Was it? I consider it an explanation of why I reject all of Christendom as the “weeds” of Jesus‘ parable. The core of their teachings (accepted regardless of “denomination”) is the same as it is in all pagan religions…..i.e…..belief in a god who is not a single entity as we see in the OT, (Deut 6:4) but one who is the polar opposite of the God of Israel, Yahweh (Jehovah)……and belief in an immortal soul that survives the death of the body and goes to either a heaven of eternal bliss or a hell of eternal fiery torment…..the religion of God’s chosen nation had none of those beliefs….Jesus was raised in that religion and he never taught a single one of these things, which were skillfully grafted into scripture by men who closely resembled the Pharisees whom Jesus condemned to “Gehenna”. (Matt 15:7-9; Matt 23:13-15)
I also believe that understanding the details of the parable explains why these “weeds” intoxicate so many people all over the world….it feeds something in them that demands to be reinforced. Lies told often enough become truth in the minds of those who entertain them…..or those who need to believe them. Fear should never be a reason to worship God.
Well, that is where you would be mistaken…..I was raised in Christendom, (though not in Catholicism, which I could never stomach because everything they did was in every way, anti-Christian to me) and the hypocrisy I witnessed in my own denomination and others made me lose my faith…..but in “the church” as a religious system, pretending to be Christ’s disciples whilst supporting the bloodshed of their nation’s wars and killing fellow Christians on the other side of that conflict.…(1 John 4:20-21; Matt 5:43-44)….but I never lost my faith in God nor did I ever lose faith in the Bible that was inspired by him.
It’s why I went looking for God in all the places that I had previously thought he couldn’t be….I didn’t find him in Christendom at all. It was then that I realized that the first Christians were in exactly the same position. Jesus‘ exclusive audience were all Jewish and it was the Jewish religious system that has gone completely off the rails when Jesus walked the earth. Jesus exposed the religious leaders as the hypocritical frauds that they had proven themselves to be. (Matt 23) He appealed to the “lost sheep” who were spiritually malnourished because their shepherds didn’t care about them, and Jesus came to tell them that every one of them was precious to his Father and that he had come to find them and bring them into a new pen that was filled with nourishing spiritual food for them. It was not an easy decision for these ones to adopt the teachings of a man whom their religious leaders had warned the people to stay away from. Those who believed in Jesus had to bear the brunt of the ill feelings that the Pharisees had engendered towards them and families were divided as people made their choices to join the Christians in worship (Matt 10:34-38)…..this eventually meant a complete separation from Judaism altogether.
When Jesus was brought before Pilate, the people cried out for his execution because they believed the wrong people. (Matt 27:25) The majority of Jews stayed loyal to their broken system and are still spiritually lost to this day. Never have they acknowledged Jesus as ‘the one who came in his Father’s name’. (Matt 23:37-39)
That is just the point…I was lost and confused, but 50 years ago when I was about to give up searching for a God who seemed to be hiding from me, I answered a knock on my door…..there were two ladies there who wanted to introduce this God to me and at first I was tempted to send them away with ridicule as I usually did, but just for fun I asked them the questions that had been bothering me…..the ones my own church couldn’t answer…..and without hesitation, they asked if I had a Bible and asked me to go and get it so I could read the answers in my own KJV. To my complete surprise, every question I asked, was answered, with the truth coming from God’s word, not theirs. I became a Bible student that day, and have not ceased studying it daily ever since. I became one of them, and went out and preached to others about the amazing things I had found in the Bible.…things my church never taught me….and about “the great commission”. (Matt 24:14; Matt 28:19-20)
I don’t have to tell you who those ladies were, do I? And my brotherhood are spiritually united as a global family some 8.5 million strong…so I am hardly a “lone ranger”….please withhold your pity…you may need it in the future for members of your own misguided fraternity.
Even your avatar is indicative of the sun worship seen everywhere in the RCC….when did Jesus break bread in the shape of the sun? Why do your images have halos…these too are pagan.
All hiding in plain sight…..this is what is sad to me….
www.churchpop.com
