Let’s Play The Devil’s Advocate

[Jimmy]

Indulge me. Let’s say that the Catholic church decided to teach that “Jesus” was alive in the flesh on earth. Let’s say they started to teach that when Jesus dies, all of existence ends and that he will be reborn with a new existence along with all of us. My question is this. Would it bring hope and joy to Christians and would Christian followers worldwide grow in number or would Christianity loose its footing, followers and respect?

 

[Jimmy]

To be honest, I’m not sure which way people would go. That’s why I’m asking for people’s opinions here. Personally, I think this is a fascinating question.

 

[InChrist]

Indulge me. Let’s say that the Catholic church decided to teach that Jesus was alive in the flesh on earth. Let’s say they started to teach that when Jesus dies, all of existence ends and that he will be reborn with a new existence along with all of us. My question is this. Would it bring hope and joy to Christians and would Christian followers worldwide grow in number or would Christianity loose its footing, followers and respect?

It would be a lie.

 

[Jimmy]

It would be a lie.

Ok. I know you would leave the faith if the church started teaching that, but that doesn’t tell me much about how the masses would react. Do you have an opinion as to how the masses of Jesus followers would react?

 

[InChrist]

Ok. I know you would leave the faith if the church started teaching that, but that doesn’t tell me much about the masses though. Do you have an opinion as to how the masses of Jesus followers would react?

I would not leave the church, since I am no longer a Catholic. As a born again believer I am in the Body of Christ/His church and the faith forever.

My opinion is that those who are again believers would not believe such a blatant lie. Those masses outside of Christ would probably believe the deception and willingly follow the anti-Christ who will claim to be Christ.

 

[Jimmy]

I would not leave the church, since I am no longer a Catholic. As a born again believer I am in the Body of Christ/His church forever.

My opinion is that those who are again believers would not believe such a blatant lie. Those masses outside of Christ would probably believe the deception and willingly follow the anti-Christ who will claim to be Christ.

Thanks for sharing your personal position about being an again believer. Born again believers are considered part of the church whether they actually go to a physical church or not. Anyway, you open up a can of interesting worms. The church would not endorse any living man as Jesus Christ in my devils advocate scenario because they would be aware of the imposters that would surface in the light of the new teaching. Furthermore the wise church leaders would know that the true savior would never come forth as no one would believe him anyway.

 

[InChrist]

Thanks for sharing your personal position about being an again believer. Born again believers are considered part of the church whether they actually go to a physical church or not. Anyway, you open up a can of interesting worms. The church would not endorse any living man as Jesus Christ in my devils advocate scenario because they would be aware of the imposters that would surface in the light of the new teaching. Furthermore the wise church leaders would know that the true savior would never come forth as no one would believe him anyway.

I agree, born again believers are in the church, the invisible church wherever they are around the world. Church leaders have no need to announce Jesus Christ’s presence as He will make His presence abundantly clear to everyone when He comes in His glory.

 

[Jimmy]

I would not leave the church, since I am no longer a Catholic. As a born again believer I am in the Body of Christ/His church and the faith forever.

My opinion is that those who are again believers would not believe such a blatant lie. Those masses outside of Christ would probably believe the deception and willingly follow the anti-Christ who will claim to be Christ.

I think I misinterpreted your idea of the antichrist in my last response. I initially took it like you were referring to the anti christ as one man, but I now see that you view “my” antichrist as a “idea” of the belief in a Jesus in the flesh on earth. Gotcha. This opens up another interesting can of worms regarding the antichrist and how it’s defined in the Bible. If the church was to adopt my devils advocate scenario, they would have to revise the anti christ section in the Bible and I’m sure they would come up with something very eloquent so that they could bring forth their new outlook on Jesus and the fact that he lives in the flesh on earth.

So let’s say the church actually started to teach this. In your opinion, all of the antichrist followers would believe that Jesus was walking in the flesh on earth, and all of the true followers of Christ would believe that Jesus is waiting in heaven. I suppose that my side could say that your side were the ones being deceived. That actually opens up another can of interesting worms. The church leaders would have to start teaching that it was the people who believed that Christ was in heaven are the ones that are following the antichrist and that the true believers are the ones that knew Jesus was a real human being living amongst them. I guess there would be another denomination huh?

 

[Jimmy]

I agree, born again believers are in the church, the invisible church wherever they are around the world. Church leaders have no need to announce Jesus Christ’s presence as He will make His presence abundantly clear to everyone when He comes in His glory.

I think more importantly, he’s making his presence abundantly clear while he’s here in the flesh living amongst us.

 

[Jimmy]

More and more people are leaving Christianity while Islam is on the rise. If people would be willing to embrace what I have proposed maybe this is what Christianity needs.

 

[Jimmy]

I would not leave the church, since I am no longer a Catholic. As a born again believer I am in the Body of Christ/His church and the faith forever.

My opinion is that those who are again believers would not believe such a blatant lie. Those masses outside of Christ would probably believe the deception and willingly follow the anti-Christ who will claim to be Christ.

Let me ask you this. If people did believe this anti Christ idea, as you call it, why would that be a bad thing? Can you give specifics? I think a lot of people throw out the term antichrist and don’t even know what it is they’re defending against. I’m not saying that you don’t but if you could share some specifics with me, that would be great. Could it be the actual physical church, that you don’t attend, that you’re protecting by speaking against these so called anti christ ideas? If not, like I said, I would be interested to know of the specific bad things that would happen if the church were two start teaching my devils advocate idea. Thanks

 

[Jimmy]

I’m still waiting for a response @InChrist regarding the specific bad things that could happen if the church started to teach my proposed devils advocate idea.

 

[Jimmy]

Jesus spoke of false prophets in a book. The real “Jesus” that is alive in the flesh on earth right now is not one of those false prophets imo. Think about it. It’s fantasy vs. reality.

 

[Jimmy]

Do you think the real “savior” would ever tell anybody? Of course not. That’s why God gave us the biblical story of Jesus imo.