Why Do Christians Hate This Teaching of Jesus

This is a teaching of Jesus that most Christians will not accept. There is a group of less than a half a million that do accept this teaching. They are known for being against slavery and war. What kind of Christians are they. Also they are totally against drinking alcohol. It is not Mormons of which there are 15 million of them.

Here is the teaching. See if it sounds familiar to you. The New International Version (NIV) of the bible says: (Matthew 5:38-40)

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’[a] 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.

Now the part about an eye for an eye is the Jewish part and that was okay before Jesus came. Have you ever heard of a Christian getting sued and giving in and letting them have more. But He was teaching a new way of doing things. But this new way does not require hate and anger and that is unacceptable.

Here is NIV Matthew 5:43:

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[a] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

That group that does accept that teaching are the Quakers. They are also called Friends. If you read the above and other things, you see He is teaching non-violence. It is strange that Mahatma Gandhi used that to free the Indians from the British and Reverend Martin Luther King learned it from Gandhi. Many crazy people say crazy things so I like get information Wikipedia. They say about Quakers:

Quakers (or Friends) are members of a historically Christian group of religious movements generally known as the Religious Society of Friends.^[2][3] Members of the various Quaker movements are all generally united in a belief in the ability of each human being to experientially access "that of God in every person...."

The three colonies that tolerated Quakers at this time were West Jersey, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania, where Quakers established themselves politically. In Rhode Island, 36 governors in the first 100 years were Quakers. West Jersey and Pennsylvania were established by affluent Quaker William Penn in 1676 and 1682 respectively, with Pennsylvania as an American commonwealth run under Quaker principles.

So to explain this teaching another way is apes do not kill apes. Just kidding! That is from the movie Planet of the Apes. Jesus was teaching that only God should judge and punish man. Jesus says in NIV, Matthew 7:1-3:

7 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

You can find a lot more of these. In fact there is the famous example of people that were going to stone a women to death as required by Jewish law and Jesus said that he who has not done any sins can throw the first stone. Then a women threw a stone and Jesus said "Mom, stop showing off." Now the last part of that is a joke. But Newsweek said that that did not appear in the bible until around 1500 AD. It has an excellent article called The Bible: So Misunderstood It's a Sin. It says:

Take one of the most famous tales from the New Testament, which starts in John 7:53. A group of Pharisees and others bring a woman caught committing adultery to Jesus. Under Mosaic Law—the laws of Moses handed down in the Old Testament—she must be stoned to death. The Pharisees ask Jesus whether the woman should be released or killed, hoping to force him to choose between honoring Mosaic Law and his teachings of forgiveness. Jesus replies, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.’’ The group leaves, and Jesus tells the woman to sin no more.

It’s a powerful story, known even by those with just a passing knowledge of the Bible. It was depicted in Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ and is often used to point out the hypocrisy of Christians who denounce what they perceive to be the sins of others. Unfortunately, John didn’t write it. Scribes made it up sometime in the Middle Ages. It does not appear in any of the three other Gospels or in any of the early Greek versions of John.

They emphasized a personal and direct religious experience of Christ, acquired through both direct religious experience and the reading and studying of the Bible.[16]

Wikipedia also says that Quakers are against slavery, wars, and drinking alcohol. Now I can understand how this would upset some Christians who love wars against enemies and who drink lots of alcohol. The enemies of the U.S. used to be (around World War 2) Germans, Italians and Japanese. Then it was Communists. Then it was the Japanese (Japan bashing) and now it is Muslims since some of them are terrorists. Americans are terrified of terrorists since they produce terror. Have you ever noticed that fear and anger go together?

It does not say anyplace in the bible that Christians should not have a sense of humor and yet many act like it does say that. The whole legal system of the United States and other countries are all based on Jewish teachings from the Old Testament. So that is where our whole legal system comes from.

Wikipedia says "The Talmud is a central text of Rabbinic Judaism." "The structure of the Talmud follows that of the Mishnah." "The Mishnah is a compilation of legal opinions and debates." So rabbis got together and discussed what should be legal and what should not be legal. And this continues to happen everyday.

According to everything that Jesus taught, if He were to come back and become president of the United States then He would pardon all the criminals. For all this to happen one would have to get rid of hate and anger and have a strong belief in God. But what is much better than having a strong belief in God? Belief means that you do not know. What would be much better than a belief in God would be to know God. I believe that Jesus knew God and that every human being can.

I am glad that I was brought up Jewish. The priority for kids was to have a good time. I had a Bar Mitzvah and was given a lot of money by people who were invited. Also we were close to a family that did celebrate Christmas and we celebrated it with them. I looked them up in April 2017 on White Pages. They live in South Philadelphia and the name appears to be rare. Actually the name was Marmelstein and it was changed to Marmel.

They had a house in Ventnor, NJ that was only 4 blocks from the beach. We would ride bikes from the beginning of the boardwalk, near the house, to the end of it in Atlantic City and back again. That family gave me a lot of enjoyment growing up. To bring it back to the main topic I feel that kids should have fun and not worry much about religion. Didn't Jesus say in NIV Matthew 18: 2-4:

2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

So Ruth Marmel is around my mother's age and my brother and I called her Aunt Ruth. Her daughter Marcie Adams is around my age and it looks like she lives in the same house as her mother. So if you know them or live near them, say hello to them for me. As far as the most famous Quaker, William Penn owned all of Pennsylvania which means 'Penn's woods.' There is a statue of him on top of City Hall. It is 36 feet high and made of bronze.

So in conclusion there are many places in the bible where Jesus talks about how things were done in the Jewish society. Then He will mention how He prefers things done. But the justice system of America is clearly based on Jewish law and not the way that Jesus wants things done. Jesus is against fear and anger but those are strong motivators in our society.

Gandhi in first video below that Jesus said in Luke 6:27:

27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

That means not to kill them.