B
Butaperson
Guest
So a while ago, I stumbled across a blog called “The Sojourner’s Log”. It is written by a very, very radical Evangelical person. To me, it sounds like he has taken it upon himself to personally and individually interpret the entire Bible.
He wrote an article on Biblical modesty, one that I found particularly interesting. In it, he quotes Paul on the simple statement “A woman should adorn herself with modesty”. And he explains how when Paul wrote this, he imagined the modesty that he knew of the time, the modesty of an average Jewish woman, and sets that as the standard of modesty for everyone. In that, every woman across the earth and centuries should cover every bit of flesh other than forearms, hands and face with loose, discreetly-colored fabric.
I then replied as best I could (I am a new convert and no biblical expert, but I just wanted to try to explain why this is unreasonable). I said that a) The word “modesty” is a subjective noun by nature, God knew that it would a subjective noun, and if he wanted an objective standard of modesty He would have written a bit more on that precise subject and b) He cannot presume to know precisely what Paul was thinking as he wrote the Bible, especially because different styles of dress were apparent even by those ancient times and it’s not at all impossible that Paul was perfectly aware that standards of modesty would change across time and culture, especially considering that his writing were inspired by the Holy Spirit and God is obviously aware that standards would change.
I don’t know if I’ve made a decent argument and I don’t know how to continue now. If any of you have more experience with the Bible and interpreting Scripture, some guidance on how to handle this subject would be deeply appreciated.
To be honest, this carries some personal feelings around it, because I spent months trying to do what that blog said because I was a brand-new Christian who stumbled across a radical page armed with Bible quotes, and it was a really bad time for me religiously and mentally overall (if you read his blog you might see what I mean), especially because I’m pretty sure I was horribly scrupulous at that time and had no one to talk to about what I was going through and other such things. I could kick myself for believe one word that he wrote on that blog.
I’ve come to forgive him by now (maybe I didn’t need to forgive him because of lot of my issues were due to my own scrupulosity, but in any case I’ve let go on my resentment), I know that obviously he means the best and I wish I could help him come to the faith and find new light in Christ. I don’t know what sort of religious background or education he has, but if he does have any sort of formal education in Scripture it must have been in some little Evangelical college somewhere…I don’t know, I just want to know what led him to make the conclusions he’s made, and…ugh.
I guess I’m asking for your help to help him. He’s trying so hard to reach Jesus, and if anyone deserves to have faith in the one true Church, it’s him - I want to help him come to the truth, he deserves that much. But of course, an Evangelical like him wouldn’t even consider the Catholic Church unless he was convinced of it biblically…so that’s what I’m trying to do. I have prayed for him, and now I want to help him in this way too, to explain why the true Church is true.
So after a quick paraphrase of the argument and slight deeply personal rant…what would you suggest I can do to help Evangelize this Evangelical? Sorry it’s so long and for sounding like a bit of a nutter, to be honest I am a bit of a nutter but I want to be a nutter who can help others come to the faith.
He wrote an article on Biblical modesty, one that I found particularly interesting. In it, he quotes Paul on the simple statement “A woman should adorn herself with modesty”. And he explains how when Paul wrote this, he imagined the modesty that he knew of the time, the modesty of an average Jewish woman, and sets that as the standard of modesty for everyone. In that, every woman across the earth and centuries should cover every bit of flesh other than forearms, hands and face with loose, discreetly-colored fabric.
I then replied as best I could (I am a new convert and no biblical expert, but I just wanted to try to explain why this is unreasonable). I said that a) The word “modesty” is a subjective noun by nature, God knew that it would a subjective noun, and if he wanted an objective standard of modesty He would have written a bit more on that precise subject and b) He cannot presume to know precisely what Paul was thinking as he wrote the Bible, especially because different styles of dress were apparent even by those ancient times and it’s not at all impossible that Paul was perfectly aware that standards of modesty would change across time and culture, especially considering that his writing were inspired by the Holy Spirit and God is obviously aware that standards would change.
I don’t know if I’ve made a decent argument and I don’t know how to continue now. If any of you have more experience with the Bible and interpreting Scripture, some guidance on how to handle this subject would be deeply appreciated.
To be honest, this carries some personal feelings around it, because I spent months trying to do what that blog said because I was a brand-new Christian who stumbled across a radical page armed with Bible quotes, and it was a really bad time for me religiously and mentally overall (if you read his blog you might see what I mean), especially because I’m pretty sure I was horribly scrupulous at that time and had no one to talk to about what I was going through and other such things. I could kick myself for believe one word that he wrote on that blog.
I’ve come to forgive him by now (maybe I didn’t need to forgive him because of lot of my issues were due to my own scrupulosity, but in any case I’ve let go on my resentment), I know that obviously he means the best and I wish I could help him come to the faith and find new light in Christ. I don’t know what sort of religious background or education he has, but if he does have any sort of formal education in Scripture it must have been in some little Evangelical college somewhere…I don’t know, I just want to know what led him to make the conclusions he’s made, and…ugh.
I guess I’m asking for your help to help him. He’s trying so hard to reach Jesus, and if anyone deserves to have faith in the one true Church, it’s him - I want to help him come to the truth, he deserves that much. But of course, an Evangelical like him wouldn’t even consider the Catholic Church unless he was convinced of it biblically…so that’s what I’m trying to do. I have prayed for him, and now I want to help him in this way too, to explain why the true Church is true.
So after a quick paraphrase of the argument and slight deeply personal rant…what would you suggest I can do to help Evangelize this Evangelical? Sorry it’s so long and for sounding like a bit of a nutter, to be honest I am a bit of a nutter but I want to be a nutter who can help others come to the faith.