And yet after all is said and done, (and argued), it still remains true that (if)... "Alcohol abuse has caused caused untold misery, disease, sorrow and death in our cultures, why do people continue to flirt with such a trouble maker, especially when there are so many safe alternative beverages available nowadays?"
There is the strong possibility Putin is acting under pressure from the Russian Orthodox Church. According to a Russian Orthodox priest from Moscow I talked to years ago, the church collaborated with the Soviet government to keep their (communion) doors open. Today it wouldn't surprise me at all if the church/state tie is even closer.
"Trump's Meeting With Evangelical Leaders Marks the End of the Christian Right"
Can this come out right for Christians? I don't see how, not in the long run. It smells like a collaboration with the kingdom of this world.
What evangelicals are doing now would have been totally unthinkable as recently as the Carl F. Henry era. Shame!
What realistically speaking will this compromise gain? Is this really how far the Church of Jesus Christ is willing to descend for a dubious gain? God help us!!
If Christians feel it's their place to admonish and instruct society on what it ought and ought not do then they are also under the obligation to demonstrate by their own lives how one ought to be living. Ducking that responsibility by saying, "Christians aren't perfect just forgiven" is a gross cop out and any unbeliever can see right through it. What Christians today profess and how they actually live their daily lives are to a very large extent opposed to one another. The truth is that the Christians' moral and non moral standard of conduct is only slightly better than general society's. Compared to New Testament Scriptural standards most professing believers fail miserably. Read the numerous statistics or just look around if you don't believe it. We know this to be true. We talk, we write, the preachers preach, the prophets warn and our lives go on as usual. As soon as a Christian makes a sincere effort to obey the teachings of Jesus and the Apostle Paul they are labeled a legalist and from then on they are marginalized, discredited and finally effectively silenced. This isn't a whole lot different from the way it was during the final years before Judah's exile into babylon.
Aside from what Christ already has said on the matter of self defense, I seriously doubt whether any normal person could honestly say they would feel safer knowing that everyone is carrying a concealed weapon. At the very very minimum many lives would end tragically through accidental discharge of those weapons. Already every year we read of tragic stories where children accidentally shoot a young sibling or friend. Or where a father supposing he's being burglarized fires at an intruder only to find out too late it was a son or daughter. These tragedies would happen in homes which otherwise would likely never have faced a gunman with evil intent in the first place.
it's astounding how an emotional issue like gun control can turn otherwise Sola Scriptura New Testament Christians into men who will resort to cultural exceptions, pragmatism, O.T. Law, and fallible church leaders to deny the plain words of Christ our Lord. We really need to agree with Christ in all things or stop calling Him Lord, even when it hurts.
It's not about how man has responded to violence but how Christ did respond. He did not resist the evil done to Him and it got Him killed, BUT, He still lived to tell about!
7/14/16 8:34 PM
