Acting like an irrelevant ass (the kind that pointlessly shouts at spring-breakers that they’re going to hell, or plays bait-and-switch with Darwin) isn’t something I would call “obeying God’s command”… Certainly it strokes your ego, but it’s not something I’d call evangelism or ‘witnessing’. Just ‘chasing after the wind’…

Translation: I also look forward to Black Friday. It’s a day when I have a greater volume of folks to be an ass to, when the last thing they want to do is listen to my lips flap while I proclaim by my actions that God has a tin ear as it pertains to “love”…

Translation: I (Chris L) will either be sleeping or worshipping at the pagan god of materialism, so I do not care about the people who will be gathered outside the stores, so I break God’s commands about loving my neighbor as myself while I attack people who obey that command.

How nice, Chris. I suggest that you do whatever it is you call evangelism in line at the stores. People need the Lord, so be sure and speak about Him.

Somehow debt and stupid financial decisions don’t matter when you fight gay marriage and are pro-life.

Actually, it goes beyond one’s stance on social issues.

Example:

And

it seems that for some people certain things are excused if you’re pro-life.

I don’t know all that many conservative/libertarian Christians who cut Bush all that much slack for the orgy of spending, particularly from 2005-2008.

Jesus does not need his face washed.

I remember something along these lines, but hey – I’m just a dumb layperson…

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

I also look forward to Black Friday. Thousands of people waiting in line just to be preached to, given hot chocolate, and handed tracts to read while they wait.

Translation: I also look forward to Black Friday. It’s a day when I have a greater volume of folks to be an ass to, when the last thing they want to do is listen to my lips flap while I proclaim by my actions that God has a tin ear as it pertains to “love”…

“The greatest hindrance to accepting Christ was Moses.”

Actually, for Jews, the greatest hindrance to accepting Christ was Christians – people who claimed Jesus as Messiah, but whose actions declared a rejection of God’s teaching…

Moses was not himself a hindrance at all and served God. you took my statement in isolation (which often happens when a person looks for picks).

The people had created their own religion that had departed from what God intended – outwardly keeping rules while inwardly as far from him in their hearts as ever.

‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
9They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.’”

Forgive me if I wasn’t so clear, but it appears others understood.

The Jews accused Paul of teaching people that they did not have to obey Moses, which is true.

All I’m doing is refuting Paul’s statement, “the greatest hindrance to accepting Christ was Moses.” That makes it sound like Moses himself was counter to Christ. That simply wasn’t the case. In essence, Moses was by his faith in God’s single salvation throughout history a Christ-follower.

But the point is that religion and Christ have always been and will always at odds.

For people that claim the bible alone, some of you guys don’t stand on the word of God to well.

James 1:27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

The Jews accused Paul of teaching people that they did not have to obey Moses, which is true.

My comment did not need fixing, I made the distinction myself.

That said, #150 is as true as it is irrelevant. Whether it is true or only professing Christians who are smudging the face of Jesus – the fact remains.

In fact, a legitimate observation. Jesus often said, “You have heard it said…but I say unto you” thereby contrasting Moses with Jesus. And the writer of Hebrews outines to the Hebrews the superiority of Christ over Moses.

Yes, but saying that Jesus is superior to Moses does not mean that He was at odds with him. I could say Einstein’s work surpassed Newton’s, but that does not mean that what Newton did was garbage.

On the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus says, “You have heard it said…”, He isn’t contradicting Moses – He’s getting to the point that the Law could only be fulfilled through a renewed heart. He was not “tightening the screws”, as it were. He is making the point that from the get-go God desired His people’s hearts. Galatians 3 makes it clear that the law was not the cause of sin, but that it was given as a way to restrain it until Christ came.

The reason I am so adamant about this is that I think we need to be careful that we don’t present things as if Jesus was God’s “plan B”. God was working his plan of salvation since creation, and there were actually faithful people all throughout history who knew Him and were taking part in His plan through faith. Our choice is much the same.