mennochick: February 2006

So...Was Paul Wrong About First Century Judaism?

Those of you who missed tonight's lecture at Emmanuel Baptist (and that's all of you, since I saw no one there I know!), you really missed a good one! It was a bit different than I thought it would be--Dr. Stadler answered the question posed in the title (Was Paul Wrong About First Century Judaism?) in the first ten minutes. (The answer was no, by the way--yes, grace was a part of First Century Judaism, and yes, faith was a major emphasis of their religion, but that faith always had to be worked out by following the letter of Mosaic Law). He thus came to his main point: following the letter of the Law versus following the spirit of the Law. Here we come to a little more controversy. Dr. Stadler maintains that Paul's writings are not a list of prescriptions to follow, and that when we think so, we become just like the Pharisees. Therefore, we must "discern by the Spirit" which we are supposed to follow to the letter and which we are supposed to follow in spirit. And yes, at this point, I could definitely see some people squirming in their seats! He was quickly questioned on the whole issue of moral relativism. When we talk about "discerning by the Spirit", are we opening Pandora's Box? Are we just saying that we're going to accept this part of Scripture and reject another? Unlike most people I've heard talk on this subject, Dr. Stadler actually had quite a lot to say in response to this question. So how do we discern if something is meant to be followed to the letter or if we should be following the principle behind it?

1- We must be seeking with genuine submission, saying 'Show me Your will, I will obey, even if I disagree'

2- We must look to a reliable community of faith by which we measure our interpretations

3- We must have a genuine hope in a life beyond the one we're living now--we shouldn't want everything right here, right now

4- We must genuinely be wanting to reflect God's character, asking 'what is the merciful course? the just course? the holy course? the pure course?'

5- We must ask ourselves if both the question and the answer are concerned with furthering the Good News of Christ

6- We must seek the opinions of Godly men and women and we must be willing to be corrected

7- We must genuinely pray for wisdom, not just asking God to tell us what we want to hear

To those points I would add this: how does this fit within the context of the whole Scripture? of God's revealed redemptive plan of salvation?

I know some people who believe that this type of argument inevitably leads to moral relativism and that we must follow the letter of the law. Funny how I haven't seen their wives wearing head coverings to church recently.

the white knight

A married friend of mine recently told me that, when she was in high school, she always wished that a white knight would come riding in on a white horse and sweep her off her feet. Now she wishes she'd just gotten the horse. Hmm.

Dust and Light

A bunch of us 'Poasis folk' (visit http://poasis.blogspot.com/ to find out more) have been "asking how dust and light can prepare us for, and point toward the truth(s) of Easter" (visit http://www.poasispresents.blogspot.com/ to find out more). Here are some of my 'visual thoughts', so to speak:

Kiss the Son

(Psalm 2)

The Rising Son

Merely Adam's Rib?

The Foot of the Cross

Reflection

The Alarm

As I write this, the smoke alarm in our house is going off. It is loud. Yes, once again, my brother Joel has lit a fire in our fireplace, and once again, his promised-small-fire has reached gargantuan proportions. So large, in fact, that it set off the smoke alarm. Mom is teaching a piano lesson at the moment, so I would imagine that the alarm is rather distracting, despite Joel's Herculean effort to silence the alarm by furiously waving his shirt at it. That technique is proving rather ineffective.