The Anti-Beatitudes

[Amazing Rando]

Something I wrote a little while ago after having a very negative run-in with a fellow Christian...

The Anti-Beatitudes

With apologies to the Apostle Matthew...

1Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2and he began to teach them saying:
3"Cursed are the haughty in spirit,
for they shall be denied the kingdom of heaven.
4 Cursed are those who delight in the suffering of others,
for they will be tormented.
5 Cursed are the arrogant,
for they will be robbed of the earth.
6 Cursed are those who hunger and thirst for selfishness gain,
for they will be emptied.
7 Cursed are the violent,
for no mercy will be shown to them.
8 Cursed are those whose hearts are hardened,
for God will not know them in the end.
9 Cursed are the warmongers,
for they will be called sons of Satan.
10Cursed are those who persecute and hate their neighbor,
for theirs is a life of bitterness, and the way of death.
11"Cursed are you when you ignore me, reject Me, and do all kinds of evil toward your neighbor in My name. 12 Despair and be sad, because great is your reward in hell, for in the same way they persecuted the One who came before you, so you ignore Me.

[WillowPeredhel]

Hi!

I like it. :smile: I'm currently memorizing Matthew 5 as part of the material for the next season of Bible Quizzing, so, just wanted to add a thought. Quoting from memory, Matthew 5:8 NIV says "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." I think I would term the 'anti-beautitude' for that as more, "Cursed are the twisted/perverted/evil in heart, for they will never glimpse the glory of God." JMHO

Willow

[Amazing Rando]

Hi!

I like it. :smile: I'm currently memorizing Matthew 5 as part of the material for the next season of Bible Quizzing, so, just wanted to add a thought. Quoting from memory, Matthew 5:8 NIV says "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." I think I would term the 'anti-beautitude' for that as more, "Cursed are the twisted/perverted/evil in heart, for they will never glimpse the glory of God." JMHO

Willow

Hey, I like that one! :smile:

Memorizing Matthew 5 is a great way to go- just imagine if you could memorize the entire Sermon on the Mount? You'd have a huge chunk of Jesus' greatest teachings committed to memory. Very useful! :yes:

With this piece, I suppose I was just trying to imagine a little- what would happen if I took the inverse of everything Jesus said in the Beatitudes? Not everything matched up of course, so I had to take a few liberties. I like your suggestion about the perverted/twisted heart!

[WillowPeredhel]

Hi!

I am memorizing all of Matthew 5. My goal is to memorize every odd chapter in Matthew, and maybe chapter 26 too if I get the time. :eek: But yeah, it can really help in understanding the bible when you carefully rewrite in your own terminology what is already there. I had been going through Genesis doing that, sort of my own living Bible. While I think it's necessary to be careful you don't insert things that aren't there, I found it was one of those things that made you think about what is there a lot more. I ended up using like four or five different versions of the Bible, a hebrew interlinear Bible, and I think it was Strong's hebrew word definitions (or was that Strong's Concordance? :shrugs:). Haven't gone very far yet - but it's definitely the most in-depth study of Genesis I've done yet. :smile:

Willow

[Trinitarian]

Rando, this is cool. Very much so.

Here's a slightly different spin on your idea. I tried to be a little less interpretive at points and a bit more at others. See what you think:

Cursed are the arrogant in spirit,
for they shall be denied the kingdom of heaven.

Cursed are those who delight in the suffering of others,
for they will be never be comforted.

Cursed are the arrogant,
for they will receive no inheritance on the earth.

Cursed are those who hunger and thirst for selfishness gain,
for they will be emptied.

Cursed are the merciless,
for no mercy will be shown to them.

Cursed are those whose hearts are divided,
for the will never see God.

Cursed are those who make war,
for they will be called children of Satan.

Cursed are those who persecute the righteous,
for their destiny is death.

Cursed are you when you revile and persecute my discples and speak evil of them falsely because of me. Despair and weep, because great is your reward in hell, for in the same way you persecuted the prophets I sent to you before.

[Mujibur]

Memorizing Matthew 5 is a great way to go- just imagine if you could memorize the entire Sermon on the Mount? You'd have a huge chunk of Jesus' greatest teachings committed to memory. Very useful! :yes:

My friend memorized the entire Sermon on the Mount for his second year Bible School class, and then had to reenact it for his prof. He really enjoyed the experience. Being a first year, I only had to memorize one of Paul's speeches in Acts. Acts 23 or something.