Thank you for that post. You’re right about the time frame. Change occasionally comes quickly, but more often it takes a while. I reminisce about my years as a liberal. I certainly didn’t become a conservative over night. It took quite a while.
Something occurred to me in the course of this thread. I think the rubric would be, ‘Attitude toward Scripture.’
Resettozero, I don’t have to ask what is your attitude toward Scripture. I know what it is. You seek first to understand the text, and then to apply it. Since you believe in inspiration, you don’t see your role as one of challenging and second guessing God’s revealed word. You see Jesus as Lord and yourself as His servant. The servant doesn’t challenge the word of the master.
Then we have the other side of this debate. I can only give my perceptions, so for what they’re worth.
What I have seen is an attitude toward Scripture that casts it as an obstacle to be gotten around. For example, if the Scripture plainly says Jesus had brothers, then the reaction is, ‘How can this passage be neutralized/explained away/made to say something different?
Second example. The Lord’s own words say that the foundation on which He has built His church is feminine—petra. That being a fact, in a servant/master relationship, the question would be, ‘How can I align my doctrine and traditions with the inerrant word of God?’.
But what we actually see is a quest to get around a perceived obstacle. I.e.: the word as revealed contradicts denominational tradition. Therefore the need is to set aside the Scripture so that man-made tradition may continue unperturbed.
How scary is this?? We are called to be hearers and doers of the word, not judges/arbiters of it. How will the servant answer the Master, when He asks why His word was challenged?
It’s terrifying.
Hopefully changes will come. It may take time, but hopefully eventually it happens.