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Fun With Dan. Whoever That Is...?

May 03, 2006

I received this e-mail this morning when I arrived at work. (keep in mind I had to edit out some language)

From: Dan L

You talk about how Jesus Your Lord and Savior(TM) was the only Christian
ever not to be a hypocrite. Newsflash, self-deprecating (blankety, blank), Jesus was a Jew. The one thing Jesus wouldn't be today, is Christian.

Oh, by the way. If he came back, what do you think would happen to him? He'd
be thrown in the loony bin. He was just another crackpot. A well-meaning,
highly-intelligent-misunderstood-and-misquoted-by-you-Christians crackpot,
but a crackpot nonetheless. There are certainly wonderful Christians, but
you're a hypocrite, and a poor excuse for a person. I wonder if you'd still
retain your faith if you knew that Jesus didn't say half the things the
Bible says he did (Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone- thrown in
there 500 years after his death); and most of the good things he DID say
were taken out by you people in order to suppress what you felt as
potentially harmful.

After I took a moment to chuckle to myself at the absurdity of such an e-mail I then racked my brain trying to figure out what I did to ole Dan to make him so mad. I guess it is something I said on my blog.

I think it is interesting that he calls Jesus a Christian, which is something that I have heard before but it seems to be to be a slight misunderstanding about who Jesus really was. I think that many people who don't quite know a whole lot about Christianity (just enough to be dangerous) think of Jesus as the first Christian, but to me that makes little sense. "Christian" is a term originally used by Greeks or Romans to describe followers of Jesus and it became a universally accepted term used only three times in the New Testament and never to refer to Jesus. The term Christian implies being "Christlike" or a follower of Christ and so to me it wouldn't make sense to call Jesus a Christian and in much of the same way it wouldn't make sense to call people in the Old Testament Christians since Jesus had not yet come. I do agree with the statement "The one thing Jesus wouldn't be today, is Christian", otherwise that would make him a follower and believer of himself and really what is the point of trying to be Christ-like if you are Christ already?

I also took a moment to think about this question that Dan asks, "If he came back, what do you think would happen to him?" Dan concludes that he would be thrown into the loony bin as an intelligent crackpot, but I think that if Jesus came back it would more or less prove that he is God, seeing how it has been a couple thousand years since he was physically on earth and therefore I don't think he would be in the loony bin at all since it would be obvious that he is over two thousand years old and still alive. My guess is that he probably didn't mean "what if he came back" but instead what if he came in our day and age with the same ideas that he had back then, but since he didn't really say that I had fun with it anyway.

Normally when I get angry e-mails I simply pass them off and go about my business, but the one today I just decided to think about longer than I probably should have. I would like to know some of the sources that brought Dan to his conclusions about Jesus and I would like to know why he directed his hateful banter my way, but maybe I should just count it a blessing that even after e-mails such as these my faith in Jesus does not falter but grows stronger as I think more on Jesus Christ and his sacrifice.

Comments

Posted by: Sarah Schreffler
May 3, 2006 02:45 PM

Ah. But we already KNOW what is going to happen when Christ comes back. (I agree with you about Christ not being a Christian. Unless the very fact that one is X also makes one X-like. From the other standpoint, it's kind of odd to think of Christ believing in himself.)

Romans 14:11
Philippians 2:10,11
Isaiah 45:23

Posted by: Theway2k
May 3, 2006 08:31 PM

Poor Dan. That is a guy who needs the wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of who Jesus Christ and what the Lord has done for him.

Posted by: Christopher
May 3, 2006 09:38 PM

I agree with Dan. Argh. Oh and who trademarked Jesus Christ? Pure genius.

Posted by: Holly Hobbie
May 11, 2006 01:13 PM

Christopher and Dan ? How do you know Jesus didn't say what the bible says he said back then ? What philosopher did you hear that from ? Where you and the Philosopher(s) alive back in Jesus's days ?

Just curious

Posted by: Christopher
May 13, 2006 10:18 PM

Whoops, forgot to use my sarcasm tag.