There's a system of viewing things through the corrective lens of your favorite authority that you're probably not acquainted with Zubivka.Zubivka wrote:I wonder if others insist Torquemada was only free-lancing as well when he decided the true Crusade was against his own people.
To understand elentil alittle, what it involves is either getting your historical information directly from, or through your favorite people...those with whom you agree, or those with whom your favorite authority agrees, or those whom support what you want to believe. There would be no safety in examining, for example, why Torquemada ceased his inquisitionality at a certain blood level, like 1/8 or 1/16. In fact, if he had allowed the blood level criteria to drop any lower than where he arbitrarily drew the line, he would've had to apply his tortures to himself.All this talk about the OT and the NT, there's a principle that may apply. Those who came out of the old and were reborn into the new, had a certain perspective of the old, you know, like looking back or living in the past. Likewise, those of us who have came out of the new, look back on it the same way. BTW, Christ based his teachings on the OT, and Paul uses it extensively to support his doctrines, like using Eve as an example of why women should subject themselves to their husbands rules. You could write a whole book full of examples like this, even the old birthday of creation, and more.
After reading the basic elemnts of history, I think the reason why certain sections of christianity do not know what to do with the OT, really, is because their favorite authority has indoctrinated them with the idea that everything of the old was ceremonial and now done away with. And they find this confusing. They know not where to draw the line when left alone with the bible. That's partly why the Church thought the sheep needed the shepherd to correctly interpret even the simplest things. The followers were not esp intelligent, at least not enough to be trusted with even the simplest things. But, only those of an intermediate education will see things this way. For the serious student, any sincere person would easily realize that only certain elements of the old were done away with, not nearly every ceremony. But when you have a flood of dumb sheep, the current can seem pretty strong, and most just go along with the flock (or flow).
Some churches have become so deeply entrenched with this system of understanding they are like Christ's proverbial "blind leading the blind"...how could the blind ever understand (or see)? Thinking for one's self is not in the cards, not within the system...that's for apostates like Christ, or Luther, or you and I. Belonger's cannot have our perspective until they leave something behind and progress with the new.
Can't you just hear it now in Mat 7?
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
If you compare the iniquities of the old with those of the new, and study history sincerely, w/o looking at history through your church's "correct seeing-glasses, I think you'll come to realize that the new became much worse than the old, and soon I'll be just as bad, unless I find that tiny group who breaks through into something even newer. Funny how an organization gets so big and entrenched, they don't realize it's over when it's over, and the new are the only ones moving on.