Different Reading on God's Love

As of Friday, May 11, 2012

Steve Bouser’s column “Late Thoughts on Amendment One” (May 9) was correct in the sense that Jesus has a great love for all people, a love greater than any human love. He died for the sins of the whole world in spite of the fact we are all sinners.

It was God’s love that caused him to have 40 different men write the 66 books of the Bible under his guidance over a period of 1,500 years and to have them preserved for us today. That book identifies every kind of sin.

It was God’s love that offers us the opportunity to allow him to change us on the inside so that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, thereby enabling us to become a child of God.

The conclusion, however, that because of his love for us, Jesus would wink at the sin of women lying with women and men with men and allow them to marry represents a misunderstanding of God’s love.

Our sins are forgiven only after we come to Jesus on his terms, repenting of our sins.

We would be doing a great injustice to same-sex couples if we indicate to them that their behavior is acceptable to God. That would be hateful, but leading them to read and accept what God has to say about their behavior in Rom. 1:26-27, 1 Cor. 6:9 and 1 Tim 1:10 seems to me to sharing the love of Jesus with them.

God was the author of the Bible, using men to do the writing. Jesus is God, so he has spoken.

He said, “I am not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

My prayer is that we communicate that message to same-sex couples in a loving manner.

Gene Jacobs

Pinehurst

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Pinehurst2012 1 year ago

Well said Mr. Jacobs. So true and I concur! People forget that the love of God and sin cannot coexist in the same environment. Jesus on the cross was forsaken by God because he was carrying the sins of the world.

The reality is that God turned His back on His own Son in that one point in history while He was dying for the sins of many.......what we don't want is for God to turn His back on us as a nation, state, etc......due to our sins.

dustyrhoades 1 year ago

My prayer is that we communicate that message to same-sex couples in a loving manner.

Maybe you should have a talk with some of your fellow believers here who are espousing stealing, violence, and retaliation, all in the name of God.

The_AnonymusProfit 1 year ago

There is a difference between Religion, and Spirituality, Doctrine and Faith,

getreal 1 year ago

I'm sorry Gene you wrote, "It was God’s love that caused him to have 40 different men write the 66 books of the Bible under his guidance over a period of 1,500 years and to have them preserved for us today." Really? I never heard that before. i admit I am not well versed on the subject. How did he communicate with the writers for 1,500 years? They didn't even have iPhones then. Those 66 books were written by MEN not God. I don't understand how they were guided. Religion is a matter of faith, I will give you that, but it went so terribly wrong when mere mortals, men, took charge and developed "organized religion" so that they could profit from the faith of followers. Yes, there is sin mentioned, it is the writer's definition and words nothing more. Who knows, maybe some of the scriptures were based on an annoyance with a neighbor happening at the time the person was writing one of the books. There is no proof how these books were written and who wrote them. So, to base a law on what some of the population believes is a joke. Too many religions to chose from, too many different views, too much prejudice, too much left to interpretation, just too much stuff out there to base discrimination on. Yes, the majority won, you can't argue with that, but you can argue with the beliefs the victory was based on.

The_AnonymusProfit 1 year ago

@ getreal

The books of the bible differ in their writting, the books wrote by Moses were basically God speaking to Moses and Moses copying down what he said. Many of the books of the new testament are biographys of Jesus's life cronicled by 4 Apostles, others are simply letters that Jesus disciples wrote to various churches just as colossians, thessalonians etc..

All these books were put together in a codex during the first council of Nicea where books were either kept or discarded, the Gnostic gospels which are codified in the Nag Hammandi scrolls were tossed out being deemed heretical.

Later on a man named Martin Luther would decided that certain books needed to be removed from the original bible which is used by the Catholics thus creating the protestant church.

Many of the early old testament books deal with laws, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. In many of the letters dealing with A1, old testament law was quoted, the refuted by saying you say you can do this but not do this. Understand that the earliest books were written to guide a community, laws of sanitation, such as not eating pig which carried trichinosis, laws dealing with how to run a basic government, laws on punishments for crimes etc etc. Jesus became the fulfillment of the law. This phrase is misrepresented by many however, when it is said Jesus fullfilled the law it means that he took the law up, he became the law. Jesus also gave us new commandments, to love.

This does not mean however that the tenants of the bible are to not be observed, Gods basic institutions.

Having said that I still voted against the amendment, while I believe that in Gods eyes my vote against will be considered a SIN, he also gave me free will and a moral compass, I chose to follow the rules of my country with the understanding that I am not a perfect being and I intentionally went against the will of my GOD, I hope that I may be forgiven.

getreal 1 year ago

Thank you TAP, very eloquent and informative.I greatly appreciate your taking the time to explain your beliefs. I still do not see any scientific proof of what the Bible states as fact and what it's followers use to condemn others. There are believers in the theory that space aliens put us here on earth and they use ancient drawings to back up their belief. All religion seems to be based first on fear of death and the unknown, second to find peace, aka Buddhism or third to control and pick the pockets of the faithful. (Fill in any denomination here). When belief in a God causes a segment of any population to attack and kill those who they consider a threat to their religion i.e. Al Qaida, or to condemn others because they don't follow their chosen imaginary friend it vilifies that religion. I am sure the religious zealots are not the real majority. I hope they are just a vocal minority. I have seen the good that can come from belief in God, it is heart warming. I have also seen the hate and arrogance from those who believe that their God is the ONLY God, and ONLY his word is truth. War and death has followed the clash of religious beliefs for as long as religion has existed. When this happens, religion is an evil force perpetuated by misguided human beings. If there really is a God, I hope those who use their beliefs as a tool to spread distain, supremacy and hate will be forgiven. This life that we have now can be your own heaven or your own hell, do with it as you see fit. We all die eventually, I prefer to try to live happily now, not wait until I die to see what "rewards" I may or may not receive. Live and let live.

The_AnonymusProfit 1 year ago

@ getreal

Your response holds the fundamental truths that I have railed against ever since I knew what GOD really was, In fact for a long time i forsake d the church. I have always been a man of science, and I agree that there is no direct scientific proof of the existence of GOD, however there is more then enough indirect proof to not be able to rule out god.

You quote something that has rung in my ears for a long time. When belief in a God causes a segment of any population to attack and kill those who they consider a threat to their religion

You must understand the difference between "Religion" and "Spirituality"

In the name of religion, more people have died, more wars have been fought, more people tortured, more poor people raped then any other institution on earth. The Catholic church is itself responsible for some of the greatest atrocities ever witnessed by man and in those instances they were GODless men.

Having said that, if you ask a REAL christian about this issue I believe the response would be something like this,

My heart bleeds for the homosexual, he/she is as me, a person in SIN, and his sin is no greater, or less, then my own, I love him/her without ever even meeting them and I am sure that their quality outshines many fellow Christians, in my walk I have come to know the lord and I have tried to the best of my ability to be a good Christian, I can not vote against this amendment, please however do not misunderstand the pain that I feel.

Or something like that.