But not all faiths offer inherent goodness. I doubt you would find many takers who would advocate that the Pharisees of Christ's day were deserving of 100% "respect." I can hear your mild rebuke of Jesus now..."Come on, JC, you know these Pharisees are sincere in their beliefs...and they strive to do good...woncha knock off these comments about being a 'brood of vipers' and 'whitewashed sepulchres' and being sons of Satan?"
The Bible doesn't advocate according koolaid-drinkers "respect," no matter how sincere their chugging may have been! Nor does it say to leave the judging of religious beliefs up to God alone.
The Bible has many words that describe discernment and wisdom. It also says in 1 Thess 5:21: "Test all things. Hold fast to that which is good."
If you ne'er make judgment calls as to what beliefs are sound, and which ones aren't, then you've just disobeyed this precept.
Hey, we have spiritual filters for a reason. Elsewise, Jesus' and Paul's warnings about spiritual wolves are non-sensical (Mt 10:16; Acts 20:29).
Not a bit. I must admit, the part starting from "Come on... offends me a bit. I don't think it's good to refer to the Savior as JC. Big difference--he was the Savior. It would have been the Pharisees whom I would criticize today.
The Bible doesn't advocate according koolaid-drinkers "respect," no matter how sincere their chugging may have been! Nor does it say to leave the judging of religious beliefs up to God alone.
I don't see any Koolaid analogy. The Savior will be the one who will do the final judgement, not us. That's the judging I am referring to. I prefer to try to make sure I live a Christlike life first. Yes, I have more weaknesses and faults than one could count and fall short many times, but I keep at it. Maybe one of these days I'll get it right.
The Bible has many words that describe discernment and wisdom. It also says in 1 Thess 5:21: "Test all things. Hold fast to that which is good."
That is one of my favorite scriptures. Through faith, discernment, and the Holy Spirit, then we can "hold fast to that which is good." Things like contention, gossip, lying, etc. are among those things which are easily so defined. If someone is pious on Sunday, but engaged in other things on other days, then....oops I'm judging here:).
I remember one time when my wife and I were having a picnic. There were these teenagers that started doing some weird stuff off in the distance. Something told me to "get out now!" We both bolted and took off in the car just as the teenagers started running towards us. I don't know what the real circumstances were, just that something told me that something really evil was there.
If you ne'er make judgment calls as to what beliefs are sound, and which ones aren't, then you've just disobeyed this precept. I can say I probably make judgement calls on beliefs all the time. I'm not riding off into the sunset to join the Wahabbi (sp?) crowd. But again, it can come through the Holy Spirit, the scriptures, faith, etc.
I respect many fine ministers, evangelists, preachers, pastors, fathers, priests, etc. and their messages. My town in fortunate to have some of them. They do wonderful things and are powerful forces for good. There are some fringe elements that can delve into some areas so much that that becomes their "religion" as such.
I was working at a store one time when this large man suddenly appeared. He said, "You don't believe in Jesus Christ, do you?" I replied in the affirmative. He then went into a tirade condemning my belief. I did stand firm, but I must say, I felt a lot of evil in the man.
Jesus did say to love our neighbors, love our enemies, to do good to them which do bad to us, and so on. That doesn't mean to consort with such, but I think that it does mean that we don't become like our enemies and demonstrate similiar behavior. We should be steadfast in what we believe and be ready to defend it though.
The Savior said to forgive 70 x 7. That's a lot of forgiving. For years, I couldn't even begin to do that to people who wronged me. Now, I'm starting to, but I have a long way to go.
Yes, we can judge in this life and there are many kinds of judgement, BUT the final decision will not be made by me, but the Savior himself. That's the one I'm concentrating on.