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whatlike_withacloth on scored.co
1 year ago0 points(+0/-0)1 child
Did you not read Vlad's comment?
>And inside the church are some White Christians who want to just sit on their asses, **let evil take over the world**
I think the past 50 years of marching to the Left while the feckless Right cedes ground in order to be "civilized" (i.e., completely idle) has given us a good recent picture of what the ramifications are.
If that doesn't work for you, how about an easy answer from St. James? "Faith without works is dead." Easy because you can extend that to any aspect of life.
"I'm a carpenter."
"Cool! Build me a tool shed."
"Nah."
"Pretty shitty carpenter."
Or from our Lord: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
So there are pretty clear consequences in this life and the next. As to Paul cautioning the Thessalonians specifically - a major point of being Christian is living a disciplined, Christian life in Jesus. Back to the carpenter example - if you're a lazy, whoring, drunken Thessalonian, you're not much of a Christian are you? Nothing changed, and to extend it forward to Christ's example, you're certainly not reaping souls for God.
And there are passages in Proverbs that warn against idleness as well, though they're less forthcoming with the consequences. If Scripture isn't your thing, you can always try being unproductive for long periods for yourself.
Sounds like you should talk to a priest or a pastor since you have so many questions. Maybe even a Director of Religious Education (DRE) at your local parish (though I've sometimes found them to be more squishy on the logic & reason than more advanced theologians).
As for me, I figure if evil takes over the world, then the world would become Hell, which isn't something I want to pass on to my descendants regardless of Jesus's return. So it's in my interest to work to prevent that. If the world goes to literal Hell (that is, consumed by evil), then Jesus's return would involve very little rapture and very much righteous judgment akin to Sodom and Gomorrah.
But the future explicitly hasn't been revealed to us - the certainty of our requirement to act explicitly has. So the divine reasons as well as the human reasons to secure a good future are what I'm going with.
\* Oh shocker, this wasn't a good faith discussion. Maybe my Advent fast of not commenting on the internet just needs to be a full time fast. Or maybe I'll take a more stoic approach and just be more discerning when I know someone is asking questions in bad faith.
>And inside the church are some White Christians who want to just sit on their asses, **let evil take over the world**
I think the past 50 years of marching to the Left while the feckless Right cedes ground in order to be "civilized" (i.e., completely idle) has given us a good recent picture of what the ramifications are.
If that doesn't work for you, how about an easy answer from St. James? "Faith without works is dead." Easy because you can extend that to any aspect of life.
"I'm a carpenter."
"Cool! Build me a tool shed."
"Nah."
"Pretty shitty carpenter."
Or from our Lord: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
So there are pretty clear consequences in this life and the next. As to Paul cautioning the Thessalonians specifically - a major point of being Christian is living a disciplined, Christian life in Jesus. Back to the carpenter example - if you're a lazy, whoring, drunken Thessalonian, you're not much of a Christian are you? Nothing changed, and to extend it forward to Christ's example, you're certainly not reaping souls for God.
And there are passages in Proverbs that warn against idleness as well, though they're less forthcoming with the consequences. If Scripture isn't your thing, you can always try being unproductive for long periods for yourself.
As for me, I figure if evil takes over the world, then the world would become Hell, which isn't something I want to pass on to my descendants regardless of Jesus's return. So it's in my interest to work to prevent that. If the world goes to literal Hell (that is, consumed by evil), then Jesus's return would involve very little rapture and very much righteous judgment akin to Sodom and Gomorrah.
But the future explicitly hasn't been revealed to us - the certainty of our requirement to act explicitly has. So the divine reasons as well as the human reasons to secure a good future are what I'm going with.
\* Oh shocker, this wasn't a good faith discussion. Maybe my Advent fast of not commenting on the internet just needs to be a full time fast. Or maybe I'll take a more stoic approach and just be more discerning when I know someone is asking questions in bad faith.