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Can we judge William Branham?: Difference between revisions
→What the Bible really teaches about judgment
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:''Do not judge by appearances, but '''judge with right judgment'''.”<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Jn 7:24.</ref> | :''Do not judge by appearances, but '''judge with right judgment'''.”<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Jn 7:24.</ref> | ||
::Jesus asks nothing more or less than that people judge with simple fairness, without partiality or favoritism, as he himself judges (see John 5:30, “Just as I hear I judge, and my judgment is right, because I am not seeking my will but the will of the One who sent me”). This the Pharisees have not done and will not do. In one sense, “by appearance” is simply equivalent to “according to the flesh” (see John 8:15).<ref>J. Ramsey Michaels, The Gospel of John, The New International Commentary on the Old and New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010), 448.</ref> | |||
::In an age when Matthew 7:1 (‘Do not judge, or you too will be judged’) has displaced John 3:16 as the only verse in the Bible the man in the street is likely to know, it is worth adding that Matthew 7:1 forbids judgmentalism, not moral discernment. By contrast, John 7:24 demands moral and theological discernment in the context of obedient faith (John 7:17), while warning against self-righteous legalism but not stopping proper judgement of Biblical heresy.<ref>D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 317.</ref> | |||
:''The '''spiritual person judges all things''', but is himself to be judged by no one.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 1 Co 2:15.</ref> | :''The '''spiritual person judges all things''', but is himself to be judged by no one.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 1 Co 2:15.</ref> | ||