Replies

<< Yes, you did. You gave YOUR opinion. To jump from that statement: ...doesn't seem right... to talking about MY 'incorrect' TWIST of Scripture is avoidance. >>

Hahaha! Not avoidance at all. In fact, I have gone out of my way to patiently explain exactly what I meant, in both instances.

You tried to counter my statement with a scriptural reference, and I showed that your citation did not counter what I said at all. One reason it didn't is that it had no connection to what I said -- and the other reason it didn't is that I was not making any biblical claim in the first place, just giving my opinion.

If I had tried to prove my point from scripture -- your counter citation STILL would not have meant anything, because it has nothing to do with what I said. If you want to counter my statement from the scripture, you would have to find some passage that SAYS something about whether or not one should be broken-hearted, or angry, or gleeful, or indignant -- or SOMETHING -- when one preaches on Hell.

Your example had nothing to do with that. Jonah was not preaching on Hell. His anger was directed at the fact that God relented, and that ruins your point. And that EXAMPLE does not provide TEACHING about the attitude one must have when preaching about Hell.

Finally -- even if you COULD find a scripture that contradicts what I said -- that wouldn't matter to me. I would acknowledge that that is what the scripture says, but I do not necessarily accept everything in scripture as true. Like I have said -- I accept that the Bible does preach a burning, eternal place of torment for unbelievers.

And it is my opinion that preaching about Hell without having a great deal of compassion and caring for those one is preaching to -- just ain't right. YMMV.

Accepting that the Bible says ABC is not the same as believing it to be true. But it seems to me that those who DO proclaim their belief in it should be careful to interpret it accurately, and not misuse it.

Now rather than avoiding the issues, I am hitting them head-on, and trying to show you the problem in some detail -- not from rancor, or from hatred, or from some smart-aleck attitude. Straight up and honest.

Shoot -- even as a nonbeliever, I am concerned about not misstating scripture -- and that is why I tried to show you the context of Johah's anger, so you would see the problem. But again -- we seem to be approaching this with different motives.

<< And then, you keep trying to ratchet upward on what you think my feelings about Hell and others are. Why? You've seen my tagline...... >>

No big deal. Let me ask you: Do you care about accurate understanding of the intended meaning of the text? If so, I can recommend several good sources of study to help you do so. All of them are written by conservative Christians scholars; I am not trying to push infidel-stuff on you at all. If you have a problem taking any advice at all from an unbeliever -- no problemo.

Cheers.