On Mar 26, 3:45 pm, shegeek72 <karmictara...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> On Mar 24, 7:08 pm, Jacob <jni...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:>
>
> > His acceptance does not mean that He tolerates sin.
> > God hates sin, even if it is His beloved children who are committing
> > it. The wages of sin is still death, and if we do not claim
> > forgiveness by acknowledging and confessing it to God, it will still
> > separate us from Him (Ro.6:23;Is.59:1,2).
>
> A misinterpretation of scripture. This black and white view is based
> on an antiquated 'judgment, vengeful' God.
> --
The vengeful God is hardly antiquated. Many people still advocate for
him. Many posters to this group could or will tell you that - if they
bother to.
But it is a misreading of scripture. Combing Paul and Isaiah is not
helpful because they speak from such different contexts. It is Paul
who said that "For sin pays its wage - death. But God's free gift is
eternal life." and it is Isaiah who more or less says the rest but he
says only that "It is your sins that separate you from God when you
try to wor****p him".
It is not obvious even that Paul, writing in Greek, and (Third?)
Isaiah, speaking in Hebrew, meant the same thing by sin. Isaiah goes
on to list a number of things I would call crimes. Paul nowhere makes
explicit what sin meant to him. But his writings generally imply he is
thinking in moral terms and, I believe, favor the idea that, to him,
sin means rejecting God - not any particular actions.
In one sense the original post was correct. It seems clear that Paul
was very insecure in the sense that he felt he was a great sinner and
that his salvation was hard won. But we must not confuse Paul's
personal psychological problems with a universal statement about
mankind. People, who like Paul, are convinced of their own
unworthiness will always admire a judgmental God.
Nowadays wallowing in one's own unworthiness has largely gone out of
style. Hence there is less talk about damnation and vengeance. But
many people are not ready to give up their old beliefs and follow the
new trendy ones.
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