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John 6:60-69 After hearing his doctrine many of the followers of Jesus said, ‘This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?’ Jesus was aware that his followers were complaining about it and said, ‘Does this upset you? What if you should see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh has nothing to offer. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.’ ‘But there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the outset those who did not believe, and who it was that would betray him. He went on, ‘This is why I told you that no one could come to me unless the Father allows him.’ After this, many of his disciples left him and stopped going with him. Then Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God.’
Many of the disciples walked away after hearing what Jesus taught. In the passage above the doctrine that Jesus taught was about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Today many treat the passage as a simile that would offend no one. Back when Jesus said the words his disciples did not treat it that way.
In the many centuries since that time other doctrines have been an occasion for people to walk away. "Hell fire" is one such doctrine. There are entire religions and some denominations that walk away from "hell fire". For many reasons people are offended at the idea that God would punish the wicked eternally. They say it would contradict the teaching that God is Love. They say it is cruel. Some have even gone on to walk away from the idea of an immortal soul and think of death as unconscious sleep for the soul and hell-fire as a lake burning with fires into which the wicked are cast and consumed by the fires but the process allegedly takes a finite time and the punishment is 'eternal' only in the sense that it is final and irrevocable.
Some in more recent times have walked away from the doctrine of baptism making baptism into a public proclamation of one's personal faith despite what Jesus says Nicodemus in Saint John's gospel and what saint Paul writes in his letters about baptism. Some have gone on to separate the Holy Spirit's work of regeneration from baptism with water and invented a new baptism which is variously called "Baptism of the Spirit" and "Baptism with the Spirit". Whole denominations and movements have been born from that walk away from what is written in the holy scriptures.
Of course the people in the denominations that walked away have plenty of theology and many verses from holy scripture to defend the new doctrines that arose from walking away.
Many of the disciples walked away after hearing what Jesus taught. In the passage above the doctrine that Jesus taught was about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Today many treat the passage as a simile that would offend no one. Back when Jesus said the words his disciples did not treat it that way.
In the many centuries since that time other doctrines have been an occasion for people to walk away. "Hell fire" is one such doctrine. There are entire religions and some denominations that walk away from "hell fire". For many reasons people are offended at the idea that God would punish the wicked eternally. They say it would contradict the teaching that God is Love. They say it is cruel. Some have even gone on to walk away from the idea of an immortal soul and think of death as unconscious sleep for the soul and hell-fire as a lake burning with fires into which the wicked are cast and consumed by the fires but the process allegedly takes a finite time and the punishment is 'eternal' only in the sense that it is final and irrevocable.
Some in more recent times have walked away from the doctrine of baptism making baptism into a public proclamation of one's personal faith despite what Jesus says Nicodemus in Saint John's gospel and what saint Paul writes in his letters about baptism. Some have gone on to separate the Holy Spirit's work of regeneration from baptism with water and invented a new baptism which is variously called "Baptism of the Spirit" and "Baptism with the Spirit". Whole denominations and movements have been born from that walk away from what is written in the holy scriptures.
Of course the people in the denominations that walked away have plenty of theology and many verses from holy scripture to defend the new doctrines that arose from walking away.
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