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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dayuhan who wrote (24275)	8/13/1998 10:20:00 PM
From: Emile Vidrine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

"All standards of morality are fluid, and only hypocrites denounce "moral relativism"." There is one element of this statement that captures a profound truth. Each culture and society develops its own morals and values. These values are a socially constructed reality imposed on the members of each group. Couched within this reality there universal values dictated by the conscience that seem to transcend culture and society- thy shall not kill, thy shall not steal, etc. Neverthless we are still faced with the broad spectrum of varying and relativistic values across cultures. What is the cause of this relativism? Man cannot grasp the full meaning of any historical event, no matter how trivial the event. We can take an automobile accident as an example. The dentist, doctor, body man, and the mechanic all approach an accident with their own peculiar bias. Each will of course focus on the condition of the occupants, but in addition, they will each unconsciously concentrate on the elements that relate to their profession. The dentist will have a keen interest in any damage to the teeth. The body man will concentrate on the damage to the car. The physician will carefully observe the damage to the body. If these observers were called to testify about the accident, their stories would vary according to their perspective. Consequently, it is impossible for natural man to capture the fullness of any historical event, no matter how simple. We can each capture a small element and try to reconstruct the total, but our recontruction is always only a partial reality. This is why all natural human cultures and societies develop only relativistic truths and relativistic value systems. The Word of God, on the other hand, is the view of an all seeing God transmitting to us the truths and essences of human events. God, unlike man, is not limited to a narrow socially and culturally constructed reality, but captures the fullness of each human event. This is why God's Word is eternal and absolute, while man's is only relative. The power of the Word of God is not only the Spirit that dwells within it but also the eternal and profound reality and truth contained in the precepts that are conveyed. The Word of God really, really captures the truth. When man overcomes his pride and arrogance and opens himself to these eternal and life giving truths, he is liberated from the realtivism of his fallen mind. With his natural mind, man can only know a small insignificant piece of the truth, but with the revelations in God's Word man can know the essence of things. Man was originally created to know things through his spirit, but after the fall man acquires knowledge through his senses and relativistic mind. Jesus recreates the human spirit and gives us the Holy Spirit so we can know things as he knows things. When a Christian learns to listen to the Spirit rather than the human chaos and noise around him, he begins to learn the essence of things rather than man's relativistic notions. This is what it means to be Born Again and baptized in the Holy Spirit. Emile