Re: Sin?

From: John W Burgeson (jwburgeson@juno.com)
Date: Sun Aug 03 2003 - 12:52:51 EDT

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    George, provocatively, wrote: "Though I think that Paul is speaking of
    gentiles in general here, let's pursue
    possibility B, that he's referring to some manifestly bad subset of them.
     Consider one
    member X of that subset who lies, cheats, steals and also engages in
    homosexual activity
    with a single partner in a long-term relationship. According to this
    interpretation of
    Romans we can & should consider all of these things as sinful. Now
    suppose this person
    has a dramatic conversion experience and comes to talk to me (M). The
    following
    conversation might ensue.
            X "I'm sorry for my sins, believe in Jesus Christ as my savior and
    want to
            start living as a Christian. What kind of changes should I make?"
            M "To start with, you should stop lying, cheating and stealing."
            X "What about my homosexual relationship? I was told before that that
    was
            sinful too."
            M "It was then, but it's OK now."
    This seems kind of odd to me."

    It did to me also -- at least at first. But the clause "According to this
    interpretation of
    Romans we can & should consider all of these things as sinful" may be the
    hooker here.

    Your thought question points out, at least to me, that if one wishes to
    assert that same-gender relationships are not sinful, then one must also
    assert (as I do) that it is likely that Paul was considering gentile
    homosexual acts only within a pagan ritual. It does seem 99.44% likely
    that he knew of the prohibitions to the Jews in Leviticus.

    I can see where your point does weaken my case somewhat. Thanks.

    John Burgeson (Burgy)

    www.burgy.50megs.com

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