That must be painful and frustrating. An old coworker of mine was a “real” Christian (by that I mean kind, pleasant, and non-judgmental) and I often wonder what his take on the last several years would be.
I know what mine is. Nobody is truly thinking about how they “should” go about things, they make the word second fiddle to something else, whether it’s public speakers being selective and hoarding their money to supposedly “Catholic” or “Protestant” governors enacting policies that would make even Neo-Stoics give up on them. I often hear about people going through hardships with supposedly Christ-loving families, hardships that shouldn’t be there, and it makes me mad I can’t do anything. I might be terrified of being a mom, but I’d do it for those people.
A good rule of thumb: The ten commandments > The word of Jesus > The rest of the old testament > Indirect interpretations, with Paul being nothing more than the Christian equivalent of a hadith.
Also seems a bit weird to me. Maybe they meant it along the lines of what is easy to look up and apply quickly. But even then, there’s “Love thy neighbour as thyself“ which is maybe even simpler. Maybe they’ll explain what they meant.
The ten commandments are a priority, Jesus stressed often the need to not impede on those. Commandments were brought up a few times in the synoptic gospels. The most famous example was when he said that fantasizing about someone you’re not married to was (figuratively) as good as adultery. In another, he was asked why he was “working on Sundays” and he went out of his way to demonstrate how it wasn’t work in a laborious sense. The ten commandments do take priority over other teachings, that’s why they’re called the ten commandments and why, according to some, they were inscribed on stone while other rules were spoken orally.
Jesus himself did this. The implication behind them being inscribed in stone was that they are a priority. Imagine putting something in bold print and saying “oh don’t worry, that text is in bold just because I felt like it”. If someone had to choose between, say, disobeying a commandment and disobeying the food rules, you should disobey the food rule.
I feel like there was something in Revelations about how a powerful delusion would fall on people because they “loved not the truth”.
And I’m not saying this is the end times but I definitely feel like there wouldn’t be much difference between how I felt right now and how I would feel if I knew for a fact it was the end times.
There are some of us that don’t do that. But yeah, even as an adherent, I see and feel what you mean.
That must be painful and frustrating. An old coworker of mine was a “real” Christian (by that I mean kind, pleasant, and non-judgmental) and I often wonder what his take on the last several years would be.
I know what mine is. Nobody is truly thinking about how they “should” go about things, they make the word second fiddle to something else, whether it’s public speakers being selective and hoarding their money to supposedly “Catholic” or “Protestant” governors enacting policies that would make even Neo-Stoics give up on them. I often hear about people going through hardships with supposedly Christ-loving families, hardships that shouldn’t be there, and it makes me mad I can’t do anything. I might be terrified of being a mom, but I’d do it for those people.
A good rule of thumb: The ten commandments > The word of Jesus > The rest of the old testament > Indirect interpretations, with Paul being nothing more than the Christian equivalent of a hadith.
Out of curiosity, why put the 10 commandments before the words of Jesus? I dig the general point you’re making but that caught my eye.
Also seems a bit weird to me. Maybe they meant it along the lines of what is easy to look up and apply quickly. But even then, there’s “Love thy neighbour as thyself“ which is maybe even simpler. Maybe they’ll explain what they meant.
The ten commandments are a priority, Jesus stressed often the need to not impede on those. Commandments were brought up a few times in the synoptic gospels. The most famous example was when he said that fantasizing about someone you’re not married to was (figuratively) as good as adultery. In another, he was asked why he was “working on Sundays” and he went out of his way to demonstrate how it wasn’t work in a laborious sense. The ten commandments do take priority over other teachings, that’s why they’re called the ten commandments and why, according to some, they were inscribed on stone while other rules were spoken orally.
Jesus himself did this. The implication behind them being inscribed in stone was that they are a priority. Imagine putting something in bold print and saying “oh don’t worry, that text is in bold just because I felt like it”. If someone had to choose between, say, disobeying a commandment and disobeying the food rules, you should disobey the food rule.
I feel like there was something in Revelations about how a powerful delusion would fall on people because they “loved not the truth”.
And I’m not saying this is the end times but I definitely feel like there wouldn’t be much difference between how I felt right now and how I would feel if I knew for a fact it was the end times.