To love one another? Followers or strangers? (Page 2)

Zanjan: You need not be a spin doctor - I've explained how the teachings were applied by Jesus. If He had meant that every individual or sick individual should be taught Christianity, He'd have said so. He directed them to teach the Jews first, then the Gentiles. That priority could be applied to ethnicity/race, don't you think?

Jesus never left Israel; instead, He dispatched His Apostles to do the above.

If you want some other model, maybe pick a different Prophet, ok?

To love one another *should* mean to love all mankind. Christ told His followers to love "as I have loved you".

Normally, how we express love depends on what the others are doing and want. However, God's love is unconditional love - it's an *intelligence* based on unity of divine motivation. This was the love with which Jesus loved.

Christians didn't get that far, they're still chewing on brotherly love, a *feeling* and have no notion of what that unity means. They should be taught, not by preaching but by example.

Teaching isn't necessarily loving. Christians believe it's a duty. The reason there's so many crappy teachers out there is want of knowledge and ignorance; particularly, the belief that teaching will buy them a ticket to heaven.

S W l N E:
Quote your scripture.

Quote a scripture denying the scriptures I quoted and only then will you get a cookie.

Zanjan: I don't quote my scriptures on Wire. If anyone here is interested, I direct them to the official Baha'i website.

Zanjan: On the other hand, if you meant quote *Biblical* scripture, you already did, including one referencing error. Were you talking to somebody else? I already have a cookie.

Personally, I cant begin to list the places in the Bible that mention the people who don't know God (atheists); but you could try Thessalonians to see how God deals with them in the Christian era.

S W l N E:
I see no scripture verses quoted or referenced.

Then you have no scriptural basis for your scriptural claims.

Noted.

Zanjan: Thessalonians 1 & 2 aren't scriptural references? Did you think that was a Greek port city?

S W l N E: Verse?

Zanjan: Oh, now you want God to talk in a single sentence? Is that because you find essays defeating?

S W l N E: Oh wait. Read it and nothing in it supports your claim.

Zanjan: What claim was that?

S W l N E:
Zanjan states: "Swine, "all nations" technically means all *tribes* or *countries* - not all people."

Zanjan: You only need an English dictionary to confirm the meaning.

S W l N E:
Nation
noun
"a large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular state or territory."

Zanjan: Nation - Noun

" a large body of people, associated with a particular territory, that is sufficiently conscious of its unity to seek or to possess a government peculiarly its own:

2.the territory or country itself:

3. a member tribe of an American Indian confederation.

4. an aggregation of persons of the same ethnic family, often speaking the same language or cognate languages."
(Dictionary.com)


"People" means a number of individuals; whereas, *A People* is more clearly defined as above. Atheists and individuals don't fit that description.

S W l N E:
Atheists are not people?

S W l N E:
Is your new argument that the command "teach all nations..." meant not teaching all people within those nations?

I think you should think over the points you're arguing, Zanjan.

Zanjan: Hey, it's not my fault God doesn't like atheists. I think you should think over why He would even want to do them any favours. What do they do for HIM? Nada. Let them eat cake.

Zanjan: Dry, stale, cake crumbs.

Zanjan: With mold. Enrobed in cat hair.

S W l N E:
As I said, I think you should think over the points you're arguing.

If your big rebuttal to "teach all nations" is that it means actually nations and not people within those nations, some of who will be atheists and non-Christians.

Zanjan: It's your kind of thinking that started Mormons baptizing dead relatives, regardless of what those relatives thought.

S W l N E:
So, it seems you have no logical rebuttal or scriptural passage to refute my statements. Good. Carry on with your rumbling.

Zanjan: Your statements are self-refuting.

calybonos: My statements are self-serving because I'm too cheap to tip.

S W l N E: Now the scripture quoted is self-refuting. Fair enough. Stick to talking about cat hair and cake crumbs.