RE: [TruthTalk] Good News!

[Debbie Sawczak]

[Debbie] Yes, David, of course anything can be done wrongly. The better the thing is, the easier it is to do it wrongly.

A good example of what I am talking about is Slade's and my interpretation of Avram and Josef. We certainly didn't say the same thing (and moreover he said something way superior to, more intelligible and less oblique than, what I did), but if you follow us both out to the end it is clear that there is fundamental agreement--or at the very least, compatibility--without sameness. Try it:

a) there is no sacred vs profane
b) Torah-study takes in all of life


-----Original Message-----
From: David Miller [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, January 17, 2005 12:46 AM
To: TruthTalk@mail.innglory.org
Subject: Re: [TruthTalk] Good News!


Excellent post, Debbie, but please do reconsider some of your syntax to line
up with Biblical language.

For example, you wrote:
> The apostles Paul and James (to go back to a previous post)
> ultimately believed in the same Good News, but in emphasizing
> different things they didn't say the same thing; they said
> complementary things.

Based upon 1 Cor. 1:10 and Acts 15 and Acts 21, I would say that Paul and
James did speak the same thing.  They had the same mind and were in unity of
speech.  In the context of what you are saying above, I agree with you, but
at the same time I am concerned that using the syntax of "they didn't say
the same thing" cuts across the syntax of Scripture.  My concern is that
people will use what you are saying to justify actual disagreements that are
not complementary.  In other words, they will be open to the relativism of
our modern educational system which allows people to believe whatever they
want.  The assumption is that whatever they believe will fit in and be
relevant in some way.  It does not even have to be something that actually
fits somewhere.

It is important for us to see how our perspectives, when they are accurate
of the truth, actually fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.  If they do fit
together in complementary fashion, then we see the whole, and we see how we
have the same mind and how we do speak the same things.  In fact, if someone
were to contradict James, Paul would probably speak up for him and justify
his teachings.  Likewise with James.  When Jews in Jerusalem maligned Paul
and misrepresented him, James would speak up for him (hence the situation in
Acts 21).

Debbie wrote:
> They certainly don't sound the same;

They don't sound the same when taken out of context and put in a different
context.  They do sound the same when they are fit together in a whole and
understood in relationship to one another.

Debbie wrote:
> We can't use sameness as a necessary
> condition of rightness. To me that seems
> a scary direction to move in.

Excellent point.  This distinguishes dogma from analysis.  Much of
Christianity has missed it in relying upon dogma and using sameness as a
condition of rightness.  Very excellent point.

Peace be with you.
David Miller.


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"Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man."  (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org

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