Quote:
Originally Posted by Mary Etheldreda
(Post #373)
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I was interested in the way people confuse liberty with licence. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul reflected on how Titus was welcome in Macedonia and how his previous letter had caused some little sorrow, however well intentioned, but happily the result was repentance.
II Corinthians 7:5-6, 8-9a When we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears. Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus.….though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season. Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance
The Good News about Jesus is that He makes sure we are corrected when we go astray. We have been chosen for Redemption and as foul sinners needed correction so that God could look at us through the eyes of Jesus and see His suffering in us and set us free. Paul continues:
II Corinthians 7:16-8:2 I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all things. Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; how that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.
That does not mean they all became libertines or social-justice-warriors or started voting communist. It is the liberty of Christ, God's work completed in us through Him. That requires discipline. Nowadays people have crazy post-modern ideas about discipline especially what used to be called self-discipline. The craze is than in no matter should one ever discipline oneself but rather one should "identify" as such-and-such a thing. Deformities as we know are visited upon the progeny of sinners as a punishment. It could be a child or grandchild and in some cases a physical or mental deformity is there to punish a great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent. That's how serious it is to disregard God's requirements, even the circumstances of one's own birth. Hermaphrodites could fall under any of these categories.
Jesus recommended amputations in some circumstances, specifically as an alternative to being cast into unquenchable fire. Modernist "interpretations" contravene God's instruction that Scripture does not require interpretation and in this case make dopey claims about metaphor and such like. But the general principle is there and is clearly not limited to hands, feet and eyeballs. Jesus elucidates:
Matthew 19:9-12c Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake.
Hermaphrodites have been reviled and also worshipped in the past. Let's face it, heathens will worship just about anything but that's no excuse for homoerotic attraction even though I'm not sure what that means for hermaphrodites. It would be important though for any marriage to comply with God's standard otherwise the cycle of curses should recommence all over again.
There are those who regard The Bible as utter detritus, a book to be eliminated from human consciousness altogether like the long lost garbage we know nothing about because it's lost. And good riddance. It never had anything to do with God (if it had it wouldn't be lost) but for liberals and freethinkers (as they call themselves) The Bible is no better than that. Worse probably. The only reason we have any degree of liberty at all, they say, is because we've got rid of The Bible and the filth of clergy more or less but it could come back at any time! Blatant scaremongering. God's Word endures forever.
Mark 9:43-49
I Peter 1:24-25
Isaiah 40:8