/lit/ - Literature

>>19293794

>>17944743
Well, what you are describing is in fact something like faith.

What I would say is that belief in God is somewhat besides the point; the real question is whether you love God. To love God and to accept God's love is not a blind will to live, but instead to live life as a gift of God, and to blindly accept that everything, the good and the evil together, is a good gift, because it is given by a loving God.

This is how I view it anyway, because I don't think blind will to live works. Your blind will to live won't stop you from dying, so the object cannot be the will to live, it must be the will to love, and to forgive others their trespasses, and even call them gifts in disguise. It is hard, and some people will even call it inhuman, thinking that I, or Christians in general do not recognize their suffering. But as far as I can see, much of the good and evil in the world depends on how you view it anyway, so why would I choose to dwell on evil?

>>17899926
Yes

>>17385691
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth: So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8)

In other words, you won't get an answer because what you are asking is not religion, but rather philosophy.

>>17321634
>>17321962
The Bible neither rejects or condones violence. You could say "turn the other cheek" is what the Bible means, but then again, Joshua destroyed the Canaanites with Machiavellian ruthlessness. Like much of life, it's contextual, but what we should observe is not how people are, but how God is, which is what the Bible exists to tell us.

Jesus says of the Father, that he sends rain on the just, and upon the unjust, and causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good (Matthew 5:45). Jesus says that this is what makes God perfect (Matthew 5:48). God does not take sides like people take sides, this is why Jesus also says "blessed are the peacemakers" (Matthew 5:9).

What a Christian should do, is frankly obvious. One should make every effort not to end up like Maximillian Kolbe >>17321662 by doing one's utmost to foster peace. St Kolbe was a victim of a failed society, just like Jesus was a victim of a failed society, just like all the martyrs and prophets were victims of failed societies. One should make every effort to foster peace and to do so BEFORE SHTF. If this means "turning the other cheek" then do so, if this means destroying an external threat to the community, then do so. This is not hard stuff to understand.

>>17034810
Sure, it's been a while, but I grabbed the following quote, which I find incomprehensible and unlike the gospels:
>From Chapter IV
>Now let us consider the name of "Good" which the Sacred Writers apply to the Supra-Divine Godhead in a transcendent manner, calling the Supreme Divine Existence Itself "Goodness" (as it seems to me) in a sense that separates It from the whole creation, and meaning, by this term to indicate that the Good, under the form of Good-Being, extends Its goodness by the very fact of Its existence unto all things. For as our sun, through no choice or deliberation, but by the very fact of its existence, gives light to all those things which have any inherent power of sharing its illumination, even so the Good (which is above the sun, as the transcendent archetype by the very mode of its existence is above its faded image) sends forth upon all things according to their receptive powers, the rays of Its undivided Goodness.

Look, I try to be generous; so let's suppose Pseudo-Dionysius means to speak of Matthew 5:45, that God causes the sun to rise upon the just and the unjust. Even being as that may be, there is no reason for this excess of verbiage, and certainly no need to say something so bizarre as "Supra-Divine Godhead," an epithet which personally rings my Gnostic alarm. I half expect to hear of the Demiurge next.

Moreover, it is my opinion that much study is a weariness to the flesh (Ecclesiastes 12:12). I also believe that Jesus spoke truly when he said that the lowliest and most ignorant will dine with Abraham, Issac and Jacob, and that the coins I've given to beggars on the street will be given back to me as rich jewels. Therefore I see no reason for Dionysius to be writing, if he is not writing to show these least of people how to enter the kingdom of God, in language they can understand.

Therefore, if I don't have to read Dionysius to be saved, I will pass.

>>16837466
Matthew 5:28

>>16607299
It relates to Isaiah 53:3; He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

>>15531806
Why wouldn't God enjoy gratitude? It makes sense for a creator to want his created objects to be grateful, as a child is grateful to his parents. All you are saying is that you are ungrateful and you want to pretend as if you have no creator, like the prodigal son. You will learn eventually though.

>>15067038
God will only judge you according to human laws if you choose to judge other people according to human laws. Human laws can be any which way and you will still fail to measure up to them, if Adam and Eve couldn't forebear from eating a fruit off a tree, you're very much screwed if you think God will be able to agree that you followed every moral opinion that you have in a right spirit.

This is why Christ preached forgiveness and against hypocrisy. Forgiveness is the opposite of hypocrisy, since to forgive is to admit that you've also been in the wrong before. If you forgive others, God can also forgive you. If you choose to judge people, God will judge you with the measure you mete out (Matthew 7:2).

From Matthew 18:
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.[g]

23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold[h] was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins.[i] He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’

30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”