Today I woke up with some funny questions:
1) Does Jesus ever talk about our judgement apart from when we judge others? (I.E, does he ever mention that we're judged for any other reason than judging others?)
2) Is judgement talked about differently in the OT and the NT?
I hate to use the Bible in concordance fashion... I'd rather just read it through and find out for
myself what Judgement is in the Bible and if the nature of it changed with Jesus' blood. Even so, I used the concordance here to get a general idea of what judgement is in the Bible:
I don't want to say too much here because it's highly likely that I have certain ideas that I used that bit of information to back up, rather than having an openess to recieve the truth. I confess, I didn't even pray before I read that. But I will pray about those questions, plus the general question of what the hell is Judgement, anyway?
Joel is bringing my big study Bible with cross-references to Thailand. I'm planning, for the first time, to get through the entire Old Testament. I have two weeks to prepare for studying that chunk I tend to avoid or give up on. In the meantime, I will try to prepare through questions and prayer.
I have had two conversations regarding judgement lately. The first left my friend and me with the unanswered question, is it our responsibility to call-out our friends when we think they need corrections? The second conversation was finished with either a question or a statement: the difference between telling someone they are going to hell and telling someone to go to hell.
Is telling someone they are going to hell a judgement? (ha, I will never tell anyone that, but still...)
Does anyone really say, "go to hell" and really believe that they have the power to send them to hello, anyway?
And am I going to get creamed for judging people for judging?
Okay... I'll leave you all with that.
2 comments:
In terms of your penultimate question (does anybody really believe he has the power to send someone to hell): saying "go to hell" seems to me parallel to hating somebody, which Jesus equates with murder, but with a twist which makes it even worse-- its connection to judgment. Telling someone to "go to hell" does not simply express the anger of a moment, but brings to bear with that anger all the force of "eternal damnation" (by which I mean, it is condemning somebody morally, and stating your wish for that condemnation to be permanent). It doesn't imply any desire for the person to change, to "repent and be saved," or whatnot. Whereas "you are going to hell" seems to me motivated by a hope that a person will turn around. I guess in that way I see "you are going to hell" to be a statement implicated in the first conversation you mention, about whether we ought to tell people when they are wrong. Whether that is our responsibility or not, I'm not sure, but I surely can't recall any Bible stories where telling somebody he/she is wrong is condemned. (The men get in trouble for wanting to stone the woman caught in adultery, but Jesus' words to her are still "sin no more," aren't they?)
I guess what this calls for is a defining of terms-- "judging sin" as opposed to "judging" a person. I don't think we really have a burning problem with calling wrong things wrong (although there is plenty of debate about what is "sin" and what is not, nobody who thinks something is a sin seems to have a problem with pointing it out as such). What we (or I) don't really understand is to what extent we read someone's relationship to God through any given sin. I guess I think that is the judging that is condemned-- reading sin as a sign of a broken or lacking relationship. Because surely, looking at our relationship to God that way, all relationships are broken. What is significant about Jesus, of course, is that He takes full responsibility for the relationship, and on His side it's not broken.
I'm going to stop typing now.
Hee, that picture has been posted around the art department on flyers advertising a documentary someone is doing on Hell...(they're asking Detroit artists to submit work on the subject.)
Marginally more on topic: Last night Chuck was teaching on Matthew 21 about the fig tree Jesus cursed because it was barren. Chuck was saying "Jesus didn't hate the tree--he wasn't saying: 'you creep!' " (Ha.) He instead was just giving it over to what it had already become (as he did with "barren" Israel.) His judgments never come from contempt, but always love.
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