Quote:
Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah
So let me get this straight, you are saying the world would be a better place without the human sacrifice made by the Lord Jesus?
You are saying that sacrifice was uncivilized and superstitious.
If I have understood that correctly then I have a whole host of other questions that I still don't understand.
1. What is the purpose of life other than not dying?
2. How can you have faith, hope and love without the expression of these?
3. Without faith, hope and love -- how can we have art?
It seems to me in your little mind you have created a world without sacrifice, without love, or hope or faith, and without art. Yet you think that is a "more civilized" world? You have created a world where the goal of human life is to not die, which you haven't provided any option for that to happen, so it will soon be a very depressed world. Hopefully I have misunderstood, so by all means I eagerly await your response.
It also seems quite sad to me that you think the Lord's sacrifice on the cross is the product of archaic superstition. That suggests to me you haven't received the Lord's redemptive work by faith. What is even sadder is that an unbeliever would be the moderator for a Christian website, being a regular contributor for 10+ years?! Why?
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I'm glad you ask. I think we've beaten the sacrificed messiah to death. Besides, I'm pretty sure that most educated in this age of science, don't tend to believe in superstitions like they did 2000 yrs ago, or even 1000 yrs ago (except religions, that want to bring us back to those times, or hold us to them). I think there's no doubt that historically humans have been very superstitious. In any event they were very superstitious back in Jesus' day.
I think we need to come back to the purpose of this thread : trying to figure out where and when Christianity made a wrong turn.
I'm presently reading The
Acts of Paul and Thecla. As the Wiki points out it's an apocryphal story written during the time of John the apostle. In other words, during the apostolic period, around the same time the gospels were written, prolly before John, Luke, and Acts. It reflects their gift for storytelling back then.
Needless to say Thecla is a supernatural wonder woman. In her teens she was engaged to be married. Til she sat in her window for 3 days, without eating or drinking, enraptured to Paul's teaching in the house next door.
Then she became a virgin companion of Paul, and a servant of Jesus Christ. She was arrested and put on fire at the stake. But God brought water up of the ground, and from the sky, and put the fire out.
Then they tied her to a she-lion and put her in the auditorium with wild beasts. The she-lion killed 2 of the beasts, but God had to take care of the rest. But not before she jumped into the killer fish pool, and baptized herself, whereupon all the fish came to the top dead. And they all glorified God at the wonders.
Later she moved into a cave. And anyone entering her cave were immediately healed, or the demons came out of them with a noise. She put the doctors out of business.
But none of this fabulous story is my point. My point is Tertullian's response to it. As Wiki points out, Tertullian (155 c. to 240 c.) "inveighed against its use in the advocacy of a woman's right to preach and to baptize."
And that's where I think Christianity possibly took a wrong turn, via the proto-orthodox banning women from leadership.