I have a question each for Allan and Andrew - hope that doesn't push your dialogue off the rails :-)
At 09:27 PM 11/01/04 +1100, aleggett wrote:
[AL
No. I have no hang ups with Wican teaching if it teaches what I believe is the foundational truth of God and life that is revealed in JC. Isn't there something about "those who are not against us are for us"?
Allan, what about "No one comes to the father but through me [JC]." I say this not as a trump card, but because I am genuinely interested in your belief system.
AA
OK. I don't believe that any reasonable person would honestly decide to stone their child on the basis of the passage you quote. If I did believe this, I'd have a problem. But I don't believe this, and you don't either. That's my basis for dismissing the example.
So it seems to me that we agree that the Bible does *not* tell anyone in this day and age to stone their child. If that's true, then even if I give it absolute authority, I still won't do this, and neither will anyone else.
Andrew, I'm curious about your use of the phrase "in this day and age". Do you believe that the Bible was telling certain people in a certain time and/or place that they should, indeed *must*, stone their child? I can't believe in that sort of God, but on the other hand I can't believe that I have a higher morality than God, so to me the only conclusion is to discount the authority of some parts of the Bible.
But I'm interested to know how you resolve that problem.
Leviticus doesn't come up in the lectionary very often, so maybe substitute the account of Abraham making a sacrifice of Isaac. In a similar way, I can't believe in a God that would *ever* ask a person to put their child to death (and changing the request at the last minute doesn't alter that).
Kind regards,
Lindsay Brash
Armidale NSW.
