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Originally Posted by OBW
It was clear that it would be the Jewish status quo that would reject God. They had turned righteousness into a complex serious of formulas and God into not much more than an icon..
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Agreed. My point is that the christians were not immune from this degradation; and this falling away might have been more precipitous than most of us realized.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
And one of the things that has been overlooked in the whole "rejection by the Jews" issue is that the whole prophecy of the Messiah included rejection and even bruising/wounding. There God demonstrated the condition of even the chosen people under the existing regime (without God inside). Jesus was intended to be crucified, not by the worst, but by the best. That would restate yet again that all are fallen...
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True. Stumblings must come, but woe to him through whom the stumblings come!
Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
But when I read scripture, both the words and deeds of Jesus, the things recorded in Acts, and the things that Paul and the others recorded in the various letters, I see a constant charge to follow and obey. That requires less emphasis on what is not following and more on what is following.... it is less the things that Christianity has done to get off the mark as it is the getting off the mark that has lead to the things it has done. ...The source was a heart that was off the mark and open to try something else to keep that religious thing (a negative kind of religious thing) going.
In other words, our focus needs to be more on what is right. .. I don't need to focus on what not to do if I know what to do and stick to that.
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All true. I love the tradition that holds John's Gospel being written after the Revelation. In the Gospel he clearly shows the way. Not offices, but love. God loved us, so much that He sent His Son. Everything else, to me, fades away in the light of God's great love for us.
This "inoculates" us from getting distracted by all the commotions. We don't have to partake of the empire building and the inevitable subsequent pogroms, inquisitions, quarantines, rebellions, schisms, lawsuits, and so forth. Just believe in God, respond to His love by obeying the voice of His Son in His Spirit, and love your neighbor (the person next to you) as much as you love yourself.
I think everything else, offices or lack thereof, will sort itself out if we hold fast to God's love.