Re: OT Rant About Christians.

On Sat, 17 Aug 2024 16:48:56 +1200, Titus G <noone@nowhere.com> wrote:

On 8/16/2024 8:40 AM, Paul S Person wrote:

snip

>
And who ever said Chrstian Nationalism had anything to do with Jesus
Christ, who clearly stated that his kingdom is /not/ of this world?

 

>
That strikes me with surprise because I have you pigeon holed as a
religious nutter of a Christian cult bent.

Well, that'll larn ya not to pigeonhole people.

From my childhood Presbyterian brainwashing, with nothing to contradict
it since, the definition of a Christian is someone who is a believer in
and follower of the biblical Jesus (Christ), not necessarily in all the
evil machinations of the warlike Old Testament God and incredibly vague
about the function of the Holy Ghost, who being one of an inseparable
trinity would also be a king of this other worldly kingdom. Would it be
addressed as Your Holiness? They are not Godians nor Ghostians but
Christians. And the kingdom doesn't have an organisational hierarchy
chart nor a coloured wall chart with an arrowed  "You Are Here" overlay.
If you also agree that Western cultures worship of commercialism,
including borrowing and lending, of Christmas also has nothing to do
with Jesus Christ, it is not too difficult to realise that most
Christians are brilliant if unknowing hypocrites.

There are "holiness" Churches who are, as I understand it, that are
rather focused on the Holy Ghost.

A /balanced/ approach would attribute the gathering of Christians
together (ie, the Church) as something the Holy Ghost does.

The claim that we "worship" commercialism is one I have never
understood. When the Bible talks about worshipping other gods, it
means /worshipping/ them: bowing down before them, praying to them,
burning incense to them, etc. And the point of the Bible is that this
is being done to things that cannot possibly take any action. But my
point is that, if some group actually /worshipped commercialism/ then
they would meet together, bow down, pray to, burn incense to, etc,
some statue or image of "commercialism".

No, that claim is simply an effort to find idol-worship where there
really isn't any. This is based on the theory that /anything/ that
distracts us from God is idol-worship. That it is wrong and should be
avoided I agree, but that it is idol-worship I do not.

The NZ Prime Minister, (who until recently spelt cat with a k), is a
devout member of some weird USA Christian cult that preaches that Jesus
Christ's kingdom is on earth right now and that the righteous believers
like himself, are those being rewarded right now with monetary wealth.

That Jesus Christ's kingdom is on earth right now isn't that strange,
although it is usually treated as a /spiritual/ kingdom, not a
physical one. Of course, if you are pre-millenialist, it may seem
strange, but for post-millenialists it may be a given.

As others have noted, the cult is one of the "prosperity gospel"
groups. This works well for the leader, who gets lots of money from
his followers, but not so well for the followers, who may wait their
entire lives for their reward. The leaders are among the guys you may
have read about who have golden cars and very large mansions as a
result of the money they rake in. The end up in the news because the
IRS tends to get after them because they register as Churches for tax
purposes, and there are expectations that go along with that type of
non-profit organization involving where the money goes.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"