Posted On: May 16, 2006, 4:29 pm CDT

Posted By: Dubya

This about my 5th attempt at responding to your post. If you want the last word so bad that you have to kill my posts, you really need to find some inner peace.

"> Are you saying Jesus didn't know whether she was an adulteress? "

"Of course He knew. As God the Law of Moses didn't apply to Him, but as man He had to keep it in order to fulfill all righteousness. The Law required two or more witnesses, and forbade (in Deut. somewhere) that one could not testify in a case when he is guilty of the same thing. We might call this the Hypocrisy Law. Since these men did not bring her partner, and were apparently adulterers all, they realized that the jig was up and they had been exposed by a prophet."

They were Scribes and Pharisees, not fellow adulterers. Fellow sinners, yes.

">"I always thought He refused to condemn her on the principle that he who is without sin should cast the first stone. You know, Judge not, lest ye be judged? This is one of His most important teachings, and pretty much the whole point of why I continue to type away here."

"Remember, Jesus told the woman, "Go and sin no more." He didn't say that it was no one's business. Would you take Him to task for labeling her behavior as sin? In Mt. 7:1 he said, "Judge not, lest ye be judged," then in Mt7:6 He said, "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you." How can one tell the difference between a dog and a swine w/o judging? Jesus said "Judge righteous judgment," meaning consonant with God's Law and with a clear conscience in regard to it. What is ultimately the goal is the prevention of hypocrisy."

Most Christians don't have as much trouble understanding this story as you do. It is about hypocrisy – the hypocrisy of those who condemn sinners when they themselves are sinners. You just don't seem to be able to see your role in it.

"St. Paul also condemned all manner of evil practice, including sodomy, so obviously pardoning sin is not to be confused with excusing it. There is no need to excuse what has been repented of, for it has therefore also been confessed."

And condemning all manner of sin is not to be confused with not pardoning it. That's between each person and their Maker. You are not a part of that, unless you aspire to be a Scribe or Pharisee.

"> "As you well know, there is only one unpardonable sin: rejecting God. There are no others."

"I rejected God until He called me out of darkness. Apparently, rejecting Him is not the pardonable sin. I mean, why send missionaries after people who have rejected God? In fact, Mt.21:31 & Mark 3:29 tell us what the unpardonable sin is, "And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven." It is attributing evil to God."

"> "You don't get to define homosexual behavior as a de facto rejection of God, because it is only one sin among many which anyone could select to be bad enough to equate to rejecting God. Therefore, you can't assume that any practicing homosexual has rejected God or been rejected by Him. Your harsh judgment of homosexuals puts you in jeopardy (Romans 2:1)"

"See the Scripture quoted above in which the actual unpardonable sin is stated. Since you are wrong on that count you are wrong on this one as well. St. Paul condemned sodomy as well. "

You're conveniently ignoring Matthew 3:28, which states that all blasphemies are pardonable. In that context, it's clear that only blasphemies that are unrepented are unpardonable. I'm amazed that I have to explain this to you.


"The founders forgot all of this when they ratified the Constitution, "In the year of our Lord, 1789"?"

They specifically left it out of the Constitution. Benjamin Franklin and the first 6 presidents were Deists and/or Unitarians. Thomas Jefferson specifically denied the divinity of Jesus. Even Lincoln, although he worshipped God, was not a Christian. I'm afraid you're going to have to share them with all of us.

""I am for socialism, disarmament, and ultimately for abolishing the State itself as an instrument of property, the abolition of the propertied class and sole control by those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal." –Roger Baldwin, Unitarian, Founding Director of the American Civil Liberties Union. "

Baldwin repudiated this when he discovered, in 1939, how wrong he was about the Soviet Union. Intelligent people are capable of changing their minds.

"We could go on and on like this, but you get the picture. Once people start equating a debating partner with the Nazis or the Taliban it is an admission of defeat. You lose."

I wasn't referring to Nazis or Taliban – I was referring to some of our partners in the war on terrorism: Saudi Arabia and Dubai. If you want the US to be run by religious fanaticism, you might want to see what it's like first. You surrendered in your first post when you repeated lies and half-truths, and you can't seem to stop.

"> Voltaire said, "Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd." Here's to continued searching and learning."

"The nurse who sat with Voltaire on his deathbed swore that she would never attend the death of another atheist, so horrible was his fear of death and loathing of God. I'm not surprised that you admire him."

There was no nurse at Voltaire's deathbed. He was so despised by the Catholic Church that they made up a lot of stories after he died. Voltaire was also a Deist; he had no problem with God, only organized religion.

"I am really done. Go away. Repent and believe the gospel."

This discussion is about honesty and understanding, not your torturing of the Gospels to justify your intolerance. The fact that you keep canceling my posts speaks volumes about you.