Some of the reasons they do that are:Ralph wrote:Let me first say clearly that we are all, without exception, sinners. That said, the comments of Jesus in Matthew 7 are addressed not to sinners in general, but to those who fancy themselves saved, but are not. As someone else famously said, "There are two kinds of people in church's: Those who believe, and those who believe they believe". The latter group outnumbers the former. Both of the arguments you mention are invalid because neither comports with scripture. Those who advance such arguments betray their ignorance. Whether or not a person is in compliance with the moral law, and no one is, is irrelevant because saving faith is a gift of God bestowed on us without consideration of anything we do, or don't do. No one can earn it, no one can develop saving faith on his own because, as the scripture says, we are all "born dead in sin", and, "none is righteous, no, not one". That these quasi arguments are even advanced betrays the lack of sound teaching in churches today, especially the old "mainstream" churches.BobM wrote:That is not ALL the Law, but the ceremonial Law, dietary laws, and so forth were specifically done away with by Jesus. The moral law, Commandments, and so forth still have full authority, and Christians are answerable to God for them.
All valid points, Bob, but that section specifically is the core of much theological dispute. One person says "I am guiltless for [behavior] because that law was ceremonial and is no longer relevant to those saved in Christ", while another person says "Christ never knew you because you are in violation of moral law."
Actually, yes. This is not a thorny theological problem intractable to human effort. We are admonished to, "search the scripture daily to see if these things are true". There is precious little scripture searching in most churches, let alone households. You are correct in that the preference is to interpret scripture through our own lens, but that leads only to confusion. Here is a true statement: for any passage of Scripture there is one, and only one, correct interpretation. There may be a hundred applications, but only one interpretation. The law of non- contradiction applies.What I tend to find is that legalists want to call everything moral law (apart from anything they do themselves), and apologists want to call everything ceremonial law (apart from the 10 Commandments). Can any human be trusted to speak with authority on which laws are still in effect? We're all biased and like to interpret scripture through our own lens.
Don't even get me started on the tendency of most church bodies, even conservative/evangelical groups, to double down on homosexuality but say nary a word about divorce (adultery).
1. They don't really believe the scripture is the Word of God.
2. They think God changes with the times even though he repeatedly says he doesn't.
3. They are part of the ones Jesus says he never knew.
4. They are just ignorant of what the scripture says, and gullible enough to believe whatever they are told.
There are more reasons, but you get the idea.