@Clete I have not been ignoring you, I have been considering what you have said and traveling for work.
But I have been reading what you have posted and searching the Bible in text and prayer. I cannot walk the road you are walking. While I agree the judging the actions of others is something we should do, I do not agree that we should be condemning people with our judgments.
What's the difference? (Hint: there isn't one.)
I look at how Jesus forgave all those who came to Him regardless of their sins.
Those instances have been explained to you, without response from you except to ignore that it was done.
I do not see anywhere in scripture where the Apostles condemned others for their sins and called for them to be punished under the law.
You seriously need to read more carefully. Romans 1 is a great place to start but if you want a more complete biblical treatment of the issue, read Bob Enyart's, "
Nicer Then God"
Except for Paul, and even then that was focused on himself.
No, it wasn't!
He condemned all sort of evil people, stating explicitly that such deserve death. He states that the governing official does not wield the sword in vain and gave detailed instructions about who to give charity too (i.e. teaching not to give it to those who do no qualify). He wished that Judaizers would "cut themselves off" and commanded believers not to even eat with sexually immoral believers, etc, etc, etc.
Matthew 7:1 cautions us to not judge others or we will also me judged.
No, it does not!
It cautions HYPOCRITES not to judge others!
Matthew 7:7 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. 3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? 5
Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
God does not want us to condone sin either so when we talk to people about their sins, we should do so in such a way that they understand that God wants to forgive them and will if they choose to accept Christ as their savior.
There is no biblical president for such an attitude. God isn't going to send sin to Hell, He's going to send sinners.
John 3:18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but
he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
We should be striving to bring people the message of forgiveness under the New Covenant instead of the message of judgement under the Old Covenant.
This is simply not biblical. First of all the New Covenant has to do with Israel, not the Body of Christ but more directly relevant to the point is that it directly contradicts what Paul teaches about what the role of the law is. It is precisely the condemnation of the law that brings people to Christ! This is what Romans 7 is all about.
Has the church replaced Israel? Yes.
Absolutely NO WAY has the church replaced Israel!
Even if it had, nothing of your doctrine as described so far in this post would be consistent even with that doctrine!
The New Covenant is between God and His Church.
The New Covenant is between God and Israel.
Again, not directly relevant to this point here.
Is God done with Israel? In terms of Israel being able to bring salvation to the world, yes.
Only for a time. When the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, God will return to Israel and He will exalt the law and make it honorable.
Once again, this is not really relevant.
Are you thinking that we are advocating that people aught to be under the law in any sort of religious manner? If so, you've severely misunderstood.
We are not saying that homos and murderers and rapist, etc should be executed because of some religious edict or because we want to enact the law of Moses per se. What we are advocating is criminal justice. The death penalty was instituted by God long before Moses, and while the laws can change and what authority God has delegated to human governments might change but justice does not change.
God is Justice. The term derives its meaning from God's own existence and personality. God is not arbitrary and so when He says that someone who is guilty of a particular crime should be put to death, there's a good reason for it. Some of those reason were strictly religious in nature and had to do with maintaining a separation of Israel from their neighbors so as to facilitate the coming of the Messiah in accordance with prophesy and with the promises of God. Most, however, had nothing to do with the Jewish religion per se. It was simply justice.
Leviticus 20:13 If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.
Do you believe that God was unjust when He made that command?
Have you made any investigation into whether it was or was not just? Have you made any inquiry at all as to whether such a command makes sense in a civilized society?
Probably not!
There are people who have and we have more than two thousand years of civilized society that has been based on the Judeo-Christain ethic and this country in particular produced the safest, wealthiest, healthiest and most prosperous civilization the world has ever seen in less than one twentieth of that time and we've spent the last century tearing it down precisely by being far too nice to evil people.
Clete