Quote:
Originally Posted by Chewy
Speaking about perpetual abominations unto the Lord, one thing I never understood.
There are sins of the OT times that are no longer sins today, yet God does not change? I don't get it, and the argument doesn't make sense or hold water for that matter.
It sounds to me like someone has his pen-knife out trying to carve out a convenient doctrine.
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Yep.
Seems to me that both OT and NT laws can be categorized by what makes sense and what doesn't. Those that don't make sense today may have had their purpose back then. E.g., not eating pork (much more risky, back then). The ones that make sense to us today still have a valid purpose. E.g., not lying or killing. Love your neighbor, business ethics, etc.
Is it conceivable that even some of Apostolics' (and others') favorite laws, even NT ones, no longer apply? If God doesn't change, perhaps His requirements do change, even now? I suppose some things, like
Deuteronomy 25:15-17 and
Proverbs 20:23 (don't cheat in business dealings) will apply forever. But will it forever be forbidden to eat meat from a strangled animal (that's NT)? I put that one in the doesn't-make-sense list, unless it's an anti-cruelty thing, which would make sense. OK, not a good example! Meat offered to idols is a better one. Even Paul had trouble with that one, though he used it as an example for another principle.
What about effeminacy? This is a highly subjective thing. How effeminate do you have to be before God hates you? Some guys are naturally frail-looking, and quite feminine in their physique -- no fault of their own. Or is it? Will God
hate them until they join a gym and work out, maybe down some steroids, and buff up? How buff is buff enough?
I'm sorry, but I have a hard time believing that God is actually bothered by these kinds of things. What difference does it make to Him? Or to each other? If a guy has a lisp or a weak handshake, so what? I know some gals who could whoop me at arm wrestling, any day. Does God hate them, too? (Or me??)
Do we all pick and choose the rules we like? I'm not trying to say that whether a law makes sense or not (which itself is very subjective) is the only criterion for picking and choosing. But I think common sense is a pretty good tool, and some tolerance for others' choices would be a good thing.
Take Jesus's famous top two commandments: love God and love your neighbor. He said "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." It's hard to see how
some laws hang on those.
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