Trying to be sensible about doctrine.
I woke up yesterday with a strong urge to write about the possible means of “you are all gods”. So this is what I am doing. It is found in Psalm 82:6 (thus the title).
In John 10:31-39, Jesus is recorded as saying “Is it not written, ye are all gods?” I am going to explore the source of this quote. I will lay out the different ways the psalm could be understood and then see which ones fit with the way Jesus used it.
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The state is not here to service the church and enforce her laws. The church is here to serve the state or, more accurately, the people therein.
We were never meant to fight issues like abortion through the courts and the halls of lawmaking. We were meant to weep on our knees before God over the loss of unborn lives. And, while weeping, hold the hand of the woman seeking an abortion and defend her right to choose. In doing so we can say with our actions “we are here for you and your choices; look at our lives – there is another way”.
If we cannot point to another way through our lives and actions, we have no business condemning others when they fail to follow a path that we ourselves have yet to demonstrate.
Is it not written in the book of Romans, “who are you to judge another man’s servant?” If we are not to even judge our fellow servants in Christ, how much less are we supposed to judge those that serve any other authority?
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I asked Tumblr if the bible was against men having long hair.
The reason for my asking was that 1 Corinthians 11:14 says something that is frequently given as a biblical rule that men should have short hair. Whereas Ezekiel 44:20 and Numbers 6:5 seem to command the exact opposite.
I have talked before about testable doctrine. Any conclusion from 1 Corinthians 11:14 should, likewise, be tested.
One thing that I find strange is that this passage stands alone. There do not seem to be other writers of scripture endorsing the position of 1 Corinthians 11 on men and long hair.
Furthermore, the foundation for the New Testament, the Old Testament, seems to teach the exact opposite. How can we arrive at 1 Corinthians 11:14 from the old via the teachings of Jesus? I do not presently see any path no matter how nebulous.
1 Corinthians 6:12 (the very same text) can be mustered to say that all things are allowable within reason and personal restraint.
“All things are lawful for me”—but not everything is beneficial. “All things are lawful for me”—but I will not be controlled by anything.
1 Corinthians 6:12 [NET]
Indeed, the doctrine of grace could, likewise, be mustered to say that God is not concerned about the outward appearance but of the heart of a person. Therefore long hair on men can be said to be a non-issue.
The long hair on men is a shame passage stands alone and in contrast to many other passages. Quite what the writer of that verse was trying to say and how it can be fitted into the wider scriptural narrative is not a question I feel qualified to attempt at this time.
This 1 Corinthians sits as a paradox in its apparent irreconcilable contradiction of itself on this subject.
Is the bible against men having long hair? Yes and no, apparently.
I asked social media if you can you have morality aside from a divine authority? This is some of the discussion that resulted.
I asked social media, should each gender have different roles? This is the discussion that followed.
Is God all-powerful (omnipotent)? Is it true, as it is written in Luke 1:37, that there is nothing He cannot do?
God as an omnipotent creator is what I was taught growing up. It is what the Bible does indeed seem to teach (the foundational axiom is that the Bible is good for teaching and establishing doctrine).
So why do we have a common teaching that suggests God is not all-powerful?
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There are certain Christian phrases such as “born again” that we use until they are devoid of all meaning.
Take for example the passage that crops up mid-discussion in John 3:3. Unless a man is:
And yet it is that last phrase that we latch onto and use with such enthusiasm that it stops having any real meaning beyond being the definition of a particular type of over-enthusiastic Christian with a tendency to over-share their faith, often at inappropriate times.
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I have had a thought derived from the concept of agnosis which I am calling the least rejectable doctrine. In this post, I would like to set out a concept for doctrine selection which approaches being both intellectually honest and theologically rigorous.
For every doctrine, you will find people seeking to show it should be rejected and those who work tirelessly to defend it. This leaves us trapped in a spiritual deadlock with neither side willing to concede anything to the other. As a result, we are often fractured more than we are united, left unable or unwilling to embrace change.
How often have we, the church, resisted a fresh move of the Holy Spirit because we cling to the old rather than embrace the now?
It is with that in mind that I began to consider what Romans 12:16 says about unity. Just as Ephesians 4 looks forward to when “we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God” this approach hopes to bring us towards some semblance of unity.
How is a believer meant to know what is true rather than merely popular?
Continue readingMost people will tell you that being wrong feels humiliating or embarrassing. That is what it feels like to discover you are wrong. Before making that discovery, being wrong feels exactly like being right.
The worst thing we can do is to be to sure that we are right. Maybe we are but maybe we are only mostly right – or even wholly wrong. Very many religious teachers in Jesus time were sure they were right about him being wrong. These days, very many people would disagree.
The danger of being too certain of your rightness is that you become blind to your inaccuracies and errors. The sort of pride where you are not open to change can lead to no good.
Salt preserves by virtue of being salt. It does not need to make rules or force the food it is to change. It simply exists and in doing so preserves the food.
If we are the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13-16) then our job is not to make rules but to let our good works speak for themselves. In so doing, we preserve the world. No laws, rules, or regulations can do that for us. Only our lives.
Forcing our morality via the rule of law can only lead to legalism while a life well lived can do things no law ever can. A life well lived can change many lives.
Be the salt.