You are such a nice lady, Hearth. Yes, I do have complexes from witnessing religious discussions turn into flames. Thank you for understanding or at least trying to understand what I am saying.
First of all, with regards to judging. I partly agree with you and yet partly not, because humans make judgements all the time. Only a fool doesn't make a judgement call, as when Jesus referred to the builder who built his house on sand and the wind and the sea washed it away. And again when he asked what builder does not, prior to building, first sit down and see whether he can afford the thing?
There is a a judgement implicit in Jesus saying that no one comes to the Father but by Him. I don't think that you yourself would judge a non-Christian religion to be anything but a false religion.
One meaning doesn't apply to every situation. God gave us brains to use, not for decorating the insides of our heads. It may be appropriate to do one thing in one situation but not in another, as when David and his men ate the holy bread from the Temple, the priests' portion. The punishment for that was death. Context, very often in the Bible, doesn't just seem to be everything, it seems to be the only thing unless one is such a literalist or fundamentalist that they insist on only one meaning for every statement. Which would mean shooting themselves in the proverbial foot, since to assign only one meaning to each word or by sticking to the letter of certain verses, means that God is contradicting Himself all over the place, and I wouldn't think that a fundamentalist believes God contradicts Himself at all.
Paul speaks about believers judging believers in Corinthians 1:6: Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.
In Luke 12:56, Jesus, in a speech that covers a lot of other things as well, says, Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right? And in John 7:24: Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
We can have a pretty good idea of what God would call righteous judgement by the way Jesus acted and the things that He preached. We know he told stories of the Samaritans, a people not highly regarded in terms of their religious leanings. We know he ate with prostitutes, tax collectors and sinners. So much for our modern saying of 'birds of a feather, flock together' or judging a person by the company they keep.
We know that Jesus said the whole sum of the Law was to love God and to love our neighbour as ourselves. And we know that he judged the Pharisees and Sadducees quite harshly. And we know He told us to beware of false prophets and we are given examples in Paul's writings of false doctrines against which he did not hesitate to judge - even though he did not know personally some of the people that he judged.
We know that the Holy Spirit in Revelations, takes issue with the Ephesians, because they have 'left their first love' and with the Christians of Pergamos because, (Ch 2:14-15) But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate.
To me, not judging a person means not saying that they are going to Hell because they baptise differently, or have religious rules for food and drink. Those things are all external. Then there are things that are heresies - and I won't hesitate to call the prosperity gospel a heresy - and that I think we do have an obligation to judge.
A lot of the judging that humans do to each other and which the Bible speaks against seems to have more to do with the tendency of us to judge by appearances. In the cases of pastors who preach a prosperity gospel, this isn't an appearance type of judgement. One is judging them by their own words, their own stated beliefs. It is judging those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate.
In 1 Corinthians 2, we are told: he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.
The spirit of God within us is supposed to tell us, or let us know, what is true and what is not true. What seems like something that Jesus would do and what doesn't. We are supposed to have the mind of Christ. When a Christian has the mind of Christ, his inner conscience or inner Christ, when someone reprimands him - rightly - as when Paul went nose to nose with Peter over whether the new Gentile Christians were obligated to follow Jewish Law - acknowledges the correction and strives to correct itself.
Because of course, we all make mistakes in interpretation and it is hardly ever on purpose. Sometimes we may have heard a verse and an interpretation of a verse so often, it doesn't even register. And then someone else comes along with a different interpretation, and although we have never heard it said that way before, it seems to be more the 'mind of Christ' than how we had traditionally understood it. And then the 'spiritual' Christian, who judges all things, makes that inward adjustment or correction because they 'just know' it is more right than what they had believed, and yet that Christian, as the verse I quoted above says, is judged of no man - he is convicted or judged by the mind of Christ within him.
With regards to the last part of your post, and why Americans take exception to criticism of some American policies, at first I was going to post that, yes, I know, it isn't that simple. And then I had second thoughts, because Jesus makes things very simple indeed. When you eliminate politics from your religion, what you have left is treating people the way you would treat Jesus if he showed up on your street. And that is very simple.
I am not suggesting that politicians' jobs are simple. What I am saying that a Christian response to people, no matter who they are, is very simple. Childishly simple in fact. If people are hungry, we feed them. If they are naked, we clothe them. If they are in jail, we visit them. Today my sister was telling me about her day as a volunteer at her son's school. Her son is in grade 2. The subject the kids were meant to address was what people can do to get along. And one of the responses the teacher got (from a boy, of course!) was, "Don't dig holes in other people's yards."
That about sums it up. Very simple. Christians should behave like Christ did and not dig holes in other people's yards. Let the politicians do their jobs governing the secular world. Why does your average Joe Civilian Christian worry about whether a politician is behaving like a Christian, even if the politician is a self-professed Christian? Even if he is a Christian, his profession is politics, not ministering to anyone. But Christian ministers - now they claim to be the mouthpieces for God - when they sin, it should be an issue among the community of Christ.
Layla
