junobet

Let’s just agree that we stick to very different Biblical hermeneutics. Mine bringing me to the conclusion that to care for the least of these is to care for Christ and that the death penalty is vile and unchristian. I’m very glad that the vast majority of contemporary Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant, has come to the same conclusion and speaks out against it: “God’s purpose is now to show the rulers and powers in the heavens the many different varieties of his wisdom through the church.” (Eph. 3:10)

The pot calling the kettle black?

I believe the Bible to be divinely inspired but written by human beings in their own respective historical backgrounds, asking their own specific questions. I don’t believe humans are inerrant, and I take the Bible seriously enough to study it and to see that the humans who wrote, edited, copied and translated it weren’t inerrant or infallible either. The subtle truth the Holy Spirit has given them about our salvation is inerrant and infallible. I believe in the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If you want to add a fourth entity to that, I do indeed not share that faith. And if your faith makes you pick the Bible’s nastiest bits whilst discarding everything it tells us about being forgiven and forgiving, just to justify executing people rather than showing mercy, I don’t think your faith is worth sharing. IMHO it must be dead (see doctrinal forum). Praying for you, junobet

Hi there, Surely you are aware that the Psalms were written hundreds of years before the volume we are holding in our hands was finalized. That said: while I don’t tend to idolize the Bible, I love it dearly. I don’t need to believe that the mustardseed is actually the smallest of all seeds to believe that the Bible tells me all I need to know about my salvation. And knowing that Christ forgave me, I can’t possibly condemn any other person to death. Love, junobet

Nowhere does the Bible claim that it is inerrant and infallible. What it does claim is that the Word of God is Jesus Christ.

Well from my point of view somebody who doubts that “Britain First” is fascist and calls Hitler “left wing” must on the far right. So is a European who suggests that being against the death penalty is somehow left wing politics. This is not the first Pope who condemned the death penalty. All Popes in my lifetime have done so, and IMHO there’s no way you could describe John Paul II and Benedict XVI as ‘liberal’. I never said God is on the left. Quite the contrary: On numerous occasions I pointed out that God is not interested in our petty human political categories. Sadly the Evangelical right seems to think that He is. How you got it into your head that I’m in any way approving of Stalin and Lenin is utterly beyond me. So do me a favour Thalassa: please do ignore my posts. It seems to me that you simply don’t get them.

It seems to me that very many Christians don’t quite understand the concept of “Sola Fide”. They seem to think that as long as you say you have ‘faith’ in Christ you can carry on as before and sin as much as you like. The thing about faith is that not even our faith is our own merit, but God’s present. Also good faith will produce good fruit. So if we behave like the worst bullies on the block, that’s a sure sign our faith is dead (comp. James 2:26). If Christ truly dwells in us we can’t but letting His love overflow from us to our neighbours, including our enemies. Whenever we are indifferent or hateful towards others in thoughts, words or deeds that shows a lack of faith. As Luther pointed out: “Instead, faith is God’s work in us, that changes us and gives new birth from God. (John 1:13). It kills the Old Adam and makes us completely different people. It changes our hearts, our spirits, our thoughts and all our powers. It brings the Holy Spirit with it. Yes, it is a living, creative, active and powerful thing, this faith. Faith cannot help doing good works constantly. It doesn’t stop to ask if good works ought to be done, but before anyone asks, it already has done them and continues to do them without ceasing. Anyone who does not do good works in this manner is an unbeliever. He stumbles around and looks for faith and good works, even though he does not know what faith or good works are. Yet he gossips and chatters about faith and good works with many words. Faith is a living, bold trust in God’s grace, so certain of God’s favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it. Such confidence and knowledge of God’s grace makes you happy, joyful and bold in your relationship to God and all creatures. The Holy Spirit makes this happen through faith. Because of it, you freely, willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of things, love and praise the God who has shown you such grace. Thus, it is just as impossible to separate faith and works as it is to separate heat and light from fire! Therefore, watch out for your own false ideas and guard against good-for-nothing gossips, who think they’re smart enough to define faith and works, but really are the greatest of fools. Ask God to work faith in you, or you will remain forever without faith, no matter what you wish, say or can do." From “An Introduction to St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans,” Luther’s German Bible of 1522 by Martin Luther, 1483-1546

So did I. I take it then that you agree that we are saved by grace and through faith in Christ who paid for our sins on the cross? Good. Which begs the question: is it possible, that you blindly disagree with all of my posts just for the sake of disagreeing with them?

I’m a bog standard Lutheran fully subscribing to sola gratia and sola fide. What about you? Do you think that anybody can be saved by making up for their sins by personal suffering such as the post I answered to suggested?

Hi there, don't fret: you may be right in assuming that some people mistake their personal taste in music for the music being Christian or un-Christian. But also keep in mind what a horrible job it must be to review all these music videos, especially if it's music that does not meet your personal tastes. Keep on rockin and jamming, love, junobet

Read the post I answered to and you will see how misplaced this question is.

I fear it’s you who is quite openly displaying a far right stance in spite of the Bible. If your personal Christian conscience allows you to support the death penalty, so be it. But remember that whichever measure we judge others with is the measure we will be judged with ourselves (Mt. 7:1-2) Love, junobet

Whatever happened to being saved by grace? Dunno about you, but I was taught that Christ paid the price for our sin.

In a well run prison he couldn’t harm anybody else. However, I read your previous post on your brother in law having been murdered, and I tip my hat to you for changing your mind on the death penalty. It shows that the bigger our faith in the one who forgave our sins, the greater our capacity for forgiveness. Nobody has ever murdered a loved one of mine – and the chances for that ever happening are slim, seeing that the murder rates in my country (that does not have the death penalty) are pretty low in comparison to the US. But I have been hurt in my life. In my experience forgiveness does not only hold healing powers for the forgiven but also for the one who forgives. Praying for you and your family in your mourning, love, junobet

Don’t be ridiculous Ezra! Of course the death penalty is all about revenge. It being state sanctioned doesn’t change the sentiment behind it. Killing a murderer because he has killed, is exactly the retaliating eye-for-an-eye justice that Jesus does not stand for (Matthew 5:38-48). Instead he stands for rehabilitation (John 8:11), which just happens to be the aim of penal systems throughout modern Western civilization, except the US. As for Romans 13:4: A “μάχαιρα” would hardly have been suitable for a beheading (which is how ancient Rome executed its citizens). That’s what a “ῥομφαία”, a large sword, would have been used for. Quite rightly the Vulgata translates “μάχαιρα” as “gladius”, the small sword carried by the Roman military. It symbolizes the power of the state. So no, Paul wasn’t a political revolutionary. Neither is the Pope. He doesn’t ask his flock to overthrow the states that still have the death penalty, he asks the states to change their policy on it. If you want to keep the US in the ‘good’ company of countries such as Iran, Saudi-Arabia and North Korea on this issue, the Pope will leave that entirely up to you. But you should not pretend it’s belief in Christ, the Redeemer, that makes you support the death penalty, rather than your own lower instincts. Love, junobet