![]() They may sometimes be less charitable in overlooking political differences, especially if they equate their party’s (or candidate’s) view with the voice of God. Most people can view my preferences for sports teams, vacations, art, and colors kindly, or even humorously, even though their preferences are different. Must we conclude that the reason those people don’t agree with our view is that they are wicked? Devout people of all faiths will agree that Carson City is the capital of Nevada (although most may need to look it up) devout people of all faiths do not agree on the Trinity, eschatology, or the use of alcohol as a beverage. In effect, some people believe that it’s all right for me to be mistaken about undisputed facts, but they do not grant me that same freedom to be mistaken in matters that a minority of people worldwide believes. But if I make a mistake over something that is hard to prove, such as how Jesus’ death affects humanity, or whether or not women should be ordained, some people believe that I should end up in hell. And while people might tell me to check my facts, nobody is likely to tell me that I need to spend more time on my knees because I can’t remember the actual capital of Nevada. If I think that Las Vegas is the capital of Nevada, the evidence is simply indisputable that I am wrong. No matter how much I want 2 + 2 to make 6, it makes 4, and everybody would wonder how I came up with 6. When I make a math mistake, my mistake is not over a matter of opinion. Wrong answers showed that I still had something to learn. But I never got the idea that a teacher thought I was bad because I put the wrong answer on a homework or test paper. My teachers might have been disappointed in me when I didn’t learn the material well, or they might have thought I was lazy or just not interested in that particular subject. Sometimes I only made a certain mistake once, but I also repeated some mistakes many times. Or that I had confused Magellan with Drake. Or that I needed to read the question more carefully. There may still be hope for me, though, if I repent and start believing the way the other side does.Īm I wicked because I believe something incorrect? In school, I was disappointed about getting answers wrong (or not being able to answer), but I learned from my mistakes. If I choose the wrong side of the women’s ordination debate or the Sabbath-Sunday debate or the evolution-creation debate, I have chosen hell instead of heaven. ![]() Heaven? What does that have to do with believing something that is wrong? A whole lot, going by what I’ve read in many online comments and books and magazine articles. But did I jeopardize my chances of getting to heaven? I thought I was supposed to preach in that church that day, and I was wrong. Ouch! I missed the Sabbath School class I so much enjoy, and I drove 175 extra miles to get to church that day. I had squeezed my writing of the correct date under a different date and been thrown off by the positioning of the writing. I checked my Day-Timer and discovered that I had misread it. ![]() A few months ago, I drove 90 miles to a church to preach Sabbath morning, only to learn that I was a week early.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |