An Excerpt From Next Week's "Sunday Preaching"

From the sermon series called, "The Root & Fruit of Religion: How Having A Religious Mindset Hurts Us All." This is an "advance excerpt" of the next week's message:

The Scripture is filled with ambiguous statements that can be understood in very different ways, even in opposing ways by people who are equally committed to the integrity of Scripture and who are equally as committed to a high level of intellectual honesty when studying it. To blatantly judge somebody as being “wrong” or of not believing the “plain teaching of the Bible” just because their view is different from ours is to live from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. When were we appointed Judge of what is perfectly sound doctrine? We were never called to sit in judgment over others as to the rightness and wrongness of their interpretation of Scripture. It's okay to say we believe differently, but our own attitudes sometimes overshadow what we contend is our orthodoxy. We may differ in our understanding without condemning others who have come to a different viewpoint. There are certainly absolutes that can be known, but when we know somebody else seeks truth just as we do and that their view is the result of sincere study, we need to give wide berth to differing opinions, knowing that we all must hold onto our understandings in humility. At best, none of us can see more than just through a glass darkly.”