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I think those are fair points. The overall focus should not be hatred. I would call it an awareness. Being in tune with a hatred of evil when the situation presents itself and fully feeling it would be a healthy attribute. Therefore, I agree with the posts relating to focus.
However, some appear to be moving toward the position that hatred of sin cannot be divine.
Edit: Not that I'm opposed to anybody holding that viewpoint, but I definitely want to explore it more.
Last edited by svendrell; 10-06-2015 at 12:32 PM..
Reason: Addition
"Most of us modern Christians congratulate ourselves that we’re tolerant and not judgmental. All that Old Testament brimstone is old hat. We’ve advanced and evolved. We’re more forgiving than our ancestors."
We aren't much different than our ancestors.
Have never heard any of my friends says this, but I agree with your last statement and it agrees with what Jer 17:9 (NLT) conveys. "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?"
You got that from the article? I think when a woman is dying and someone is urinating on them and taping it for youtube we should not feel agape love for them. That is what I got.
Hi janelle,
While Jesus was being crucified, he said "Father forgive them.."
"..they know not what they do".
It does not mean that we should not stop evil acts that are being committed.
It DOES mean that we try to see the human BEHIND the evil act. It can very, very, very difficult to do.
However, if you stop for a moment and think to yourself what has happened to this man in his life, where he even fathomed to do such a thing? It is people like this that need love the most, is it not? It is a LACK of love within a heart that causes people to do such horrible things, not an overabundance of it. Do you see what I mean?
Every human being has a heart.
and you can tell how much they are in NEED by their actions.
It doesn't make their actions any less horrible if you are able to see the HUMAN behind the horrible act.
It doesn't excuse the horrible act.
And it doesn't mean that they should not have to answer to those actions (believe me they WILL.)
Hating this man... what does this accomplish? It makes that horrible act multiply and multiply and multiply.
The horrible act has just turned into much hatred in the world.
If that female was a relative of mine and I saw someone urinating on her, I would be putting a stop to the evil immediately by punching his lights out.
It's evil. She could be getting CPR or some life saving help, and he is urinating on her. It's not hate for punching his lights out and putting a stop to the evil.
You can save his soul later... stop the evil while it is taking place.
Good Lord... someone is urinating on another person and you are having an academic discussion on loving the offender.
This is a new low around here.
You are making up something to get upset about. No one here said we should allow others to be harmed if it is in our power to stop it. And you put it in the present tense as if it's happening right in front of us and we're refusing to help.
Do you think someone has to hate the person doing violence, or is the important thing to love the person who is being harmed by intervening and stopping what is being done to her if possible?
Does you hating what was done to this poor woman help her in some way? Obviously not. It appears to have caused you to be hateful towards some of us in this thread to the point that you were willing to try to cast us into the worst possible light. How is that divine?
I think those are fair points. The overall focus should not be hatred. I would call it an awareness. Being in tune with a hatred of evil when the situation presents itself and fully feeling it would be a healthy attribute. Therefore, I agree with the posts relating to focus.
However, some appear to be moving toward the position that hatred of sin cannot be divine.
Edit: Not that I'm opposed to anybody holding that viewpoint, but I definitely want to explore it more.
Okay. Here's a question to perhaps help in that exploration...
Do you have some specific reasons for thinking that hating sin would be more effective at bringing about positive change than would a focus on love and the best interests of everyone who is being negatively impacted by that sin?
However, some appear to be moving toward the position that hatred of sin cannot be divine.
Not that I'm opposed to anybody holding that viewpoint, but I definitely want to explore it more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pleroo
Okay. Here's a question to perhaps help in that exploration...
Do you have some specific reasons for thinking that hating sin would be more effective at bringing about positive change than would a focus on love and the best interests of everyone who is being negatively impacted by that sin?
To connect this to the article, the author says this:
"For righteous anger is not sin if we use it as God intended: as fuel for the engine of moral action."
Do you really think the God who is love needs anything other than love to be fueled into moral action? What purpose would an attribute of hatred serve for such a God? And if it serves no purpose for God, and is not divine, why is it something that we should glorify in ourselves by saying we need it to fuel us into moral action?
Of course that was evil, but, believing Christians have the mandate from Christ to love as He does and Jesus prayed for the people who were responsible for Him being crucified.
"They do not know what they are doing". Same with this man here, he simply has no grasp of how heinous this is and someday he will. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
You are making up something to get upset about. No one here said we should allow others to be harmed if it is in our power to stop it. And you put it in the present tense as if it's happening right in front of us and we're refusing to help.
Do you think someone has to hate the person doing violence, or is the important thing to love the person who is being harmed by intervening and stopping what is being done to her if possible?
Does you hating what was done to this poor woman help her in some way? Obviously not. It appears to have caused you to be hateful towards some of us in this thread to the point that you were willing to try to cast us into the worst possible light. How is that divine?
I am not upset - I am just shaking my head at this stuff.
It seems like this is just an academic exercise - and you have to put actions into one box (love) or the other (hate). Oooh look... DRob reacted in a certain way - let's put him in the hate bin.
There is no love and hate with the scenario from the OP. It's just common sense decency to stop a depraved evil act against someone else.
I am not upset - I am just shaking my head at this stuff.
It seems like this is just an academic exercise - and you have to put actions into one box (love) or the other (hate). Oooh look... DRob reacted in a certain way - let's put him in the hate bin.
There is no love and hate with the scenario from the OP. It's just common sense decency to stop a depraved evil act against someone else.
And yet, the author of the article made it about hate. That is what I took issue with, and then you took issue with myself and others who say hate is not divine.
If that female was a relative of mine and I saw someone urinating on her, I would be putting a stop to the evil immediately by punching his lights out.
It would not matter to me if she was a relative, or even believed the same things.
And I could never watch two-teenage girls being raped by eleven men, either.
Preventing it, was (would be) an act of love, not one of condemnation.
In other words, laying your life down for the benefit of another.
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