In fact, nowhere in the bible does Jesus say "In heaven there is no beer"
Or explains, "That's why we drink it here." The following letter of note comes from the Omaha World Herald, Public Pulse, March 13, 2005. As always Wingnut in black, Spocko logic in blue.
God grants the power
I always find it interesting when anti-capital punishment individuals such as Tom Lynch (March 7 Pulse) attempt to use the teachings of Jesus to back their arguments.
It is worthy of note that nowhere in the New Testament do Jesus or the apostles say that capital punishment is wrong, even though Jesus was sentenced to death.
In fact, when Pontius Pilate warns Jesus that he has the power to put Jesus to death, Jesus affirms this, telling Pilate that he has been given that power "from above" (John 19:11). In fact, Jesus told Pilate had the power only because God granted it to him.
The theme that government is from God and has the power to enforce laws and punish offenders is reiterated throughout the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments.
If Mr. Lynch wants to oppose capital punishment, I support that right. I do, however, take exception to his thoughts that I can't support the death penalty and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ at the same time.
Bob Josjor, Ogallala, Neb.
It's always fascinating to see people quote the bible as fact. Thanks to my extensive study of human history and religious writing I've verified that methods to record the events in the earth time period ~03 B.C to 36 AD did not extend to video tape, audio recording, digital recording or images compressed into isolinear chips. Therefore using the term "In fact" when referring to sayings from this time is difficult to prove.
--James M. Robinson
Robinson is the Arthur J. Letts Professor of Religion and Director of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity at the Claremont Graduate School and Co-chair of the International Q Project.
Of course, Mr. Josjor has the right to wildly misinterpret the teaching of Jesus Christ. His use of the term "In fact," points out his failure to understand the source of his "proof." It would be most interesting to hear from the "teachers" of Mr. Josjor. Do they support his views, or would they gently correct him? Might they ask of Bob, "What is in your heart that you reject one of the fundamental teachings of Jesus to love one's enemies? What rage do your refuse to let go of in light of what we have taught you? Must you twist what you have read rather than admit you simply reject this difficult request of Jesus?"
Teachers of Bob Josjor, it appears you have been unable to help him grasp one of most basic tenets of the teachings of Jesus. It is especially troubling that with no one to refute these views they might be reinforced in yet another generation of Ogallalan's.
God grants the power
I always find it interesting when anti-capital punishment individuals such as Tom Lynch (March 7 Pulse) attempt to use the teachings of Jesus to back their arguments.
It is worthy of note that nowhere in the New Testament do Jesus or the apostles say that capital punishment is wrong, even though Jesus was sentenced to death.
In fact, when Pontius Pilate warns Jesus that he has the power to put Jesus to death, Jesus affirms this, telling Pilate that he has been given that power "from above" (John 19:11). In fact, Jesus told Pilate had the power only because God granted it to him.
The theme that government is from God and has the power to enforce laws and punish offenders is reiterated throughout the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments.
If Mr. Lynch wants to oppose capital punishment, I support that right. I do, however, take exception to his thoughts that I can't support the death penalty and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ at the same time.
Bob Josjor, Ogallala, Neb.
It's always fascinating to see people quote the bible as fact. Thanks to my extensive study of human history and religious writing I've verified that methods to record the events in the earth time period ~03 B.C to 36 AD did not extend to video tape, audio recording, digital recording or images compressed into isolinear chips. Therefore using the term "In fact" when referring to sayings from this time is difficult to prove.
In 1838 a scholar in Leipzig, Germany, Christian Hermann Weisse, detected a collection of Jesus' sayings used by Matthew and Luke in composing their Gospels. ...it was commonly referred to as a source of the canonical Gospels, scholars came to call it simply "the source," in German, Quelle, abbreviated Q.
The Christianity that step-by-step won over the ancient world, until the Roman Empire became the Christian Byzantine Empire, was primarily the Matthean rather than the Pauline kind of Christianity. It was a Christianity of mercy and philanthropy, which won the allegiance of the underprivileged and suppressed, that is to say, the mass of the population, more so than the Pauline theology that ultimately flowed into Neoplatonic philosophical theology of the educated minority (with literacy standing at about 15 percent).
--James M. Robinson
Robinson is the Arthur J. Letts Professor of Religion and Director of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity at the Claremont Graduate School and Co-chair of the International Q Project.
Of course, Mr. Josjor has the right to wildly misinterpret the teaching of Jesus Christ. His use of the term "In fact," points out his failure to understand the source of his "proof." It would be most interesting to hear from the "teachers" of Mr. Josjor. Do they support his views, or would they gently correct him? Might they ask of Bob, "What is in your heart that you reject one of the fundamental teachings of Jesus to love one's enemies? What rage do your refuse to let go of in light of what we have taught you? Must you twist what you have read rather than admit you simply reject this difficult request of Jesus?"
Teachers of Bob Josjor, it appears you have been unable to help him grasp one of most basic tenets of the teachings of Jesus. It is especially troubling that with no one to refute these views they might be reinforced in yet another generation of Ogallalan's.
5 Comments:
Hey,
Thanks for the comment on my blog, I had no way to reply to you really and was wondering if you wanted to exchange emails, so we could continue our discussion. I think I'd get a lot out of it. My email is bobnifty@gmail.com. Again sorry I posted this on a comment but I couldn't find your email.
I could have sworn I posted a comment about how I hoped Jesus would endorse a hoppy ale, like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (known here as simply, NAMBLA).
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You probably did. It was removed by either divine providence or a blogger malfunction. My money is on the blogger malfunction.
(NAMBLA) Hmmm. Sounds like someone has been watching a little too much Daily Show. (Actually I love how whenever they read off some long acronym they call it NAMBLA. It cracks me up. John?)
Yeah, Blogger's comments app has been a regular sucktruck the last week or so.
And yes, I stole the NAMBLA bit from Jon Stewart, for sure. It's just too funny to pass up. But, in the interest of full disclosure, we actually call Sierra Nevada Pale Ale "snuppa," as we imagine its real acronym would be pronounced.
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Hey there. Just noticed that you used my letter in your blog. I'm Bob Josjor and it seems that you're the one that is misinterpreting things.
When I stated "In fact" I was referring to the words of the Bible. That the scripture I refer to is in the Bible is a fact. Now, if you would like to argue whether the incidents and quotes in the Bible are factual, that's a whole other argument.
The letter that I was responding to tried to use the teachings of Jesus which are documented in the Bible as a basis for his argument. As such my reply relied upon the writings found in the Bible. The key difference in our arguments is that mine is actually based on direct quotes, and the only quotes I might add, where in the New Testament teaches about the capital punishment.
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