From: David Moore (dvdmoore@dcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us)
Date: Wed Jan 03 1996 - 15:52:20 EST
On Wed, 3 Jan 1996 Timster132@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 96-01-02 David Moore
> <dvdmoore@dcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us> writes:
>
> >IMO, there is a danger in our taking too limited a view of what is
> >defined by "sin," since (human as we are) we have a tendency to define it
> >in a way that allows us a clear conscience.
>
> How true David!
>
> In all this talking about defining sin, it brought me back to memories of
> my church history prof, Newel Williams, who said if you want to understand a
> Christian group in history, you need to ask three questions of that group: 1)
> What is sin? 2) What is salvation? and 3) How do you get from sin to
> salvation?
> He applied this to hymns to bring out various theological differences of
> understanding: e.g. Amazing Grace, Trust and Obey, Rock of Ages, etc.
>
> I've found this approach helpful in understanding NT authors as well. One
> may ask of Paul these three q's, as well as Matthew, Luke, Hebrews, etc. It
> helps to clarify each author's place in the NT and some of the intercanonical
> dialog between them.
> So when asking what is an author's view of sin, it would help to define
> that position even further by asking what is salavtion for that author? And
> by what means does one get from sin to salvation?
> Just an exegetical tool I thought I'd add to the conversation.
>
Considering Carlton and Carl's suggestion that the concept of
"sin" takes in quite a number of words beyond hAMARTIA and its cognates,
Tim's suggestion that we concentrate discussion on a single corpus within
the NT seems sensible. Maybe this way we can remain more within the
realm of New Testament studies, and keep the discussion less purely
theological.
Grace,
David L. Moore Southeastern Spanish District
Miami, Florida of the Assemblies of God
dvdmoore@dcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us Department of Education
http://members.aol.com/dvdmoore
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