Stan,
You wrote,
No it's MY reply and NOT a red herring. I'm not required to address every point you make, and you should know by now that I tend to not be verbose in my replies. Why would I need to address an absolute? It's not addressable now is it?
Do you see how you distort what I wrote? I wrote, 'You did not address
any of the absolutes I gave from the Sermon on the Mount. None!'. For you to say that 'I'm not required
to address every point you make' is to create a straw man fallacy. I did not ask you to address
every point. I asked you to address the absolutes from the Sermon on the Mount. We can't have a logical discussion when you twist what I wrote like this with a straw man fallacy.
In speaking of the Sermon on the Mount in Matt 5-7 (I wrongly identified it with Mk 5-7), you wrote:
you just used it wrongly in its application to secular laws. No doubt it is applicable to all believers today. There is no distinction spiritually under the NC, but Jesus made a distinction for who His MINISTRY was directed at, and for whom He was sent, or do you think He lied?
You were speaking of the salt of the earth and light of the world analogies (Mattt 5:13-16),
One of the greatest evangelical Bible teachers and expositors of the 20th century, the late Dr D Martyn Lloyd-Jones, disagrees with you profoundly. In his exposition,
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (1971), Lloyd-Jones wrote of Christians, as opposed to the Church, being the salt of the earth (Matt 5:13):
There are those who say, "Yes, you are quite right, it is not the business of the Church as a Church to intervene in political, economic or social conditions. What I say is that the Christian should have nothing whatsoever to do with these things; the Christian must not register his vote, he must have nothing to do in the control of affairs and society." That, it seems to me, is an equal fallacy; for the Christian as an individual, as a citizen in a state, is to be concerned about these things. Think of great men, like the Earl of Shaftesbury and others, who, as private Christians and as citizens, worked so hard in connection with the Factory Acts. Think also of William Wilberforce and all that he did with regard to the abolition of slavery. As Christians we are citizens of a country, and it is our business to play our part as citizens, and thereby act as salt indirectly in innumerable respects. But that is a very different thing from the Church's doing so (Lloyd-Jones 1971:1.155; also available as 'The Salt of the Earth')
I happen to agree with Lloyd-Jones' perspective that it is not the role of the church, as the church, to engage with the issues of society but for for Christians as private citizens to be engaged in this way. This is why, wherever possible, I as an individual Christian make submissions on homosexual marriage, abortion, illicit drug laws, nude beaches, etc when such opportunities are available with the government. Lloyd-Jones is in agreement with this application that one of salt's main effects (and that of Christians) 'is to prevent putrefaction. The principal function of salt is to preserve and to act as an antiseptic' (Lloyd-Jones 1971:1.153). That's one of the roles of Christian citizens, says Lloyd-Jones.
Oz
Works consulted
Lloyd-Jones, D M 1971.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, one vol ed. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
