I’m okay with my children’s story.
Let the little children come to me , and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven
That is your answer to suffering? Casting a meaningless vote? One ballot among tens of millions. Voting does little today. For every vote in America today there will a thousand ignorant voters with coded responses influenced by nonsense on social media or Russian bot farms on both sides of the political spectrum. Voting is a farce and a person simply expressing themself in a self-patronizing fashion. A pretense to let you think social change is possible based on your choices or that those in power care about what you think. A vote is a water balloon trying to stop a tsunami.
All Christians are evil and more evil than any other group. Got it. You would make a good Calvinist. You got the total depravity down. But such a blanket assertion is hardly worth responding to. This is a general condition of humanity as a whole so we need to rely on repentance, not our own righteousness which is lacking. We have a lot of evolutionary baggage to overcome but a lot of good work to do. Luther didn’t want James in the Bible because it calls it like it is:
14 My Christian brothers, what good does it do if you say you have faith but do not do things that prove you have faith? Can that kind of faith save you from the punishment of sin? 15 What if a Christian does not have clothes or food? 16 And one of you says to him, “Goodbye, keep yourself warm and eat well.” But if you do not give him what he needs, how does that help him? 17 A faith that does not do things is a dead faith.
18 Someone may say, “You have faith, and I do things. Prove to me you have faith when you are doing nothing. I will prove to you I have faith by doing things.” 19 You believe there is one God. That is good! But even the demons believe that, and because they do, they shake.
20 You foolish man! Do I have to prove to you that faith without doing things is of no use? 21 Was not our early father Abraham right with God by what he did? He obeyed God and put his son Isaac on the altar to die. 22 You see his faith working by what he did and his faith was made perfect by what he did. 23 It happened as the Holy Writings said it would happen. They say, “Abraham put his trust in God and he became right with God.” He was called the friend of God. 24 A man becomes right with God by what he does and not by faith only. 25 The same was true with Rahab, the woman who sold the use of her body. She became right with God by what she did in helping the men who had been sent to look through the country and sent them away by another road. 26 The body is dead when there is no spirit in it. It is the same with faith. Faith is dead when nothing is done.
More importantly:
"Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” --Jesus
Im sure some of us who think otherwise will be really sad when our time for judgment comes.
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Live the worldview yes, but not because we say so. We are nothing. Two drops in an endless ocean. We live the worldview because God became man, dwelt among us and lived it this way. We can’t change the world but we can change a person’s world.
Have the courage to surrender that mighty intellect. Pony up.
Vinnie