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The Forum > Article Comments > On preaching > Comments

On preaching : Comments

By Peter Sellick, published 30/9/2008

There is a danger that in these days of the almost universal failure of the church, preaching becomes an exercise in damage control.

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netjunkie

You show wisdom beyond your years. You are spot on with the excesses in the me/prosperity stuff. The power is in the gospel. It is foolishness to those who are perishing but has the power to save and set free. I am sure that many who grew up in pentecostal/charismatic churches feel similar to you. Don't however discount that genuine miracles still happen today. There is a lot of flakey rubbish but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. God bless you richly. We need more like you who will only settle for the reality of Christ and not some subsitute. Learning to be content in whatever circumstances is the real key to prosperity. If we have food and clothing we should be content. If we have more than we need to be generous with it. If their is no eternal life/damnation the gospel makes no sense and Jesus is found to be a liar. A gospel without these truths is no genuine gospel.
Posted by runner, Wednesday, 1 October 2008 9:50:49 AM
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Foyle you are so right in your comments, all preachers preach about in any church or other place of worship is about the so called love etc of this unseen God and son, they never ever preach about the rape, incest, killing people, whether it be young or old, wars etc, yes! the Bible is a very violent book, it also was written be men so we are told who believed the world was flat, still if all you gullible people believe such rubbish I am very happy for you, when we die we will be the same as before we came, ie, knowing nothing of our being here, so will not miss anything.
Also there are quite a few hundred religions in the world. where do they fit into the one and only supposedly correct Christian religion, they are just as correct as any other delusional religion
Posted by Ojnab, Wednesday, 1 October 2008 2:22:46 PM
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Happiness is the now-and-forever Mystery that IS the Real Heart and the Only Real God of every one.

1. http://www.dabase.org/oltawwfh.htm

2. http://www.realgod.org

One wonders whether Sells is living in 2008 or 1908 or perhaps even 1808. His essay could very well have been written at either of those times.

And what about the overwhelming majority of the worlds people who are not "christian", or dont believe in the other childhood fairy stories that are part and parcel of the "jesus" meme---the tooth fairy, santa claus and the easter wabbit.

Children very quickly learn that these other three are not true--so why not, if you are in any sense rational, see through "sweet baby jesus" too? And throw it all away.

The Process that is True Religion begins with radical (meaning at the root) investigation of the nature of ones personal identity---what am I as a conscious being, even while asleep.

And what is my relationship to every thing and every one, or the entirety of manifest "creation" with all of its space-time pardoxes.
Again even while asleep.

Why asleep?

Who or what are "you" in the formless state of deep dreamless sleep?
Understanding who or what the "you" that is still somehow present while in the state of dreamless sleep is the key to understanding who or what "you" are altogether---before "you" fall into fearful identification with the mortal meat-body when you "wake-up"!!

Once having identified with the solidly defined meat-body personality (persona = false face) you have to invent a "creator"-god idea to justify and account for this "fall", and to help keep it all in "order" and to punish the trangressors or "sinners".

Meat-body personalities always create dis-orders of ever increasing magnitude.

And no amount of righteous sermonising, and appeals to the ancient TRIBAL CULTIC (genocidal) deity, is going to make the slightest bit of difference in 2008.
Posted by Ho Hum, Wednesday, 1 October 2008 2:28:49 PM
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netjunkie

It is obvious that the kingdom of Heaven/God that Jesus announced is an earthly reality that has the potential to return us to paradise, that is, the state legendarily of the garden of Eden. That is what Jesus meant when he turned to the repentant thief on the cross. It is also true that in the biblical imaginary there is no life outside of the body. That is why the resurrection is portrayed as the resurrection of a body and not of the presence of a spirit and also why Jesus bodily ascends to the Father. Of course this all produces problems with how we understand the nature of the world. What does it mean that Jesus sits bodily at the right hand of the Father? How does Jesus appear to the disciples in the closed room and then disappear if he is a body? The tensions in the text indicate that we are dealing here with theological legend but we are nevertheless to proclaim that Christ is risen and ascended, that is the centre of faith.

The other tack that is taken on this comes from the history of tradition. Israel had no place for life after death unless it was a dreary life of shades similar to that described in Greek legend. Israel looked for salvation of the self and the nation in this life, not one after death. This was modified under persecution in the intertestimental period when justice for suffering was seen as something in the future. However no idea of life after death was developed. See Maccabeus for this.

The idea of life after death came originally from Zoroastrians and such an infectious idea spread to Christianity and in the Middle ages became the principal focus. I think that this is a distortion of the gospel. Death is real death, real extinction, the loss of the self. This is not the end of the story because the church celebrates the communion of saints. Here we encounter yet more theological problems. What does it mean to say that death has lost its sting?

Peter Sellick
Posted by Sells, Thursday, 2 October 2008 10:24:51 AM
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Hmmm ... maybe we could sit in silence and listen for the still small voice, like Buddhists or Quakers. However I do like a good sermon if it's explaining something interesting - the last one I heard like that was from a rabbi in the synagogue explaining that God made the Jewish dietary laws as a half way house to us eventually becoming vegetarians.
Posted by Pedr Fardd, Monday, 6 October 2008 11:21:06 AM
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