Luke 14:26

26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

Upon reading the rest of the words of Jesus in Luke 14:26-35, we find that he suggests that we must give up everything to follow him. This is still quite the shock to the average Christian.

Jesus suggests that we must give up our families, our friends, all our possessions, and even ourselves, take up a cross, and follow after him. Either interpretation is rather strange to our current sensibilities. There are not many who would give up everything to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. I certainly couldn’t imagine a member of the decorated clergy doing such a thing.

Perhaps all of Christianity has strayed from its true message. Perhaps we should all become paupers and make ourselves sacrifices to this world. Perhaps the interpretation isn’t out of context and Jesus really did want us to hate our families. If that’s the case, then it certainly contradicts the common theme of Jesus as the Prince of Peace.

Tags: Christ, Christian, context, disciple, everything, family, father, hate, Interpretation, Jesus, Luke, prince of peace, words of jesus
Posted in Immorality, Scripture | No Comments »

Genesis 17:9-14

9 And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.

10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.

11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.

13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

14 And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.

Acts 15:24

24 Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:

The first passage shows the word of God as spoken to Abraham in Genesis 17. However, it is also clearly suggested in the Acts 15 that there was no such mandate, according to Luke the Evangelist. Perhaps Luke was simply unaware of this, but one would think that an author of the New Testament would be knowledgeable of the Old Testament.

Galatians 5:1-4

1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.

3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.

4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.

Here, Paul the Apostle speaks out against circumcision in Galatians 5. In fact, he suggests that if you get circumcised, you are obligated to obey all of the laws of Moses and that Christ will be of no value to you.

If you read the entire chapter, you find that Paul suggests that one can reach salvation through faith and good deeds alone. This is contradictory to the words of Jesus himself, who said that he did not come to abolish any of the old law.

Furthermore, he suggests that we have all fallen from grace and that the law is essentially of no consequence. Once again, this is not only against other Christian teachings, this is against any semblance of morality. How can any morality exist when everything is permissible? There are simply too many contradictions here to hunt them all down.

Tags: Abraham, Christ, Christian, circumcision, contradiction, covenant, foreskin, genesis 17, god, Jesus, law, Paul
Posted in Contradictory, Scripture | No Comments »