God's Eternal Purpose

[awareness]

Originally Posted by zeek

This is like critical theory of the grand narrative or meta-narrative. The term refers to a comprehensive explanation, a narrative about narratives of historical meaning, experience or knowledge, which offers a society legitimation through the anticipated completion of an as yet unrealized master idea. It seems if we take your criticism to heart we must abandon the theological enterprise altogether. I favor a more moderate view which recognizes that our system, no matter how brilliant it seems, be recognized as speculative, judged on it's relative merits and not treated as the ultimate truth. The human mind has an inescapable propensity toward understanding that drives us to theorize about what we cannot understand fully. Let us simply recognize it for what it is. People want to see the big picture. We speculate about how it looks from the divine point of view. The Bible is our telescope. But we are not omniscient. So our interpretation God's POV is always incomplete and skewed this way or that. Time to try again. Though we fall short, the insight we gain through trying justifies the effort, at least for me.

Then what you are saying is: William Miller, Pember, and Lee, (my examples) piecemealed the Bible into grand speculations, were/are wrong (the Great Disappointment and such), yet trying by such piecemealing justifies the effort (for you).

I think you might be right if we factor in the entertain value of such speculations.

And yes, we Christians need entertainment. And their speculations, I admit, tho wrong, are still entertaining.

Playing in the sandbox of our imagination is fun ... I have to admit that. So I concede your point.

[zeek]

Originally Posted by awareness

Then what you are saying is: William Miller, Pember, and Lee, (my examples) piecemealed the Bible into grand speculations, were/are wrong (the Great Disappointment and such), yet trying by such piecemealing justifies the effort (for you).

I think you might be right if we factor in the entertain value of such speculations.

And yes, we Christians need entertainment. And their speculations, I admit, tho wrong, are still entertaining.

Playing in the sandbox of our imagination is fun ... I have to admit that. So I concede your point.

No that isn't what I'm saying. Sure the mistakes look funny sometimes, especially when they happen to other people. Like theology, science has made huge blunders along the way. Shall we abandon science because of the errors? Shall we abandon theology? Scientists learn from their mistakes and carry on. That's what I'm trying to do.

[awareness]

Originally Posted by zeek

No that isn't what I'm saying. Sure the mistakes look funny sometimes, especially when they happen to other people. Like theology, science has made huge blunders along the way. Shall we abandon science because of the errors? Shall we abandon theology? Scientists learn from their mistakes and carry on. That's what I'm trying to do.

Then I would advise staying away from movements, such as Witness Lee's, that are contrived and built from a piecemeal Bible.

Piecemealing the Bible has a long history of misleading the faithful, as well as fleecing the sheep. William Miller, G.H. Pember, James Ussher, Witness Lee, examples I provided, are just a few examples.

And yes Science has made blunders, but they are always trying and seeking to correct their wrongs. They don't seek to hold to their failures. They leave the failure behind. Like you say: "Scientists learn from their mistakes and carry on."

But this practice of piecemealing the Bible continues on and on, producing failures again and again. There's no learning by this mistake. If it's true when you say that: "That's what I'm trying to do." Then stay away from those that contrive systems that are based upon piecemealing the Bible.

I'd say that it is the lack of scientific thinking that's keeping development of systems based upon piecemealing the Bible alive and well ... and the faithful misled again and again.

It's only insanity that keeps us (the royal us) trying the same thing - piecemealing the Bible - over and over again, and expecting a different outcome.

And Witness Lee's GEP was based upon piecemealing the Bible.

To be honest, and personal, I fell for it. After the dead Southern Baptist church (my cradle religion) Lee's GEP was dazzling. At first it made my heart swim, and my mind glassy-eyed. And I liked how he grabbed verses from here and there to make it. I thought it was ingenious.

But I was young and foolish back then, just out on my own, seeking a Utopian ideal.

And there was lot's of love in those church days. It was the love the cinched the deal for me. But as I look back, it was the result of Lee's Bible piecemealing that took over the love, and killed it. Then a cold system was developed.

The rest is history ... thankfully.

[Cal]

Originally Posted by awareness

And yes Science has made blunders, but they are always trying and seeking to correct their wrongs. They don't seek to hold to their failures. They leave the failure behind.

Except for politically-correct blunders. Like global warming, evolution and homosexuality being normal. These they tend to cling to to a fault.

[OBW]

Originally Posted by Igzy

Except for politically-correct blunders. Like global warming, evolution and homosexuality being normal. These they tend to cling to to a fault.

As true as your general statement may be, at the same time, there may actually be something to global warming. But the more important aspect of it may be whether man actually has any material part in the process. It would seem that the earth has warmed and cooled to some degree in the past — both recently and in ancient history.

Funny thing is that it was as recent as the 80s (I believe) that there was a significant concern that the earth was going into a phase of global cooling.

Makes you wonder why we didn't hear much about it. Maybe it was because no one could pin it on the capitalist pigs that rape the earth.

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by OBW

As true as your general statement may be, at the same time, there may actually be something to global warming. But the more important aspect of it may be whether man actually has any material part in the process. It would seem that the earth has warmed and cooled to some degree in the past — both recently and in ancient history.

Funny thing is that it was as recent as the 80s (I believe) that there was a significant concern that the earth was going into a phase of global cooling.

During my high school and college days, I was constantly shown pictures of frozen wooly mammoths, and warned of the coming ice age. They used the identical reasoning as for today's global warming scares: fossil fuels, green house gases, and gas-guzzling cars. The last ice age was only 10K years hence, and the next one was right around the corner. That all changed with "Ozone AL" Gore, who invented the internet.

After the 90's, global warming was all the rage. Last year's brutal winter with its "polar vortex" kind of shut those folks up, so now we have the more all-inclusive "climate change." Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio we had climate change a couple times a day. Don't need a scientist to tell me about that. Every day we would say, "if you don't like the weather, just wait a minute."

[awareness]

Originally Posted by Igzy

Except for politically-correct blunders. Like global warming, evolution and homosexuality being normal. These they tend to cling to to a fault.

Nothing is perfect. But I sure enjoy the internet.