@musiclady, I don't suppose you could open up your heart and your mind just a tiny bit to consider that there might be something in what we are saying?
Not banging on you particularly Sang - You just happened to be the last post in the line...
I have been gone for most of this debate... But I will stand with
@musiclady and with
@Sighlass - And no there is not 'something' in what you are saying. By the numbers.
Firstly, the flagrant misuse of the 'Cast the First Stone' argument: Taken to its logical conclusion, as proposed in this thread, we have no right or ability to judge anyone for anything... So the next time all y'all start wanging on the Democrats, I will be sure to remind you that you are stepping out of line.
What's good for the goose is indeed good for the gander, and in fact, the point in having high moral ground REQUIRES a higher expectation from oneself, and one's leaders than one's opponents.
The story of Yeshua and the Adulteress has little to do with judgement, and more to do with misuse of power and the twisting of the law (wickedness)... Torah requires the accused adulterer to be caught in the act, and that BOTH the man and the woman be brought before the law TOGETHER. Where is the male offender? This is just ONE of the aspects of the passage that should make a reader look deeper.
And it is exactly this same sort of shallow reading that the liberal church hauls out against the more orthodox to shut their mouths about judging *at all*, and is precisely behind the loosening of morals with the churches blessing... To include no fault divorce, overlooking fornication, acceptance of homosexuality and adultery as normative, and so on. That is a grievous and slippery slope, and y'all are making the very same argument.
The missing component is conviction and repentance in this argument... Teshuva - turning back around to face YHWH.
I may look upon my misspent yoot wistfully from time to time, and I may get caught up in ribaldry from time to time, and certainly I cuss too much... There is much from my youth that clings to me yet. But the truth of the matter is that I have stood before YHWH, and all y'all as the Church, and confessed my sins, and do so all the time. THAT is what turns my sins into a powerful witness FOR YHWH -- And in THAT there is no judgement - you toward me, or me toward you.
Likewise the penitent, and the newly born. Someone figuring out that they have been going the wrong way, and are trying to find the path to YHWH... The Church is to be long patient and instructive to such a one, withholding judgement.
But this shallow reading of Yeshua and the Adulteress, the mewling interpretation of 'Judge not lest ye be judged' creates a caricature of the Law, and by that a caricature of GRACE.
...To the point that you cannot judge anything or anyone at all.
I will NOT adhere to such an interpretation. Certainly not to excuse the likes of Tump.
