Newsweek hack job smears The Bible and Christianity

[longtrekker]

Is Newsweek still in business? Must be hanging on by their fingernails - dinosaur media. And who is this Kurt guy...?

 

[Elin]

Back then, writings from one era could be passed to the next only by copying them by hand. While there were professional scribes whose lives were dedicated to this grueling work, they did not start copying the letters and testaments about Jesus’s time until centuries after they were written. Prior to that, amateurs handled the job.
These manuscripts were originally written in Koiné, or “common” Greek, and not all of the amateur copyists spoke the language or were even fully literate. Some copied the script without understanding the words. And Koiné was written in what is known as scriptio continua—meaning no spaces between words and no punctuation. So, a sentence like weshouldgoeatmom could be interpreted as “We should go eat, Mom,” or “We should go eat Mom.” Sentences can have different meaning depending on where the spaces are placed. For example, godisnowhere could be “God is now here” or “God is nowhere.”
None of this mattered for centuries, because Christians were certain God had guided the hand not only of the original writers but also of all those copyists.

Baloney. . .

 

[Elin]

Well I'm sorry but christians today give a lot of ammo to fire with to these sorts. I've been hammering home a ton of it.
Shall we break it down by analyzing the tv evangelists? Then work out from there? I didn't think so.
Until we get our own act together, maybe we should concentrate on our own backyard.
This target thing is 2 fold. Like Israel when they decided to tell God to take a hike, their enemies took advantage of the situation with Gods permission and blessing!
Sin will make the christian a target. To depart from evil will make you a target also.
Which road should we take?
How we rob the poor and how we spew forth vile humor in the church basement chicken dinner would cause the sinner of 1957 to recoil in horror. Hope I just made somebody mad!

Good opportune moment to start repenting. Someone asked me on another thread 'r u serious?' Yea I'm serious!

The wheat can neither control nor change the tares.

There is plenty of wheat around to focus on, the author chose to focus on the tares because
he had an axe to grind, and thereby revealed his intellectual dishonesty.

It's not complicated.

 

[Utah]

The way i see it is this..its God they will stand before in the end. If being Christian becomes "illegal" then i guess i will end up in jail if it happens in my lifetime. They can all say what they want but i will not and can not stop spreading the Gospel of Christ. I guess i will be following in Pauls footsteps

I wear the armor of God, and I have passion, and I will not go quietly in the night. Jesus' name will be the last word that passes my lips and it will be in a glorifying manner to Him. If it happens to be in the face of our enemies then so be it. I'm tired of these godless punks getting more brazen and chesty every single day. Game on!

 

[Reborn]

The_highwayman
No I don't agree that this is a "new" hatred of Christians.

I'm sorry.......today is exactly the time frame Christ is referring to when He speaks of the end times., and all I listed above.

The enemy works in deception so most of the hate this guy was spewing has been held in reserve, but the contempt/hate has been there all along. This bubbling up is just the beginning and in all honesty the church is to blame.

The biggest deception currently going on for believers currently is that "If I or someone I know is being persecuted personally for my faith in Christ, then persecution, or the end times... isn't really happening right now!"

Sorry, look around---It is not the beginning of it, we are in the last stages of it.

[SUP]34 [/SUP]A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

[SUP]35 [/SUP]By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

True? Sorry, I just don't see what this has to do with the topic though. Those are about an overall love for people, and yes, showing our fruits. This thread is about the NW article above, and it proving that the overall hatred for Christians, is now "cool" even in our mainstream media.

And some of you are shocked and in awe that a guy wrote a hit piece on the Bible and "Christians"

Not at all. I kept my disgust for it simple in my first response.
You seem to be in shock that we are in shock...that our very nation that claims we are a "Christian nation", now trends, and pushes how wrong it is to BE Christian?

When they are stressed out by the world's chaos, they should be calmed by our order

When they are consumed by the darkness in the world, they see should our light.

When they are bound by fear, they should see our freedom from fear

When they are turned inside out by confusion, uncertainty and doubt they should feel our peace, see our steadfastness, and touch our assurance and quietness.

When they are rejected, they should see our unity.

When they are hungry for something different they should eat of our fruit of the spirit

When the mourn, we should mourn with them.

I agree.

Butr we cant becaue we cannot show these things to each other.

I am just as guilty as anyone, so no I do not see anything different about this level of hate.

Hate? Because I don't want to read Newsweek anymore? I'm entitled to be offended by people who send out millions of magazines bashing the very God I love and follow.

Difference is, I won't write an article about my disgust for something I apparently know nothing about, just to sell the magazine I'm pushing it in.

But I do know what will change it and that is the LOVE of God!

True..... In theory.
The world really hates Christians right now....and the church has fallen into apostasy, brother.
Denying or stating what "we should do" won't make things better. Why, because Christ said it will be exactly like this in the end times. It has to happen, .....it's going to happen.

I hope this made sense?

 

[skipp]

R u kidding??

I was being sarcastic. They go after easy targets because they know that they can insult Christians and remain safe. They are too cowardly to do the same to Islam.

 

[Elin]

Being honest with you, I've never walked by a Muslim in the street who took it upon himself to tell me I was going to hell. Nor have I ever walked through a street rally spearheaded by some bullish Muslim pointing out people in the crowd he thought looked camp enough to be visiting the fiery inferno for their entire eternity, but
I can't say the same for Christian ministers. I've never gone into a mosque and heard people continually spin-off a lot of religious buzzwords that mean absolutely nothing, and nor have I seen on the street your everyday Muslim crying 'convert or burn'. Not once have I heard any Muslim acquantances of mine saying gay people should be second class citizens, but my mother's church-owning colleage continually likes to portray her disgust for anything remotely homo. I've never listened to a Muslim rant on about how six-day creationism is absolutely correct and
all science is to be vilified and opposed, nor have I come across any Muslim people in my country who take it upon themselves to start ministries that deliberately distort science and
advocate creationism for public school science classes.

Christianity in the West, I'm sorry to say, has in the last few years become synonymous with ignorance, in the same way Islam in the Middle East has become synonymous with it. I live in a Western country with quite a few Muslims and I've never known one personally who holds radical views, yet
it's always the Christians that seem to be getting themselves out there on the street or
in the schools where I live and encoraching where they aren't welcome.

I'm certain if I went to Taliban-ruled parts of Iraq I'd face ignorance far more dangerous than what I face in the UK, but in the UK,
I generally find Muslims to be much more approachable, much less condescending and
altogether leagues more intelligent than their Christian counterparts. That goes twice as much for Hindus. I don't think I've EVER seen a Hindu preaching condemnation or ignorance or bigotry, ever.

Your point? . . .that some Christians are ignorant?

Ignorant according to whom/what?
What is your standard of measure?

"Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age?
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him,
God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe."
(1Co 1:20-21)

No condemnation of "ignorance" here.

"Brothers, think of what you were when you were called.
Not many of you were wise by human standards;
not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise;
God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
He chose the lowly things of this world
and the despised things--and the things that are not (i.e., Gentiles)--to nullify those that are,
so that no one may boast before him (that they are not ignorant, etc.)
(1Co 1:26-29)

Is this the standard of measure you are using?

"Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age,
he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise.
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight."
(1Co 3:18-19)

This is the standard of measure you are using. . .and it is foolishness in God's sight.

 

[Elin]

This hatred is not new, maybe for us but its not new.
We haven't been fed to lions, like some of the others before us,
we haven't been used as human candles like some before us,
we haven't had to endure beatings and whipings, I personally haven't endured one piece of physical persecution like many before us.
We are allowed to gather and worship God like some before us were not allowed. This persecution and persecution to come is not new.

You call it persecution, like it's really detrimental, like you're being horrendously victimized, as though people disagreeing with Christian encroachment on their privacy and dignity is going to lead to some horrible violence towards you and other Christian folk, and in the same vein you'll infer that inciting opposition to and actively promoting discrimination against homosexual people is your religious calling and part of your right to freedom of religion.

That's a worrying double standard there. I mean, I really don't see anybody currently nor in the foreseeable future saying ''Christianity is an abomination, it should be outlawed''. So my opinion of what you've said is succinctly ''wake up and smell the coffee''.
You're in a far better position than you think.

Isn't that what he said?

 

[Elin]

No I don't agree that this is a "new" hatred of Christians. Has it been held in check? yes, but it has been there all along.

The enemy works in deception so most of the hate this guy was spewing has been held in reserve, but the contempt/hate has been there all along. This bubbling up is just the beginning and
in all honesty the church is to blame.

Jesus asked us all of us to do something in John 13.34-35

[SUP]34 [/SUP]A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

[SUP]35 [/SUP]By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

And some of you are shocked and in awe that a guy wrote a hit piece on the Bible and "Christians"

The elephant in the room in the body today and that nobody wants to talk about is this. The world go into the church looking for love, deliverance and what makes us tick and see nothing different in us than what they are going through or sadly even worse, they see things that would even be against their own humanist morals.

WHY?

Because we cannot love each other as Christ loved us.

Check the mirror and you will see why this guy wrote this trash. The world should not becoming to us, we should be going to the world, and they should know we are his disciples by the love for each other and them. They should see in deed and speech we are not of this world.

When they are stressed out by the world's chaos, they should be calmed by our order

When they are consumed by the darkness in the world, they see should our light.

When they are bound by fear, they should see our freedom from fear

When they are turned inside out by confusion, uncertainty and doubt they should feel our peace, see our steadfastness, and touch our assurance and quietness.

When they are rejected, they should see our unity.

When they are hungry for something different they should eat of our fruit of the spirit

When the mourn, we should mourn with them.

Butr we cant becaue we cannot show these things to each other.

I am just as guilty as anyone, so no I do not see anything different about this level of hate.

But I do know what will change it and that is the LOVE of God!

My friend, I suspect you are mistaken when you think hatred of Christianity is because of Christians.

The world hated Christ. . .no better Christian then he!
And that is why the world hates Christianity.

It's not about weak Christians, it's about unregenerate hearts.

 

[Elin]

I promote biblical Christianity. I smear unbiblical churchianity. I pay for it. A few others r on board.
Way to many cannot see scripture on it.

Maybe because you do not present the whole counsel of God on the matter.

Maybe another thread dealing with why some of our brothers and sisters recoil at Pauls words dealing with the first century assembly. Something is in play. Must be a reason.

 

[Viligant_Warrior]

Being honest with you, I've never walked by a Muslim in the street who took it upon himself to tell me I was going to hell. Nor have I ever walked through a street rally spearheaded by some bullish Muslim pointing out people in the crowd he thought looked camp enough to be visiting the fiery inferno for their entire eternity, but I can't say the same for Christian ministers. I've never gone into a mosque and heard people continually spin-off a lot of religious buzzwords that mean absolutely nothing, and nor have I seen on the street your everyday Muslim crying 'convert or burn'. Not once have I heard any Muslim acquantances of mine saying gay people should be second class citizens, but my mother's church-owning colleage continually likes to portray her disgust for anything remotely homo. I've never listened to a Muslim rant on about how six-day creationism is absolutely correct and all science is to be vilified and opposed, nor have I come across any Muslim people in my country who take it upon themselves to start ministries that deliberately distort science and advocate creationism for public school science classes.

Christianity in the West, I'm sorry to say, has in the last few years become synonymous with ignorance, in the same way Islam in the Middle East has become synonymous with it. I live in a Western country with quite a few Muslims and I've never known one personally who holds radical views, yet it's always the Christians that seem to be getting themselves out there on the street or in the schools where I live and encoraching where they aren't welcome.

I'm certain if I went to Taliban-ruled parts of Iraq I'd face ignorance far more dangerous than what I face in the UK, but in the UK, I generally find Muslims to be much more approachable, much less condescending and altogether leagues more intelligent than their Christian counterparts. That goes twice as much for Hindus. I don't think I've EVER seen a Hindu preaching condemnation or ignorance or bigotry, ever.

Brother ...

Wow. There is so much wrong with that post, I don't even know where to begin. You lump all Christians in with fundamental -- not "evangelical" but fundamental -- street preachers and claim to "know" what Western Christianity is all about. You defend Islam because you have never "walked through a street rally spearheaded by some bullish Muslim pointing out people in the crowd he thought looked camp enough to be visiting the fiery inferno for their entire eternity" but you use this scenario to indict what you obviously believe to be "typical Christianity."

Tell you what: Go to northwestern Iraq dressed as you are right now and say nothing, do nothing, just stand there. The guy who comes along and beheads you? He's a radical Muslim. The "radical" Christian says, "Turn or burn" and that bothers you? The guy with the big ugly serrated-edge knife will tell you, "Convert or die!" Does that bother you?

You utterly fail to grasp that that Islamic radical is far more common in the Muslim world than is the street preacher who annoys you by shouting the truth in a confrontational way that apparently "upsets" you.

See how you like a world in which radical Muslim "street preachers" prevail. You may attempt to blunt your attack on "fellow Christians" with ...

I'm certain if I went to Taliban-ruled parts of Iraq I'd face ignorance far more dangerous than what I face in the UK, but in the UK, I generally find Muslims to be much more approachable, much less condescending and altogether leagues more intelligent than their Christian counterparts.

... but your efforts fail in hiding your own wrestling with the truth. I've news for you. The street preacher who shouts "turn or burn" may be obnoxious, but he's also right! Whether you like the truth or not, he's telling it, and it is not from an unintelligent, ignorant mindset. The homicide bombers, the ISIS "warrior" -- an oxymoron that shames the use of the latter word -- the 14th-Century mindset of the ayatollahs, these represent true ignorance, not the intellect you attribute to the Islamic faith. The peaceful Muslims may be friendly, intellectual, non-violent, but they worship a "god" revealed by an illiterate assassin and child molester whose solution to resistance of his teachings was to "kill the infidel." All of them. For nearly 1,500 years now.

Peaceful religion? Bah! Give me Jesus preached in any way rather than the ignorance, bigotry, hate, and violence that underlies the teachings of Mohammed.

 

[The_highwayman]

My friend, I suspect you are mistaken when you think hatred of Christianity is because of Christians.

The world hated Christ. . .no better Christian then he!
And that is why the world hates Christianity.

It's not about weak Christians, it's about unregenerate hearts.

Spare me the super spiritual attitude sister....The body suffers from identity crisis and if you cannot see that you are blind or afraid to be truthful. In fact there are posters on this very thread that confirm what I am saying.

 

[Elin]

My friend, I suspect you are mistaken when you think hatred of Christianity is because of Christians.

The world hated Christ. . .no better Christian then he!
And that is why the world hates Christianity.

It's not about weak Christians, it's about unregenerate hearts.

Spare me the super spiritual attitude sister....The body suffers from identity crisis and if you cannot see that you are blind or afraid to be truthful

I guess I don't see Jesus, or what he said, as "super spiritual."

 

[Viligant_Warrior]

Spare me the super spiritual attitude sister....The body suffers from identity crisis and if you cannot see that you are blind or afraid to be truthful

The body of Christ may suffer from -- as I said in one of my other posts -- a failure to live out the faith despite adhering to its tenets, but the problem with the world is that it hates Christ, hates His word, hates His followers. That is why they seek to silence us -- not because of Westboro or homophobes or pro-lifers with assault rifles, though they certainly don't help. The world hates the truth, and we cannot stop speaking it simply because the world finds it inconvenient.

 

[Stephen63]

What should we expect? The Mystery Babylon's elite sends out one of its soldiers to write a phony article, publish it in one of their phony magazines, gets some of their other soldiers to praise it publicly, & hopes the church attacks them for it, turning their lie into the truth using church witnesses. We're getting closer to the end, & the antichrist spirit is flexing its muscles to intimidate the church. My only advise is "don't bite the bait". Getting caught in their deceitful trap of fighting fire with fire only sidetracks us from our primary goal: "Winning souls is wise."

Jude 1:21-25 (NASB) 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, (A)waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. 22And have mercy on some, who are doubting;23 save others, (B)snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, (C)hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.

24 (D)Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to (E)make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with (F)great joy, 25 to the(G)only (H)God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, (I)be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, (J)before all time and now and [a]forever. Amen.

 

[The_highwayman]

The body of Christ may suffer from -- as I said in one of my other posts -- a failure to live out the faith despite adhering to its tenets, but the problem with the world is that it hates Christ, hates His word, hates His followers. That is why they seek to silence us -- not because of Westboro or homophobes or pro-lifers with assault rifles, though they certainly don't help. The world hates the truth, and we cannot stop speaking it simply because the world finds it inconvenient.

So I asked in another post what are you going to do about it besides giving praise to those that respond with apologetic essays claiming they have the higher moral ground.

So the world hates us, BIG DEAL! they always have... maybe if the church would stop giving people like Kurt ammo, you would not feel the need to get so emotional over this...

The body sits in a corner and licks its wounds and protects itself, but takes no accountability in themselves and that's why the replies like the one from the SBC guy mean nothing.

 

[Stephen63]

Christians are not supposed to be obsessed with the enemy's lies..... there's too many of them to keep track. The Bible never teaches us to be concerned with such things.

The Apostle Paul was verbally scourged wherever he went, yet it was never the issue in his writings. What's not in the scriptures is sometimes just as important as what is.

 

[Viligant_Warrior]

So I asked in another post what are you going to do about it besides giving praise to those that respond with apologetic essays claiming they have the higher moral ground.

That's not just a claim -- we do have the higher moral ground.

So the world hates us, BIG DEAL! they always have... maybe if the church would stop giving people like Kurt ammo, you would not feel the need to get so emotional over this...

You fail to grasp that it is the refusal to hear the truth that drives their hatred, not anything the church is doing, or anything anyone who claims the covering of the church is doing.

The body sits in a corner and licks its wounds and protects itself, but takes no accountability in themselves and that's why the replies like the one from the SBC guy mean nothing.

Perhaps you'd better reread this, because I don't think you "got it" the first time:

I am not responsible for the spew of TV evangelists, Westboro, the "name it and claim it" or "prosperity" crowd. That isn't Christianity, and I don't have to "defend" it or chastise it.

By the same token, I am not responsible for the world refusing to hear God's truth and calling it "hate" when they hear it. I can only speak the truth in love.

Yes, there are homophobes among Christians. There are homophobes among non-Christians as well. it is not homophobic to speak the truth about practicing homosexuality, however.

There are KKK members who claim to be Christians. There are KKK members who don't claim to be Christians. Defending our police when they are forced to use deadly force against criminals, black or white, is promoting justice, not being racist.

I am not responsible for anyone but myself, nor will I be chastised by anyone, particularly by someone else who claims to be a brother or sister in Christ with me, but who wants me to stop speaking the truth in love. The Word of God offends those who will not believe it. It should not offend those of us who do believe it.

If we have any "cleaning up" to do, it is in our abdication of responsibility to the world. Jesus will reward those at the end of the Tribulation who have fed the hungry, given drink to the thirsty, sheltered the stranger, clothed the naked, visited the sick and the prisoner. Are we to expect that He will ignore the fact this generation has failed in all that?

I don't think so. Yes, we need to get our act together, not in the sense of apologizing for speaking the truth, but in failing to act on it.

 

[The_highwayman]

That's not just a claim -- we do have the higher moral ground.

Is that the Love of Jesus talking through you or religious pride?

You fail to grasp that it is the refusal to hear the truth that drives their hatred, not anything the church is doing, or anything anyone who claims the covering of the church is doing.

Oh I do not fail to grasp that one bit, but I will not be moved by it. You would also be correct that the church has not done anything alright, nothing!!!!!

DO you know that Evangelical churches have more kids on drugs, more divorces, more stress, more dishonesty, more sexual sin, more suicides, more depression, more food induced health issues and more closely resembles the world or a world the lost and the world do not want. Check out Christian studies on these facts.

Take sexual sin for a prime example, we thrive on shoooting our wounded , when they are found in any kind of sexual sin but dont dare say words like sex, intercourse, masturbation or other words or teach about those words or SEX in general or anything SEXUAL in church , because we are so self righteous to think if we mention Breast, we will make all the men lust. COME ON and come to full age already.

We lsot the abttle on SEX, ebcause the church wont talk about it, but would rather wave at the pastor as he is hauled out in hand cuffs becasue porn was found on his office computer...

It must be nice of you to sit on your self righteous perch from above and state the church is not at fault, but look around you man...If the church was doing something, we would be thriving and winning the battles.

The church needs a wake up call and start building soldiers for the battle, that will have the conversations.