BaylorJacket said:
Waco1947 said:
Paul Romans 2: For there is no distinction, 23 since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
Jesus says in Matthew 15 8 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. 19 For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile."
Sin what comes out of our heart. If the heart does not love God with all their heart, and their neighbor as themselves then one can be said to sin.
Man, people just see "Waco1947" and love to hate on you… you don't deserve it.
The topic of sin really does fascinate me, especially as you see the rules/commandments of the Bible change and grow throughout the different books. Did God simply change his mind about slavery being a sin over a 1-2000 year period, or did man's understanding of God change/grow? Interesting debate.
I think the problem is not God but Man. Imagine for a moment you went back in time, and tried to bring ancient civilizations to a place where they accepted and practiced our modern values.
You'd fail.
It's not just that there is a communication gap between different times and places, there is also the practical question of just how to practice those ethics.
Take Slavery, for example. To us, Slavery is abhorrent and wrong by any moral standard, but to the ancients it was a form of mercy. Suppose you had a war with a nation, and captured thousands of their soldiers.
If you kill them, you are telling everyone there is no reason to surrender to your nation.
If you let them go home, they will just re-arm and come back to kill your people in a later war.
And you can't just keep them in a prison indefinitely, it costs too much for the food, clothing and resources, and you would have to garrison the prison with men you would rather use for other work.
So, ancient nations would make the prisoners slaves. Some for life, some for a specific time, some as hostages to future negotiations. The slaves got to live, and by making them work for their food and living, you did not lose your own food and resources so much.
By ancient standards, this was just and good, but we see things differently today. In like manner, imagine if you are God, perfect in every wisdom and understanding, trying to teach imperfect students how to be better.
And from where I sit, we
have learned. Only some of us, and those slowly. The Bible is full of accounts about and slowly we learn, and how foolish we are about our personal behavior. I believe it is an ironic truth, that King Solomon is described as a very wise man, yet his desire for beautiful women caused him to make some very foolish decisions. In the same way, we see the contradiction in Peter's trust in Christ which causes Jesus to praise him, yet just a short time later Jesus compares Peter to Satan for his faltered faith.
We are, all of us, slow learners, especially when we are being taught how to become better.
That which does not kill me, will try again and get nastier