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To: GCC Catholic

"but concerning Heaven, "there shall not enter into it anything defiled..." (Rev 21:27)."

So, evidently Enoch was not defiled. Or Elijah.
Both were taken up bodily (according to the Bible).

Did they not sin?
Did they not even have the stain of original sin on them?
Or did they, and God took them up in spite of their defilement?
Or did they, and God cleansed them of their sin before taking them up (two examples of the wiping clean of human sins before the sacrifice of Jesus)?

I don't know the answers.
I suspect nobody does.
What I suspect, in fact, is that our excessive certitude about these things which are, in fact, something of a contradictory mess, is itself an error.

What did JESUS say?
He said that the two great commandments were the Shema, and to love your neighbor as yourself. He said a lot of things to DO, how TREAT each other, for instance. And he promised eternal life for that.

Trying to rectify all of the confusing parts of the Bible, which are in some cases quite contradictory, is in the end I think a fool's errand...especially given the lack of emphasis Jesus placed on the Bible. He reduced the Jewish Bible to two commandments, struck out all of the customs, and required that people DO things for each other. Then he didn't leave anything written, but he DID leave certain acts: Baptism, the Eucharist, Anointing the Sick, and the blessing of Marriage (by performing his first public miracle at one, after being nagged into it by his Jewish mama, and by his nullification of the Scriptural law of divorce and substitution of a prohibition of it), and we had better do these things scrupulously.

There are 613 mitvot in the Torah, but Jesus nullifies most of them, reducing them to a handful. Given that he was God incarnate, we're best off if we don't fight too much over writings he didn't leave, but that we do do the tasks he left behind to be done. I honestly cannot see any other interpretation of the Scripture that is reasonable.


65 posted on 01/29/2007 11:52:18 AM PST by Vicomte13 (Et alors?)
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To: Vicomte13
And the wine failing, the mother of Jesus saith to him:They have no wine.And Jesus saith to her: Woman, what is that to me and to thee? my hour is not yet come. His mother saith to the waiters: Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye.

*Mary was nagging, huh?

95 posted on 01/29/2007 12:31:29 PM PST by bornacatholic
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