To which my dearest sister in Christ replied: There is merit to that old adage that "misery loves company." Thank you for your understanding.
Then she added:
When I survey the history of mankind, I see nations that cursed Israel being cursed themselves just as God warned would happen, e.g. Canaan, Egypt, Philistine, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Rome, Germany.It seems to me that this exchange truly models the communication problem that seems to divide the Body of Christ nowadays.
I do not want that fate for America.
Maybe we should just start with a consideration of what "sin" is. This seems likely a good place to start.
Caveat: I am an unchurched Christian of orthodox persuasion and proclivities. I do not understand the innovation of such great spiritual thinkers as John Calvin, for instance, who seemingly proposed a concept of God Almighty as eternally causally "overdetermining" the Creation He made in the Beginning. Indeed, what can the doctrine of Predestination mean, other than (1) to falsify the Christian doctrine of imago Dei, which holds that each and every individual human soul is created by God, "in His Image and Likeness." That is, as possessing reason and free will. And each soul is His beloved child.
In a divinely "overly-determined" cosmos, what need is there of human free will? And if God "determines" everything, then why should we not justly conclude that God is responsible for all the Evil in human existence in this world?
Oh but I digress already, "sin" was our topic.
To sin is to transgress God's Law, which is stated: Love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.
After that, in my theological tradition, we are confronted by the "Seven Deadly Sins," which in descending order of sheer badness goes as follows:
Pride.Note that all of these sins are sins of personal character, not sins of active, personally-caused "commission" (e.g., murder, infanticide, larceny et al.)
Envy.
Anger.
Sloth.
Greed.
Gluttony.
Lust.
And so it seems to me that we need to draw a distinction between the written word and the living word.
The Holy Bible is the Book containing and expositing the written communication from God to us, His children, in which He declares Who He Is — "truly, yet not exhaustively" — in His relation to us, the world of creation, and human societies.
He has also given us another revelation — the "Book of Nature." Which decidedly includes the "book" of human experience, otherwise known as human history....
If we have to consult the written world of the Holy Bible in order to understand how we can vote in this election without offending God, maybe we offend God by not moving the written word into the realm of the living word....
I say that knowing that the Holy Bible is a book of profound, sublime symbols that will never guide human beings wrong; but I also have to acknowledge that the "compact" symbols of our Lord's Holy Scriptures can be read at many different levels, given the particular exigencies of the human person engaging these symbols in light of his own acute personal experience....
Indeed, this is the very genius of God's eternal divine communication with mankind: Trust or reject our Lord Jesus Christ; you will judge yourself thereby.
In conclusion, this is a very "personal" election for a good many of my correspondents here of late.
So I'll just go back in time and repeat myself again: Consult your conscience; pray; meditate; then go vote November 6th.
My dearest sister in Christ, I already know that is what you will do!
Thus one more "vote" for the spiritual renewal that alone can save this country from itself, a country trashing the work of the Founders/Framers themselves, destroying the very charter that makes human liberty possible in a secular world — which is the very beacon of liberty that has inspired peoples all over the globe for the past hundred years and more....
Thank you ever so much, dearest sister in Christ, for your outstanding essay/post!
While I would like to address this at length, and I already owe a response to Alamo, I must plead lack of access to my office computer, a problem that will be remedied early next week. I do have my (now ancient) Blackberry on which I can reply, but also on which my fingers do not so nimbly fly.
Betty, suffice it to say that God is not of divided mind and does not set aside His omnipotence to access His omniscience and vice-versa. History inexorably goes where God wills it and not where it accidentally happens to stumble.
And thank you, dear brother in Christ, for sharing your insights and for your promise to reply next week!
A big one for me in the personal character arena is "worry" which I suspect falls under "pride" in the seven deadly sins list.
Nice people would call me "multi-tasked" - not so nice people would call me "scatterbrained." But the bottom line is that even while one part of me knows what I've prayed about is a "done deal" another part of me picks it back up again as if God could not trusted with it. Jeepers...
Worry is an insult to God. I know that, I don't want it, I rebuke it and yet I struggle with it continually.
For me that root problem is a lot more important than any of the "commissions" that could come of it because it goes to "who do I believe."
Likewise, I dare not fail to believe God's promise that He will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel. It would be an insult to Him to doubt Him.