I hope you all can bear with me.....I'm sort of in the middle of processing something, so I will probably be rambling a bit.
The other day I was reading this horrific exchange (here). It was Paidiske's response in post #277 that really caused a light-bulb moment for me. She mentioned "already-inaugurated eschatology"....which, ironically, is something that I only discovered a few weeks ago and am blown away with the difference that framework makes in my comprehension of Scripture. If many of you have never heard of it, we may first need to begin there.
But...just to finish my thought: see how Alex was putting a Christian's transformation off in the future? I've been seeing a lot of that recently ("we won't be changed until Christ returns" and sentiments like that). In the last six years or so, I've been scratching my head at how so many Christians have rejected compassion and caring for others with dignity and I wondered what it stemmed from. I think this is a large part of it.....the belief of a rapture, where the "good and deserving" are "plucked out" and the other "sinful" ones are left behind. I think that is the root of that sense of superiority and rigid legalism. Maybe I'm wrong.....but it seems to me there's a correlation.
ETA: the other part of rapture theology is that almost everything related to the Kingdom of God is off in the future (including, apparently according to them, any transformation of character).
Does any of that make sense...LOL
The other day I was reading this horrific exchange (here). It was Paidiske's response in post #277 that really caused a light-bulb moment for me. She mentioned "already-inaugurated eschatology"....which, ironically, is something that I only discovered a few weeks ago and am blown away with the difference that framework makes in my comprehension of Scripture. If many of you have never heard of it, we may first need to begin there.
But...just to finish my thought: see how Alex was putting a Christian's transformation off in the future? I've been seeing a lot of that recently ("we won't be changed until Christ returns" and sentiments like that). In the last six years or so, I've been scratching my head at how so many Christians have rejected compassion and caring for others with dignity and I wondered what it stemmed from. I think this is a large part of it.....the belief of a rapture, where the "good and deserving" are "plucked out" and the other "sinful" ones are left behind. I think that is the root of that sense of superiority and rigid legalism. Maybe I'm wrong.....but it seems to me there's a correlation.
ETA: the other part of rapture theology is that almost everything related to the Kingdom of God is off in the future (including, apparently according to them, any transformation of character).
Does any of that make sense...LOL
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