I'm going to pull an "aron" here and quote myself.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
The "truth" that I see emerging from much of the NT is that there really are teachers that have more insight than the rest of us do. That have been gifted to understand and teach.
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When I said this, I was not implying that we are at the mercy of teachers that come and say just anything they want. The wisdom and insight still needs to be consistent with the underlying message. And consistent with what we are able to clearly read. So some novel new idea may simply be a different way of applying what is there to read. And we can see that it is at least not inconsistent.
Then there are other things that just do not fit. They mess with the meaning of the available words. And we are all smart enough to discern that.
And then there are things that are somewhere in between. Such as taking a specific promise or warning and declaring that it is universal in time and meaning.
The thing about those kinds of teachings is what it does tot he listener. When it turns the listener into the religious equivalent of some right-wing militia group as found mostly in the western half of the country, then there is a problem with the message. And I do not see our sisters going to that place. But that is where so many who take those words end out.
They end out voting based on one or two issues that are far from the important things that the government is actually engaged in and in the process we get legislators and government executives that are extreme ideologues and cannot actually govern, but instead strangle the process with deadlock. Idealists too often refuse to accept anything but victory. And they will accept that stopping everything other than what they want is victory and demand nothing less. "My way or nothing."
How else does "America" return to God? By seeing to it that sinners cease to be observable in public. As long as public displays of affection between gays is refused, they will have won something. (I don't like seeing it either, but have a hard time finding the love of God or the love for others as for myself in that position.) As long as you cannot find an abortion clinic listed in the phone book or get a hit on Google or Yahoo. Make the sinner behave as if Christian.
Sinners are sinners. And we are all sinners.
And with that statement, I have discovered our link to the rest of the world. This is a nation of sinners. Just like every other nation.