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Unbelievably, many people come to our place of on-line fellowship only to try and tell us that we are wrong to follow all of God’s law as spelled out in the Holy Bible. Since this continues to happen, I thought I would repeat what has been said 1,000s of times in this forum. We follow the word of God in the Holy Bible to the letter. Some of you seem to think this is somehow humorous. Even those of you who claim to believe in God and Jesus Christ. Perhaps I need to give you an example that you can understand as to why your pick-and-choose method is untenable:
Imagine one of your dearest loved ones (Mother, daughter, son, etc) is viciously tortured and murdered, the whole thing videotaped and broadcast on the internet. The murderer is arrested and convicted of first degree murder. The Judge then sentences him to a $50.00 fine and 6 points on his driver's license. Wait...what? Fifty bucks and…and a driver’s license point deduction? What the heck? You have researched the law. You know it inside and out. You KNOW that the text of the law says that anyone convicted of First Degree Murder shall be sentenced at LEAST to life without parole if not sentenced to death. (And before any of you start screaming about the death penalty…get over yourselves for one moment and stay focused.)
"Wait, your honor," you say as you rise in objection. “The LAW says that murderers should be locked up for the rest of their lives or executed. You can't sentence him to a fine and drivers license points!" The judge, along with most people in the courtroom, chuckles. He removes his glasses and looks down at you and smiles. “You are obviously confused or a simpleton. Reading the literal text of that law leads us to cruel and inhumane punishments. Society has evolved past such ways as locking a person in a cell for the rest of their life. If you read the statute IN CONTEXT, taking into account all the information that the legislators had available to them when they passed the law, you can see that what they really meant is that you shouldn't murder people, but if you do, you should feel bad about it and that will be enough.”
"This is insane!" you think to yourself. Even more confusing is how almost everyone else in the room is smiling and nodding in agreement with the judge. The prosecuting attorney comes up to you and hands you a book entitled, David Shapiro’s Criminal Law Study Guide: What the statutes REALLY say about crime and punishment! “Take a look at this,” says the attorney. “You really shouldn’t read the straight text of the law without using a study guide to tell you what it means…unless you are an attorney or a judge, of course.”
Striking the book out of the attorney’s hands you turn back to the judge and say, "But...but this is not what the PLAIN TEXT OF THE LAW says! You can't just change or ignore parts of the law you personally don't like! The law is the law and you can't change it just because you are uncomfortable with it!"
The judge replies, "You think that the law is literal? Hah! Stupid fool! That you can't see that the law is a set of allegories that must evolve with the times is not my fault! You must be of a lesser intellect!" Stunned you look on as the grinning murderer of your loved one writes a check and walks out of the room.
Pretty crazy world to live in where the law is basically meaningless and up to the whims of any judge who wants to "interpret" the meaning away, right? It would make a great episode of The Twilight Zone, right? This is what it is like to see the world through our eyes. The Bible is God's Law. While we may be uncomfortable with it, we cannot simply ignore it or, even worse, try to "interpret it" so as to twist and distort the meaning of the PLAIN words to the point where we get them to mean something that they just don't say. Doing so will lead to a point where we can look at the Bible where Jesus says MULTIPLE TIMES in the New Testament that unsaved sinners will GO TO HELL and say, "Yes, but when taken in context, reading John 3:16 before and after that unpleasant 'Hell' part, we can see that Jesus was telling us that sinners actually DO end up in Heaven, but they will have to do all their shopping at WallMart which is surely Hell-ish, right?"
You know that such behavior is insincere at the best and simply deceitful at the worst. Supposed Christian preachers who try to convince their flock that this is how to read the Bible also know that it is insincere. Everyone does and yet… and yet, you all hold hands, sing kumbaya, and pretend the unpleasant or uncomfortable or even the simply inconvenient parts of the Bible don't exist or somehow don't apply. Who is crazy in this story now?
Now, you have a choice: Accept the word of God...the WHOLE word of God; OR decide that the whole thing is completely made up fairy tales and throw it away. It’s all or nothing. One path leads to enlightenment and joy, the other leads to a life of pain and suffering and torment. I think it is obvious which is which. What will you do?
Imagine one of your dearest loved ones (Mother, daughter, son, etc) is viciously tortured and murdered, the whole thing videotaped and broadcast on the internet. The murderer is arrested and convicted of first degree murder. The Judge then sentences him to a $50.00 fine and 6 points on his driver's license. Wait...what? Fifty bucks and…and a driver’s license point deduction? What the heck? You have researched the law. You know it inside and out. You KNOW that the text of the law says that anyone convicted of First Degree Murder shall be sentenced at LEAST to life without parole if not sentenced to death. (And before any of you start screaming about the death penalty…get over yourselves for one moment and stay focused.)
"Wait, your honor," you say as you rise in objection. “The LAW says that murderers should be locked up for the rest of their lives or executed. You can't sentence him to a fine and drivers license points!" The judge, along with most people in the courtroom, chuckles. He removes his glasses and looks down at you and smiles. “You are obviously confused or a simpleton. Reading the literal text of that law leads us to cruel and inhumane punishments. Society has evolved past such ways as locking a person in a cell for the rest of their life. If you read the statute IN CONTEXT, taking into account all the information that the legislators had available to them when they passed the law, you can see that what they really meant is that you shouldn't murder people, but if you do, you should feel bad about it and that will be enough.”
"This is insane!" you think to yourself. Even more confusing is how almost everyone else in the room is smiling and nodding in agreement with the judge. The prosecuting attorney comes up to you and hands you a book entitled, David Shapiro’s Criminal Law Study Guide: What the statutes REALLY say about crime and punishment! “Take a look at this,” says the attorney. “You really shouldn’t read the straight text of the law without using a study guide to tell you what it means…unless you are an attorney or a judge, of course.”
Striking the book out of the attorney’s hands you turn back to the judge and say, "But...but this is not what the PLAIN TEXT OF THE LAW says! You can't just change or ignore parts of the law you personally don't like! The law is the law and you can't change it just because you are uncomfortable with it!"
The judge replies, "You think that the law is literal? Hah! Stupid fool! That you can't see that the law is a set of allegories that must evolve with the times is not my fault! You must be of a lesser intellect!" Stunned you look on as the grinning murderer of your loved one writes a check and walks out of the room.
Pretty crazy world to live in where the law is basically meaningless and up to the whims of any judge who wants to "interpret" the meaning away, right? It would make a great episode of The Twilight Zone, right? This is what it is like to see the world through our eyes. The Bible is God's Law. While we may be uncomfortable with it, we cannot simply ignore it or, even worse, try to "interpret it" so as to twist and distort the meaning of the PLAIN words to the point where we get them to mean something that they just don't say. Doing so will lead to a point where we can look at the Bible where Jesus says MULTIPLE TIMES in the New Testament that unsaved sinners will GO TO HELL and say, "Yes, but when taken in context, reading John 3:16 before and after that unpleasant 'Hell' part, we can see that Jesus was telling us that sinners actually DO end up in Heaven, but they will have to do all their shopping at WallMart which is surely Hell-ish, right?"
You know that such behavior is insincere at the best and simply deceitful at the worst. Supposed Christian preachers who try to convince their flock that this is how to read the Bible also know that it is insincere. Everyone does and yet… and yet, you all hold hands, sing kumbaya, and pretend the unpleasant or uncomfortable or even the simply inconvenient parts of the Bible don't exist or somehow don't apply. Who is crazy in this story now?
Now, you have a choice: Accept the word of God...the WHOLE word of God; OR decide that the whole thing is completely made up fairy tales and throw it away. It’s all or nothing. One path leads to enlightenment and joy, the other leads to a life of pain and suffering and torment. I think it is obvious which is which. What will you do?
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