Re: Another heresy

At 12:20 PM 12/12/2005, Ted Davis wrote:
>One of the things I appreciate most about Robert Boyle, and there's
>a lot to appreciate, is the following point that he made early in
>his career as a scientist--er, natural philosopher, the word
>"Scientist" not having been coined until the 1830s.
>
>"I love to speak of Persons with Civility, though of Things with
>Freedom." followed shortly by, "I think such a quarrelsome and
>injurious way of writing does very much mis-become both a
>Philosopher and a Christian..."
>
>I wish I could say that I had always adhered to this myself, but I
>do know I've tried. It's a great temptation to use words
>deliberately to hurt persons or to belittle them for holding ideas
>you don't accept yourself. We all know this, I supsect, and
>electronic bulletin boards only encourage it in most cases. Of
>course unbelievers are given to this no less (even more
>in many cases) than believers are; for example, the simply insulting
>things said about religion/religious believers on blogs like
>pandasthumb. But we believers need to treat others like they're
>made in God's image, do we not? ~ ted

## Matthew 12:5 Jesus: "Or have ye not read in the law, how that
on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath,
and are blameless?"

... "Have you not read...?" Of course they had. The Pharisees were
experts in the Scriptures. They read them every day. They were the
Ph. Ds in Bible in their time. They slept in pyjamas with Old
Testament passages inscribed on them. To ask them, "Have you not
read...?" is to essentially call them stupid, unable to read what was
in front of them, not having done proper study. This is proper in the
public forum and a response to the honor challenge laid down by the
Pharisees, who challenge Jesus on the behavior of his disciples.
Jesus ups the ante by questioning their very knowledge of the
Scriptures, a trait they most cherished.

The art of insult was highly valued in antiquity. Our modern "victim
culture" encourages persons to find the art offensive, but before
getting too judgmental, consider that in these honor challenges, the
person who ended the game by throwing a punch was considered the big
loser. Losing one's temper and throwing a punch was as much an
admission that one could not keep up the battle of wits and had to
resort to violence. When Jesus runs from those who pick up stones to
stone him, he is not the coward, but the winner taking his
spoils." John Mark Ministries http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/13133.htm

~ Janice
Received on Mon Dec 12 13:55:40 2005