[thechat] Mythology was comics

[Ben Dyer]

At 11:35 AM 5/23/2001, you wrote:
>At 08:59 AM 5/23/01 -0500, Ben wrote:
>
>>But these commandments you mention here were laid out during the Old 
>>Testament of the Bible.  Many of the things that were God-ordained during 
>>the Old Testament (including the slaughter of a lamb to cleanse sins, not 
>>trimming the corners of the face and binding the Word to your forehead - 
>>the actual Scriptures for these escape me now) were effectively negated 
>>(if you believe in Christianity) by Christ's death on the cross.  These 
>>were all signs of respect to God or as atonement for sins, which, as the 
>>New Testament lays out, are no longer necessary because Christ's death 
>>now atones these sins.
>
>That's an interesting point. I never thought about that.  I presumed that 
>the death of Jesus was simply wiping the slate clean (in a sin/karma 
>sense) but not actually changing any obligations.  Kind of like a single 
>get out jail free card will help you once, but you still have to play by 
>the same rules in place in the game.  And now that I have thoroughly 
>mangled several metaphors, I will ponder this idea quietly.  Of course, 
>since I'm not Christian, this is a an academic excercise, but an 
>interesting one none the less.

Well, sort of.  The idea is that if you truly believe that and repent then 
that is what saves you.  Basically, it's actually quite different from 
other religions in this manner (even other groups within Christianity) 
where you basically have to *do* something to reach the afterlife or 
whatever (be good, show up at Church, pray five times a day to Mecca, 
etc.), but Evangelical Christianity says the opposite: there was nothing 
you could do were it not for Jesus.

Also, while it can be considered like a "get out of jail free card" or like 
fire insurance or what have you, I believe the Bible says that there are 
earthly (although, if the belief is real, not eternal) consequences to 
believing but not practicing.  The idea is that once you truly believe, you 
are convicted to begin doing the right thing Scripturally (and failure to 
do so results in whatever consequences they entail - I've seen it happen, 
people get hurt).

As I'm reading back over this it sounds real ethereal and odd (almost 
New-Ageish) to hear me outline the basis for Evangelical Christian 
theology, but it's really difficult to explain without experiencing it.

--Ben


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Ben Dyer
Senior Internet Developer
Imaginuity Interactive
http://www.imaginuity.com
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