Shortly after becoming a Christian I read in the Gospel of Matthew 24:35 'Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away' and whilst on many occasions I have fallen short of the glory that is God and have repented I have continued to believe until this day that Jesus' words in the Gospels are sacrosanct and unchangeable.
I am aware that scholarly debate occurs with possible errors in translation being used for any declared variation but the essence of Jesus' message remains succinct throughout. I used to wonder why there seems to be a delight by some to prune the beautiful blooms of Christ's message and I suppose one reason is to make them better fit the finite understanding of humankind, whilst another is pride in scholarship. Also I read in Proverbs 18: 2. A fool takes no pleasure in understanding but only in expressing an opinion, which also seems an appropriate description of some output and certainly whilst one is nit-picking one can take some comfort in the uncertainty thus created.
There is a real tendency both within and without religions to place the needs of humankind at the centre of events and this is seen with both divorce and abortion to name but two which result from humankind's weakness and perceived needs to make either desirable or necessary but God's commandments forbid both and that should be made clear.
Christ told us to live the absolute ethic right now but also pointed out that we must render unto God that which is God's and to Caesar that which is Caesar's and it is the Christian churches' task to spell out to Christians that which belongs to which. Unless the yardstick of righteousness remains unchanged then no real and lasting measuring of either right or wrong can be made in which case when 'wrong' becomes 'right' then how can it be possible for the adherents to the changes to repent and seek forgiveness.
Christ's warning that whilst Heaven and earth shall pass away but His words will not, means that we, as Christians, water them down at our peril and this is clearly indicated to us in His parable of the Rich man and Lazarus. Clearly repentance will not be possible once we have died.
I am aware that scholarly debate occurs with possible errors in translation being used for any declared variation but the essence of Jesus' message remains succinct throughout. I used to wonder why there seems to be a delight by some to prune the beautiful blooms of Christ's message and I suppose one reason is to make them better fit the finite understanding of humankind, whilst another is pride in scholarship. Also I read in Proverbs 18: 2. A fool takes no pleasure in understanding but only in expressing an opinion, which also seems an appropriate description of some output and certainly whilst one is nit-picking one can take some comfort in the uncertainty thus created.
There is a real tendency both within and without religions to place the needs of humankind at the centre of events and this is seen with both divorce and abortion to name but two which result from humankind's weakness and perceived needs to make either desirable or necessary but God's commandments forbid both and that should be made clear.
Christ told us to live the absolute ethic right now but also pointed out that we must render unto God that which is God's and to Caesar that which is Caesar's and it is the Christian churches' task to spell out to Christians that which belongs to which. Unless the yardstick of righteousness remains unchanged then no real and lasting measuring of either right or wrong can be made in which case when 'wrong' becomes 'right' then how can it be possible for the adherents to the changes to repent and seek forgiveness.
Christ's warning that whilst Heaven and earth shall pass away but His words will not, means that we, as Christians, water them down at our peril and this is clearly indicated to us in His parable of the Rich man and Lazarus. Clearly repentance will not be possible once we have died.
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