Puzzling Diversity

This is the field looking at Tumbleweed gym where I practiced the art of "grounding", or walking barefoot last week. Bet you outlanders did'nt know we could grow grass in the desert, it takes a soaking from groundwater weekly to keep it looking like this.

One of the issues that has most affected my adult life is agreement or disagreement on doctrines. Some major, some minor, all problematic when full fellowship is disrupted or denied over said teaching.

As I have been a searcher and a tester of truths all my life there have been some major areas of belief where I have taken minority opinions or variations. Its a bit like putting a puzzle together where you turn the ideas around to see if they fit and how they fit and how they affect the look of the puzzle once inserted in place.

One summer I was asked to explain my teaching on "wrath", and I really studied and put together a good defense of my views, and they were well received and I won the brother to my emphasis, mostly.

This week I was asked to defend my teaching on the word "aionian"  from which our bibles get the word eternal. That is why its called a study break, and I look forward to my dear brothers inquiry and the articles he gave me defending the traditional understanding.

One reason I love Biblical theology is that the doctrines grow from the texts rather than doctrines developed by groups or sects trying to make a peace of the puzzle fit by artificial force or tradition.

Though the times of conflict were painful and too often personal, I think it important not to lose sight of the benefits of these puzzling issues, and the progress that can be made when we take a fresh look at the picture we present to the world.