New Testament Vision of the Church
The earliest Christian movements proclaimed the idea that "community" was not to be based on uniformity but would cut across different social and cultural locations and embrace people very different from each other. Jesus proclaimed a vision of life in the future kingdom in which people would come from east and west, north and south, to sit at the banquet table together. In different ways, the New Testament writers believed that the one creator was now providing the reconciliation that enabled early followers of Jesus eagerly to reach the diverse humanity of all creation. Early Christian communities challenged and empowered people to live by the values that would make such universalism possible -- the love of enemy, the commitment to reconciliation, the refusal to dominate, the willingness to forgive, the eagerness to value the gifts of others, the offer of unconditional love, and so on. Such values fostered great variety in the shape and composition of early communities.
David Rhoads, The Challenge of Diversity: The Witness of Paul and the Gospels, Fortress Press 1996
posted by Lisa Fox at 9/17/2007 09:37:00 PM
5 Comments:
I'd agree w. this statement, but you can't use it to insinuate that all behavior falls under the category of adiaphora.
C. Andiron, I'm perplexed. Your comment seems like a non sequitur. I don't see anything here that talks about adiaphora. It speaks to the grand view of Christ's church.
But you want to go there. Just so long as you understand you have no warrant to go there based on just what is said.
C. Andiron: You claim "I want to go there" and then you launch into some sort of attack. What the heck are you taling about? I think you're smoking something funny.
Don't be coy- I'm not 'smoking' anything. You subscribe to liberal theology? They have a tendency to twist biblical sentiments about forgiveness and love of enemies into antinomianism. Liberal theology is atheism. It is despair.
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