Tradition must give way to the clear statements of the Scripture

    Sheol below is getting excited over you,      to meet you when you come;  it arouses the dead spirits for you,      all of the leaders of the earth.      It raises all of the kings of the nations from their thrones.  All of them will respond and say to you,  ‘You yourself also were made weak like us!      You have become the same as us!’  Your pride is brought down to Sheol,      and the sound of your harps;  maggots are spread out beneath you like a bed,      and your covering is worms. Is 14:9–11 LEB Therefore since these matters have an end , and two things lie together before us, both death and life , and  each is about to go to one’s own place , Ac. 1.25 cf. (go. Mt 25:41, 46. 26:24. Jn 6:70, 71. 13:27. 17:12. own place. Ac 4:23. Ps 9:17. NTSN)  for just as there are two coinages, Mt. 22.19,20 one which is of God, another which is of the wo...

    The Consequences of Judging Others   Jesus is clear that his followers should not engage in condemning judgment toward others. And throughout his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talks about how he clearly sees our inner motivations—the hidden realities that shape our lives—in a way that no else can. He takes into account our grief, our disappointment, our desire to be noticed, our worry about the future, and our sincere desire to please God.  So when we look down on another person, we act as though we can see their inner realities just as clearly. We end up playing God. And we know from the beginning of the whole story, back in Gen. 1-3, that playing God never works well. Remember how humans bring corruption and death upon themselves precisely because they try to determine right and wrong apart from God, according to what is good or bad in their own eyes. In Genesis, and in Jesus’ teaching, we can hear God saying, “As finite beings, you do not have what it takes to ma...