[Vision2020] Confusing One's Identity

[Joe Campbell]

Good comments. Joe



On Aug 7, 2012, at 5:39 PM, Art Deco <art.deco.studios at gmail.com> wrote:

> The following is a comment appearing on Douglas Wilson's web blot in response to Wilson's contention that Jesus is against Obamacare:
> 
> 
> "I think it is good for you to try and make arguments like you do in the preceding paragraphs. You should try to apply Scriptural principles to the various aspects of public policy.
> 
> But I would be willing to hazard that you don't stand by your arguments too firmly. You think they are good and sound, but you also can step back from them, and recognize that you may have made a mistake, that I may be able to come in and debate your points with you, and that I (or another) may actually win that debate with you.
> 
> Though you ground your understanding of policy in Scripture, as you ought, you recognize that your view is only your view, and so would, I  hope, hesitate to pronounce all that in the name of Jesus. Your opinions are grounded in what Jesus says, but they are still your opinions, not the ones of Scripture.
> 
> And so, for instance, I think you would be reticent to tell someone that disagrees with you that Jesus tells them they are wrong. Are they not allowed to also read and attempt to interpret Scriptures, and to come to different conclusions than you?
> 
> This is seen most clearly in one of your paragraphs, the one that begins "Lastly, I believe as a sociopolitical outlook..." Everything you say in that paragraph may be true. But you disagree with Christian luminaries throughout history, including Protestants like Calvin, Luther, and Hooker. I believe, given that disagreement, you would be reticent to pronounce your interpretation as if it is in fact the interpretation.
> 
> This is all very closely tied together with the Reformation. At Worms, the Catholics told Luther that he must agree with their authority--with their interpretation of Scripture. He replied, rightly, that He was captive to the Word of God, and not their private interpretations of that Word. But when we pronounce our interpretations as if they have the force of Jesus, we make the same error Luther's adversaries made. Our conscience is bound by the Word, not by your, or Pr. Wilson's, or the Pope's interpretation of the Word of God.
> 
> We see a similar phenomena regarding Luther's response to transsubstantiation. He thought that Aquinas made a minor error, and definitely not a Church dividing error. However, when the Catholics insisted that it was in fact a Church dividing error, and that Luther was required to agree with it--that is, when they said "Jesus says transsubstantiation is true"--it thereby became a Church dividing error that must be resisted.
> 
> But the same thing holds when we say "Jesus says Obamacare is wrong." That Obamacare is wrong is a theologumena a Christian is free to hold. But it is not a theologumena a Christian may pronounce with the voice of Jesus. Jesus did not say it was, Doug Wilson did. Doug Wilson is right to try to apply the Scriptures (though I may freely dissent), but wrong to do so as if He were Jesus."
> 
> Does not the writer understand that as far as Wilson is concerned he is the only true voice of Jesus, ever?  Not only that, but at times Wilson writes and speaks as if he were an incarnation of Jesus or God (they are the same for Wilson).  Example:  A few years ago Wilson claimed that criticizing him was an insult to God and the same as criticizing God itself.
> 
> It's too bad that Idaho citizens, especially those like Wilson, have such poor access to mental health care.
> 
> w.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
> art.deco.studios at gmail.com
> 
> 
> 
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