The Ride, Curious on what you all think... Options

[World Dreamer]

Is it me or has Ed completely become whoever he is talking to in The Ride? Or did I just completely misunderstand the song?

This post has been edited by World Dreamer: Jul 26 2012, 3:56 pm

[deepenoughtodive]

Fish,
If you are saying that the vast majority of people that would consider themselves Christian are actually not then I would agree and point you to Matthew 7 which backs that point up. But, by your own statements, you would be included in that group. How can you call yourself a Christian if you don't believe what Christ believed? He said He was the only Way. He either was who He claimed to be or He was a lunatic with a messiah complex.

I agree with whoever said they aren't sure Ed is really a born again Christian as he describes. His actions towards his lifelong friends and bandmates is anything but Christian.

[FishOutaWater]

Fish,
If you are saying that the vast majority of people that would consider themselves Christian are actually not then I would agree and point you to Matthew 7 which backs that point up. But, by your own statements, you would be included in that group. How can you call yourself a Christian if you don't believe what Christ believed? He said He was the only Way. He either was who He claimed to be or He was a lunatic with a messiah complex.

I agree with whoever said they aren't sure Ed is really a born again Christian as he describes. His actions towards his lifelong friends and bandmates is anything but Christian.

I think the binary choice that he either was what he says he was or he was a lunatic is a false choice. You are forgetting another option, which I think is the truth and which a majority of biblical scholars agree with. John is the only Gospel of the four included in the canon in which Jesus makes messianic claims about himself. It contains a much more evolved theological agenda than Matthew, Mark or Luke. The other three synoptic gospels do not contain those statements attributed to Jesus.

I don't think that Jesus ever actually made messianic claims about himself. John was written at least 60 years after Jesus' death, in a particular context, to particular people, to make a particular point, by a person who never met Jesus. I don't believe that God was guiding the hand of the gospel writers and the Nicean Council who decided to select the four books from among many and edit those books and include them into the bible. The parables and statements on which most scholars have reached a consensus that they are probably relatively accurately attributable to Jesus, all describe a theology that is very similar to all of the other world's major religions. The rest, I think, is man-made theology generated by a church growing in power in the Roman empire.

I think that most people who identify themselves as Christian could spend a lot more time educating themselves about the facts and what is out there being taught in main line seminaries and theological schools.

This post has been edited by FishOutaWater: Jul 28 2012, 4:41 pm