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To: MarkBsnr
When they by direct and indirect means show that they say one thing and do the opposite, that is not my judgement.

But it IS your judgment, simply because you can not and do not know the motive of the heart - that is God's realm. Though I certainly agree that there are many people of all walks of life and creeds that say one thing and do another, it is hardly just all those "others" that are guilty of it. For example, there is a well known survey out there that shows a very low percentage of professing Roman Catholics believe in the divine inspiration of the Bible, that abortion is wrong or even whether or not premarital sex is wrong. I believe it also showed that Roman Catholics as a majority vote for Liberal Democrats and their policies. So, I agree that you probably have direct means to know people who say one thing but do the opposite especially within your own religion, but it would be disingenuous to broad-brush all of one group, wouldn't it? And it would certainly be wrong to judge character or faith by only outward acts of "religiosity", don't you agree?

Jesus said by their "fruits" we could know one another, in other words, their mere words don't count for much if actions don't back them up. But these actions, our fruits, are clearly spelled out in Scripture as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22).

The fruits, or acts, of the sinful nature are also easy to recognize. They are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these (Gal. 5:19-21). So, I believe Jesus does want us to judge, to be "fruit inspectors" so to speak. Because how else would we really "know" anything about each other, whether or not what someone preached was truth? We should just be careful that what we condemn in someone we are not also doing the same things.

1,740 posted on 11/11/2011 7:12:27 PM PST by boatbums ( Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. Titus 3:5)
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To: boatbums
When they by direct and indirect means show that they say one thing and do the opposite, that is not my judgement.

But it IS your judgment, simply because you can not and do not know the motive of the heart - that is God's realm.

All this could have been avoided if the question about the bowing of the knee had been answered instead of returning fire with a fusillade of angry fluff. By the way, the question has still not been answered.

The obvious conclusion is that it will not be for a very good reason.

1,750 posted on 11/12/2011 4:59:19 AM PST by MarkBsnr (I would not believe in the Gospel, if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so.)
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