Why Are Protestants So Fixed On The Resurrected Jesus?

[jeffpugh]

[quote name='Budge' post='1357978' date='Aug 13 2007, 07:43 AM']Lets say your best friend, is beaten bloody, but somehow survives....{not equated Jesus resurrection with chance but youll see what I mean}

You spend time with your friend, and he comes over to your house and notices you have new gold-lilt frame pictures on the wall, they are of him bleeding, broken and laying in the alley where the gang beat the tar out of him, police photos that you got a hold of.

Is this showing love for your friend?

{the answer is NO}

After I was born again, and came into an actual relationship with Jesus Christ, knowing and loving Him, I ripped down the crucifix I owned and later threw it in the trash can. Same as I would rip down the above police photos. I know what Jesus Christ suffered for me but know that by rising again, He had victory over sin and death. That is one thing that creeps me out about Catholic crucifixes [b]they ALL SHOW JESUS dead [/b]with his head slumped over. I think they are satanic.

[img]http://gary2idaho.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/crucifix-full1.jpg[/img][/quote]
The problem with this, Budge is that Christ took on suffering for us. He fully, willingly chose to have himself like this. He even let Thomas touch his wounds after. He is not afraid to show them. So why should anyone else not be able to see them? Namely, people 2000 years later.

[Socrates]

[quote][b]but we proclaim Christ crucified[/b], a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles[/quote]1 Corinthians 1:23

For a "Bible Christian," it's amazing how much of the Bible Budge simply ignores.

[T-Bone _]

[quote name='Budge' post='1357978' date='Aug 13 2007, 05:43 AM']After I was born again, and came into an actual relationship with Jesus Christ, knowing and loving Him, I ripped down the crucifix I owned and later threw it in the trash can.[/quote]

Haven't you said previously that you fell away from the Church for years before you were "born again"? Why would you still have a crucifix on your wall?

[quote]I know what Jesus Christ suffered for me but know that by rising again, He had victory over sin and death. That is one thing that creeps me out about Catholic crucifixes [b]they ALL SHOW JESUS dead [/b]with his head slumped over. I think they are satanic.

[img]http://gary2idaho.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/crucifix-full1.jpg[/img][/quote]

If they're satanic, then why do you insist on posting images of a crucifix? Aren't you propagating Satan's works?

[desertwoman]

I think yall have this one covered, but we focus on Christ resurrected because he conquered death. No longer are we held to the law, but we are saved by the blood of Christ! This is why we focus on Christ resurrected more, than the suffering Christ.

[T-Bone _]

[quote name='desertwoman' post='1358786' date='Aug 14 2007, 01:39 PM']I think yall have this one covered, but we focus on Christ resurrected because he conquered death. No longer are we held to the law, [b]but we are saved by the blood of Christ! [/b] This is why we focus on Christ resurrected more, than the suffering Christ.[/quote]

Without the suffering Christ, there would be no blood of Christ to be saved by.

[thessalonian]

[quote name='desertwoman' post='1358786' date='Aug 14 2007, 03:39 PM']I think yall have this one covered, but we focus on Christ resurrected because he conquered death. No longer are we held to the law, but we are saved by the blood of Christ! This is why we focus on Christ resurrected more, than the suffering Christ.[/quote]


Why does it have to be one over the other. There is no resurrection without first taking up the cross and dying. They all have their place in the path of salvation. The cross as a symbol is valuable for us because it represents our lives. Sometimes we are carrying a cross and sometimes we are even dying on it. A crusifix tells us that as bad as we have it someone had it worse and knows our pain more than Bill Clinton. It is a symbol of perseverence to the nth degree. Of course we look forward to the resurrection afterward! That is our hope. AMEN!

[cappie]

When I look upon the crucifix I like to think of the following by William Penn:

"No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown."

[desertwoman]

I have no qualms with the crucifix, and focusing on Christ's passion. I guess the misunderstanding between us is that we both think that we are leaving out the other. Protestants think that you are leaving out the conquering of death, and Catholics think that we are leaving out Christ's redemptive suffering for our sins.

[thessalonian]

[quote name='desertwoman' post='1358816' date='Aug 14 2007, 05:01 PM']I have no qualms with the crucifix, and focusing on Christ's passion. I guess the misunderstanding between us is that we both think that we are leaving out the other. Protestants think that you are leaving out the conquering of death, and Catholics think that we are leaving out Christ's redemptive suffering for our sins.[/quote]

Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. How can it be any more clear. We say this at every single mass.

[Starets]

Non sequitur, budge. Again

A cross without a bearer is a burden without a reliever

[desertwoman]

[quote name='thessalonian' post='1358824' date='Aug 14 2007, 06:39 PM']Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. How can it be any more clear. We say this at every single mass.[/quote]


Right on. We believe the same thing, so whats the dilly o?

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='Terra Firma' post='1357725' date='Aug 12 2007, 10:07 PM']Yeah ... so that's why. They think we focus too much on Jesus' sacrifice and not enough on the resurrection, pointing to these verses. That was a major Protestant criticism of "The Passion".

However, most Protestant churches have a paltry understanding of suffering. We need to view the suffering and resurrection of Christ in tandem; for it is through his suffering that we can become like Christ and be raised with him.[/quote]

"When I came to you, brothers, proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified." - 1 Cor 2:1-2

That's my best answer to accusations that we focus too much on Christ crucified.

[Sojourner]

[quote name='Raphael' post='1359246' date='Aug 15 2007, 12:03 PM']"When I came to you, brothers, proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified." - 1 Cor 2:1-2

That's my best answer to accusations that we focus too much on Christ crucified.[/quote]
I find in the Catholic Church a balanced approach, dealing with the totality of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ, each of which is an essential component of our faith. "Focusing" on any of them to the exclusion or diminution of the others is a faulty understanding of faith. Not that there isn't a time to contemplate suffering and a time to contemplate resurrection, but it is a complete package. I love how every week we are to celebrate a mini-Good Friday through Easter, thinking through the Passion and Resurrection of Christ.

I think it's clear from looking at the Church calendar and listening to every Mass in which the mystery of faith is proclaimed that we have an overall balanced view of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ.

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='Terra Firma' post='1359270' date='Aug 15 2007, 01:53 PM']I find in the Catholic Church a balanced approach, dealing with the totality of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ, each of which is an essential component of our faith. "Focusing" on any of them to the exclusion or diminution of the others is a faulty understanding of faith. Not that there isn't a time to contemplate suffering and a time to contemplate resurrection, but it is a complete package. I love how every week we are to celebrate a mini-Good Friday through Easter, thinking through the Passion and Resurrection of Christ.

I think it's clear from looking at the Church calendar and listening to every Mass in which the mystery of faith is proclaimed that we have an overall balanced view of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ.[/quote]
Oh, of course I agree. Certainly, in fact, St. Paul wasn't saying that he preached the Cross of Christ apart from the Resurrection. They simply can't be divided or else the entire ethic, the dynamism, the mystery, the sacramental nature, and the concept of divine love itself collapse.

[Sojourner]

[quote name='Raphael' post='1359274' date='Aug 15 2007, 12:57 PM']Oh, of course I agree. Certainly, in fact, St. Paul wasn't saying that he preached the Cross of Christ apart from the Resurrection. They simply can't be divided or else the entire ethic, the dynamism, the mystery, the sacramental nature, and the concept of divine love itself collapse.[/quote]
I knew you agreed. I was just augmenting.


My view on the whole Protestant take on the suffering of Christ is that a) I think that there is some level of aversion to contemplating and participating in the sufferings of Christ, and b) I think it is rooted in anti-Catholicism. I don't say this to be argumentative but I do think there is a widespread unwillingness to meditate on Christ's sufferings. This is not, obviously, going to be true for every single Protestant or every single denomination, but it is there. And I think it comes from the rejection of Catholicism and the Crucifix as a Catholic symbol.