> -----Original Message-----
> From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
> On Behalf Of C. G. Estabrook
> Sent: Friday, December 17, 2004 4:34 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Re: Christians
>
> What, after all, does Christianity preach? What is the "good news" of
> Christianity? (Much of contemporary Christianity in America seems to be
> very bad news.) What did Jesus preach, according to our best historical
> records of first-century Judaism? The answer is, the coming of the kingdom
> of God (the kingdom of God not being a original notion with him), the
> situation in which "every tear is wiped away" (Isaiah) and all wrongs are
> righted.
>
> Christians are those who think that they do not have to take the meaning
> of their lives from the the present political and social arrangements, but
> from a "world to come," the kingdom of God, which they trust will come.
> The central Christian doctrine is the resurrection of the body -- Christ
> is "the first-born from among the dead" (Paul) --"as he is, so shall we
> be."
>
> The ethic that Christians take from this is not particularly optimistic;
> they say that if you do not love, you will not be alive, but if you love
> enough, you will be killed; but God will reverse the judgment of the
> world. The earliest extant Christian document describes Christians as
> "those who have hope," and that seems to me quite near the center of the
> gospel.
>
> The most committed, devoted Marxist, who firmly believes in the historical
> inevitability of the arrival of pure communism after the sacrifice of many
> generations -- still has the burden of thinking of all of those who died
> in agony (or simple meaninglessness) before that blessed state arrived.
> The Christians are less puritan: they want it all, and they want it
> forever, and for everybody.
>
> But, as the apostle Paul says, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith
> is futile and ... we are of all people most to be pitied." --CGE
>
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