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lees1975

(6,206 posts)
5. I don't want to paint with a broad brush, but most Evangelicals don't emphasize the Christian gospel,
Sun Dec 29, 2024, 08:15 PM
Dec 29

as Signal Press points out, they miss giving the words of Jesus, recorded in the four gospels and in the book of Revelation, the interpretive importance they require. Their doctrine of inerrancy includes looking at the Bible as a singular, monolithic, authoritative whole, instead of examining the context of its contents, and interpreting each part of it with the understanding that, in Christian theology, those words of Jesus are direct revelation from God, and his presence in the world was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Their focus is on the standards of holiness and then on judging people based on their perspective of whether they've met them or not. Jesus very clearly eliminated the ability of humans to judge each other''s internal spiritual life, and he focused Christian practice on a few basic principles, the two most important ones being "Loving God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind," and "Loving your neighbor as yourself." He equated these two, called them commandments, and based everything else he taught on their practice.

Biden, a Catholic, clearly takes the principles of Christian living seriously and puts them into practice without wearing them on his sleeve. He's not self-righteous, he simply puts the principles and values of his faith into practice, much like Jimmy Carter did. Evangelicals are harshly critical and dismissive of Catholics, make multiple false claims about the church and its doctrine, which came into existence with the Edict of Thessalonica under Roman emperor Theodosius I, and is the heir to the Nicene Christianity that became the state church of Rome. So yeah, there are some theological errors in there, and some cultural practices that came with institutional Catholicism. But the Catholic church still teaches and practices conversion by grace, through faith, and has, through many of its orders, worked a lot of the Roman culture and influence out of its doctrine over time. Biden's personal and moral lifestyle certainly exhibits visible characteristics of Christianity, compared to Trump. I'm not going to judge Trump, but by his own words declaring he has done nothing requiring God's forgiveness, he states he is not Christian and places himself outside the Christian church. There is not any virtue or value in the Christian gospel, taught by Christ, that he exhibits.

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