Quick things on Tolstoy

So perhaps a few quick things for everyone to ponder before meeting on weds.

1.) Why the Broncos can not beat the Raiders and why the BCS is so messed up this year.

2.) For the individual, what do things like turn the other cheek and blessing them that curse you mean?

3.) In focusing on the Sermon on the Mount, was the sermon meant for individual or collective obedience? Does the state have a moral responsibility to turn the other cheek even if a majority of its subjects do not believe it should?

4.) Has the Sermon on the Mount been neglected in the pursuit of other doctrinal, ceremonial and organizational issues in Christianity? Has it been neglected because of its seeming inpracticality in a world where things are not black and white and we live ina grey area where the greater good seems to dictate action? Does God really expect us to live the Sermon on the Mount in a grey world such as our own?



See you on wednesday.

The Unforgiven

So a friend and I were talking tonight about the idea of unforgiveable sins in Christianity. According to conventional Christianity there are certain sins that can not be forgiven whic begs the questions, does the atonement of Christ not cover these sins? So if the atonement does not cover these sins, then is it because Christ was not capable to pay the price for these sins? Or if the atonment does cover these sins is it a matter of choice of whether or not the atonement will be applied to these sins.

Of course murder is one of the "unforgiveable" sins, but one only needs look so far as Paul, or Saul, to see a person who took part in the killing of innocents. Whether or not Paul comitted murder is a sound discusion, but does it point to a contradiction between what we take to be unforgiveable, and the sins of one whose writings we take as scripture?