I may certainly be self-deceived about how much I understand about the Bible. But I love it. I love the God I understand from it, a God who meets humanity where they are at, a God who is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, and full of mercy, quick to change his mind about the consequences of our wrongdoing. I see in the Bible a God who is interested in us loving one another and in us reconciling with our enemies, a God who wants us to overcome our abuse and oppression of each other. I see a God who is interested in our hearts and actions toward one another (and very little concerned at all about what we say is going on in our heads). I see in the Bible God's Son who is willing to die for us. I see in the Bible the hope that the world will be set right and that we are part of that mission.
I don't begrudge anyone who doesn't quite get to the paragraph above the way I do, but I think most will find little to object to in it.
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I do not appreciate the liberal who loves to use the Bible to justify their "social justice" project...or global goals. Nor do I appreciate the conservative's "herd mentality" toward dogmatic beliefs that define 'who they are' and what they think everyone else "should believe". Both liberals and conservatives have different agenda, but they both believe in a defined ideology that is promoted above individual liberty. Individual liberty is the basis of "leaving others" alone to evaluate, and choose their own purposes,values and commitments.
But you can be glad that my theology lets you continue on in your freedom as long as you don't hurt anyone or the rest of us don't out vote you for the common good within the agreed limits of our social contract.
The issue of free will, a loving and holy God, eschatological justice, and following God's will for us(within the limit of original sin and the Fall) seems, as Ben Witherington and NT Wright say consistent with Scripture. Self set standards have no intellectual or ethical warrant unless they are drawn from some consensual tradition which is ontologically true. CS Lewis stated that he only became a Christian because he believed the Christian faith was true. There are good intellectual and experiential reasons for accepting Scripture(e.g. see Wright's Jesus and the Victory of God, Resurrection of the Son of God, and John Polkinghorne's Faith of a Physicist. Love, holiness, justice, and mercy are packaged together in Arminian Christianity.
Very well put. Thank you (esp. the cleaver re-phrasing of the beliefs & actions part... so many asterisks to add but your summation is right).
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