Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Phelps
Well, I totally disagree. How do you know what Oliphant's beliefs are? We're assuming he/she is an unbeliever, we have no way to know that.
And, I suppose all the moneychangers in the temple who incurred the wrath of Jesus were believers? They were entrepeneurs, did Jesus deal mildly with them?
There is a major difference when you're defending truth. Now, if you want to argue whether or not the cartoon was offensive, that's a matter of personal opinion. If you want to argue whether or not God needs defending, that's another issue.
However Jerry Jones felt that this was an issue worthy of his response, and the fact that we are picking apart his letter, which was not childish, or insulting, is just a sad thing to me.
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I appreciate and share your passion for truth and for standing up for truth and righteousness. I think we can agree on our brotherhood in that regard even if we disagree on the mode in this case.
Again, the incident in the Temple was aimed at the religious leaders of the day and his fellow Jews that were taking advantage of poor Jewish worshippers in order to make money. Jesus was angry precisely because their actions were hindering evangelism. They were selling their religious wares in the Court of the Gentiles, the very place pagan unbelievers were supposed to come and participate in worship of the true God. Jesus was angry at the religious folks because they'd turned an evangelistic opportunity into a scheme for organizational gain. It was strictly an in-house affair and Christ's basis for his anger was that they forgotten their priorities, namely worship and evangelism.
I don't know what Oliphant's faith position is, but it seems obvious that he/she is an unbeliever when it comes to glossilalia. Perhaps he/she is Baptist, they'd certainly think this cartoon is humorous. But if I'm trying to convince this person of the error of their doctrine a frontal assualt is not the way to do it as I then put them on the defensive and defensive people usually will defend their position to the death.
I agree we should always proclaim and defend truth. I just think that we should be more diplomatic and Christ-like about it.