lab@qubix.UUCP (06/10/83)
Notice 1: there has been a noticeable silence recently in
net.religion - I am assuming we are not getting all the articles,
so bear with me (or send me mail) if you want my answer on a certain point.
(I have posted a separate article dealing with the resurrection challenge)
Ken Arnold "So if any reasonable creator looks over my life, S/He couldn't
have any complaints I would recognize as valid." Validity matters only in
the eye of the final Judge - you won't have much of a say.
csu-cs!morganr: "a Christian will never admit that he is a cowering slave."
Slave, yes; cowering, hardly! I am still waiting for replies to my mail to
you - did you not receive them, or did they get a little close to home?
Tim Maroney: "Don' yo be sayin' t'ings like dat! De Massa gwine be pow'ful
angry! We'se just' slaves, and dat's all we ever be."
The "Massa" has adopted me as His son. I don't serve Him out of terror; the
only terror Paul mentions is the Judgment of God on the unbelievers. I
serve Him out of love, as One who rescued (= saved) me from what I was
going to get. The concept of a love-slave seems to be foreign to you. Even
in the days of the patriarchs, a slave had the option at the Sabbatical
Year - when he HAD to be given his freedom - of choosing to stay with a
master he loved. Under the Hebrew law, that was a decision for life. In
other cultures, the length of service is not mandated - the service truly
is of love and gratitude. And so is mine.
Free in and because of the Lord,
Larry Bickford
{decvax,ucbvax}!decwrl!qubix!labingres@ucbcad.UUCP (06/13/83)
#R:qubix:-30900:ucbcad:1800003:000:1149 ucbcad!ingres Jun 10 21:03:00 1983 /***** ucbcad:net.religion / qubix!lab / 6:25 pm Jun 9, 1983*/ Ken Arnold "So if any reasonable creator looks over my life, S/He couldn't have any complaints I would recognize as valid." Validity matters only in the eye of the final Judge - you won't have much of a say. /* ---------- */ I have a lot of say now. If your hypothetical Judge gave me that say, then I would think that my judgement has a lot of value. I must guide my life by principles that I can discern as good and proper. I have no other guide. You started at the same place, and your judgement has lead to you adopt the principles of Christianity, whereas I have chosen to adopt those I can justify to myself. I disgree with your choice or I would have made it, and I'm sure you disagree with mine. But our choices are equally valid, in that they are made by our own \internal/ judgements of validity. So my "say" matters as much as the "historians" and "learned men" you base your "say" on. Only if I find myself in the hands of your vindictive and petty Judge would I have to worry, and I worry about that no more than you worry about encountering Pluto. Ken