On Last week's Thursday Bible Study, on discussion of difficult passage, the pastor brought up Matthew 7's "Judge not". His point was, in what I believe to be an error, that here Jesus is distinguishing God's JUDGMENT and our "discernment". Thus, we do not judge as God judges. We merely discerns. Why I think this to be a grave error, not to mention influenced by fundamentalists' hermeneutics, is that first of all, a judgment is the result of discernment. Therefore, he felt a bit challenged when I asked about "presidential elections", is that not judgment involved. His response was "of course we could never escape judging"....What I would have said, if I could have such authority, is that "It is GOOD to Judge!!!", "it is the blessed gift from God to us when He made us in His image!", "It is what differentiates us from animals!", "It is not something to ESCAPE from!" But I think enough point was made. I'm not sure if this interpretation of "discernment" vs. "judgment" is popular in American Christianity/fundamentalists. But even any secular logic will show that it is not only a bad interpretation of the verse, but making such distinction is futile. Perhaps they really can't accept judging contestants in various activities...that it is not biblical or something. But that's me judging. I maybe wrong, I maybe right. So I just have to patiently watch and learn, although one thing for sure is not to be, that is such interpretation. Secondly, I already have plenty of entries on this, even a few of Pak Tong's Sunday sermon series on Matthew 7. Also, James 2:13 is also a good reference point to reflect upon.
This week's Bible Study, learned that the pastor is Young Earth creationist. Although, when he tried to answer my question, which wasn't about what are Young/Old Earth creationists, he gave pretty neutral credits to both sides, until I insisted he reveal his stand when he asked if he answered my question. I would have not bothered if he hadn't asked me if that answered my question, and let the mystery of his position go on. He mentioned aliens a few times, calling some demonic, brought up StarTrek original pilot episode once in his sermon, I am beginning to think that he's a trek fan or something. Young Earthers are usually under fundamentalist influence. But it also appears that he's coming away from that group. So I can only pray. Not even sure if his version of Young Earth is a 6000 year old universe or not.