Problematic verses?

[tango]

What do people do when they find verses of the Bible that don't seem to fit in with their preferred interpretation, or that clash with everyday experience?

I always figure that Scripture must support Scripture, so if there's a conflict it means we've missed something and there must be another way of interpreting it. I've come across a few people who tend to just gloss over other explanations because they don't cope very well with having a worldview challenged. It's a few encounters like that, that caused my signature to evolve into what it is now.

 

[Ruth]

Being that the bible was written a few thousand years ago I've found that it does not support social rights of many, one being gay people. Society is adjusting to it better than ever and in the times of the Bible people were taught it's an abomination. There are some holy people that are accepting it now a days and I think that is just wonderful. Judge not and thee shall not be judged. More or less.

 

[tango]

Being that the bible was written a few thousand years ago I've found that it does not support social rights of many, one being gay people. Society is adjusting to it better than ever and in the times of the Bible people were taught it's an abomination. There are some holy people that are accepting it now a days and I think that is just wonderful. Judge not and thee shall not be judged. More or less.

In OT times physical homosexual acts were described as an abomination. In NT times Paul didn't seem to have much time for homosexuals either, given what he wrote in Rom 1:22-30. There are other passages in the NT that don't paint homosexuals in a very positive light either.

The fact that society changes doesn't mean that God moves with the times, it may just mean that society drifts further from God. Which is pretty much what Jesus said would happen.

"Judge not" needs to be used with a little care, given the context. Jesus talked of trying to remove a speck from our brother's eye while we have a plank in our own, and says we should remove the plank so we can see clearly to remove our brother's speck. He doesn't say we should ignore our brother's speck, just that we need to sort ourselves out first. Certainly in that context I think there's an awful lot of obsessing about homosexuality as if it were The Sin above all other sins, when in reality it's perhaps just a particularly visible sin. If two men walk into church holding hands it's a pretty safe bet they are a gay couple, whereas if a man and a woman walk into church holding hands nobody can tell if she is cheating on him, if he is addicted to pornography, if they are fiddling their taxes, if they speak ill of each other, or whatever else might be going on behind closed doors.

It's easy to point fingers at sins we're unlikely to get caught up in ourselves. As a heterosexual man it's safe to speak against homosexuality because the chances of me ever being caught in a compromising position with another man are vanishingly small. Preaching against adultery is riskier because even with the best intentions I never know if some time in the future some woman is going to throw herself at me at a time I'm particularly vulnerable, at which point I'd face not only the consequences of the indiscretion but the (justified) cries of hypocrisy given I was preaching against that very thing.

 

[psalms 91]

In OT times physical homosexual acts were described as an abomination. In NT times Paul didn't seem to have much time for homosexuals either, given what he wrote in Rom 1:22-30. There are other passages in the NT that don't paint homosexuals in a very positive light either.

The fact that society changes doesn't mean that God moves with the times, it may just mean that society drifts further from God. Which is pretty much what Jesus said would happen.

"Judge not" needs to be used with a little care, given the context. Jesus talked of trying to remove a speck from our brother's eye while we have a plank in our own, and says we should remove the plank so we can see clearly to remove our brother's speck. He doesn't say we should ignore our brother's speck, just that we need to sort ourselves out first. Certainly in that context I think there's an awful lot of obsessing about homosexuality as if it were The Sin above all other sins, when in reality it's perhaps just a particularly visible sin. If two men walk into church holding hands it's a pretty safe bet they are a gay couple, whereas if a man and a woman walk into church holding hands nobody can tell if she is cheating on him, if he is addicted to pornography, if they are fiddling their taxes, if they speak ill of each other, or whatever else might be going on behind closed doors.

It's easy to point fingers at sins we're unlikely to get caught up in ourselves. As a heterosexual man it's safe to speak against homosexuality because the chances of me ever being caught in a compromising position with another man are vanishingly small. Preaching against adultery is riskier because even with the best intentions I never know if some time in the future some woman is going to throw herself at me at a time I'm particularly vulnerable, at which point I'd face not only the consequences of the indiscretion but the (justified) cries of hypocrisy given I was preaching against that very thing.

All true, God does not change and neither should we. The obstacles we overcome in life gives us a powerful testimony of what God has done in our lives and once free we can help otehrs to become free as well