Jesus loves me, this I know, for the bible tells me so.
These are lyrics of a famous hymn by Anna Barlett Warner written in 1859. In this day in age, it is frequently used as a children’s nursery song in the evangelical movement. From an early age it teaches kids that they are loved by Jesus, what could be wrong with that? I am not going to address my thoughts on indoctrinating your offspring, but I am going to share some ideas about if the god of the Christian bible is loving.
Within Christianity, two main concepts keep the church going. The first is that you (as an individual) are a sinner/broken, and God loves you despite that. In fact, he loves you so much that he sent his own child to die for your sins and wants to spend eternity with you. However, you cannot do that unless you follow a set of rules and fully believe that he exists. The second part is the real the real kicker, he won’t show up in IRL so you have to just have faith, and go off of personal experiences and an ancient book. If you don’t follow his conditions, that’s alright you will be tortured for your entire afterlife though.
“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.” ~ Romans 3:23-26
Do you really have a choice to be a follower if it is between a lake of fire or paradise for eternity? Or is the belief out of fear? I am not saying that people don’t have genuine faith, I just wonder if the fear tactics weren’t there, would we still have bible thumpers? If he is so powerful, why doesn’t he make himself physically known? Yes, we have the creation of the galaxies to look at but that can be explained through science.
From my experience, Christianity breaks your spirit into believing that you will never be enough without a relationship with the Lord. The younger they can get anyone into this mindset, the harder it is for them to leave. Sinner saved by grace, becomes the personal identity. The logic goes that the first people on this earth fucked it up for the rest of us, and now we can’t help but have a need for salvation. Therefore, no matter how good of a person you think you are or try to be, you can’t be enough on your own.
“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people because all sinned—” ~ Romans 5:12
I think any believer reading this would say that god doesn’t send us to hell, we send ourselves to hell by our (sinful) choices. If god knew that humans wouldn’t be able to handle temptation why would he allow the serpent in the garden? From the Genesis perspective, how can we refrain from sinning if it is ✨literally✨ in our DNA? Why couldn’t he abolish any system that required the shedding of blood, and save his child at the same time?
Does Jesus love me? Maybe. Does his parent love me? No. From the outside looking in, he abuses his power from the beginning to the end of the Bible, and that can’t be love.
With love,
Lama-Leah
PC: Elise Wilcox
Email: Lamaleahblog@gmail.com
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