You can rationalize it all you want and justify the path of error you have chosen, but you’ll find out in the end that you took the road to destruction.
Proverbs chapter 14, verse 12; from The Passion Translation
Yep! I just said it! And I don’t take it back. If it’s offensive to you, then toughen up, buttercup! There are those who are demonizing the Holy Writ! I know, I know! That’s strong words; but sometimes strong words are needed. And this is such a time! It’s not a new thing that’s just happened. It’s been around for thousands of years. Heck, even the Master of the Demons tried this trick with Jesus. But it didn’t work on Jesus. And it doesn’t need to work on us, either!
For those keeping up with the soap opera known as The Schism Of The United Methodist Institution, it’s being played out in front of our eyes. Maybe I should define the contextualization (we hear this a lot) of my affirmation that Holy Scriptures are being demonized! Straight out of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, demonization means: “to portray (someone or something) as evil or as worthy of contempt or blame; to vilify“! Remember, this isn’t a new phenomena to the Twenty-First Century. Now, what I call demonization, others say, “Well, that’s my interpretation.” Or, “That’s just your interpretation.”
As part of our process for discernment and disaffiliation from the United Methodist Institution, we are required to listen to both sides of this issue. 8 days ago we heard about why the time is right and ripe to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Institution (UMI) and affiliate with the Global Methodist Church. This past Sunday we heard why we should remain in the United Methodist Institution (UMI). And their presentation was that there are just differing interpretations of Scripture–but the UMI is a Big Tent where we can all live together with those differing interpretations of Scripture. Sounds good right? But then there’s that pesky Solomon and his Book Of Proverbs. The New King James Version renders it like this: “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”
I realize and accept that right now we are living in a world of grays. And that for many of us The Bible is Black and White; right and wrong; holy and unholy; blessed by God and not blessed by God. Granted, it seems like there are ways to understand the same passage in different ways. For example, 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verse 34:
Women should be silent during the church meetings. It is not proper for them to speak. They should be submissive, just as the law says.
New Living Translation (NLT)
Some say this is black and white. NO Women Preachers Allowed! Now, I can see how some interpret this to mean no women preachers. But “The Law” that Paul was referencing was Roman Law! Women were not allowed to interrupt speakers in public forums. Truth Time! They could not accuse their husbands of adultery. THEY could be accused, but they couldn’t accuse. And the whole of chapter 14 is about all the chaos that was happening when the Corinthians were, as we would say, “In Church”! And those who demand that there can be no women preachers demonize the prophet Joel, and the apostle Peter:
Then, after doing all those things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.
Joel chapter 2, verse 28; from the NLT
Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this. These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that. No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on my servants—men and women alike—and they will prophesy.
Acts chapter 2, verses 14 thru 18; NLT (emphasis mine)
And today, because of “their” interpretations some want to change the Biblical Sexual Ethic by insisting that it’s OK to be LBGTQI and that they are just living out how God created them. For them, it’s all about love and grace. And that we can’t love them unless we also agree that God created them this way. Gray, Gray, and even more Gray. While I could excuse those who insist on no women preachers as being ignorant of Roman Law (and ignorant of the rest of the Bible), there is no gray in the Bible when it comes to sexuality and the sexual ethic:
“Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’” And he said, “‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’
Matthew chapter 19, verses 4 and 5
Now, if Jesus correctly understood that Genesis chapter 2 is God’s design and plan, then there is no gray area left. Someone might say that Jesus was answering a Pharisee’s question about divorce. And He was; divorce was never God’s design and plan. And just like every other sin (except the Unpardonable one), it can be forgiven and the individuals get a fresh start. But to call the Biblical Sexual Ethic a gray area? And then justify that view by throwing in some other scriptures (out of their contextualization)? Well, one is demonizing the Holy Writ. And that’s just wrong. So very wrong!
Kingdom Pastor 
Any scripture can be used to justify a point, especially when taken out of context. You do not get to pick and choose. You are spot on in your analysis. The sad part is how much the mislead actually believe it is ok to pick and choose to make their point, while ignoring context of scriptures.
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It is sad that so many are being deceived. And this breaks my heart! Thanks for reading and commenting!
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This is the best explanation and the best documented reasons for opposing same sex marriages in the church and disallowing leadership roles by LBGTQI individuals.
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Thank you SO much for posting this! My experience with a Methodist church (my husband’s choice) was one where the gospel (that is, Jesus as the way to heaven – the ONLY way) was not preached. On Easter the “pastor” preached that the Resurrection saved virtually everyone – he even mentioned Hitler in heaven, having to learn to get along with all those Jews … ?????!!! He quoted Confucius, Buddha, and occasionally Jesus. I went to speak privately to him one day and ask him, point blank, if he believed there was such a thing as hell. He opined that he believed there was a hell, but he didn’t think anyone he knew was going there.
)
(He died shortly after that.
I agree with you – there is room for unity with disagreements on minor things, but there is also time to separate the sheep from the goats.
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Amen! And so sorry that you had that experience.
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Ann Vandersteel, a US Constitutional expert has stated: that constitutional law is above the statutory law of the government bureaucrats and that the government is created by the people through statutory law.
Now contrast the difference between how the B’hag, Rif and Rosh halachic codes differ from the Rambam, Tur, and Shulkan Aruch halachic codes – Common Law as opposed to statute law. The latter makes no distinction if a halacha comes from a Mishna or Gemarah source. The Gemara learns the Mishna as Common Law. I submit to you that Rabbi Yechuda named his Mishna based upon דברים having a second name משנה תורה, and that this 2nd name means: Common Law.
The Baali Tosafot commentary exists as a Common Law commentary on the Talmud. Because the Gemara commentary to the Mishna, the latter continues the Mishnaic Common law. The Mishna – a Case/Rule system of Common Law. The Difficulty/Answer style of the Gemara reflects the Prosecutor/Defense role of a 3-man Torts court.
The Capital Crimes Sanhedrin courts likewise split into a Prosecution and Defense organization. The opposing judges argued their prospective case in order to persuade an opposing justice of the court to switch sides. If no justice switched from prosecutor to defence or vice versa, then the Nassi would decide the Case. When I sat as a Sanhedrin judge in Jerusalem, my rabbinic peers did not understand the “Order” of a Sanhedrin courtroom. They wanted to base that court upon a Rambam “statute law” model!
The Yeshiva world fails to address that publication of the Rambam halachic code threw the Jewish world into total anarchy and chaos. The Spanish rabbis highly assimilated to the recent discovery of ancient Greek philosophy. Sa’adiah Gaon too embraced and assimilated to the recent rediscovery of ancient Greek philosophy.
Contrast the Hannukah story. The Perushim rejected Greek culture, specifically the logic developed by Plato and Aristotle. The Tzeddukim, like the later Spanish rabbis (Ezra’s son converted to Islam) highly assimilated to ancient Greek philosophy. I submit that Maccabeans dedicated the lights of Hannukah – to interpret the Written Torah restricted to Common Law precedents. I can prove that any sugia ס, or parek פ in the Chumash can learn directly from the משנה תורה of the Oral Torah Book of דברים.
Order סדר defines both the Siddur and the Sha’s Mishna. Common law completely different from Roman statute law. The Rambam code – – bases itself on an Arabic/Greek statute law system. The Rambam based his halachic code, as did Sa’adiah Gaon upon the Arabic numerical system. Arab philosophers, how they learned Aristotle’s logic format, highly influenced both assimilated scholars!
What causes antisemitism? Jewish assimilation and intermarriages, emphasized in the Book of Ezra. The Torah through a direct negative commandment forbids assimilation to any culture or customs of Goyim who do not recognize the revelation of the Torah at Sinai & Horev. The generation of Shoah Jewry, what percentage of assimilation describes that generation lost?
The beit din of Rabbenu Jonah placed the Rambam into charem and burned his books in Spain in the early 1230s. In 1242 the king of France and the Pope burned all the Talmud in Paris. The Civil War between the Common Law Jewish scholars vs the Statute Law Jewish scholars best identified between the Rosh and his son the Baali Turim.
The halachot within the Common Law codes of the B’hag, Rif, and Rosh – – they serve as precedents to study and learn the expansive nature of the language of the Mishna. That’s why those common law scholars always open with a Mishna before bringing the Gemara precedents of הלכה למעשה. Assimilated Rambam’s code, despite having the name משנה תורה, his code bases its halachic rulings upon Roman statute law. The difference between British vs French and German law. British courts – common law; French and German courts – Roman statute law.
The Almoravids invasion of Spain in 1086. Followed by the Crusade war crimes in Germany, clearly enhanced Jewish chaos and anarchy, in 1096. The Rambam Civil War followed this absolute disaster. The chaos and anarchy which divided Jewry, invited as a consequence foreign intervention. Just as has happened in Syria, Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan today!
The Rambam code, first published in approximately 1180. That code burned in Spain in the early 1230s. All the Jews of England, expelled in the early 1290s. The school of Talmudic common law scholarship, the Baali Tosafot, all Jews expelled from France in 1306. The German kings impose taxation without representation upon all Jews in the German kingdoms. This destroys virtually all Jewish business in Germany. The church imposes the decree which imprisons all Western European Jewry to exist in ghetto prisons. A huge population transfer follows, 10s of thousands of Jews flee from Western Europe to Poland and the Ukraine.
Following the victory of the statute law Rambam school over the French common law Baali Tosafot school, all Jewish scholarship made on the Talmud and halachic codes switched to statute law. From the Ron’s commentary to the Rif to all commentaries made on the Rambam Tur and Shulkan Aruch codes – all statute law.
Compare this Civil War to the American Civil War which switched America from a Republic to a Democracy to the Jewish Civil War which switched Common Law to Statute Law! States rights economic autonomy and control over Senators and Congress persons sent to Washington to serve the interests of the States which sent them there … to Party discipline which determines how Congress persons and Senators vote on any and all Bills presented to Congress!
Now recall how this letter opened: “Ann Vandersteel, a US Constitutional expert has stated: that constitutional law is above the statutory law of the government bureaucrats and that the government is created by the people through statutory law.”
The difference between מלאכה and עבודה, the former a skilled labor. The Talmud of ראש השנה refers to the blowing of the shofar as a מלאכה/חכמה permitted on shabbat. The families of Levi who transported the Tent of the Mishkan by contrast referred to as simple labor/עבודה. Comparable to the עבודה of Egyptian slavery.
Shabbat observance: Shabbat can mean both a day and also a week. In this sense, Shabbat compares to the Common vs. Statute law Civil War and to the States Rights vs. Political Party domination over elected officials sent to Washington Civil War. I submit that a person commits to not doing acts of מלאכה on the day of shabbat to not doing forbidden acts of עבודה on the 6 days of Chol/shabbat! This depth analysis the Rambam and all other statute law codes totally ignore! Just as most Americans today, oblivious to the distinctions between a Republic or a Democracy.
Today Karen and I got married 25 years ago.
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Brother Randy, I’m pretty sure that you just stirred up a hornets nest. I totally agree that you are correct in that they’re taking scriptures out of context to try to justify an aberrant policy towards the LGBT+ agenda. But I’d say the real root cause is that they do not really believe that all scripture is “God breathed” and therefore totally true and authoritative. Someone with that attitude toward God’s Word therefore doesn’t really have the fear of God. One day they will have to stand before God’s judgment and give an account on why they mislead so many in their flock to continue in unrepentant sin. Pray that folks who are are guilty of this error wake up and take Jesus’s warning to heart about “ causes one of these little ones to stumble” (Matthew 18:6) before it’s too late.
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Amen, Robert! (See my comment.)
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Excellent insight brother. I pray for you and your church in this journey. It is important to stand for the truth of the scripture.
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