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<DIV><FONT size=4>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Tripping Up Others</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><BR>It was just an off-hand comment, an aside to a friend at
church about how so-and-so made a fool of herself in the Sunday School meeting.
She thought no one else was listening. She didn't realize that the target of her
comment was around the corner hearing every word. He didn't intend to scare off
the worship guests, the young couple who sat down timidly and fumbled with the
bulletin. But they were in his seat. He glared at them through the entire
service. In these and many other ways we put stumbling blocks before other
believers (v. 42). </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.crossings.org/theology/2009/theolo748.shtml">http://www.crossings.org/theology/2009/theolo748.shtml</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Paige G. Evers, 2009</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>The same dynamic applies to our lives as gay Catholics.</DIV>
<DIV>
<P>Experientially, we encounter the Lord, and that encounter seems to contradict
the precepts of the insiders. Does that mean that we should cherish the
experience as something private and particular to us, and continue to live our
own lives, in a kind of separate dispensation, apart from the larger church
community?</P>
<P>I don’t think so. Not at all.</P></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://gospelforgays.com/?p=517">http://gospelforgays.com/?p=517</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Jeremiah Bartram, 2009</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>This is a very uncomfortable reading, for two
reasons.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>First, Jesus speaks categorically of hell – and we don’t like
to think about that. We don’t like to believe that the sweet and kindly
Father figure of our dreams could possibly create such a place, much less assign
anyone to it.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>And secondly – I guess I’m speaking personally here – the
standard Jesus imposes in this reading is uncomfortably rigorous. I think
of Origen, not considered an early Church Father, but nonetheless a big mind and
major teacher in his day. He castrated himself because of this passage –
and it’s hard to dispute his logic. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://gospelforgays.com/?p=506">http://gospelforgays.com/?p=506</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Jeremiah Bartram, 2009</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>T</FONT><FONT size=4>HE TASK OF THE CHURCH IS TO MAKE
DISCIPLES OF THE UNCHURCHED. SOME </FONT><FONT size=4>might add we must make
disciples of the churched as well.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.luthersem.edu/word&world/Archives/14-3_Sex/14-3_Juel.pdf">http://www.luthersem.edu/word&world/Archives/14-3_Sex/14-3_Juel.pdf</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Donald H. Juel, 1994</FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV><FONT size=4><FONT
color=#231f20 size=2 face="Book Antiqua"><FONT color=#231f20 size=2
face="Book Antiqua"><FONT color=#231f20 size=2 face="Book Antiqua">
<DIV align=left><FONT color=#000000 size=4
face="Times New Roman">Traditionalists hold that the unrighteous are destined to
eternal physical and spiritual torment,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT color=#000000 size=4 face="Times New Roman">while
conditionalists say that the unrighteous will cease to exist (after God’s
judgment, or after</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT color=#000000 size=4 face="Times New Roman">some period of
torment). Judkins discusses passages used to support each view.
Traditionalists</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT color=#000000 size=4 face="Times New Roman">understand
Revelation 20:13-14 to mean that the torment in the lake of fire will be
continual and is</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT color=#000000 size=4 face="Times New Roman">the fate of
all the unrighteous. Conditionalists understand these verses to claim that death
and hell</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT color=#000000 size=4 face="Times New Roman">themselves
will be cast into the lake of fire and, therefore, cease. Other theologies of
hell have been</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT color=#000000 size=4 face="Times New Roman">proposed, but
the traditionalist and conditionalist views are the most widely accepted
among</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT color=#000000 size=4 face="Times New Roman">Christians.
Perhaps this is because each of them so strongly encourages the evangelical
impetus of</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=4 face="Times New Roman">our
faith.</FONT></DIV></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.baylor.edu/christianethics/HeavenHellstudyguide4.pdf">http://www.baylor.edu/christianethics/HeavenHellstudyguide4.pdf</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Robert B. Kruschwitz, 2002</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>In the ATHANASIAN CREED (the Trinitarian creed which is
occasionally recited on Trinity Sunday), in the next to the last paragraph of
that creed, it says: “Those who have done good will enter eternal life, those
who have done evil will enter eternal fire.” The other two creeds (Apostles’
Creed and Nicene Creed) only talk about Jesus returning to judge the living and
the dead and not about the eternal fires. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_b_millstones_GA.htm">http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_b_millstones_GA.htm</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Edward F. Markquart</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>