The teacher in the Sunday school class at church touched on the issue I've been addressing in my on-going "The Difference Between How Christians and Jews Approach the Bible" series. He was discussing the book of Revelation--specifically chapter 2, heading "To the Church in Pergamum."
It's an interesting passage. The teacher talked about the reference to Balaam and how it implied that the sin of the Pergamum church was licentiousness. They were permitting idolatry mixed with sexual perversion. And so the Son of Man is telling them that if they repent then everything will be fine. But if they don't, He will destroy them with the sword of His mouth which is the Word.
So the teacher attempted to synthesize this into a practical teaching. And he kind of struggled. On the one hand, he wanted to say that licentiousness is wrong (gotta have rules). On the other hand, he said we don't want to be legalistic (don't wanna have rules).
I found this somewhat amusing. The age-old struggle of Christianity: a love-hate relationship with rules!
What's in a rule anyway?
Here's some food for thought:
if there's no rule governing conduct in a given situation then the logical implication is that you can do whatever you want!
No rules=arbitrary.
Think about it.
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