The Obamacare Alternative That You’ve Never Heard Of

Wow some pretty interesting proclamations here about what is or is not “biblical principles” A) While there are some disagreements about how to actually enact certain idea’s found or espoused in the scriptures there is a pretty general “christian ethic” that is soundly Christian and many of you all are pretty much ignoring these central ethics. Before you scream and yell let me give you an illustration. In the Didache literally a 1st century Christian document it advises christians to not do these things: “murder, adultery, fornication, steal, practice magic, practice witchcraft, murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is born, covet the things of your neighbor, swear, bear false witness, not speak evil, you shall bear no grudge. be double-minded nor double-tongued,speech shall not be false, nor empty, but fulfilled by deed. covetous, nor rapacious, nor a hypocrite, nor evil disposed, nor haughty, take evil counsel against your neighbor, hate any man; but some you shall reprove, and concerning some you shall pray, and some you shall love more than your own life.” If you took this list to even the most liberal Christian they would agree with most of these things (excepting abortion of a child, of course, which they struggle with precisely because they are dabbling with secular humanism and egalitarianism). The idea that Christians can’t agree on how to behave or interpret scripture, is simply propaganda poppy cock. There is very strong core of Christian ethical pronouncements and Christians are not only in general agreement, this teaching, which is literally 2000 years old, demonstrates that Christians have been saying these types of things for a VERY long time. Jason here pretty much sums of the position of the church which it has been for a long time: “But across the board, drunkenness is condemned. Long story short, whether you drink or not, don’t abuse it.” The ethic is very clear, we can disagree on drinking, but what is clear we should not be abusing alcohol. Could not have said it better my self.

B) Now as to the bible teaching “multiple wives, slaves, and murder.” This statement and others like it demonstrates the most BASIC ignorance of Christian understanding of Scripture. ANY person who would assert some of these things is simply living in complete religious ignorance, on par with a person who says they don’t trust mathematics because 2+2=5. It demonstrates ignorance reminiscent of the ancient world accusing Christians of cannibalism because they were “eating flesh and drinking blood.” Stupidity should be called out whenever it rears it’s head. 1)Just because an act or an event is recounted or retold in scripture it does not automatically mean the Church is praising or recommending the activity. Or that the Scriptures praise it. Judas hung himself does that mean Christians are FOR suicide? 2) The scriptures are not isolated documents. These were works of literature created BY a community of Christians/ Jews FOR a community of Christians/Jews. In this way they are living breathing documents that the Christian community (which our discussion is focused upon) knew must be understood CONTEXTUALLY not scientifically. You don’t simply read the scriptures Genesis to Revelation like a science text book. Rather for the Christian Jesus is the hermeneutical KEY to understanding what you are reading. So for the commandments in the Law that permitted slavery, the early church did not automatically accept them on face value, “the law says it, it must be true!”. They contextually understood that for the Christian the Law and that law in particular had to be understood through the lens of the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Just because the “old covenant” (Christian understanding of the Jewish Law) permitted slavery it did not follow automatically therefore that slavery was mandated. It took several centuries for the church to hermeneutically draw the connection between spiritual freedom brought through Christ’s victory over sin and physical freedom that OUGHT to result from that same belief. Why do you think that Christian Europe for the 5-15 centuries on the whole did not practice slavery? (non Christian tribes did but as they christianized slavery on the whole went away) Where do you think the very IDEA comes from that slavery is bad? Most of the world historically practice/ed slavery. Do you think it’s an accident that Europe dabbled in it for a very short time and then generally abandoned it? A better example might be the multiple wives issue. The law stated that person could not only marry more than one woman but that divorce was an option. Jesus changed the Law concerning this issue. The church read both the Old covenant commands and Jesus’ new commands and understood hermeneutically through Jesus that divorce was wrong, but that God’s plan was for family unity and love not sexual enjoyment and usury. Hence you get Christians “going beyond” the scriptures to state monogamy is central to christian ethics. It’s hermeneutically pulled from Jesus teaching on love, community family and divorce. 3) The Christian Church was intimately involved in the creation and preservation of the scriptures AND was involved in the near 1,000 year process of deciding exactly what was or was not scripture. As a result the scriptures and the community of faith are not simply connected but causally so intertwined that the very idea of scripture implies a community of faith and the community of faith understands itself as a community OF the scriptures. The idea of scriptures existing without a community of faith to embody and live them is SCRIPTURALLY incoherent(the collection of works themselves assume and demand a God centered community). What this means is that the church understands that it’s roll is to live and give life to the scriptures not simply blindly follow them. This is why the church can address and re address the same issues over an over again. 4) I don’t expect you to every remotely understand the issues at stake here considering you are so ignorant that you can’t understand that a christian understand TWO covenants Old and New whenever the scripture is read. But considering the display of ignorance here is so monumentally inept I have to point out: If you don’t understand the issues at stake, you probably shouldn’t open your mouth. By the way I don’t mean this to be insulting but rather I mean it exactly as I say it. Ignorance on display here is appalling. Know what your going to criticize don’t erect straw men and expect to not have people point it out.