Christian Seberino wrote:
On Mon, March 26, 2007 12:46 am, Ralph Shumaker wrote:
(Chris, please don't snip too much of the who-said-what stuff. Here,
it's better to snip too little than too much.)
The greater the indicated degree of faith, the higher the levels of
homicides, suicides, pregnancies, abortions and STD's.
Paul outlined this tendency (as I noted in a previous email).
Wow talk about missing the point of a passage. Paul was a proponent of
Christianity. Do you honestly think he would say "If you join you'll be
messed up more!" ?
What he meant was that by studying the Jewish Law it gave him a greater
awareness of his inability to be the perfect moral person he wanted to be
(chapter 7). In chapter 8 he is glad that Christianity takes care of his
inability to be perfect.
Careful, you're twisting my words.
I must disagree about "missing the point of a passage". I did not miss
the part about what you point out. I merely point out an element of it
that you seem to have missed. I don't think it's necessarily an
important element. But he's talking about an increase in the appeal of
temptation in direct proportion to the resistance of it. If it doesn't
tempt you, then it has no appeal. If you start to abstain from
something you formerly took part in, the temptation often becomes
stronger. He wasn't just talking about a greater awareness, he also
talked about wrong desires increasing. Re-read it. Yes he's talking
about the insufficiency of the law to change behavior, or even desires.
But he also mentions how with the introduction of the law that says "Do
not", the desire to "Do" increases. Paul understood quite well that
"Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.". This
whole thing is over "The greater the indicated degree of faith ...".
The unidentified author of these words is jaded against all faiths. But
he has a good point. Paul himself said "the law entered, that the
offence might abound", as is born out by the reference by the unknown
author above who said "The greater the indicated degree of faith, the
higher the levels of [various problems]". This is not some cooked up
statement. Statistical studies seem to show this fairly reliably. And
the words of Paul seem to echo it (perhaps he knew more than we give him
credit for). Now, in the interest of context regarding one of the
quotes I made, "... and as for him that lacks understanding, she says to
him, Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.".
But many there are who "lacks understanding", even among those with "The
greater ... indicated degree of faith.". Just look at Jimmy Swaggart.
Don't be so quick to jump to conclusions, and always be ready to
scrutinize and test your own beliefs. No one's understanding of God is
complete. Even the experts are still learning new things, well, things
that are new to them anyway.
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