Jack Chick Tracts - Read here!

[Steven_R]

Were you pre-Vatican II? Our nuns pointed out that the most accurate translation of what Jesus said was, "Gnaw on this..." meaning picture an animal gnawing on the flesh of its kill. Jesus was serious about, "Eat my flesh, drink my blood."

Joe, I know you don't take it seriously, but Christ did--and so do practicing Catholics.

My Catholic upbringing was from 1968 to 1980. In 1983, my mom died of cancer and a nun said it was part of "God's Plan".

Pretty much done with Catholicism after that, except to viciously mock it at every oppurtunity.

God moves in mysterious, dickish ways.

 

[Meriweather]

Do you believe God promised the land to the Israelites?

No, I don't. I don't think there is a God, and frankly, even if there were, it seems to me kind of silly that he would have a 14 billion year plan to create a universe and then take time out of his busy schedule to torment a bunch of goat-herders in Palestine.

The story/history recounted in Joshua is how the Israelites see God fulfilling a promise He made to them. Their victories they credit to God. As Christians, we cannot but help contrast the Messiah we accepted to the one the Jews were expecting to overthrow the Romans and their other enemies in much the same way as Joshua did the earlier inhabitants of Judea. David, too, was a warrior king, and Jews expect the Messiah to be the same.

Jesus focused on the idea that God is more concerned with an individual's life than He is for the life of any nation.

 

[Meriweather]

My Catholic upbringing was from 1968 to 1980. In 1983, my mom died of cancer and a nun said it was part of "God's Plan".

Pretty much done with Catholicism after that, except to viciously mock it at every oppurtunity.

That's right, I remember now, I'm sorry you had to jog my memory. You had also told me then that the nuns who taught you didn't seem to be affected by Vatican II.

There is a little girl who lost her father over the summer. It is not nuns, but still other well-intended friends and their parents who try to offer comfort by reminding her that her daddy is in heaven. She said recently, "I want people to STOP telling me Daddy is in heaven. I don't want Daddy to be in heaven. I want him to be here, with me." She now sees heaven as preventing her dad from being with her.

I can understand that. Like her, like you, like most people who have suffered great grief, we understand there is not one single thing a person can say to make things better. But people, being people (and kind people at that) can't help but try to comfort. As a grown-up, I can recognize and accept that--but children expect better.

Children are not impressed by a Supreme Being who allows them to be hurt by a parent, whether through death or live parental actions. Children know they deserve more love than they are receiving.

 

[Toro]

Why would God have a chosen people?

Seems awfully petty and narrow-minded.

 

[MaxGrit]

Let's look at some testimonies of people who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and were saved after finding and / or reading Jack Chick tracts!

Here s why Christians say Chick Tracts get read
Chick tracts are everywhere
One constant throughout my life is those pesky little Chick tracts that I seemed to find no matter where in the world I went! Even when I was stationed in Japan, there they were. By His grace I am found at last. Thank you for being there all of my life.
E-Mail

Pastors love Chick tracts
I'm a pastor. I was saved in jail in 1984 after reading a Chick tract! E-Mail

Over twenty years ago my brother and his wife gave me several of your tracts. After reading THIS WAS YOUR LIFE! the Holy Spirit convicted me so strongly that I knelt down at the foot of the bed and repented of my sins and confessed Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Alabama

Your tracts have helped me win dozens of souls to Jesus here in St. Peter. Florida

Your tracts planted the seed that led me to Christ. I was saved after seeing tons of tracts laying all over Wal-Mart while working, shopping, etc. California

I came to Christ out of a totally heathen background and one of the most instrumental ministries in my life was a Chick tract given to me by my brother. Texas

nice

 

[Toro]

Why would God - the most powerful being in the universe who created, you know, the universe - be so insecure that He expects us to worship Him?

 

[Meriweather]

Why would God have a chosen people?

Seems awfully petty and narrow-minded.

This is not a case of God choosing some of His creation and rejecting others. Rather, it is more like a parent choosing one child to clear the table. The Jews were selected for a special task. The Bible also tells of foreigners--non-Jews--also being chosen by God for certain tasks.

 

[Meriweather]

Why would God - the most powerful being in the universe who created, you know, the universe - be so insecure that He expects us to worship Him?

The greatest Commandment say to love God with all that is in us. God loves us, he created us to love and to be loved. The second is like it--to love one another just as much as we love and care for ourselves. Our Creator is not after something for Himself--He wants to present us with the greatest gift we can give each other.

 

[JoeB131]

God moves in mysterious, dickish ways.

or he doesn't exist, and he's just something dickish people made up to get control over less smart people.

Frankly, that makes a lot more sense to me.

 

[JoeB131]

My Catholic upbringing was from 1968 to 1980. In 1983, my mom died of cancer and a nun said it was part of "God's Plan".

Pretty much done with Catholicism after that, except to viciously mock it at every oppurtunity.

That's right, I remember now, I'm sorry you had to jog my memory. You had also told me then that the nuns who taught you didn't seem to be affected by Vatican II.

There is a little girl who lost her father over the summer. It is not nuns, but still other well-intended friends and their parents who try to offer comfort by reminding her that her daddy is in heaven. She said recently, "I want people to STOP telling me Daddy is in heaven. I don't want Daddy to be in heaven. I want him to be here, with me." She now sees heaven as preventing her dad from being with her.

I can understand that. Like her, like you, like most people who have suffered great grief, we understand there is not one single thing a person can say to make things better. But people, being people (and kind people at that) can't help but try to comfort. As a grown-up, I can recognize and accept that--but children expect better.

Children are not impressed by a Supreme Being who allows them to be hurt by a parent, whether through death or live parental actions. Children know they deserve more love than they are receiving.

I think you miss my point entirely. Sister Mary Butch didn't offend me by saying that my mom was in heaven.

That nasty old dyke offended me because she implied the horrid suffering my mom went through (she fought cancer for nearly a year) was part of "God's Plan". That's what made me want to smash her fucking head into the nearest wall. That and a bunch of incidents involving wooden rulers.

I get people die. What I don't like is churches fucking with people's heads by telling them there's some heaven of sunshine and puppies in order to get them to do what they want.

 

[JoeB131]

The story/history recounted in Joshua is how the Israelites see God fulfilling a promise He made to them. Their victories they credit to God. As Christians, we cannot but help contrast the Messiah we accepted to the one the Jews were expecting to overthrow the Romans and their other enemies in much the same way as Joshua did the earlier inhabitants of Judea. David, too, was a warrior king, and Jews expect the Messiah to be the same.

Jesus focused on the idea that God is more concerned with an individual's life than He is for the life of any nation.

So God apparently couldn't fulfill a promise that didn't involve Genocide? The Genocide's okay, because God promised us this land. and if they go about genociding the people who live in Palestine today, that's okay too. Oh, wait, no, they are totally doing that.

You see, this is why I have no use for the God of the Bible. At the end of the say, he's a complete prick.

 

[Meriweather]

I think you miss my point entirely. Sister Mary Butch didn't offend me by saying that my mom was in heaven.

That nasty old dyke offended me because she implied the horrid suffering my mom went through (she fought cancer for nearly a year) was part of "God's Plan".

The nuns that taught me had different insights. In this life, the question is not whether we will suffer, the question is, How will we suffer. There is no question that we will all face dark valleys where evil surrounds us--but even during those times God will be close by when we suffer through the realities of this life--injury, illness, poverty, loss, heartbreak. God deals in reality, not magic. I learned that "God's Plan" is to be with us during bad times as well as good. God's will for us is eternal life.

As far as an eternal life of sunshine and puppies being promoted for the purpose of manipulating people: A far better understanding is that a wondrous eternal life is open to all--and no one can prevent someone from entering it, no person is powerful enough to stand in anyone's way. No one can take it from you.

 

[Meriweather]

So God apparently couldn't fulfill a promise that didn't involve Genocide? The Genocide's okay, because God promised us this land. and if they go about genociding the people who live in Palestine today, that's okay too. Oh, wait, no, they are totally doing that.

You see, this is why I have no use for the God of the Bible.

The single thing we need to know and accept about God, is that He is a being of love. With that knowledge or insight, reading through the Bible is an entirely different experience. We can then see where God is actually speaking--and where (as you seem to have experienced in your own life) man is using God and what, "God says" to further their own agendas.

In the story of the Amalekites, we see the priests who are probably very sincere about their charge to keep God's people set apart and away from the idolatrous influences of the Amalekites. The only way the priests seem to know how to do keep Jews from being influenced by Amalekite ways was to kill off all the Amalekites, because after all, God did say the people did need to be set apart. Instead of trusting the Jewish people (not to mention God), the priests seemed to have taken on the role of their baby sitters.

A question that cannot be answered thousands of years later about the capture and killing in the Promised Land, is one that Christ asked his Apostles during the storm, the one he asked Peter when Peter attempted to walk on water: Why the doubt? Why did the Israelites doubt that God could not fulfill His promise unless they helped Him along by slaughtering the current residents?

Mankind's problem has always been trying to improve upon God's plans. We constantly need reminding to start over again: Love God with all our being; love our fellowman with that same love we have of self. Clearly the Israelites, under Joshua, failed at the second. Perhaps this is why, down through the ages, the Israelites, to this day, have always had trouble hanging on to their gift?

 

[JoeB131]

HOld on, after that last post, I need to break out my hip-waders.

n the story of the Amalekites, we see the priests who are probably very sincere about their charge to keep God's people set apart and away from the idolatrous influences of the Amalekites. The only way the priests seem to know how to do keep Jews from being influenced by Amalekite ways was to kill off all the Amalekites, because after all, God did say the people did need to be set apart. Instead of trusting the Jewish people (not to mention God), the priests seemed to have taken on the role of their baby sitters.

Okay, here's the problem with that. The "Priests" didn't decide to slaughter the Amalekites- GOD did.

God ordered their slaughter. In fact, God withdrew his blessing from Saul because Saul wasn't slaughtering them completely. He actually - gasp - kept some of their best cattle.

"2 Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. 3 Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey." (1 Sam. 15:2-3).

Mankind's problem has always been trying to improve upon God's plans. We constantly need reminding to start over again: Love God with all our being; love our fellowman with that same love we have of self. Clearly the Israelites, under Joshua, failed at the second. Perhaps this is why, down through the ages, the Israelites, to this day, have always had trouble hanging on to their gift?

Well, I think when Mankind decided that slavery, homophobia, racism and genocide were all terrible ideas, we totally improved on God's Plan.

 

[Dot Com]

The story/history recounted in Joshua is how the Israelites see God fulfilling a promise He made to them. Their victories they credit to God. As Christians, we cannot but help contrast the Messiah we accepted to the one the Jews were expecting to overthrow the Romans and their other enemies in much the same way as Joshua did the earlier inhabitants of Judea. David, too, was a warrior king, and Jews expect the Messiah to be the same.

Jesus focused on the idea that God is more concerned with an individual's life than He is for the life of any nation.

So God apparently couldn't fulfill a promise that didn't involve Genocide? The Genocide's okay, because God promised us this land. and if they go about genociding the people who live in Palestine today, that's okay too. Oh, wait, no, they are totally doing that.

You see, this is why I have no use for the God of the Bible. At the end of the say, he's a complete prick.

this illustrates the carnage that results from people saying their sky pixie said such & such



JoeB131

 

[Meriweather]

HOld on, after that last post, I need to break out my hip-waders.

Okay, here's the problem with that. The "Priests" didn't decide to slaughter the Amalekites- GOD did.

God ordered their slaughter. In fact, God withdrew his blessing from Saul because Saul wasn't slaughtering them completely. He actually - gasp - kept some of their best cattle.

"2 Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. 3 Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey." (1 Sam. 15:2-3).

Well, I think when Mankind decided that slavery, homophobia, racism and genocide were all terrible ideas, we totally improved on God's Plan.

While you were searching for your hip waders, you missed my point(s).

You also left out noting scripture tells us that it was according to Samuel God said this. Saul did not hear it for himself. Saul's reaction tells us he, for one, had no belief God really said this. My own experiences of God's love has me doubting Samuel as well.

However, let's suppose God did issue this command. I sometimes compare God's creation (mankind) to my garden creations. Every so often, even though it makes me sad to do it, I raze a plant to the ground. I do this because it loses its deadwood and scraggliness and bursts forth stronger, and more beautiful than before. I do trust that God knows when to prune and how to go about it, even if this pruning makes as little sense to us as my razing a plant to the ground makes to the plant.

You begin with the premise that it was God who introduced slavery, etcetera. What if you are mistaken? I think history can make a better case that slavery and racism was brought about by us.

 

[JoeB131]

You also left out noting scripture tells us that it was according to Samuel God said this. Saul did not hear it for himself. Saul's reaction tells us he, for one, had no belief God really said this. My own experiences of God's love has me doubting Samuel as well.

The entire tone of the book of Samuel is that Sammy was God's messenger, without a doubt. This isn't even in dispute from a scriptural prespective.

However, let's suppose God did issue this command. I sometimes compare God's creation (mankind) to my garden creations. Every so often, even though it makes me sad to do it, I raze a plant to the ground. I do this because it loses its deadwood and scraggliness and bursts forth stronger, and more beautiful than before. I do trust that God knows when to prune and how to go about it, even if this pruning makes as little sense to us as my razing a plant to the ground makes to the plant.

Somehow, I imagine Hitler having a similar thought process when planning the Holocaust.

 

[JoeB131]

You begin with the premise that it was God who introduced slavery, etcetera. What if you are mistaken? I think history can make a better case that slavery and racism was brought about by us.

Perhaps. But here's the thing, God never said these things were wrong.

He was very specific giving his chosen people instructions on how to kill their neighbors for working on the Sabbath, how to kill people for having the wrong kind of sex, what kind of clothes they should wear and what kind of food they could and couldn't eat...

Yet instead of saying, "Hey, people owning other people is just wrong", he said, "Okay, here are some rules for owning other people."

 

[Meriweather]

Perhaps. But here's the thing, God never said these things were wrong.

He was very specific giving his chosen people instructions on how to kill their neighbors for working on the Sabbath, how to kill people for having the wrong kind of sex, what kind of clothes they should wear and what kind of food they could and couldn't eat...

Yet instead of saying, "Hey, people owning other people is just wrong", he said, "Okay, here are some rules for owning other people."

I think we can all agree that buying and selling people is wrong. But we also know from these times, that people sold themselves into slavery in order to survive in those times. We might consider that the ancient welfare system--they couldn't make it on their own, so they attached themselves to those who could. Parents sold their children for the same reason--to keep them clothed and fed.

Do we really see the viable option at that time was for God to inform these people they needed to set up and emulate the current American Welfare System?

We see some areas where the slavery of those times seem more like an indentured servant, we see other areas where it is a lifetime of slavery. The lifetime slaves were generally the conquered. The option was to slaughter them, drive them out into the desert where they would eventually perish--or, grow strong enough to come back and attack those who had conquered them and begin the cycle all over again.

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

Yes, yes, I get that. God is going to totally send you to hell for all eternity, but you "sent yourself" there by not worshipping him or not following his rules or doing things that most sensible people wouldn't even send you to jail for.

Incidentally, my nuns used the spoon anology (except their version was chopsticks.) And I thought that was kind of retarded. Frankly, it sounds like Heaven is a place where they intentionally made things needlessly difficult.

Hell, as I was taught, was a separation from God. God does not choose to separate Himself from us, but He will honor the wish of those who choose to separate themselves from Him.

The spoon, or chopsticks, analogy is meant to compare heaven to a place where we serve one another. Hell is the place where we serve only self, and those around us are only interested in self as well.

Hell is a literal place, Meriweather, and yes, Catholicism is a works based salvation - with Pergatory as a middle ground where people are working their way UP to heaven. None of which is scripture based. Never was anyone bought out of Pergatory (which does not exist - neither does Limbo exist - all babies go to heaven not Limbo) and placed in heaven because their living relative paid the Pope 500 dollars. Equally ridiculous their annulment of marriages (married for years) and with 5,000 dollars suddenly the divorced person has an annulled marriage and is free to marry yet again at their Catholic church - the latter I know of personally as it happened to my brother in law and that was his "THIRD" marriage. Not his second. $5,000 to the Priest and he was good to go for another annulment. Truly none of this is found in the bible. None of it. Catholicism is not based on the Bible and there is no salvation in the Roman Church nor is there forgiveness in prayers said to "Mary" or the saints. It's idolatry - the pope has made many false claims about requirements (from Roman Church) to assure salvation.