Some of you may be interested in following the comments section of a previous thread
here. A Roman Catholic poster, Nick, is trying to reconcile passages like Mark 2:5, Luke 7:50, and Acts 10:44-48 with Roman Catholic soteriology. Notice what sort of argumentation he has to resort to in an attempt to reconcile these passages with Roman Catholicism.
Gene
ReplyDeleteMy apology for being off-topic but I had posted to my blog last year and brought it forward today. I had used the phrase "functional unitarianism" and had since found your use of it. I would like your comment to my recent post. http://watchinghidtory.blogspot.com/
I am not a scholar at all and just an arm chair theologian but very interested in theology.
Hi Jason,
ReplyDeleteThe frustration that you experienced with Nick's reasoning ability or lack thereof is the same ones that I experienced. In boldface from your previous post:
"The readers should note at this point that I gave multiple reasons for concluding that the tax collector in Luke 18 was unjustified prior to the event Jesus describes. Nick has ignored most of what I said.
Nick writes:
"Fortunately, the parable nowhere mentions faith, is not focused on faith, and thus the phrase 'justifying faith involves more than that' will have to be proven elsewhere rather than this parable."
I explained how Luke 18 implies the presence of faith, whereas it doesn't imply the presence of something like baptism. You've ignored what I said. Simply repeating your earlier comment that faith isn't mentioned in Luke 18 doesn't address the evidence I cited that faith is implied. Faith doesn't have to be mentioned in order to be implied. As I said before, the idea that Jesus was commending a tax collector who had no faith is ridiculous (Hebrews 11:6). How many times in the gospels does Jesus commend people for their faith? And we're supposed to believe that faith isn't implied in Luke 18, as if He's commending a faithless tax collector and referring to this faithless person as justified? Your response above is another illustration of why I refer to "Roman Catholic desperation"."
Jason, when I think of how Nick interprets and understands the Parable of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee, I'm reminded of this: "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear" (Matthew 11:15; 13:9, 43; Mark 4:9,23; 7:16; Luke 8:8; 14:35).