#professing christians

[reformedontheweb]

The god which the vast majority of professing Christians love is looked upon very much like an indulgent old man, who himself has no relish for folly, but leniently winks at the indiscretions of youth . . . For one sin God banished our first parents from Eden; for one sin all the posterity of Canaan fell under a curse which remains over them to this day; for one sin Moses was excluded from the promised land; Elisha’s servant smitten with leprosy; Ananias and Sapphira were cut off from the land of the living.

A. W. Pink

[prokopetz]

On the one hand, this piece of media's notion of How Religion Works™ is profoundly Christian; on the other hand, by Christian standards it's also extraordinarily heretical, so.

[heavenlymorals]

Biblical References in Both RDR games.

I love biblical references so much. When it comes to literature, it's probably my favorite type of symbolism. Like I genuinely get so happy when I connect things to the Bible which is what I'm going to do right now 😊😊 I also like the way that religion is incorporated into RDR as a whole, including the main characters' reaction to it.

So yup, here are just a few references or connections that I was able to make in no particular order.

Also, some of these are complete reaches and I'm aware of that, but fuck it, it's my blog and I do what I want 💪🏼

- The character and tragedy of Issac. In the Bible, Issac is the child of Abraham who is asked to be sacrificed by God by his father as a test of faith. God eventually intervenes to save Issac because he only wanted to test Abraham's faith. Dutch is shown as a God-like figure to the gang, as their devotion is to him. Arthur, indirectly, sacrifices Issac by not being there and by following what Dutch wanted. Arthur, Issac, and Dutch are parallels to Abraham, Issac, and God.

- Leviticus is the book that comes after the book of Exodus. After the gang's escape or exodus from Blackwater after the Blackwater massacre, they are met by Leviticus Cornwall, who becomes the next obstacle for the gang. After the gang's exodus, they get in trouble with Leviticus.

- The image of the deer and a mountain. Psalm 18:32-34 in the Bible says, "It is God who arms me with strength, and makes my way blameless? He makes my feet like deers' feet, and sets me upon my high places." In Arthur's condemnation of Dutch, Micah, and their evil, he becomes steady in his identity and beliefs, like a deer's feet on a mountain, which is where he dies in the end. W symbolism.

- The mission "Sodom? Back to Gomorrah." In the Bible, Sodom and Gomorrah were two cities that were so morally depraved and evil that God decided to destroy the both of them, saying that if there was even one good person in those cities, he'd spare them, but there weren't. In those missions, you also do two evil acts, going from one and then BACK to the other. You rob the bank and then go BACK to collect the debt from Edith Downes. So you finish one evil deed and to straight to the next. This can also show how morally bankrupt Arthur's apathy made him at this point in the game.

- Micah's guns say "Vengeance is hereby mine." This could be a reference to Roman's 12:19 "vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord." Micah's violent nature makes him take his anger out on the world.

- "Your father is seduced by him with the forked tongue. It's no use hoping." The blind prophet to Arthur. Pretty straight forward symbolism, it's a nod to the snake that seduced Eve, just like how Micah manipulates Dutch.

- Dutch walking away from Arthur when he dies and though he realizes his wrong doing and feels shame, his pride forbids him from apologizing or saying he was wrong. This can be a parallel to how Adam and Eve run away from God when they feel shame over believing in the snake, but their pride won't allow them to apologize to God, hence damning them like how Micah damned Dutch.

- There were twelve ACTIVE gang members before the Blackwater massacre. When I mean active, I mean gang members who are canonically consistent (so not uncle, Swanson, Strauss, or the girls) on going on jobs for the gang. Micah, Bill, Javier, John, Hosea, Arthur, Charles, Sean, Lenny, Josiah, Mac and Davey Callender. Christ had 12 disciples and Dutch is portrayed as a savior to the gang, or a Christ like figure. And would you look at that, there is a traitor in both groups of twelve (Micah and Judas).

- Both John and Arthur's graves have scripture from Jesus's sermon on the mountain (Matthew 5:1-12). John's is blessed are the peacemakers and Arthur's is blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

- The go back for the money ending. If you go back for the money and have low honor, you'll see that the camp is engulfed in flames as you try to get the money. The fight with Micah is brutal and you die faced down in the dark. This death is an allegory for going to either hell and purgatory as you choose a final evil act of leaving your brother to possibly die just so you can get money as an act of revenge. If you have high honor, you are still surrounded by flames, but you still have a chance at heaven given that you die facing up seeing the light one final time.

- The help John ending has similar connotations. If you have low honor, you die by gunshot and are shrouded in darkness, which can symbolize the absence of God's light and how Arthur's final act couldn't absolve the lack of guilt he feels for the rest of the actions that he KNOWS are evil (click here for a my interpretation of Arthur's morality). In high honor, though, you get to crawl to the mountain side and see the rising sun, symbolizing heaven, warmth, and a new purity.

- In low honor, the coyote goes down to a dark cave, representing damnation and the rejection of holy light. In high honor, the deer steps into a heavenly field of light. Love that so much to be honest.

- Just the very Catholic vibe of Arthur's redemption. Doing good deeds, feeling guilt, all that.

- John's new life is basically this: "Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need." -Ephesians 4:28. John gives up his old life to be an honest laborer, a rancher, and a proper man.

- The Strange Man in RDR rides on a donkey, which is pretty interesting because Jesus Christ also made his grand entry on a donkey.

- Just the Strange Man in general to be honest. Some say he's God, others say he's the Devil, and others say he's Cain from the Bible, which is my personal favorite theory but whatever.

- Dutch's horse could be a reference to Revelations 6:8- "And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him." Dutch's rash actions caused the death of the gang and RDR's incarnate of Hades or Hell was Micah, following him. Dutch is the only one, canonically, to have a pale horse.

- "Am I prepared for eternal damnation? Am I passed any kind of saving? Or is that just fairy tales?" Arthur in his journal. I love this line so much because of its very agnostic nature whilst still showing the Christian mindset of 1899 America. This line also shows that Arthur is canonically agnostic which is a yippee from me because it's like the only thing me and this man have in common lmao 😭

- "Bad news awaits you, sir. Sadly, sooner than you think. But beyond the news, paradise awaits. Paradise.." Blind Man Cassidy to Arthur. Sorry but I just love that. High honor Arthur lived such an awful life but he still has a chance at paradise and heaven? Love that so much.

- God (pun intended), I love biblical symbolism. Couldn't you tell?

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

WHY ARE THERE PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET SAYING THAT IF YOU DRESS ALT/GOTH/EMO THAT'S UNCHRISTIAN because apparently "dressing goth has always gone hand in hand with the demonic" um hello can I point you to my queens Lacey Sturm, Rebecca Kreuger, and FRICKIN AMY LEE???

[ritz-writes]

saw a clip of trump getting mad that trans visibility day was on easter, so he said christian visibility day is on november 5th

u wanna know what else is on november 5th?

the destiel anniversary

[counter-culture-christian]

If they're "Christian" and the love for Jesus isn't displayed by their lifestyle, by their fruits, their words, their behavior. That's a red flag 🚩. "You will know them by their fruits " Truly.

[panvani]

Still mad as fuck about seeing someone claiming that Signalis is about the revolutionary potential of lesbianism as an alternative to heterosexuality because The Best Way to Escape Men, The Ultimate Evil, Is Through Lesbianism despite the fact that the whole fucking joke of Signalis is that there is exactly 1 male character and he is entirely extraneous to the main conflict but Signalis is definitely about how lesbianism is an alternative to being with men because it's incomprehensible that two women could have a sexual relationship without men being involved in some way

[anxiety-banana]

i want everyone to know that i have a raging crush on a dude who definitely also has a raging crush on me but we're both cowards and also i'm protestant and he's catholic and i really don't want to get into that, so we're just gonna keep flirting until one of us converts or dies.

[wisdomfish]

"If you find a professing Christian indifferent to his Bible, you may be sure that the very dust upon its cover will rise up in judgment against him."

C.H. Spurgeon

[wellthatsclever]

God is Father. And He will meet you where ever you are, and do whatever is necessary. Nothing is too small, too big, too much of a hassle, too insignificant.

[courtjester69420]

When I was in grade 11 the required reading was a book called Station Eleven, where a pandemic flu wipes out most of the worlds population

Everyone hated the teacher for that class, so even though the book was inoffensive, good even, reading it felt like a slog

We talked about isolation, and disease, and fear

And then the semester ended, and the book stopped being relevant to our lives

January, 2020

Anyways I’m convinced she somehow cursed us 🙏🙏 fuck you ms sword you do nottttt deserve that banger last name

[thirst2]

I was, originally, going to just text this to Jude but it pisses me off too much.

Hey, doc. What's that GG stand for? How much does anyone want to bet it's an abbreviation for GamerGate?

I hate how nearly all professionals on social media have turned into, basically, grifting hustles.

I used to think the "<professional> reacts to <thing>" genre of videos was just a form of laziness but they've nearly all graduated to…I dunno; grifting, while accurate, is too general but it's something which relies on feeding the engagement that monetized–social-media subsists on and turns important knowledge about the way we function into something slightly malleable, like the way information functions on our current internet and tends to result in misinformation instead, that only benefits the influenc- sorry, professional who did the video/content.

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Say not that you have royal blood in thy veins, and are born of God, except you can prove your pedigree by daring to be holy.

William Gurnall

[apotelesmaa]

I wish I could get a degree in lit/ethics but that would possibly be the only thing more useless than a viscom degree but goddamn do I love literary (or any media) analysis truly nothing is more fun than picking apart a story to find your own interpretation of the authors intentions and defending it. Lovveee to make a philosophical argument based on the actions of characters.

[foucauldiantheory]

yeah yeah queerness has always been around but i personally wish folks would stop imposing terms on historical figures in a way that literally reduces them solely to... a queer identity?

"hildegaard von bingen was probably a lesbian bc she [wrote ecstatically about mary] [had close emotional attachments with other nuns] [drew yonic diagrams]" .....like do you guys realize the historical context of her life.... the structures of gender and power in which she lived, wrote, studied, composed, formulated her relationships to people and to divinity, built her claims to mysticism, etc? "medieval lesbian icon!!!!" is just kind of a reductive lens imo. i'm not saying that she couldn't have been what we would today call queer or a lesbian or whatever, but like this essentially centers and privileges modern constructions and concerns over accurate understanding of her in her own time.

[papirouge]

*microdosing on making hot takes about Christianism to never get popular and forever remain a small Christian blogger, like Jesus did by making purposely scandalous statements ("I am the bread of life", "eat my flesh and blood") knowing he would offend the Jews and lose followers lol*