Yet if you do that you are blasted by the left who will tell you you are a bigot for telling someone not to sin. Or even calling what she did sin. How dare you even say what she was doing as sinful.
As a part of "the left" I can tell you this is patently untrue. For one, "the left" has millions of Christians, Jews, Muslims, and other religious people who subscribe to the ethical teachings of their faith, which includes fidelity toward one's spouse. For another, while non-religious people may not speak of "sin" as such, since sin is a religious-loaded term; it is abundantly obvious that atheists, agnostics, and other non-religious people recognize betraying the trust of another person as ethically wrong.
Go ahead, ask the non-religious people here if they think that cheating on one's partner is totally cool and not hurtful at all.
You see the cast majority of believers do believe in not punishing the sinner. We were all that at one time. But saying something is a sin is not wrong as Jesus proves in that story. And also at the story of the woman at the well.
One of my major criticisms against the present religious climate in American Christianity is precisely the failure to preach repentance. Christians are not hearing the Law preached (or the Gospel for that matter); instead here is what I have observed over the years: Christians are being fed a form of comfortable religion that says that, in essence, it is okay to not follow Jesus as long as one supports the right "team"; and so true repentance is not being preached. The number of times which I have interacted with fellow Christians who argue insistently that the Christian will not have to face Judgment on the Last Day is staggering and sad. And the flip of that is also the rampant moralizing that ignores the commandments of God in favor of pure man-made rules.
The Church needs to preach Law and Gospel. The Law, with its commandments, drives us to our knees in repentance as we behold the reality of our own sinfulness; I don't love God with all my heart, all my strength, all my mind, and with all my soul; I don't love my neighbor as myself; I don't turn the other cheek, I don't bless and not curse, I don't walk the extra mile. I am a sinner. So my charge is that Christians have forgotten that they are sinners, not ex-sinners, not sinners who are doing better than other sinners, but wretched sinners and should confess to themselves, "I am the chief of sinners" as St. Paul does. Because without this, there is no repentance, and without repentance we shipwreck our faith.
The Law to be preached as Law.
The Gospel to be preached as Gospel.
Never mixing the two, confusing the two, not preaching empty vacuous moralism rather than the Law, and not treating the Gospel of Jesus Christ as just another set of commandments, but as God-come-down-to-sinners-to-save-them.
I believe in American Exceptionalism
You shouldn't.
And Christ will triumph in the end and we will be part of that.
Christ our God has already triumphed. He has risen from the dead and has ascended, seated at the right hand of the Father. The victory of our God is not found in the machinations of power; but in giving ourselves away in love, and the hope of the just and good world of the Age to Come in the resurrection when Christ returns and God sets all things to rights.
Christian triumphalism has nothing to do with the victory of God.
And I do agree that there is heresy in the world today, Dominionism, gnosticism, the prosperity gospel. I don't think dispensationalism is heresy. It's simply a way to show different times during the history of Scripture including the end times. The end time particularly are up for debate concerning when Christ will come for his church. And there are solid reasons for all of them. I happen to believe that Christs will take his people home after the revelation of the Anti-Christ. This is not heretical doctrine.
Like I said, I wasn't talking about the rapture. Dispensationalism is a lot more than just describing different times. According to Dispensationalism this present "age of grace" is but merely a temporary parentheses in God's over-all plan and purposes. Dispensationalism teaches that before the so-called "age of grace" people were justified under the Law, and that this will again be the case after "the rapture"; as the Church is nothing more than a temporary thing, a side-project from God's real work through the earthly nation of Israel. And this is why the modern state of Israel is given so much importance, and therefore all the sins of the Israeli government, and the pain and suffering of Palestinians (including Palestinian Christians) can be justified and excused; after all one must "stand with Israel" because God will bless those who bless Abraham.
Maybe you don't personally believe all of that. But that's still right there in the Dispensationalist text books, and Dispensationalist seminaries are still teaching these things, and there are still pastors who have been trained in this nonsense out there who have ears willing to hear all of this. It's out there, and it's rampant.
And no one worships capitalism though some will worship money as seen in the prosperity doctrine.
What is the exploitation of the poor but the worship of money and power?
Do you believe that those in the church who think homosexuality is okay and that priests can be ordained as practicing homosexuals is worshipping hosexuality?
Nope. But affirming the human right to consenting love with another adult doesn't exploit, abuse, or injure anyone. So not exactly a great comparison.
How about those who believe in socialism. Are they worshipping socialism?
I've seen some who I think who worship the pride and arrogance of human ambition and progress, and worship an ideal over working toward justice and equity. So, yeah.
-CryptoLutheran
