Striving to Be Good versus Belief in Magic

Striving to be good versus belief in supernatural phenomena

Why is it that so many RHP Christians seem to talk about placing 'belief in supernatural phenomena' ahead of talking about 'walking the walk of life while striving to be good' at the very core of their Christian faith?

@fmf said
Striving to be good versus belief in supernatural phenomena

Why is it that so many RHP Christians seem to talk about placing 'belief in supernatural phenomena' ahead of talking about 'walking the walk of life while striving to be good' at the very core of their Christian faith?

Because taking requires less effort than walking and blogging requires even less.

@fmf said
Striving to be good versus belief in supernatural phenomena

Why is it that so many RHP Christians seem to talk about placing 'belief in supernatural phenomena' ahead of talking about 'walking the walk of life while striving to be good' at the very core of their Christian faith?

Thats the test to see if someone is of Christ. They are not. Their doctrine is of men.

Be careful when an atheist wants to define for a christian what the "core" of his Christian faith is. He has no idea.

If you attempt to tell him about the core, the central vital matter of the Christian's faith, immediately he will challenge the supernatural. Then hypocritically after offering objection after objection against the supernatural he wonders why so much talk is going on about that.

But he sees to it that the supernatural is dismissed at every turn. His core is "striving to be good". Though goodness is relative to him he still thinks it is important to "strive to be good".

The core is more related to Christ a living Person living in the Christian. But Christ is myth to the "striving to be good" ethicist.

Why, though there is no absolute goodness, we do our duty to strive to be good. And that doesn't require God or fellowship with a redeeming Savior who died to put us in contact with God and raised to become in a form in which He could live in us.

By now the "strive to be good" enemy of Gospel is probably tired of reading. I close with Paul's grasp of the core of the Christian life:

" I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me;" (Gal. 2:20a)

That is the normal Christian life and that is supernatural.
It is also not a matter of Paul striving but of Paul believing the truth.
And that on a ongoing, moment by moment, and daily excersise.

Going on:

" ... and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me."

Christ is available, loving, supporting, empowering, flowing, and living more and more, deeper and deeper in the faith exercising Christian.

"I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness is through the law, then Christ has died for nothing." (See Gal. 2:20,21)

"Striving to be Good" yields to learning to abide in Christ letting Him live in me.

Well Jesus knew that He was coming to live in man's innermost being to empower men and women to experience blending with Christ. So He taught that His burden was light and His yoke was easy. Actually men could receive Him and REST in Him.

This is something like the automatic steering of an modern car. You apply a little effort in turning the wheel and the steering motor does most of the work.

Here's Jesus as He walked the earth and still speaks from heaven -

"Come to Me all who toil and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matt. 11:28,29)

He is saying learn to live through Him in the same way He lived through His Father.

This is supernatural.

@sonship said

He is saying learn to live through Him in the same way He lived through His Father.

This is supernatural.

Or perhaps just the deployment of figurative language.

@sonship said
Be careful when an atheist wants to define for a christian what the "core" of his Christian faith is. He has no idea.

"No idea"? 25+ years a Christian followed by over 10 years of talking here to some of the most unimpressive Christians I have ever encountered. I have a few ideas, sonship.

@sonship said
If you attempt to tell him about the core, the central vital matter of the Christian's faith, immediately he will challenge the supernatural. Then hypocritically after offering objection after objection against the supernatural he wonders why so much talk is going on about that.

Do you think it's a good idea for people who don't believe Jesus was a deity or a supernatural being to try to live their lives in accordance with as many of his teachings as they can anyway?

@Ghost-of-a-Duke

Or perhaps just the deployment of figurative language.

Figurative language can be about something that is so profound that the human language is limited. The Bible is filled with may of allegories, word pictures, parables.

We can analyzed some saying already referred to.

"I am crucified with Christ;" .

How in the world can that happen? It means that once the Spirit of Christ comes into your innermost being, a terminating power is able to break down and destroy some negative things within you.

When it happens just a little bit, you are affirmed."I have been bothered by that thing for YEARS. Now when I turn my heart to the living Jesus Christ, something powerful PUTS TO DEATH some bad things in me. Why His death on the cross seems to work for me.

"I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ Who lives in me."

Now this is really mysterious. How can it be "not I who live, but Christ who lives in me?"

He means he now lives a kind of supernatural "COMPOUND LIFE".
He lives not alone as he was before when EGO was the center of the universe.

He has rightly allowed God His rightful place in Jesus Christ as the center and on the throne of life. He now lives a life blended, compounded, interwoven with this living Jesus Christ. He lives a mingled life in which the available Son of God indwells his being.

You have to believe Jesus rose to have this.

cont. below

@sonship said
By now the "strive to be good" enemy of Gospel is probably tired of reading.

Does striving to be good make someone an "enemy of the Gospel"? Are Christians obligated to spend their lives striving to be good?

The faith is even Christ's faith, as some interpret. We have no faith. He has to be the believing one FOR us. This is rather mysterious.

" ... and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith"

Whose faith Paul?

"the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

Some understand that to be Jesus Christ's FAITH which He has somehow infused into the one who receives Him. I lean toward this understanding myself.

"the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.

I do not nullify the grace of God ..."

The grace of God inwardly is God being everything you need.
The grace of God inwardly enjoyed is the empowering of divine life to uphold and support and enable your life.

Paul says, he doesn't interfere. Paul says he steps out of the way and lets Christ do His thing in him --- "I do not NULLIFY the grace of God".

Striving in HIMSELF upon his own natural SELF EFFORT in law keeping would make him independent from Christ. Being separated from blending with Jesus Paul would counter productively NULLIFY the grace of God.

He tried that for YEARS as a zealous Pharisee. He tried it as a Christ opposing disciple of Moses. Now receiving Christ as the "life giving Spirit" he would no longer nullify the wonderful grace of God.

"I do not nullify the grace of God; for it righteousness is through the law, then Christ has died for nothing."

@sonship said
The faith is even Christ's faith, as some interpret. We have no faith. He has to be the believing one FOR us. This is rather mysterious.

If all this stuff you are saying seems to someone to be too farfetched and pretentious to be credible, do you advise them to adhere to Jesus' teaching as much as possible regardless?

Years ago there was a cloths washing detergent which advertized itself as being "Biodegradable".

bi·o·de·grad·a·ble
/ˌbīōdəˈɡrādəb(ə)l/
Learn to pronounce
adjective
(of a substance or object) capable of being decomposed by bacteria or other living organisms.
"consumers have forced a shift to more biodegradable products"

Bios is a english translerated word for the Greek word meaning natural life. Jesus laid down His life (bios) when He died as a man.

Zoe is a the sound of Greek word for the divine life of God. And from this one minister talked about ZOADEGRADING Jesus Christ.

Instead of tiny organisms that break down the dirt and degrade the stains, Jesus Christ is the divine life of God which breaks down the Satanic influence in man.

Christ is therefore, if you will, renders you ZOEDEGRDABLE. There is a killing element in the Holy Spirit which can attack and break down the germs of the fall of man.

In this ZOEDEGRADING action of the Spirit of Jesus Christ is the killing and terminating power by which the disciple can say - "I am crucified with Christ". Something of the life of God degrades, decomposes, breaks up, discards the element of the fallen Adam in our living.

Praise the Lord for the zoedegradable old man in under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

If we let Christ work in us, wroughting Himself into us we will not nullify the wonderful grace of God to degrade and discard the fallen man we inherited from Adam's collapse into the sinning nature infesting us since Adam.