Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy; but I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father, which is in Heaven; for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
It's a difficult ideal, but a very clear one. Christ doesn't only call on us to care for our friends and family, or for other Christians, or even those we believe to be good. He calls on us to care for everyone.
One of the more distressing aspects of the Israel/Palestine conflict, outside of the battlefield itself, has been seeing how easily many Christians―some quite prominent―either discard the idea of Christian charity altogether or restrict it only to favored groups. If our governments respect the rights of the Israelis but not the Palestinians, well, who are we to argue?
Someone like John Hagee is bad enough, but he's an obvious peacock. But seeing a humble and up-until-now decent-seeming English vicar declare that it's always sad when innocent people must be killed in an ethnic cleansing but―hip hip―one must simply get on with it is dispiriting almost beyond belief. In fact I had to read it over twice to make sure Fraser actually said what I thought he was saying.
Should hasten to say that there are honorable exceptions, and the pastor being interviewed in this podcast seems to have kept his head. But overall the faith is not being really well represented now.
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And for those who haven't read Matthew lately the other place that admonition was stated is right there in the Lord's Prayer.
Even more simply put it's hate the sin and not the sinner. Nevertheless, it is a very difficult ideal to effect and not one I've always been successful in following, but if we believe it's true that we're all part of God then it's a principle we must accept and do our best to pursue. Of course one doesn't have to be a Christian in a formal sense in order to grasp the essence of the rule and maybe that's the way of finding the true Christians among the crowd. Remember the story of the good Samaritan.
You're right about Hagee, there's nothing to be done. The thing that struck me as especially sad about Fraser's article is the fact that it was all about how horrible Hamas is and nothing at all about the thousands of Palestinians who have died while only a miniscule percentage have actually been terrorists. Then there's the fact, totally ignored, that Netanyahu has used, encouraged, and even paid Hamas in order to get rid of the PLO.
There are a lot of 'Hooray Harrys' relying on their gut reactions to the published events of Oct. 7th - and not many who question the source of the information they've seen.
Is the tribulation mentioned anywhere in the bible or the new testament? I didn't watch all of it but the minister looks to be sensible and restrained in his description of how the idea was adopted.
The Lord's Prayer is a catchy number for religious services but it also encourages self-reflection, if only we will listen.
The sin is the sin but the sinner is more than the sin. Thinking about this changes your perspective. There is more to life than our petty grievances with each other. As you note, it's all easier said than done, but it shouldn't be forgotten. The Samaritans only recognized the authority of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Torah. Which is to say they were a splinter religious group, one that mainstream Jews didn't necessarily love. That's something to keep in mind these days as well.
Eschatology is flashier than ethics. That's how I account for Hagee and his appeal. Fraser has never seemed particularly hung up on End Times prophecy. I really don't know what's in his head. The idea that Palestinians/Gazans are all terrorists by default has been floated, but a Christian man of the cloth should know better. We all should, really. And that's before you get into the tangled history of Hamas and their relationship with the Israeli leaders.
October 7 was bad enough in real life but has also been the source of many urban legends, some of which have already been debunked. We're not supposed to think about that, though.
The tribulation they discuss was largely created in the late nineteenth century. I didn't watch the whole podcast either--I always skip around those things to save time--but I saw and heard enough to get a feel for what they were talking about.
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