{"id":69997,"date":"2024-10-01T10:39:43","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T15:39:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=69997"},"modified":"2024-10-01T10:39:43","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T15:39:43","slug":"extremist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/extremist\/","title":{"rendered":"Extremist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n

What does it even mean? To an atheist (who is extreme in claiming to know there is no God), almost any believer in God who takes the Bible seriously is an “extremist.” To people who believe that morals are all relative, I would indeed be considered an extremist who thinks the Bible holds morals as absolute, permanently binding by God, and will judge us in eternal judgment.<\/p>\n

But to me, those who think I am extreme, are extreme to me and others in the other direction. When pushed for consistency, they keep backing away from any moral standard till there is none, which is extreme to most people.<\/p>\n

\"\"All this word says is that this person believes differently than me. It makes us ask, “Extreme from what position?” The person using the term may be the actual extremist: someone who stands at an extreme point away from an actual truth standard or point of reference. God’s word is truth (John 17:17). Truth is stationary. It is the point of reference, or there is none. From that point of reference, we need to be as close to it as possible. But some are really close to it, and some are extremely far away from it. The one far away thinks the one close to the target is an “extremist” because he uses himself as the point of reference. So, unless the standard of measuring truth is defined, the accusation of “extremist” becomes about as useless as other prejudicial and poorly defined words.<\/p>\n

I want to be an extremist in some ways and not in others. I don’t care when an extreme liberal calls a conservative extremist. It says nothing except that the conservative is much different than the liberal, and quite frankly, that is just fine with me. How extremely far from God is a person? That is what really matters.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Terry Wane Benton What does it even mean? To an atheist (who is extreme in claiming to know there is no God), almost any believer in God who takes the Bible seriously is an “extremist.” To people who believe that morals are all relative, I would indeed be considered an extremist who thinks the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1710,76],"class_list":["post-69997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-extremist","tag-terminology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":33712,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/knowledge-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":69997,"position":0},"title":"Knowledge (Overby)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 26, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ben Overby Sentry Magazine, March 2000 The Hebrew writer desired to feed his readers \"solid food.\" but was prevented by their inability to consume such \"food,\" (see Hebrews 5:12-6:3). An interesting question arises after reading this passage. What value is there in our pursuit of \"solid food,\" or those\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24094,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-you-take-an-open-view-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":69997,"position":1},"title":"Do you take an open view of God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 25, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, Brother Jeff, I have gotten very satisfactory answers from you since I started using your site. You answer like a real teacher. I'm just shuffling off progressivism from my life and neither do I want to be an extremist to the left or right in any matter.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40367,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-paul-have-been-embarrassed\/","url_meta":{"origin":69997,"position":2},"title":"Should Paul Have Been Embarrassed?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry W. Benton Matthew wrote a book that aired the \"dirty laundry\", so to speak, of his Jewish nation, just as the earlier prophets had done before, only now it was worse because God's great \"blessing to all nations\" was now being rejected as a \"troubler\" in Israel. Matthew\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57235,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-am-a-restorer\/","url_meta":{"origin":69997,"position":3},"title":"I am a Restorer","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 23, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Author Unknown I am a restorer - unbowed, undaunted, extremist, and eccentric. The centerpiece of my intellectual universe is Biblical primitivism, a search for the first pure truths and ordinances. I am seeking that elusive image of Christianity as it came from the mind of God. You may say it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/12\/FallRoad-198x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":52544,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-god-sometimes-show-favoritism\/","url_meta":{"origin":69997,"position":4},"title":"Does God sometimes show favoritism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Acts 10:34-35, Peter said, \"I now realize God does not show favoritism but accepts men who fear him and do what is right\". I believe sometimes God shows favoritism. In Romans 9:13 and Malachi 1:2-3, it is written: \"Jacob I love, Esau I hated.\" Here God favored Jacob\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44086,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-feeling-extreme-guilt\/","url_meta":{"origin":69997,"position":5},"title":"I’m feeling extreme guilt","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 5, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I feel extreme guilt for past sins. Sins that most would count as minor. Breaking the law whether intentional or not \u2026 not confessing to things I know about from years ago, breaking rules at home, work, friendship-wise, etc. It's the wee hours of the morning, and I feel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69997\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}