The OP said he doesn’t want to hear atheists or agnostics go on about how it’s all a fable. But if we can all agree that immediately after the passing of the historic Jesus, there were many parallel sects of Christianity, and they would had to be parallel because early Christians were often forced hide their faith, and for at at least 100 years the teachings were all verbal, then it seems to me that some of what we label today as gnosticism were just gospels/myths that were left out of the collection at the later date for whatever reason.
I think plenty of interpretations of what later theologians would consider as critical to the faith simply were fleshed out by the time of Jesus’ death. So a lot of it was basically open to interpretation. What does the trinity mean, and the humanness or godness of Jesus were probably all ironed out later, and as a result, most of what the church declared as heresy usually involved a different take on such things.
Of course then there were stupid declaration of heresy over if the bread should be leavened.
I tend fruit trees. Generally if a fruit tree isn’t bearing healthy fruit it’s because the tree is diseased. If the disease has infected the whole tree the best thing to do to keep the disease from spreading to other trees is to cut it down, dig up the stump, and burn everything.
“ 7. Black Rot
Apple trees affected: Empire and Cortland are more susceptible than other cultivars. Apple cultivars do not have a significant variation in their susceptibility.
Symptoms: Black rot causes frogeye leaf spots, fruit rot, and cankers on branches. Infected leaves form spots thought to look like frog eyes with reddish edges and tan middles. Large, brown, rotten spots develop on the apple, most commonly on the blossom end. Although the surface of the apple is brown, the flesh of the apple remains firm. Fruits shrivel up and dry out while remaining attached to the tree.
Causes: The fungus can affect trunks, leaves, branches, and fruits. Pycnidia, spore-producing structures, develop on infected fruit. Pycnidia appear as small, black spots. When the weather is wet, the rainfall and wind carry the spores to other susceptible areas. The fungus infects leaves, wood, and fruit through openings or wounds. Trees are most vulnerable to black rot when infected with fire blight.
Treatment: Remove dead or diseased branches and dried fruits. Burn or bury all infected plant materials. If you cut down any tree, remove the stump to ensure the spores do not spread. Fungicides are typically not used to manage black rot. Use captan and sulfur products labeled for black rot control only if needed. Perform preventive measures for fire blight to ensure your trees do not become more susceptible to black rot.”
Am I fruitless? Seems I’m always short on money. If I was fruitful I would never be short on money. Maybe sometimes it’s because the tree is planted in the wrong soil. My parents tried to plant guava trees in the US and it grew VERY slowly (that same tree would grow tall in Taiwan in a few years), and only managed to produce small fruits in 20 years.
I feel like I’m in the wrong soil but I can’t exactly replant myself elsewhere.
Here we have a prime example of the wealthy Pharisee making a speech. And, I think talk like this reveals the inversion of social divisions between the exploitative and the impoverished. This rationalization of expanding wealth is what stirred Jesus to expel the money-changers from the temple! Jesus was on the side of the poor. His enemies were the lords of money, power, ownership along with the Romans.
So, what you are claiming is more in keeping with the twisted and oppressive logic of a typical southern Baptist Republican white supremacist slaver from around 1826… America is today an ugly country divided exactly by the wealth of a few against the diminishing resources of the broke middle class. The only people who can get rich are usually rich enough to start. Entrepreneurs can go bankrupt ad infinitum under Chapter 11, etc, etc… There are no rights for workers to get fair wages from their benevolent overlords.
Also, you fail to understand the concept of socialism is abused and misconstrued. All societies and nations on Earth operate socialisticly. Taxes generate social services for everyone…
Only in America do people use the Bible to justify gross inequality, oppress minority groups and pretend everything is just rosy when it isn’t…
Perhaps you can volunteer to help the tele-pastor solicit more donations from the rich trailer park people to help pay for his glossy new business jet… He can take off in style, eh?
That’s what I find so dangerous about all religions. It’s just so easy for people to project their ideologies onto religions even when it’s blatantly against the original teachings of the religion they claim to believe.
Although, let’s be honest, most religions probably started as a form of political movement themselves. Jesus obviously wanted Israel to be free of the Romans, and saw those in the temple as collaborators. The people who mainstreamed reincarnation likely wanted to take down the caste system and say people are all inherently equal. Then those in power turned it around and said those are in the lower castes deserve their fate because they must have done bad things in the past. Siddhattha Gotama obviously wanted to turn that spin around and said there is a way out of reincarnation even if you are from the lower castes, so people are inherently equal again. Then someone else flipped that playbook around.
In the end, those in power will pick a religion and interpretation to justify their position, and those who wants to gain power will pick a religion and interpretation to justify their upraising.
It certainly is a good way for rallying a group of people together towards the same cause though, which is probably why we biologically and culturally evolved to create and believe them.
I’ve seen no evidence of that. I think his priorities were elsewhere:
“My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” – John 18:36
I think it was more of a religious objection. I’m sure (like most people of the time certainly) he wanted to see the Romans leave, but that must have seemed like a remote possibility. The 2000 pigs thing I mentioned above is usually interpreted as a polemic against the Romans, but it doesn’t at all seem like the main focus of Christian writings of the time is against them.
If Jesus, hebraic horticulturist, encountered a diseased tree, he could have just gone abracadabra and voila there’d be enough figs to supply a Roman orgy. But in this story we have no reason to believe the tree was diseased. Matt tells us that it wasn’t the season for figs. Even a healthy tree couldn’t have had figs!
If this story is understood as a literal description of Jesus’ behaviour, then he comes off as - on this occasion at least - less than perfectly wise and good. Which leaves allegorical interpretations of the story that don’t make the Jesus/God combo very appealing either.
I’m talking about capitalism as an economic system, which is rather recent and probably as rare in world history as freedom in general has been. It developed later and tended to reward hard workers, entrepreneurs, and worked well where the Protestant work ethic thrived.
Under other economic systems, such as feudalism or slavery, the rich or aristocrats are not fruitful, and under such conditions Jesus told the parable of Lazarus and the rich man.
If you remember the parable about the eye of the needle and how impossible it is for rich people to get into heaven, Jesus said it was impossible for men, but everything is possible for God, even rich men. The rich man wanted a schedule, a regimen, a recipe for getting into heaven, and Jesus put up a barrier, which the Law does, because the Law can’t save us. It is only an act of God.
The moneychangers were cast out because they were in the temple of God, which has to do with holy activities and not moneymaking. That doesn’t mean Jesus was against making money. Neither did Jesus pit people against each other, rich versus poor, etc. He did have harsh things to say about religious leaders, but even then, he was gracious to many of them, such as Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, and others. He didn’t categorize people, he looked at them individually and saw right through them whether they were rich or poor. Bible says He had compassion on the young rich man for whom He indicated it would be difficult for him to enter heaven because he was more attached to his wealth than to the Lord.
As for economics and capitalism, it’s very rare too. We haven’t been operating under capitalism worldwide for at least 25 years because interest rates are too low. That is the opposite of a free market, the government is manipulating rates for their own self-interests rather than for the people, which is the same as all authoritarian regimes in the past. Low interest rates cause people to spend recklesslessly instead of save. Capitalism is based on capital, which means savings. When people save and the pot of overall capitalism in a country is large, that society becomes rich and when they don’t save, they are impoverished. So you can’t always make accurate comparisons of that parable and reconcile that with today. Inflation is a sign of poverty because resources are dwindling, because we aren’t producing enough fruit for everyone, and everyone is competing for dwindling resources because low interest rates encourages more consumption rather than production. It’s all biblical.
I would say the government punishes us all for saving, which is the key to becoming wealth and independent. I think most people are having this problem. An unbiblical government policy redounds to everyone’s harm. Government prefers we all rely on it for our wellbeing instead of our own independence.
The fig tree is also represented as Israel. They rejected the messiah so Jesus prophesied to the Pharisees in Matt 21 (which had already been prophesied in the OT) that because they (Jewish leaders) weren’t bearing fruit, the vineyard would be taken from them and given to another nation who will bear fruit. Thus Jesus cursing the fig tree for not bearing fruit. (To him who has more will be given and him who has not, it will be taken away even what he has.)
Then in Matt 24, talking about end times, Jesus makes another prophecy, taking a lesson from the fig tree again, when you see the branches become tender and begin to sprout, then you know the coming of Jesus is near, at the door. And we know by prophecy that Israel will turn to the messiah and become Christians before Jesus comes again, that’s one of the signs. The fig tree will come to life again.
It’s worse than that. Income has increased at about 1/10th the rate of inflation. All economic growth seems to only increase the wealth of the ultra rich, but not everyone else.
Yes, bingo again. The government prints money and that money has original value (because the market hasn’t recognized yet that it’s being flooded), so it’s actually overrated when the government uses it and introduces it to the market. Then as it sloshes through the system and the system finally recognizes that there is overabundance of money in order to meet elite government official’s needs, the money has depreciated by the time it reaches us. Thus our salary has been stolen from us in order to make way for that excessive government spending.
