Reviews for Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896

The average rating for Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896 based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-03-04 00:00:00 Manrico Avorio A Christian look at issues of the modern world 14 October 2012 This is an interesting book and it tackles a lot of issues that are relevant to us today. While this book was originally written back in the 1970s, John Stott regularly updated it as time progressed since more facts and figures would come to light in some areas, while other areas would begin to take a back seat with regards to the relevance. For instance, the threat of nuclear war subsided a lot with the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, however despite that the threat of nuclear terrorist attacks still loom as a possible threat. In this commentary I don't really want to go over ground that Stott has already covered, but rather put my thoughts onto three main issues that face us today and to argue that we, as Christians, are going about it incorrectly. These three issues are what one could consider to be the three hot potatoes of Christianity, being sex before marriage, homosexuality, and abortion. The reason that I say that we are approaching them incorrectly is that we are attempting to impose a Christian moral order onto a non-Christian world, and that is something that cannot be done. In many cases we believe that these are relatively new things, but my argument is that this has been happening pretty much since the year dot. Further, we as Christians spend too much time condemning non-Christians for their ways as opposed to actually demonstrating to the world that Christianity is actually a worthwhile religion in that it is not only inclusive, but it is also caring, supporting, and gives people hope. I wish to point to two particular sayings of Jesus before I tackle each of the issues, and conclude with why I believe that by fighting against these issues is actually distracting us from the real issues facing the world today. The first saying comes from Matthew 7:1-2 'Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgement you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.' That verse, I think, is self explanatory. However we need to remember that as we judge a non-Christian for their actions, we are opening ourselves up for judgement against ourselves, whether it be our greed, our unloving nature, or simply because we are very selective with whom we associate. The second verse is Matthew 7:6 'Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.' Namely, do not attempt to impose a moral order upon people who do not acknowledge the moral order that you acknowledge because people are not stupid, and by you doing that, once again you are opening yourself up to criticism. Now, the first issue that I will tackle is pre-marital sex. Now, I am not speaking about promiscuous sex (despite that fact that King David, the man after God's own heart, practised promiscuous sex and was never condemned for it). Once again, this has been happening for years, and granted, while God does indicate in Genesis that a man would leave his parents and cleave to his wife, this is an indication of a perfect world, a world in which we do not live. I have heard many times Christian leaders talk about our sex-mad society, when in reality our society no different to any of the other societies that have existed before us (with maybe the exception of Victorian England). However, what I have discovered is that the truly sex-mad people are the Christian leaders who continuously drum on about sex before marriage. What I have noticed is that in doing so we have created a group of young people who have been told that sex is a wonderful thing but that it should only be left for marriage and they end up getting married too early to people simply because they want to have sex. Inevitably the marriage fails (though it does not necessarily mean that it leads to divorce). To be honest with you, the Bible really does not say anything about sex before marriage, namely because the only definition of marriage, as outlined in Genesis, is a life long committed relationship. It has a lot to say about adultery, which is oath-breaking, and it does speak of sexual immortality, but it does not really indicate anything as to what constitutes the beginning of a marriage with the exception of sex, which effectively, from a biblical point of view, makes sex before marriage impossible. As for sexual immorality, I have discovered that the word that is used is the Greek word porneia. The translation to sexual immorality I believe is a mistranslation because that word, particularly in modern Greek, but also in Ancient Greek, refers to prostitution - that is the selling of one's body for sexual services. This word actually casts its net quite wide in that it catches pornography as well, though this is a topic that is best left for another time, and there are a number of discussions of pornography, but the main thing I wish to point out is that once an image has been made public, it is like pandora's box, in that it can never be brought back again. As for homosexuality, this is a question of choice, and that is something that God has granted us, and that is a choice. We, as Christians, have no right to condemn, judge, or persecute anybody because of the choice that they have made. As for gay marriage, well, considering that the modern marriage industry pretty much makes a complete mockery of what marriage was supposed to mean, my position is simply to say if they want to get married then let them. Okay, I hear people scream out that it will undermine the family unit, but my response simply is that the family unit has already been undermined, and it is continuing to be destroyed. The traditional family unit was not the nuclear family of today, and in fact I have even experienced myself how the nuclear family acts to destroy the extended family which was the mainstay of the biblical times. Take Jacob for instance. Look at how his family operated. Yes, it was dysfunctional, but then this is not the perfect world, but it still shows how the family unit extends beyond Mum, Dad, and the kids. Finally I wish to touch upon abortion. Now this is a tricky issue because I am a big believer in the rights of those who have no voice, and since I believe life begins from conception (and Catholics go even further by saying that by preventing life through contraception is just as bad as terminating an unborn child) I believe that the unborn should also have rights. However, we scream loudly about the rights of the unborn, but completely ignore the rights of the dispossesed, the homeless, and many of the other voiceless people in our world. Secondly, we love to quote statistics on the number of people that have been killed because of abortion, but I will also quote some statistics. Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, 12000 innocent civilians, and quite possibly a lot higher, have been killed. According to the WHO, 15 million people die of hunger each year, and by the time you finish reading this, another 500 have probably died. So, we jump up and down about abortion, but what are we doing about world hunger? And that is where I wish to conclude, namely that by getting upset over these issues, and by protesting and voting on these issues, we are playing into the hands of the neo-liberal elite, the same elite that launched the war against Iraq, and the same elite who live lavishly in the palace-mansions and have enough money to effectively end world poverty. We walk through the supermarkets who are squeezing the farmers and driving them off their land into the arms of poverty because they are attempting to undercut each other on prices. We talk about slum lords who make millions on students, but only leap out of our seats, grab our placards, and march on parliament when we talk about homosexual's getting married. Granted, there are no real differences between the two major parties, but the neo-liberals know that as long as Gay Marriage and Abortion are in the political arena, we play right into their hands, and in many cases, can easily be complicit in the evil that they are inflicting upon this world.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-11-01 00:00:00 Fedor Teplukhin This book was both very helpful and very resourceful. However, not for the hard of thinking.