JESUS TRIES TO USE HELL TO UNSETTLE PEOPLE'S SANITY IN MATTHEW 22
Jesus in Matthew 7 is praised for condemning judgment and judgers. He only condemned hypocritical judgement not judgement. But if we assume he meant judging full stop then what? Many want us to think he did. People judge though they pretend they do not and are all about acceptance. It makes no sense to say that we should not judge even very harmful and corrupt people and then to say we can judge them if they judge. If you want to downplay a rapist it is absurd to be ready to slam and hate him if he says he judges somebody. If you really think that love means not judging you will not be prepared to do that.
So the do not judge brigade are condemned then by this Jesus of theirs after all and they know it. They weaponise what he said and misrepresent it to shut up anybody who gives a judgement they do not want to hear. They judge. If they really cared to believe that judging was always bad they would not be doing that.
Also Jesus said that the judgment you pass on others God will give to you so that shows his God to be spiteful and vengeful after all. This is especially true if judging is terrible and immoral.
We read further developments on this toxic theme in Matthew 22. Here goes,
Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:
2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.
3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.
7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and
destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet
is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.
9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’
10 So the servants went out into the streets and
gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the
wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he
noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.
12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.
13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
Comment - The context of many are invited but few are chosen is damnation and salvation. The man without the wedding garment is thrown out and tied up and there is weeping and gnashing of teeth where he goes. This is a symbolic reference to eternal damnation. It may be said that the text speaks of the banquet being full of people so we cannot take the few too literally. It might be said to mean that even if everybody barring one is saved this is still too few - somebody is lost.
Some say that what proves Jesus meant few in the poetic sense is that he speaks of one man being thrown out. But he said that the guests were not chosen and they were many. The man has nothing to do with the meaning of many are invited but few are chosen because he is in the story to illustrate the point that that fake guests will not be tolerated. He shows what would have happened to the people who were invited if they had went to the wedding for they were not genuine about celebrating the wedding. The man is mentioned to show that not being chosen means terrible punishment. The story stops there so we can assume that others were thrown out too though they are not mentioned.
Why does he conclude that few are chosen when the story says the wedding feast was packed out? He hints that the man thrown out was the first of many.
The story is a warning that those who you expect to be invited will be uninvited and it's a warning that you cannot assume that religious leaders however holy really are sincere. The servants of the king are rejected and so their places are taken by ordinary people who are just brought in from the streets. The bad and the good got into the wedding feast. But if they did not wear a wedding banquet they were put out.
If the people who are praying and doing good works are not the chosen then that is warning that damnation is the real norm.
Elsewhere Jesus says that even those who are fit
for Heaven are still in grave danger of damnation. He indicates that they will
be saved by the skin of their teeth. Few will be saved if that is the case.
"If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of
the elect those days will be shortened." Matthew 24:22.
"For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and
perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect."
Matthew 24:24.
Jesus told a centurion that he never seen faith like his in the whole of Israel implying that the Jews were not great believers in religion despite their religious activities. Faith is necessary for salvation.
All that gives a very bleak picture. You cannot be an ordinary person and be spiritually a Christian. You are going to eternal torment.
