resenting it or wanting it to be different is a sort of needless meditation,
when,
We no longer have to stay there but, through Christ, move on to the better way of life.
Of course we carry that corruption in us throughout this life but in the Christian state of things we are at least moving out of it too.