CHRIST made His message exceedingly compassionate and hearable for the broken and contrite.
He hit the arrogant, self-righteous etc. religious leaders upside the head with 2 X 4’s if not 4 X 4’s routinely.
Let's stipulate that. May we then conclude from the 2x4 blows we've taken, that the liberal, nay, generous use of 2x4s is an indication that the meek and humble of heart swinger of clubs thinks he is addressing arrogant self-righteous people?
In this thread I've seen what comes down to the U, I, and P of TULIP used as justification for being cruel and abrasive in argumentation. "If God wants to save someone, I can't possibly stop Him, so I get a free pass to be ... 'as nasty as I wanna be!'"
And now the humble and meek make the claim that they are abusive because they are following Jesus, while the arrogant who p[lead for gentleness deserve judgment and abuse.
Excuse me, I think I have a timber in my eye. I'll be back in a minute or two.
And as a general observation, does anybody else find it amusing that a lot of people are scurrying to the Scriptures to find justification for the "as nasty as I wanna be" evangelical technique?
I'm wonder about how the words about causing little ones to stumble can be spun into justifying the kind of rhetoric we see here too often.
If I had something important to say to someone likely to disagree, I wouldn't start by misrepresenting his disagreement and by calling him names. But that's just me.
Evidently some think that it is so much in God's hands whether the message is heard that they can use evangelism as an excuse for abuse. If you're offended, it's because you're predestined to hell. It's not OUR fault.