I'm still alive!
So since I've been lax in posting, and since some folks (mutti et al :) have been asking what I'm up to, I thought I'd give a brief update! The eighth week of classes begins tomorrow, and I am trying to begin work on a couple of papers that have me interested. Overall my class load has been light, but I've been trying to focus my free time on getting research together and starting these papers. One of them is for a class on 1 & 2 Chronicles, and I'm examining the relationship between the Solomonic temple and the temple of Ezekiel's vision in ch's 40-48. We'll see how that turns out. The other paper is my master's thesis paper, which I am also preparing to begin writing this quarter. The topic I'm loosely working with now is understanding how the Scriptures speak of judgment in relation to Christians--adressing some questions such as "When is judgment forbidden for Christians? What is the realm of human judgment vs. the realm of God's judgment? When are Christians going to or commanded to judge?", etc. Hopefully I'll learn a lot from my research into this issue, and it will also be helpful in understanding how and when Christians are to exercise judgment in the church today.
Comments
1 Corinthians 5 makes it clear we ARE to judge. The simple answer to the tension, as I teach it, is that we cannot judge the heart (is he a true believer or not?), but we are expected to judge behavior (are his actions consistent with his verbal confession? does he live like a believer?). Unfortunately, oversimplified as this is, it is already too subtle for some people to grasp...
Blessings on your work!