You know damn well there’s a huge, neon rainbow “but” attached to that title.
It’s okay to trust in God (or the Higher Power of your choice)
BUT…
Trust, also, that God gave you brains to think with, ears to listen with, and eyes to see.
Any Higher Power worth the time/energy/effort of worship would know that a bunch of rules written down thousands of years ago may not hold as technology improves, populations build and society changes.
It’s why Jesus said, “If you eat the meat, and believe that you shall die, then you shall die. If you eat the meat and believe that you shall live, than you shall live.”
Like most things written down in the new testament, this is a parable. I see it not just as a parable about food choice, but the laws that are supposed to be “immutable” all over the rest of the Good Book.
I’ve always found it a little odd that various flavours of Christians hold that the words in the Bible are incorruptible… Yet there are more versions and translations and re-vamps of a scripture that’s allegedly incapable of being changed.
If the Bible was completely incorruptible, we’d be reading the old testament in Hebrew and the new in Aramaic, and it would be impossible to translate it into anything else. If God meant the rules written down there to be followed forever, both forbidden food and forbidden deeds would be harmful to those who eat/do them.
Thus, Jesus’ get-out-of-hell card. If you believe a “meat” - a food or a deed - is sinful, then indulging will send you to hell. Death is the standard metaphor in the New Testament for going to Hell, as far as I understand things. If you don’t believe that it’s a sin… Then doing so will not send you there.
Note, however, that there is not one word about your beliefs having any influence whatsoever on anyone else’s journey to Heaven or Hell.
If you, personally, believe that being homosexual is a sin, fine. Don’t be a homosexual. And leave everybody else to believe what they believe.
It’s the same thing Jewish folks do if they see someone eating a ham sandwich. They don’t picket delis or diners. They don’t try to pass laws outlawing the consumption of various portions of dead pig. They don’t spend millions making noise about destroying the pork-eaters.
They get on with their lives. And these guys don’t even follow the New Testament.
You, yes you, the loudmouth my-way-or-the-highway pseudo-Christian, sitting there getting your hate and bile riled up about a handful of rules in the old or the new books… Jesus flat out told you to follow the rules you find divine and shut the fuck up about everyone else.
Remember - the Bible also outlaws consuming shellfish, blended fabrics, shaving, tattoos, wearing gold, braided hair, and endorses slavery, polygamy and many others. If you’re going to cherry-pick the rules to follow, allow others to share the same privilege. And you must also therefore allow that the Christian next to you may have picked a different set of rules to follow.
So trust in God, and the gifts of sight, hearing and most especially thought that He gave you. Use thought the most. Please.
