I meant to say this earlier.
I have been losing a lot of sleep lately. This is mostly because I have been drinking too much caffeine. Once I have been disturbed in the night - especially if its about 2:30 - I just can't get back to sleep again. I toss and turn and fret about things, and becasue I am tired and not thinking straight, everything asumes a greater magnitude than it deserves. Recently, the topic that has vexed me is the imposition of the Sexual Orientation Regulations, which force people to act against their beliefs. In the night I work myself into such a state of frustration and rage that it is no longer clear of it is the caffeine or my feelings that is keeping me awake.
When this happens, I go downstairs for a cup of tea and some toast, and watch some TV to change the course of my thoughts. Sometimes I end up thinking "Stupid cats - can't they tell its not feeding time and I'm too tired to cope?". The actual TV itself is really poor at night - you would think I would fall asleep through sheer boredom. (At 10pm, during my favourite programme I do fall asleep!"
On Saturday night I decided on a different approach. Instead of the TV, I picked up the Bible, and prayed for some word of comfort that would enable me to get over my frustration at the unjust laws and sleep in the future. I opened the Bible and read the first sentance that I cast my eye on - "Woe to those who make unjust laws" (Isaiah 10 v1). And so, with God's comiseration, I have felt much more relaxed ever since. he has taken the burden from me, and will ensure justice is done in the end.
Sorry man, but some of the arguments seem kind of silly to me. Christians ought to be figuring out how to love their neighbors instead of fighting for their "legal right" to cluck their tongues at them.
ReplyDeleteKyle
ReplyDeleteYou miss my point. I believe that everyone should have the right to act according to what their beliefs are .. gay athiest, gay christian, hetersexual athiest, heterosexual christian, and everything in between. I don't believe Biblical [for want of a better word] Christians should enforce their values on others. For exactly the same reasons, I don't believe that gays who wish to adopt should force their values on people that don't want to be involved. That is the unjust law that I object to.
When black slavery was abolished, they didn't make white slaves instead. When women were emancipated [a work in progress] men were not chained to the kitchen instead. In contrast, Jews that were liberated from Nazi Germany now oppress Arab and Palestinian minorities in Israel. Similarly, on receiving freedom, Gays now oppress Christians who (not for gay-bashing but for their own purity) don't wish to participate in gay adoptions. It is unfair. It is wrong. it is unjust. All I want is a level playing feild, where all are treated with the same right to run their own lives.
That makes sense.
ReplyDeleteI think you have misunderstood your experience. Before you picked up the Bible that night you were full of woe. God obviously pointed out to you that this was because you follow old, unjust Jewish laws. If you let go of the Law and let the words of Jesus inform your beliefs, then you will, I promise, sleep easier at night.
ReplyDeleteSo God's law given through Moses is unjust?
ReplyDeleteThe OT law exists to demonstrate our inability to achieve holiness by human effort - it is superseded by the the law of Christ, not because it was unjust but becasue he fulfilled it on our behalf. It was never unjust.
Furthermore, the phrase "Woe to..." in the Bible nearly always refers to future punishment of compacent sinners who mistakenly think that because God has not acted yet he will not act.
I will indeed hold the words of Jesus, noting that they are wholly consistent with the OT in the grand scheme of things. He does not condemn, but he does require repenance from sexual imorality. And that is why the writing of Jesus' servant Paul in 1 Corinthians 6 is wholly consistent with Leviticus.
Your theology appears to be close to the Gnostic heresy.
I cannot agree with your interpretation of my experience. After all, I was there, you weren't.