Hi friends.
I hope that everyone is very well.
In my last diary, I explained that I had returned to my
Christian faith. I did not comment on my political views.
More below the fold.
I will share two things here.
I will self-identify as a conservative Christian.
I will state unequivocally that I am still a democrat.
My return to Christianity was greeted with skepticism from
some quarters because of previous posts I had written here
when I questioned Christianity. A conservative Christian
quoted from these blogs when I informed that Christian that I
had committed to Christ and was returning to conservative Christianity.
So, this may be read by those who are not where I am politically and
possibly used against me. In addition, my religious views will undoubtedly
make me unpopular here.
The faith that I have returned to is fundamentalist, conservative Christianity.
This statement by itself may make me so unpopular that I am a pariah and unable to post on other matters. On issues that the Bible does not clearly address, I remain a democrat: opposed to both wars, for EFCA, for Medicare for All, for more stimulus, not all. I am opposed to not fighting climate change, reducing our dependence upon oil, foreign and domestic. I consider Republican economic policy bad economics. I do not see Republican economic views as based upon the Bible. I support Lloyd Doggett, Bill White and President Obama. I am a democrat.
However, I cannot have my feet in two different canoes heading in two different directions. Where democratic political views are in clear contradiction to a normative reading of the Bible, I must follow what the Lord says in the Bible. Where there is potential conflict, I must seek and follow the guidance of the Lord. Does God speak clearly and directly to the issue ? Then I must go with the One who rose from the dead.
How do I interpret the Bible ? I interpret the Bible much like I would interpret you when you are speaking or reading. I try to find the intended meaning of the human author and the Divine author by examining the context, verses before and after, paragraphs before and after, chapters before and after, similar books by the same author, books on the same topic. In hermeneutics, I am attempting to find out what the text means by what it says. I am looking for the plain intended meaning. There are figures of speech in the Bible. However, I do not assume that something is a figure of speech unless it is completely, transparently obvious.
For example, in John 14:6, Jesus said, " I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me." There are myriads of Scriptures equally clear that only saving faith in Jesus brings one into a saving relationship with the Father. There is no textually based interpretation that is true to the context and to the rest of Scripture that can validly and legitimately deal with that verse. Those who don't believe that Jesus is the only way to Heaven simply must reject that verse. But there are hundreds of others, all equally clear. And those verses are based upon principles of the character of God and of man taught throughout Scripture. To remove such verses, one would have to also remove the verses teaching the character of God and of man. It would mean that one must remove the Heart from the Bible. It would be removing the central point of the Bible, leaving nothing of eternal value or of eternal significance.
I also do not excuse attempts to jettison parts of my faith simply because the Bible was written thousands of years ago. I do not write off parts of the Bible because they are unpopular today. I find that if I do not hold to an inerrant Bible (in the originals - but we have textual evidence that shows that the fundamentals of the faith were in the originals) , I have insufficient logical basis to say that anything, rape or murder or anything else, is morally wrong.
There is one simple point to the Bible.
We have all sinned. We are all conscious of some point in time when we thought or acted wrongly or didn't do something that we knew that we should have. Our own conscience makes this clear. Even people in Austin (as well as in the most remote parts of the Earth) are aware of this. God's standard in the Bible is even more rigorous than our own standard.
God is holy, so holy that he must punish sin. The wages of sin is death, physical and spiritual. We all deserve punishment for our sins. The policeman who pulls us over on the road does not care that we were not speeding yesterday or that we helped somebody yesterday.
God punished Jesus for the sins of others as their substitute. Jesus was punished for every sin that I have ever committed or will commit in the future and am committing now.
God raised Jesus from the dead.
The Lord offers eternal life to all people on the planet as a free gift. However, people must choose to receive it by faith. If one counts on one's works to merit Heaven, one will never see Heaven. It would be like a friend asking you to come over for dinner. The friend makes a great meal. You have a wonderful time. But at the end you reach for your wallet.
Or your dad offers to buy you this car. But you say, here's $50. I can contribute something to it. Your dad says, "No, It is free. If you offer to pay for it, then it is worth a lot more than the $50.00 you offer."
Jesus was punished to completely pay the price for sin. To offer our "good works" in addition to what Jesus did as the reason God should allow us into Heaven would be similar to saying, Michelangelo, your statue of David is pretty good, but let me improve it a little.
Saving faith means trusting that the death of Christ was the all sufficient payment for my sins and of itself merits eternal life for me. Saving faith is the means through which we receive the gift of eternal life.
I recognize that I am persona non grata around here now.
However, I wanted to clarify who I am and what I believe and stand for.
Being popular is not as important as following the Lord.