Yes, all welcome but blac---, er I mean Christians! You can hold any opinion as long as it doesn't involve Jesus Christ. All others welcome! Put Him in the closet and keep Him there. The light that He shines can bring no good! He's so divisive.

You can see so well that you will help us poor unenlightened conservatives to see the TRUE political path which is firmly rooted in a liberal, or rather, progressive mind set ( which rejects God and asserts the Man has the highest truth and awareness and that human reason trumps everything).

The first lie of Satan as recorded in the Genesis story was that "...ye shall be as gods!" Yet, there it is. You reject God and assert yourselves as God. You can look at the story as a fable, as the words of men and dismiss it but the truth is still there and that's what you really don't want to hear.

But, you know, that's the nature of Christianity. It flies in the face of everything the world asserts is good. To the Greek foolishness, to the Jew a stumbling block. Paul's word, not mine. The traits of Christianity and its demeanor read like a list from "opposites day". The first shall be last and the last shall be first. The greatest among you must be servant to all. He who seek to save his life shall lose it but he who shall lose his life for my sake that same shall find it. I did not come to call the righteous unto repentance but sinners. Perhaps the ultimate affront to human pride is the assertion "I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes unto the father except by me." Paul iterates this in Acts (4:12b)"...for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." The Gospel IS offensive. This is a well known and well stated fact in Christian theology. In fact it becomes a real issue in Christian churches which have compromised their message in trying to please the world, the lost.

Becoming a Christian is humiliating but whoever humbles themselves in the sight of the Lord shall be exalted. Some more of that "opposite stuff. The imperative of the Gospel is that there IS a Heaven and a Hell and whoever's name does not appear in the Book of Life will go to Hell and eternal torment. And I have been so close to that that I cannot begin to describe the utter terror that it brings to mind. It's real. It is the reality that I believe everyone tries to deny and run away from either consciously or subconsciously. That's the part that really stinks to the unsaved. "Hey, I'm a good person. I don't need your God. Don't tell me I'm going to Hell. How dare you!

If you have ever really read the Bible through you would know that this is the reason why Christ was hated and his disciples and the apostles were hated and beaten and jailed and killed. He told the Pharisees (the Republicans or conservative of that day) that their righteousness was as filthy as a rag used to wipe one's self with as far as God was concerned. The Sadducees (the liberals of the day) didn't fair any better. His truth was that ALL had sinned and come short of the glory of God. ALL. The simple part of this is that God still loves us, with an obsession you might say. So much that He was willing to send His anointed one to die a miserable death and suffer the Hell we deserve as a means for us of escaping His righteous sentence which was also enumerated in the Genesis account. The fact is, there is nothing a person can do to save himself from the grave and Hell. Rather salvation is a gift from God and received by acknowledging Jesus as His Son and our Saviour (John 3:16). Sermon? Maybe in topic but no more preachment than I have read in many of these threads in Mudcat.

That is certainly not light hearted banter from me but the harsh critics of my belief statement have no problem with a serious a scathing criticism of my belief so in terms of fair play, there you have it.