Who the hell is Tim?

"Anyone...who does not keep to the sound teaching which is that of the Lord Jesus Christ...is simply ignorant and must be full of self-conceit, with a craze for questioning everything and arguing about words". 1 Tim 6:2

That's a quote from Rob's blog. I'll get to it a bit later in this post.

I only finished up doing 2 hours of violin practice yesterday because I had some slight trouble with my left hand. It seems to have come right, but I must be careful. However, I did spend quite a bit of time reorganising all the music for my twenty violin tunes. They are nice and tidy and in a folder now. I have most of them memorised, but I sometimes look back to check things. 

Okay, let's go back, who is Tim? Is he the same guy as Timothy? When I was young, we used to call our bottom our 'tim'. Okay, we did pronounce it a bit incorrectly.

It does appear that Robert is quoting Timothy.

I found this online:

1 Timothy 6:2 states: "And they that have believing masters must not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit."

To be honest, that didn't make a lot of sense to me. To be honest, Robert's quote was easier to understand.

I found this:

"Timothy is an important person in the Bible, known for his close relationship with the Apostle Paul. He appears in the New Testament, where he is featured in two letters Paul wrote to him, called First Timothy and Second Timothy."

Okay, let's read that quote again.

"Anyone...who does not keep to the sound teaching which is that of the Lord Jesus Christ...is simply ignorant and must be full of self-conceit, with a craze for questioning everything and arguing about words".

It appears that I'm ignorant and full of conceit. Yes, it is true that I do like to question things. I certainly am not a believer in taking things on faith. I like to check them out. I'm the same when I'm practising the violin.

I know I go on about the number of paedophiles who have 'served' in the Catholic church, but this church has a long history of violence. Remember the Spanish Inquisition? Witch hunts? The Crusades?

Pope Pius XII refused to publicly condemn the Nazi party.

In 1095, when Pope Urban II made a plea for war with Muslims, armies of Christians in Western Europe took up the charge. The pope promised serfs freedom if they went, galvanizing the masses. In the First Crusade, an army of peasants led by Peter the Hermit was massacred by the Turks. When an army of knights went after them and captured Jerusalem, it was said they slaughtered Muslims until the streets ran with blood.

Boniface VIII (1230-1303) was guilty of many horrible crimes that, sum total, make him seem like a sadistic Roman emperor. Among other things, he oversaw the complete destruction of Palestrina, a city that peacefully surrendered. Palestrina was completely razed, and Boniface ordered a plow driven over it to prove it had been reduced to nothing but earth and rubble.

"You know priests take a vow of celibacy, right? Apparently, Boniface VIII didn't take his too seriously. He once had a three-way with a married woman and her daughter but was even more well known for saying that having intercourse with young boys was as natural as rubbing one hand against the other. So, obviously, he was raping (or at least fornicating with) children."

And what of scholar William Tyndale? He was captured, tried for heresy for daring to translate the Bible, and burned at the stake. When church authorities decided that printing Bibles in English was okay, they borrowed a whole lot from Tyndale's translation. And never apologised.

Okay, the list of things goes on and on and on, but you probably get the idea.

Let's take a look at the ten commandments, evidently where morals came from.

Okay, the first four are all about toadying to this particular god. That leaves six commandments that are mainly just common sense. Though, I'm not too sure about number seven. That seems a bit tied into church rules.

Robert likes to talk about the importance of love. It is (or was) obviously often not in the church's plan. A god who threatens with places like Hell is not showing unconditional love. That's a fact! Think about it!

Okay, that's probably enough for this morning.

Don't waste your time thinking about sin. Think about what really makes you a good person. Is it all based on fear of a god? That's sad, if it is.

Sii gentile.