Saturday, September 12, 2009

Encore Presentation: What Would Jesus Say?

I don't re-post very many things. But what with the indignation over Rep. Joe Wilson's heckling of President Obama the other night, and the fact that so many people are more bothered by that than by the fact that the President LIED HIS ASS OFF in front of a joint session of Congress -- plus allegations that it's "not Christian" to call somebody a liar -- I am going to make an exception in this case. Repeatedly, if necessary.

Every time an orthodox Catholic calls Bravo Sierra on some liberal scheme -- as here -- or even mildly criticizes some heterodox inanity, up goes the sniveling cry: is this how Jesus would want you to talk? Would Jesus want you to spread such hatred? What would Jesus say?

Seems to me these questions are easily answered by taking a good look at some of the things Jesus actually did say.

1. Jesus Calls His Enemies Children of the Devil

John 8:43-45: "Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But, because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.

2. Jesus Calls His Enemies Liars

John 8:54-55: Jesus answered, "If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of Whom you say that He is your God. But you have not known Him; I know Him. If I said, I do not know Him, I should be a liar like you; but I do know Him and I keep His word.

3. Jesus Calls His Enemies Hypocrites (Just a Couple Examples out of Many)

Matthew 15:7-9: You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: 'This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me; in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.'"

Matthew 22:15-18: Then the Pharisees went and took counsel how to entangle Him in His talk. And they sent their disciples to Him, along with the Hero'di-ans, saying, "Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God truthfully, and care for no man; for You do not regard the position of men. Tell us, then, what You think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?" But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why put Me to the test, you hypocrites?..."

4. More Choice Names Jesus Had for His Enemies

Matthew 23:15: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you traverse sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves."

Matthew 23:16-17: "Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'If any one swears by the temple, it is nothing; but if any one swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred?"

Matthew 23:27-28: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like whitewashed tombs [whited sepulchres], which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."

Matthew 23:33: "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?"
So what is my point here? Is it to condone gratuitous nastiness? Absolutely not: Jesus never engaged in nastiness, and neither said nor did anything without a point.

My point is that Jesus is no hippie. My point is that the image liberals seem to have of a granola-chewing, birkenstock-wearing, recycling Jesus, tolerant to the point of being blind to everything that is sick and wrong, is a huge lie. My point is that the little pleasantries that make liberals squeal like little girls and dissolve into puddles of tears are nothing compared with the words of Jesus recorded in Scripture.

Christianity is not soft, squishy, mushy nor gushy. And neither is her Founder.

2 comments:

  1. He never restrained His anger. He flung furniture down the front steps of the Temple, and asked men how they expected to escape the damnation of Hell. Yet He restrained something. I say it with reverence; there was in that shattering personality a thread that must be called shyness. There was something that He hid
    from all men when He went up a mountain to pray. There was something that He covered constantly by abrupt silence or impetuous isolation. There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His
    mirth.

    -G.K. Chesterton in "Orthodoxy"

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  2. "My point is that Jesus is no hippie. My point is that the image liberals seem to have of a granola-chewing, birkenstock-wearing, recycling Jesus, tolerant to the point of being blind to everything that is sick and wrong, is a huge lie. My point is that the little pleasantries that make liberals squeal like little girls and dissolve into puddles of tears are nothing compared with the words of Jesus recorded in Scripture."

    V-girl - you are my hero.

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