The context of those passages, as I recall, is basically that “Jesus is gonna come back any second now, so don’t bother with worldly concerns like marriage and making babies. Just devote your life to being a good Christian and leave the fornicating to the heathens, unless you absolutely can’t live without getting laid on the regular.” It’s hard to understate the degree to which the early church was basically a doomsday cult. They were certain that the Rapture was going to happen in their lifetimes, and that short time horizon had a big impact on how they thought their society should be organized.
Had a buddy at work like this. Whole family was staunch Southern Baptists. Having said that, they were some of the finest people I’ve ever known. Really.
We were talking religion one day and he brought up the, “Jesus coming back any minute” thing. I think we started on global warming, which he seemed to think was some sort of conspiracy, and in any case, didn’t matter because the world was ending soon.
“You realize contemporary Christians in Jesus’ time believed he was coming back at ‘any minute’? They expected him back in their lifetimes. It’s right there in the Bible. And so is the bit about not knowing the day or hour, ‘I will come like a thief in the night.’ Jesus’ own words. Do you not believe the man’s own words?”
“So don’t you think it’s kinda arrogant, thinking our generation is so special that Jesus will grace us? Cause people have been waiting for 2,000-years, thinking they were special, and they weren’t.”
Obviously that wasn’t the exact discussion, but I set out all those points at once. He was nonplussed, to say the least. Especially the part about “thief in the night” and not believing Jesus’ own words.
Anyway, I guess I’m rambling. But the only way to turn people around is a solid sit-down like him and I had. And notice I didn’t steam roll him with facts? I appealed to some emotion in there. (That doesn’t really come across in text.)
It very clearly says that marriage is okay.
The context of those passages, as I recall, is basically that “Jesus is gonna come back any second now, so don’t bother with worldly concerns like marriage and making babies. Just devote your life to being a good Christian and leave the fornicating to the heathens, unless you absolutely can’t live without getting laid on the regular.” It’s hard to understate the degree to which the early church was basically a doomsday cult. They were certain that the Rapture was going to happen in their lifetimes, and that short time horizon had a big impact on how they thought their society should be organized.
Had a buddy at work like this. Whole family was staunch Southern Baptists. Having said that, they were some of the finest people I’ve ever known. Really.
We were talking religion one day and he brought up the, “Jesus coming back any minute” thing. I think we started on global warming, which he seemed to think was some sort of conspiracy, and in any case, didn’t matter because the world was ending soon.
“You realize contemporary Christians in Jesus’ time believed he was coming back at ‘any minute’? They expected him back in their lifetimes. It’s right there in the Bible. And so is the bit about not knowing the day or hour, ‘I will come like a thief in the night.’ Jesus’ own words. Do you not believe the man’s own words?”
“So don’t you think it’s kinda arrogant, thinking our generation is so special that Jesus will grace us? Cause people have been waiting for 2,000-years, thinking they were special, and they weren’t.”
Obviously that wasn’t the exact discussion, but I set out all those points at once. He was nonplussed, to say the least. Especially the part about “thief in the night” and not believing Jesus’ own words.
Anyway, I guess I’m rambling. But the only way to turn people around is a solid sit-down like him and I had. And notice I didn’t steam roll him with facts? I appealed to some emotion in there. (That doesn’t really come across in text.)
Yeah, he says “look buddy, you can do it if you want, but I’m telling you right now, you won’t enjoy the trouble it brings you”.
Which is basically what my drunk divorced friend told me before I got married…