Posted by Jaypeeto [Jaypeeto] on March 31, 1999 at 07:36:30 {ohFII14TUc/CPYT8orz2Hq/lZhRVmk}:
In Reply to: *Chat with a fundie posted by Julie on March 31, 1999 at 05:26:52:
Interesting dialog tween Cyg and Sharon (PRISSY).
Sharon seems like one of those well-meaning evangelicals who really knows how to say
the WRONG thing at just the RIGHT time.
I wrestled with the doctrine of hell from the moral angle, too. What doesn't help in understanding it, is the assumption evangelicals have that "everybody" who isn't "formally" a Christian has, therefore, already one foot in the lake of Fire.
The early Fathers like Justin Martyr understood very clearly that many, many people prior to the Christian era had walked WITH the Logos (word) by living reasonable and decent lives in accord with however much or little revealed knowledge that they had.
A person raised in
some of the fundamentalist churches is likely to encounter a
walk the aisle/sinner's prayer theology which
makes being "saved" simply a matter of having
believed in Jesus back on November 2nd 1982,
and why, that's all there is
to it!
The flip side of that, unfortunately, is an all-too-common assumption that any and all
who haven't "walked the aisle" are already in the state of damnation.
You can be walking with the logos/word/son,
sometimes without
actually realizing that that is what you are doing, which is what the earliest fathers understood. They neither presumed that
anyone they were talking to was "already saved," nor did they presume that such a person was
"NOT" being
wrought upon by the logos of God.
Boy, have I been blabbering away here!
It's early, and my coffee is hitting
me REALLY hard, so I'd better stop before
I tire everyones' eyes and ears!
Love to all,
Jaypeeto :)