Christian BoyLove Forum #65994

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There are many arguments

Posted by Anonymous for now on 2013-09-07 22:24:59, Saturday
In reply to The NT is rather negative about fornication posted by Eldad on 2013-09-04 12:55:10, Wednesday

The problem is that you are beginning from a fundamentalist point of view. That is a view that begins with the claim that the bible is inerrant and is the only proper foundation of our theology. The main problem with casting every Christian who does not believe in fundamentalism out is that you would have cast out every disciple, all of the apostles, Thomas of Aquinas, the Cappadocian fathers, Origen, etc. etc. Pretty much every major theologian in history beginning with the authors of the bible would have to be cast out since fundamentalism began only about a hundred years ago.

Karl Barth, widely considered the greatest modern theologian, presents us with a different view. Under Barth's view (see, "Church Dogmatics volumes 1 and 2"), we are presented with Christ himself as the word incarnate (the Logos), and it is Christ that forms the foundation of our faith.

Would you claim that Barth was not a Christian?

Those who follow a neo-orthodox or similar theology, like Barth, may reach a conclusion that certain things biblical authors wrote are simply wrong. They could reach the conclusion that Christ's life, his focus on love, and his explanation of how the whole law can be summarized in the greatest commandment (Love) seems to show us that a loving act cannot be sinful.

Then you have all of the liberal Christians. Their views cover a very wide array of ideas. Some would claim that the bible represents the findings of all those who began this journey of faith before us and that rather than being the final arbiter of truth, it is the starting point from which our personal journey of faith begins and builds. Others would view the bible as a guideline. Some of them even still believe the fundamentalist position yet feel that parts of the bible that were correct for the people they were original written for (the original recipients of the letters) no longer apply to us. Read the work of Brian McLaren, or some of the articles on http://www.patheos.com/Progressive-Christian for more exposure to this kind of thinking.

Then there are those Christians who focus on the gifts of the spirit and who would claim that through the gift of discernment or the gift of prophecy they have been told by God certain things (which contradict your view).

Finally, you have those who agree with your fundamentalist position but interpret passages about homosexuality in a different way from how you interpret them. We've had such debates here in the past. You know there are other interpretations out there, even from those who remain fundamentalist. Here is a fairly lengthy treatise on the topic by someone who, whiel not claiming fundamentalism still takes a fundamentalist position on the bible as the word of God and reaches the conclusion that homosexuality is not condemned in the biblehttp://johnshore.com/2012/04/02/the-best-case-for-the-bible-not-condemning-homosexuality/

As you can see, there is a wide variety of Christian thought on the topic of the bible and what it means to us. You would like to cast all of those who disagree with you on that out (along with Paul and the apostles and Barth and Origen and all of the Christians prior to 1910 who would also have disagreed with you). In addition, you want to kick out all of those who agree with you on the inerrancy of the bible and its focus as the center of Christianity but who disagree with your interpretation of some verses.

The Christian tent is much bigger than you would like it to be. Look around at the beautiful panoply that is the Christian faith. There are liberals and orthodox and neo-orthodox, and neo-liberals, and reformed, and wesleyan, and so many other categories.

Don't get me wrong, I think the fact that you have a solid world view is a good thing. I don't aim to change your world view. In all likelihood, this is the world view God wants you to have. What I am opposed to is the arrogance that would lead someone to declare that those who don't conform to their well-formed ideas are not true Christians. We have an example of people who felt that way in the bible. They were called pharisees.

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