Quote:
Originally Posted by VoiceInWilderness
Here is a verse that I have trouble with, Ps 31:6
6 I have hated the keepers
of worthless vanities,
but I've to the LORD trusted.
In the NT we are not supposed to hate people. I wish the verse said, "I have hated the keeping of worthless vanities", but that rendering doesn't seem possible.
what do you do with this verse, anyone?
|
I think there are a couple of related approaches. First is to see that God doesn't really "hate". God is love itself. But God is also holy, and God's dealing with the worthless vanities is unpleasant. Like when you spank your kids. You really love them, and don't hate them, but you may whale on them a bit to keep them from going into the abyss.
So what you experience as "the day of God's wrath has come" is not God being wroth but God's righteous dealings. (not saying "this is the way it is" but rather that this is one way of looking at it. We anthropomorphize God in some ways, to characterize Him, but shouldn't be too smitten by our thought-pictures)
Another way is that it's not people we hate but the forces that control them. Paul said that we fight not against flesh and blood but spiritual forces. We know this. This opens the door to a third way, which is my preferred way, because it draws out the most inference, and utility, from the source text. Look, David was a warrior, right? I mean if he wasn't tough, Goliath would have crushed him like a bug. David told Saul, "I killed a lion and a bear and now I'm gonna kill that uncircumcised Philistine."
The background of these poems was unrelenting bloodshed and warfare. Peace was only established when one side was utterly vanquished. And this is a clear picture of the coming King. When He came, the dark forces cried out with fear. "Oh! What do we have to do with you, Jesus? Have you come to destroy us before our time?"
So when Jesus said, "Get thee behind Me, Satan", to Peter, He meant it. He utterly rejected Peter at that moment. Utterly. Jesus knew that there was no compromise with the forces of darkness. Anyone who took Satan's way would be turned away. But Jesus didn't reject Peter, but the forces that operated in Peter. He prayed for Peter, and the rest, (see e.g. Luke 22:32) and God had mercy and saved them. Jesus truly fought the good fight. And yes it is a fight.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
We cannot separate our theology from our practice. But our practice is a window into the value of our theology. However, there are two levels of theology — that which you have argued yourself into thinking is right and which you will argue for, and that which has become true and affects your life. And we often cannot tell the difference between the two. But it shows in our practice.
While I will not say that war is immoral, or that there is no sin, when we speak of those &@$*# homosexuals, ISIS insurgents, liberals, illegal aliens, or whatever, we may hold to "love your neighbor as yourself" as theologically true, but it is not the theology we live. And it is therefore not really our theology. We talk like it is, but we don't believe it enough to reject our natural hatred, bigotry, etc., and live like it is. So our practical theology is not what we say is our theology.
And many who still speak in that manner study, contemplate, and meditate on God's word.
|
I wanted to bring OBW's post over here because I think it's related. As Christians we can either judge people, and fight them, like the Crusaders going after the godless Muslims and re-taking the Holy Land. Our swords drip with blood, literally, to bring the kingdom nigh.
Or, we say, "Oh, no, we just love everybody", and become relativists. I'm okay, you're okay. No; no one is good except God. The rest of us are in peril, here in the flesh. So we struggle with our own flesh, and try to help others. We close our doors and do battle before the Father's throne.
This is where Psalms come in. The battle rages, and Jesus has won the Victory, and urges us all through the fight, to follow Him. Outwardly we imitate Him, as Christians: when someone says for us to declare judgment, we can say, "Man, who appointed me judge over you?" (Luke 12:14). On earth we are nothing, know nothing except Christ and Him crucified, and have nothing. God is everything. When someone curses us we bless, when they slap our cheeks we expose the other. But inwardly we have the "words of Christ indwelling us richly", per the apostle in Col 3:16, and yes these are words of battle. We are not surprised by anything because we can see the unseen, in the words of Scripture.
But it is not, not, not, not, not against people. We cannot overstress this. It is against forces that have usurped people. To me this is why the seven letters were written to the "angel of the church in Thyatira", etc. There were forces controlling these regions, and the word of the Lord was, "repent". Plain and simple. Repent. Turn and come back to God. John was essentially "praying over" geographical regions, and addressing the forces that were affecting the stuff seen on the ground.
Anyway, as usual I've carried on far too long. Sorry for the wordiness.