(October 6, 2016 at 6:12 pm)Bunburryist Wrote: As Gomer Pyle would have said (and the punch line to a dirty joke we thought was very clever in third grade back in 1968) - Surprise, surprise, surprise! One would think that Evangelicals would be pretty monolithic as regards their beliefs, but it turns out they're all over the place. It's worth a look.
http://thestateoftheology.com/
I see another not familiar with the parable of the talents:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbLAZDPu3Pg
Starts at 44 seconds
Here the thing of great value, (the "gold" or the talents of the story) is actually a working understanding of how God works. Knowledge of the bible
What is the command the rich man gave the servants? was the demand that everyone must yield 10 bags of Gold? Or in your terms:
Quote: "Evangelicals would be pretty monolithic as regards their beliefs."(Meaning the set standard of belief must be uniform hence the 10 bags even if we do not have the collective shared mental capacity to 'invest' to yield a principle plus 5 bag return)
Rather what was expected from the servants was in direct proportion to what they have been given.
In simple terms we are to worship God to our BEST possible understanding of Him. Not what we want or what is comfortable to us but to the limits of what we have been given.
For some this means we focus on this like singing, or even is service while others center themselves around exegetical efforts.. yes some efforts yield a greater understanding of God, but that is not what God wants from us. You are confusing religion with What God/Christ has commanded.
This parable shows the Jesus is simply asking that we use all that we have been given access to, to praise and worship Him.
This is why the church is splintered off into so many different incarnations. Each one is a little different from the one it sprang off from because each one of us is a little different even among like minded believers.
