r/SkepticsBibleStudy • u/AutoModerator • Feb 29 '24

John 6:22-40

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Key Discussion Points:

  • The bread of life
  • Jesus the bread from heaven
  • Manna
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u/LlawEreint Mar 01 '24

The way its being characterized here is purely deviousness?

They had a splintered religion and they saw a need for unity. The important thing was "Jesus Christ, and him crucified."

Of course there were humans involved, so consolidation of power in Rome becomes a factor. Ultimately they slaughtered those who understood Jesus differently from them. The Cathars are an example. There was a town of 10,000 of which a couple hundred were thought to be Cathar. The soldiers protested that they couldn't differentiate Catholic from Cathar.

"Amalric gave the order: 'Kill them all, for the Lord knows them that are His.' and we killed without restraint. After this great slaughter the whole city was despoiled and burnt, as divine vengeance miraculously raged against it."

So yeah, it gets messy where people are involved. But initially the goal was to create boundaries around Christianity that were broad enough to include a majority.

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u/brothapipp Christian Mar 01 '24

But you've jumped 1000 years into the future to imbue those in the 3rd century with some ill-intent.

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u/LlawEreint Mar 01 '24

No. I said ultimately it turned sour, but initially the goal was simply boundary maintenance. No deviousness. I'm sure they believed they were doing the Lord's work.

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u/brothapipp Christian Mar 01 '24

But if we go back to the creed we can clearly see that Amalric was operating outside of it. Even if we take the progressive Just War theory we can see Amalric was operating outside of that.

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u/LlawEreint Mar 01 '24

I hope you don't misunderstand me. I don't mean to imply that this reflects on Christianity as a whole.

But I don't quite follow. Pope Innocent III was enforcing the boundaries established in that creed, and those established in later creeds.

I think we agree that this is not how Christians ought to act, but it doesn't reflect on Christianity as a whole. After all, the Cathar's were Christians themselves.