I will respond to tasteslikegold’s post #1334 in this series in multiple posts to shorten each one. Before I start, since I am doing the drafting off-line, I am somewhat crippled in format in that the imbedded portions of TLG’s post that had bolding or other special formatting are typically lost when copying back into the forum. I will try to find and reset each part to its original, but make no promises that I will be consistent or successful at all.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tasteslikegold
Well first, I didn't create a straw man from your argument. You did, however, write that "God's righteousness is expressed when we have good family relationships, good work relationships, righteous dealings with our customers, right living as we drive along the highway. You would agree that simply having "good relationships" and "right living" outside the influence of Christ is not sufficient in displaying the kingdom, right? To me saying, "good relationships" is the same as saying "crank it out on our own." The best we have is "goodness" in ourselves.
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With respect to “cranking it out on our own” I agree that this is not the Kingdom. While you may not have intended to make a strawman argument, it is your presumption that I meant something that I did not say that lead to your error. While we will get to terminology in another post, you would seem to have transferred “goodness” from something that exudes from God and can only be truly achieved through Him into something human and fallen. And even if “goodness” is only used as an impartial adjective to describe the actual actions, it makes no automatic presumption about how those actions came to be. That presumption was entirely on your part. Given the rest of my context, it is hard to claim that I meant to simply grind it out.
There is your strawman, whether you intended it or not.
Read what I write, not what the LC lexicon says I mean by it.