MidwestRoadie wrote:
Correct. It's in the light of a Westernized evangelical interpretation of Paul's writing, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god," where one interprets God as an actual divine thing/being/judge who created humans for the purpose of giving Him praise and glory. A certain standard being established by that god must be adhered to and held up, with anyone falling short of that being in peril of damnation, with all offenses large and small being judged alike. But, wait, there's more! That god loves us so much that we're offered a chance at redemption, a chance at redemption that entails killing someone so we can be redeemed...if we accept a contract/covenant agreement that we'll call that God by a certain name, make a certain pledge, and then run from our transgressions & run back to that god in our debased guilt when we again transgress. And my stance on that -- as well as many, many others who are Christians but sick of that kind of stance -- is that it's a terrible form of religion, a type of faith that is full of words and lacking substance and transformative power. It doesn't speak for what's moral, it speaks for the boundaries of that religion's club rules.
Sanuk wrote:
If you want to imagine that your god is one who conflates the taking of a sheet of paper or a pen (as your linked "test" asserts) with material theft, have at it. The use of the paper or pen is an example to show that everyone has stolen something. They could say people have stolen time from your employer if you don't work every minute or any number of examples. I don't think it's meant as anything other than an example.
I'd love to hear your Christian take on Rev 20/21/22. Not being malicious here. Genuinely curious. Either it's God's word or it's not. I get your point that "it's a terrible form of religion" but that doesn't make it any less true.
Back to the topic at hand, whether you believe Jesus was fact or fiction, either way he would likely be classified as good. His response? "Why do you call me good? No one is good - except God alone."