My wife and I recently celebrated our anniversary by going back to the chapel we were married in and revisiting the restaurant from our first date.
I am one very lucky guy.
Local version:
I would call that an excellent wedding venue.
While I don’t subscribe to any religious aspect, this is a perfect venue. They are fairly common around here. The view from the benches is often breathtaking; a lake, mountains… what more can one wish for as a backdrop for almost anything.
I wonder how many sacrifices were performed on that altar.
Nice! I had some family get married in a chapel that looks almost identical to that in Bella Vista. Very nice venue.
Same one! Cooper Chapel, Bella Vista, AR.
A buddy of mine got married there! Small world lol What was yalls first restaurant if you don’t mind sharing?
Pedaler’s Pub in Bentonville. Funny thing is we didn’t actually eat there on our first date. Well, I think we had salads and left. Too bad because the pizza was excellent. Only took us 7 years to figure that out.
That places rips, great pizza! Happy anniversary, bud!
Thanks!
My brother got married at the one in Eureka Springs.
I was looking at this picture going “Bella Vista or Eureka?” before the posts were telling about NC.
It is a beautiful building, even if it unfortunately symbolises a less beautiful religion.
Eh these things can be repurposed.
Plenty of catholic places in europe where already in religious use before the church was a thing. Some even still have celtic runes in the altar.
Pretty emblematic of Christianity’s colonization of pagan religions.
Wait until you find out what every other conquering peoples did.
The best thing to ever happen to European society
I don’t know, I think adopting sanitary practices tops it easily.
didn’t need to add the end part but cool.
Le epic reddit atheists strike again.
Christianity is a beautiful religion. God becomes a man so he can suffer the punishment that humans deserves, so He can forgive humans without becoming an imperfect contradiction (and therefore not God)
So God sacrificed himself to himself to save us from himself. Beautiful. Poetic, even.
Why was a blood sacrifice necessary? Can’t God forgive without it?
Not purporting to have all the answers here or to ascribe to any particular one.
That said though…The concept is that sin (breaking the rules set forth) has a price that has to be paid. Pre jesus that was done with sacrificing an animal, generally the best lamb of a litter(think litter is the right word, doesn’t matter really). It was meant to be symbolism for when jesus performed his sacrifice.
The whole purpose with jesus coming was to be the sacrifice that would pay the price for sins committed. Thus allowing the law to have its demands of punishment be met, and allowing mercy at the same time. Appeasing justice and granting mercy.
The whole trinity concept (god is jesus and the holy spirit etc) is distinctly Catholicism, (maybe a couple others, not sure edit:not just a catholic thing, I’ve been corrected.). It confuses the fuck out of me on a conceptual level so I’m not sure how to explain it. But in general I think what I’ve laid out is the basis for many of the sects
The whole trinity concept (god is jesus and the holy spirit etc) is distinctly Catholicism, (maybe a couple others, not sure).
It’s definitely not just a couple others. The vast majority of modern denominations believe in the trinity. The list of sects that reject the trinity is much shorter.
Gotcha, thanks for the correction!
The trinity is very, very much not just a Catholic thing.
I stand corrected, thanks!
No. If God forgave without it, then He wouldn’t be perfectly just, then He’d be imperfect and thus not God.
There are many things beautiful on a human level, but why would you think the supernatural would convince an atheists Christianity is beautiful?
That’s not what I was commenting about. The story of Christianity on forgiveness is beautiful.
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Aloha. Episcopal priest here. I applaud your valiant efforts at evangelism in this corner of the fediverse. It takes a degree of courage to be so open about your faith in a place that can be consistently hostile to the Christian religion. Thank God for people like you.
Now, I want to offer a little push-back on your soteriology (fancy term for the theology of salvation for those who don’t know). You’re espousing a version of substitutionary atonement theology as though it is the universally held view of Christianity in regards to the “mechanics” of salvation. It is not. Not only are there multiple views within substitutionary atonement itself, there are a plethora of ideas, stretching all the way back to the earliest days of Christianity, to try and make sense of how Jesus’ death on a cross and resurrection from that death serve to “save” humanity. So let me, humbly, offer my view (which, the more I read it, seems to be the most supported biblically), which I call the Expository view of the Atonement:
The death of Jesus is meant by God, primarily, to lay bare (that is, to expose) the true nature of sin. God, incarnate, chooses to become the “conclusion” of what sin is all about. Every sin, then, is defined by the murder of God, the murder of Jesus. This helps us better understand how wicked human sinfulness can be. Kids in Gaza being systematically starved? That’s being done to Jesus. Trans people being ostracized or driven to suicide? Being done to Jesus. Supporting a regime that kidnaps people off the street? Wealth-addicts who exploit entire societies and make a mockery of the Christian religion? You get the idea. Even “small” sins like lying and cheating are covered here because doing these goes against what is universally understood as “good” and all goodness originates in God. Therefore this is tantamount to telling God His expectations for us don’t matter and that He may as well be dead. Matthew 25 more or less lays this all out when it talks about what happens when we do things “to the least of these.”
This all needs to be exposed so that we can see the fullness of what we’ve done, that there is a theological dimension to our actions. God takes our evil actions personally. Jesus on a cross is a visceral symbol of all this. But it’s also a powerful thing because it is on the cross that Jesus declares that we are all forgiven. This is the literal sense of us being saved “from our sins” (which is the actual good news that is preached all throughout the book of Acts).
Salvation is not about Jesus saving us from God’s wrath. It’s Him saving us from our worst impulses. If Hell is a factor in any of this, then Hell is a thing of our own making and somewhere we effectively place ourselves.
The resurrection of Jesus goes beyond all of this to demonstrate that even our worst mistakes are not beyond God’s ability to overcome. This is why Saint Paul can declare in Romans that “nothing can separate us from the love of God.” And him also saying that “grace abounds” in inverse proportion to our sinfulness.
Now, this forgiveness is not equal to being “let off the hook” or “getting off scot free.” Rather it becomes an open space where the contrite heart can begin to find healing. And healing can be a painful experience—and it’s proportional; the more serious the disease, the more painful the healing process. So, there are those of us who will suffer even after death. But that suffering is in service of our healing and restoration, not so much our punishment. It’s consequential (in a literal sense), but not because God hates us or whatever. But because we need healing.
I would argue that the more conventional views of substitutionary atonement are logically inconsistent (at best) and/or outright heretical.
You’re in my prayers as a fellow servant of God. Keep the faith and test the spirits!
What I am saying is moreso vicarious satisfaction than Penal Substitutionary Atonement - that is God willingly bearing the punishment Himself for our sins. While I don’t deny either theory, there was a price that needed to be paid. Even the Old Testament was clear about that. Remember the spotless lamb sacrifices?
Genesis 22:8
Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.
But then,
Genesis 22:13-14
And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
God provided a ram. In a substitutionary place of Isaac. But where’s the substitutionary Lamb?
John 1:29 ESV
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
Romans 5:8 ESV
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
1 John 2:1-6 ESV
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
The Nicene Creed itself:
For our sake He suffered under Pontius Pilate. He was crucified, died, and was buried.
In fact, I find the heresy lies in the idea that Jesus didn’t die for us. God is perfectly merciful and perfectly loving, but also perfectly Just. This is where justice meets mercy.
I believe there is some element of truth to what you said- yes, it’s the same evil that starves kids in Gaza that kills Jesus.
Romans 3:10-18 ESV
as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
The atheist commonly says “If god is real, then why doesn’t he just show himself?” Well, He did, and we killed Him.
There is not any “god”. Grow up and stop being scammed.
Who’s the scamming me? And for what?
Who? All religions.
For what? To control your behavior and steal your money in the name of tithe or other donations, including volunteerism.
What if I don’t pay tithes? Why do they need to control my behaviour? Who even is “they”- my priest?
I guarantee you’ve provided something of value. Either cash, donated items/food or your time.
Everything connected to religion is designed to control your behavior.
Any donated food was for foodbank drives. Is donating to the needy bad?
Most of the time I just annoy the priests with questions and theories or pointing out mistakes made in the liturgy.
And why do they need to control my behaviour - who is the individual scamming me?
Came to say that would be a sweet place for a wedding! WE got married in a 150-yo, one room church that was moved to the local campground/kayaking place.
Wow, this looks amazing!
This looks like Hogwarts Legacy scene! Beautiful.
need!!!
Where’s the clit?
