This is a thread I have been wanting to write, but it needed to come from a place of logic and truth and not just words. It is yet another one of my Christianity threads. However, this one will really focus on politicians that use Christianity to attain power.

We have politicians who in one tweet say very divisive words like “radical left” and their next tweet is a Bible quote, think Rubio. I have explained in the past that many Americans call themselves Christians based upon the fact that that they are white and American only. “I am
an American and a proud Christian.” This is Christian nationalism. They don’t actually follow Jesus or what he represents. It’s the same as someone who is born in Iraq, they are Muslim based upon it being the predominant religion of the country. There are those that practice
their religion and others that do not.
But what I want to highlight is the evil that comes from those who only use a religion for power. And it really highlights two things.
1. Evil using religion
2. The literal meaning of the Bible.
Now theologians and Biblical scholars
state that the Bible isn’t literal. It’s what they study. But we have evangelicals who say that it is a literal word of God. But there are issues here. They don’t take the whole Bible literal, they choose parts to take literally. But here’s the issue. If these people say we must
read the Bible literally. They are ignoring Jesus. Because Jesus wouldn’t take Biblical scripture literally. Here’s how. Satan also read scripture to Jesus. Satan tried to push the literal meaning of the Bible to tempt Jesus. In Satan’s third temptation, he quotes scripture
to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'” The devil asks Jesus to test
these Biblical promises of angelic protection by throwing himself down from the pinnacle of the temple. In other words, if Jesus has real faith, then he will prove it by taking these promises literally, right here and right now. If Jesus has real faith in God, then he’ll
demonstrate that faith by taking God at his word, right?

I’m reminded here of the question that parents so often pose to their children to steel them against peer pressure: “Would you jump off a cliff if so-and-so told you to?” Perhaps a similar question could be posed to
Christians: “Would you jump off a cliff if the Bible told you to?” Fortunately, Jesus’ faith does not depend on blindly following and testing literal interpretations of Bible verses. Jesus’ faith rests on so much more. Jesus responds to the devil with another Biblical
quotation, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” For Jesus, faith is not about memorizing Bible verses and subjecting their literal truth to extreme tests. For Jesus, faith is not a dependence on proving Biblical texts true or false. A faith like that would plunge us
headlong from the pinnacle of the temple to the ground.

For Jesus, faith is about figuring out how to live not with testable certainty, but with trust.
Today’s gospel shows us that the devil knows how to use Scripture verses in combat, so we need something more than Bible
verses in order to survive the devil’s assaults. What Christians need is to live, as Jesus did, with a radical trust in God. A trust that lives not by bread alone, not by acquiring power, not by having something to prove. A trust that lets all of these needs and compulsions go.
Now I will state again. I am not a Christian. But I do study Christianity. What I’ve learnt is that good people will find good from the Bible and evil people will find evil from the Bible. If you hate, you will find hate to justify your hate and your evil.

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I'm going to do two history threads on Ethiopia, one on its ancient history, one on its modern story (1800 to today). 🇪🇹

I'll begin with the ancient history ... and it goes way back. Because modern humans - and before that, the ancestors of humans - almost certainly originated in Ethiopia. 🇪🇹 (sub-thread):


The first likely historical reference to Ethiopia is ancient Egyptian records of trade expeditions to the "Land of Punt" in search of gold, ebony, ivory, incense, and wild animals, starting in c 2500 BC 🇪🇹


Ethiopians themselves believe that the Queen of Sheba, who visited Israel's King Solomon in the Bible (c 950 BC), came from Ethiopia (not Yemen, as others believe). Here she is meeting Solomon in a stain-glassed window in Addis Ababa's Holy Trinity Church. 🇪🇹


References to the Queen of Sheba are everywhere in Ethiopia. The national airline's frequent flier miles are even called "ShebaMiles". 🇪🇹
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