Comment Re:What's deviant? (Score 1) 1003
There are two ways of talking about these things in the church. We can either talk about the things we know by our experience, because of our personal relationship with the triune god or think about them and speaking not from the experience of the things relationship with God gives us, but from our own thoughts.
We can discuss about what the bible actually says and make arguments and try to understand the book or we can approach the bible already knowing what it says, because we already experience God and we are in a relationship with Him.
For those that choose the first approach, the book can guide us. We don't need extra-biblical sources or ideas. We don't need to impose restrictions where such restrictions are not apparent in the book. The book gives us a framework to guide us in our lives.
But for those that take the latter approach, the issue of sin is not something we can focus on. In fact, we are not able to judge; we cannot say which things are sins and which aren't. Judgment is Christ's. He will judge when He sees fit. So, the issue is not about sins and judgment, or even getting guidance through life. It's about maintaining a relationship with God. This is what becomes crucial, because in Him we experience a different kind of life; we don't want that new life to get diminished. We want to experience it more and more, until we succeed a state where we experience Him steadily.
This is why the gospel cannot and should not be imposed. Nobody can make someone live the new life Christ talked about. This is why talking about these things and creating laws outside the special relationship Christ's followers are to have with Him is meaningless and it can even be harmful.
We can discuss about what the bible actually says and make arguments and try to understand the book or we can approach the bible already knowing what it says, because we already experience God and we are in a relationship with Him.
For those that choose the first approach, the book can guide us. We don't need extra-biblical sources or ideas. We don't need to impose restrictions where such restrictions are not apparent in the book. The book gives us a framework to guide us in our lives.
But for those that take the latter approach, the issue of sin is not something we can focus on. In fact, we are not able to judge; we cannot say which things are sins and which aren't. Judgment is Christ's. He will judge when He sees fit. So, the issue is not about sins and judgment, or even getting guidance through life. It's about maintaining a relationship with God. This is what becomes crucial, because in Him we experience a different kind of life; we don't want that new life to get diminished. We want to experience it more and more, until we succeed a state where we experience Him steadily.
This is why the gospel cannot and should not be imposed. Nobody can make someone live the new life Christ talked about. This is why talking about these things and creating laws outside the special relationship Christ's followers are to have with Him is meaningless and it can even be harmful.
