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ORIGINAL: emerging

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ORIGINAL: Stephanos

FACT God is against abortion

FACT God has lead nations to war

FACT God has approved of the death penalty

Where in the gospels do you see Jesus advocating the death penalty of even hinting that he would? or War? The same Jesus who forgave the ones nailing him to a cross unjustly?
Didn't he say those who live by the sword shall die with the sword? What does he know, right?

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ORIGINAL: emerging

Stephanos:
You left out one more fact: God is a white American Republican.

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Luke 23:39 - 43 (HCSB) 39Then£ one of the criminals hanging there began to yell insults at£ Him: “Aren’t You the Messiah? Save Yourself and us!” 40But the other answered, rebuking him: “Don’t you even fear God,£ since you are undergoing the same punishment? 41We are punished justly, because we’re getting back what we deserve for the things we did, but this man has done nothing wrong.”£ 42Then he said, “Jesus, remember me£ £ when You come into Your kingdom!”£ 43And He said to him, “£I assure you: Today you will be with Me in paradise.”£

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Matt 10:32 - 36 (HCSB) 32“Therefore, everyone who will acknowledge Me before men, I will also acknowledge him before My Father in heaven.£ 33But whoever denies Me before men,£ I will also deny him before My Father in heaven. 34Don’t assume that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.£ 35For I came to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36 and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.£ £

Luke 22:35 - 38 (HCSB) 35He also said to them, “When I sent you out£ without money-bag, traveling bag, or sandals, did you lack anything?” “Not a thing,” they said. 36Then He said to them, “But now, whoever has a money-bag should take it, and also a traveling bag. And whoever doesn’t have a sword should sell his robe and buy one. 37For I tell you, what is written must be fulfilled in Me: And He was counted among the outlaws.£ Yes, what is written about Me is coming to its fulfillment.”£ 38“Lord,” they said, “look, here are two swords.” “Enough of that!”£ He told them.

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ORIGINAL: emerging

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John 1

Jesus is THE WORD, thus it was JESUS who gave Moses the Law, which included provisions for the death penalty.

In a specific time and place. There are reasons for the OT law. Jesus came to reveal God's true heart, however. Do you disagree with that?

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It was Jesus who called Israel to battle against their enemies.

see above.
How do you reconcile this Jesus with the one who gave his life as a ransom for all as the last sacrifice? THere is such a thing as God's unfolding revelation. There is so much that can be said about the violence in the OT - it is not what you are suggesting.

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BTW...Do you think the US should have stayed out of WW1 and WW2? After all war is evil.

War IS evil. And I am not speaking as someone who hasn't served - I have 8 years in the military. War is evil and contrary to the will of God - period. I don't presume the US to be a Christian nation so their going to war is not a surprise to me.

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FACT God is against abortion

FACT God has lead nations to war

FACT God has approved of the death penalty

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Really? WHere is your proof? YOu can "venture to say" anything you like. Doesn't make it true.

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Oh, sort of like when you misrepresented him in point #2 of your post above?

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Would Jesus be for the death penalty? Would Jesus be for just-war?

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In other words, he (John the Baptist) says, "Being a soldier gives you extraordinary power. Don't abuse that power by extorting money or falsely accusing people." Through Christian history, most Christians have chosen to take a similar approach regarding war. It's not that Christians should be pacifists, they say, but we shouldn't abuse power--including the power of weaponry. We may still have to go to war, but we should be just and restrained in the way we conduct ourselves.

Others, though, have not been satisfied with this approach. They have looked at Jesus' kingdom manifesto, and they have felt it is impossible for a person to simultaneously put Jesus' teachings into action and participate in war.
McLaren, 'The Secret Message of Jesus', pp. 150-151

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God help us if the world think Christianity is only what the Right claims it is.

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Despite your Left Behind mis-guided eschatology, God is going to do something spectaculor with his "good" Creation

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Aionios

1. without beginning and end, that which always has been and always will be
2. without beginning
3. without end, never to cease, everlasting

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Like to see you try and justify that position. How many times does Jesus talk about Hell, judgment, those who were dead like Abraham still being alive, going away to prepare a place for us? How many of those times does He use the language of eternal life in regards to the righteous?

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Eternal life as presented in John's Gospel forms a solid core within apostolic preaching and teaching in the decades subsequent to Jesus' death and resurrection. Predictably, it receives repeated mention in John's own longest extant epistle (1 John 1:2; 2:25; 3:15; 5:11, 13, 20). Both Paul and Luke speak of it, too, in connection with Paul's first missionary journey (Acts 13:46,48). In Paul's earliest extant epistle he avows that whoever "sows to please the Spirit" will also "reap eternal life from the Spirit" (Gal 6:8). Paul refers, of course, to the Spirit of the living God, the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Rom 8:9-11). The Epistle to the Romans reveals that God grants eternal life "to those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality" (2:7). Yet eternal life is won not by human effort but by divine self-sacrifice as Christ undoes the woe that Adam's fall helped unleash on the human race (5:12-21). Through Christ grace reigns "through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (5:21; cf. 6:22, 23).

Far from treating eternal life as a rudimentary or unimportant matter, in Paul's last extant letter he is still extolling its glories. "The hope of eternal life" is in fact foundational to faith in and knowledge of God (Titus 1:1-2). Here, as elsewhere in Paul, "hope" denotes a sure, if not yet fully realized, reality (Rom 8:24). Paul, originally the arch-enemy of Christ, tells Timothy that his conversion serves "as an example for those who would believe on [Christ] and receive eternal life" (1 Tim 1:16). He exhorts Timothy "to take hold of the eternal life" to which he was called (1 Tim 6:12). It may have been in the same general span of time late in the apostolic era that Jude encouraged his readers, "Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life" (Jude 21).

If in Jude eternal life seems to be a future possession, many other references speak of it as a present reality. Which is it? The answer seems to be both. Eternal life has both an "already" and a "not yet" dimension. Interpreters have sometimes erred in stressing one to the exclusion of the other. Biblical statements taken in their entirety counsel careful regard for both aspects of a two-sided truth: eternal life is a present possession in terms of its reality, efficacy, and irrevocability (John 10:28). Yet its full realization awaits life with the Lord in the age to come.

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and thus looking a lot more like Jesus.

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ORIGINAL: emerging

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And God help us if it thinks your way is the best way, because you'll have us unarmed and defenseless against anyone.

and thus looking a lot more like Jesus.

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Last night I was teaching my adult Sunday night class. We are studying Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright (great book, btw). It just so happens that the section for last night was about evangelism and Wright lays out the majority view of evangelism and its goal and then offers a corrective. Before getting into I asked my group of 10 adults, ranging from 40-70 in age and life long members of the church what the core message of the gospel is. 10 out of 10 of them all agreed that it is to convince us to accept Jesus so that we can go to heaven rather than hell. It is that misperception that McLaren and others are trying to offer a corrective to. They are hoping to show the church that the gospel is about much, much more than that (does it include that? sure. But that is not where we begin).

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Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, “My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead."
(Acts 23:6)

If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. (1Cor. 15:9)

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (Philippians 3:20,21)

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
(Ephesians 1:18-21)

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He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:5b-7)

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ORIGINAL: emerging
After answering those questions how do you reconcile this Jesus with your war hungry God?