On May 5, 3:28 pm, SM <[email protected]> wrote: > > People who don't understand the important aspects of God or the > > important messages of Scripture (i.e. people who more or less disagree > > with your preferred interpretation) have not approached it with the > > right attitude of humility, or the right condition of their hearts. We > > can know this because if they had, then they would have > > "understood" (i.e. agreed with you). > > I don't suppose to say that all have to agree with me, because as I've said > before, we all understand in part, and are fallible in our interpretation of > truth. However, something I've also already said before (you see why I > sometimes feel like I'm repeating myself?), is that most of the points of > contention within Christianity are really about issues of 'secondary' > importance, and by that I mean those which have little to no bearing on > salvation.
You didn't need to repeat yourself, because what you're saying is consistent with what I wrote. That's why I was so careful to add qualifiers to the statement: "People who don't understand the important aspects of God or the important messages of Scripture (i.e. people who more or less disagree with your preferred interpretation)... " The important aspects of God, not the "issues of secondary importance". I can't remember the exact wording, but I think you wrote somewhere in this thread that everyone who reads the Bible comes away with the important points. There's no real misinterpretation of the basic message, or the important parts of the Bible's message, the issues of primary importance which have some bearing on salvation. Except you sling words like "arrogance" as if it isn't recognized at first glance in some other person, but easily recognized by the fact that they haven't "understood" the issues of primary importance re: salvation. And "understanding" is measured or diagnosed or recognized by whether or not the person more or less agrees with your favorite interpretation of the issues of primary importance, the parts of the message that everyone supposedly comes away interpreting the same way. > Since the primary message of Scripture concerns the reconciling of man back > to God, the truths of Scripture which relate to this are the most crucial to > understand. Those who don't remain at enmity with God. I guess it's also > relevant to point out that salvation also requires more than mere > intellectual assent to the truths of Scripture; it requires the > relinquishing of trust in oneself for trust in God. This is what I meant > earlier when I mentioned that the issue we all have to overcome is the > desire to retain control. Maybe my sins are an obstacle to my understanding, but I am not setting out to be "at enmity with God." I am at enmity with the claims of some humans passing themselves off as God, or spokespeople for God. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "A Civil Religious Debate" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/a-civil-religious-debate?hl=en.
