Loss of the capacity to believe in anything beyond the senses, leads to loss of belief in the universe as a moral construct, leads to all theories of salvation sounding abstract, leads to the poverty of having only romance as a filter to approach God, leads to contemporary worship music.
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The Old Testament injunction to “Remember God” is the equivalent of the New Testament “faith”.
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24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, [2] lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
This passage simply does not reflect that beloved evangelical dichotomy and shelter: “… a relationship with God based on forgiveness as opposed to one based on performance.” Well, I guess the larger NT does. If you discount all the passages that don’t.
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“Eternal perspective” as used in evangelical preaching, usually amounts to docetism. Only what is done for Christ will last, and so on. The implication — intended or not, people imbibe it — is that only the ghostly souls of men will pass into the next age; spend as little work as possible on things like art, engineering, plumbing. Hay and straw, to be burned up on the last day.
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