Re: Why PISTIS Question

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Mon Jul 13 1998 - 17:35:14 EDT


At 10:53 AM -0500 7/13/98, dbielby@juno.com wrote:
>Now I am curious why this question was stirred up originally? Have we
>missed a key point or have we answered it from your perspective?

This is what kicked it off; Eric asked an OFF-LIST question--one that really shouldn't be talked about on list, although it's a very interesting one, and threw in Jude 3 as an illustrative piece. Jonathan then picked up the Jude 3 question and made the meaning of PISTIS there the key on-list question.

>Date: Thu, 09 Jul 1998 14:10:35 -0700
>From: Eric Weiss <eweiss@gte.net>
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>To: Biblical Greek <b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
>Subject: Christianities
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>This is NOT a B-Greek question, so please reply to me off-list - some of
>you, however, are the very ones that I would most like to ask this
>question of:
>
>Is the existence of such a plethora of denominations/sects/expressions
>of Christianity/theologies, etc., today indicative of the
>fact/possibility that "the faith once for all delivered to the saints"
>(Jude 3) was not a single, well-defined faith? I.e., does our canonical
>New Testament include, not just the "seeds" of all the divergent
>practices we call "Christianity" today, but is itself a compilation of
>different Christianities? For example: Paul teaches that our secure
>relationship with God through Jesus Christ is by faith; James, however,
>says that it is equally "works"-oriented; the author of Hebrews writes
>about a salvation that is sure but not necessarily secure; John's
>Revelation gives a more prominent place to the Jewish element of the
>church than the epistles do; not to mention the fact that the gospels
>give, through Jesus' words, a more apocalyptic/eschatalogical tone to
>the urgency and immediacy of the Kingdom's coming than one seems to find
>in the epistles. I know this is highly simplified and maybe wrong in
>part, but my basic question remains.
>
>Any takers? (Again, OFF-LIST, please!) [I know this probably sounds like
>a naive question to some, and I think there is a recent book, ONE JESUS,
>MANY CHRISTS, which might even deal with this question.]
>
>--
>Eric S. Weiss
>http://home1.gte.net/eweiss/index.htm
>eweiss@gte.net
>S.D.G.



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