Pages 396-397 … How we Abide
Bart: Scaughdt, are you within the boundaries that Jesus set forth? Do you truly live by the guidelines of his pure love?
Scaughdt: Bart – Yes … I … DO! Of course, just like everyone else reading along, I am walking around in a fleshly “machine” and therefore regularly slip into “sin” (just like every homosexuals slips – and just like you slip as well), and yet the longer I walk The Way of Jesus Christ, the less I do so … Jesus didn’t call us to constant perfection, my Friend, he called us to Love everybody – something we cannot do while judging them (or condemning their behaviors, or criticizing their “lifestyles” in any way – Matthew 7:1-5) … And this is why he made it sooooo clear that neither he (John 8:15 + John 12:47) nor his heavenly Father (John 5:22) would ever condemn anybody for any transgression! For that is what his guidelines for pure Love are … Peace.
P.S. I found this to be a most interesting question for you to ask another person, my Friend, seeing as how you are currently violating Jesus’ guidelines of pure Love yourself – judging homosexuals to be “mortal sinners”, condemning Muslims to be “heathens”, etc … Yes?
“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this young child is the greatest in the Kingdom.” ~ Jesus Christ (Matthew 18:3-4)
Bart: Why don’t you read all of John 5, Scaughdt? Jesus plainly states therein that he judges! … “Christ came to save, not condemn, the world. An individual’s rejection of Jesus in his first coming is a sign that such a person stands condemned on the day in which Christ will come to judge everyone. This is where John 5:22 comes in. Jesus in John 5:22 is not denying that the Father judges anyone, but is denying that he does so directly. The Father will judge the world indirectly through the agency of his Son when he returns to resurrect the dead and judge the world: “The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:22-29) … Again you take Bible verses out of context to suit your agenda … “Judge Not” is one of the most common excuses for sin and for not confronting sin. People use the “Judge Not” verse from the Bible to justify all kinds of evil.
Scaughdt: My dear Friend, if that is your take on John 5, then you are selling Jesus way short! If he is truly who you say he is, then his LOVE – like his Father’s – is PERFECT; without any condition or limitation or blemish whatsoever (Matthew 5:48). And as such, it therefore knows no judgment whatsoever either (John 5:22 + John 8:15 + John 12:47 + 1 John 4:18).
Of course, this version of Jesus is there to be found only if you want to find it; only if you choose to humble yourself and have the “eyes to see and the ears to hear” (Matthew 13:16) his message – not the “blind-leading-the-blind” message of the Pharisee Paul (Matthew 15:14), and certainly not the rotten blasphemies of Revelation (again, please refer to pages 207-209 herein) … The choice is yours, of course (and the choice yours will forever remain), in terms of the way you choose to read John 5, in terms of which Jesus you choose to follow thereby, and in terms of which God you choose to honor as a consequence … I pray you choose wisely.
P.S. It is “The Word” that condemns – not Jesus himself (see John 12:48) … Please READ YOUR BIBLE, my Friend!!!
P.P.S. Just as importantly, if you are truly going to worship “the whole Bible” (as you & Lucy so boldly claim – all the while ignoring huge swaths of Scripture yourselves) then there is only one way to reconcile the passages where Jesus “judges indirectly” (a la John 12:48 &/or a more conservative reading of John 5 – Matthew 25 is full of them too) with a “perfect LOVE” that is truly Divine & unconditional, and that is to realize that 99% of the time when Jesus mentions “the Son” he is not talking solely about himself – but is rather referencing the Divine Essence that resides within us all (see John 14:20-26)…
Indeed, if the Bible is truly the inerrant Word of God, this must be the case, otherwise Jesus would have spoken an untruth in Matthew 16:28 when he said, “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here before me who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom”; for everyone who was standing before Jesus at the moment he uttered that statement has indeed died long ago, and the traditional view of the “2nd Coming” has quite obviously not yet come to pass.
Sooooooo, my Friend, what are we to make of this verse? Is the Bible fallible? — or was Jesus? — or was he speaking of something else; something far more Divine than the constrained God of limited “love” that you are choosing to worship? Personally, I choose to honor Jesus Christ and his Father and the Bible by choosing the latter. And because I care for you deeply (and hate to see you continue to abandon the glorious “Kingdom” of Jesus Christ that waits for you even now) I humbly recommend you commence doing the same … And yet that is essentially none of my business, so I will simply continue to Love you & yours unconditionally and let you all and the heavenly Father work that out on your own …
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