Jesus as Lord - why is this appealing to so many?

[RoadRunner79]

[The Grand Nudger]

Blah blah blah..and then somebody calls god a cunt, and all this "oh, well, in a good dictatorship" nonsense goes right out the window. Rinse and repeat with any number of infractions his benevolence is to fragile to withstand.

[Amarok]

Agree any god so petty that minor infaction triggers him to rage is no better then any mortal tyrant . Any god who worries more about were two people put their genitals then ending poverty is no good being . The judeo christian god is a petty child who will hear no decent  and tolerate no infraction to his all too petty dogmas. If paradise were offered to follow such a being he can keep it . If eternal torment is the cost of defying such a loathsome entity then so be it . No hell can be a awful a fate as bowing to such a creature.

[KevinM1]

[Amarok]

1. You can voice an opinion in a dictatorship but the dictators power does not come from those he rules . And his continued power does not rest on any form of consensus by the ruled . Monarchy by definition is anti consensus.  

2. If your voice is not respected in a democracy that not a flaw in democracy it's a flaw in a democracy . which can be fixed . 

3. The law of physics are not equal to the dictates of a tyrant so this comparison fails . 

4. Comparing Tibs ownership of the website to the dictates of a Tyrant is again failed comparison . You really suck at this . 

So this line of "reasoning " fails spectacularly .

[John V]

Psalms is loaded with hateful verses.

Yes, that's why I said you guys skip "a good bit" of Psalms.

Psalms 2:12 (NLT) = "Submit to God’s royal son, or he will become angry,
    and you will be destroyed in the midst of all your activities—
for his anger flares up in an instant.
    But what joy for all who take refuge in him!"

Even here, you fail to see the "joy" part.

---

Seriously, have you read it?

Yes, years ago, and every now and again as it comes up.

It's pretty puzzling. Also, some of the sayings seem to be rudimentary versions of the stuff found in the Sermon on the Mount/Plain. I wasn't commenting on the "credibility" of the document. To me, canonicity does little to make one text more credible than another. I merely found it interesting, and said as much.

Er, OK, it's interesting.

[polymath257]

I just read this scenario in Mark Johnston's book 'Saving God--Religion After Idolatry'. It seems quite relevant to this thread.

Suppose aliens from space land in front of the UN and chastise us about our wars and our bad character. They announce that they will reveal technology that would add to the length of our lives, our happiness, and our help if only we agree to subject ourselves to their will and adopt their plan for humanity without question.

The 'dark' prediction is that most people would happily agree to those terms.

In the second act of this story, however, it is revealed that the aliens only want us to eat or to use as fuel for their starships. This leads to the destruction of humanity.

But, and this is important, the second act of the story is irrelevant. if we give up our dignity and self-determination, we have *already* destroyed ourselves! NO benefit is worth that price!

And yes, this is as true if we are talking a God as if we are talking about space aliens.

[The Grand Nudger]

The aliens will have to learn that earth goes hard.  People have been offering other people a similar deal for eons.  We predictably return with a counteroffer of violence.  In the most dire of scenarios, "subjugate yourselves or die"...we've been known to burn our own houses and salt our own fields, to kill our loved ones, and then ourselves.  

Ultimately, one could draw an inference from this as to why any dictatorship..no matter how powerful the despot or how sweet the offer is taken to be, is doomed to failure. Some may be interested, even willing...all never have been, and never will be. In conflict between the interests of the fundamentally complacent and the zealously defiant....the former is not equipped to withstand the latter, no matter how many troops the emperor provides.

[Godscreated]

For Jesus/God to be our Lord we have to turn our lives over to Him, this is a process of growth through learned trust because of who He says He is and then proves that to us. As CL said, He is our creator and whether you want Him or not He owns your life and can do with it as He sees fit within His eternal plan. I personally want an omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent Being to be my Lord because He know all that is good for me and has the power to make it so. I can't understand why anyone wouldn't want their creator to be their Lord, honestly. I know you don't want it and that you will make all sorts of excuses to convince yourself that He's not your creator, what I do not understand is why you can't just man up and say I don't want Him instead of pretending He doesn't exist.

GC

[The Grand Nudger]

The benevolent dictator possesses human chattel.  How quaint.