I clicked on this thread yesterday but didn't get a chance to read through it. Now I have one word - awesome!
What I find interesting is that Paul's letters were written to specific congregations, and as was mentioned, to possibly address certain issues within them.
Yet Christianity has formed "laws" from things that are found within those letters. They claim that these were written for us, the modern day congregation.
If a dear friend wrote you a letter, pointing out certain things that he's noticed about you, would you expect anyone else you let read it to feel the letter applied to them also? Sure, they may find something touching that can move them, but should or would they make the claim to saying this was written to them personally?
Isn't this what has been done with these letters that supposedly Paul and other apostles wrote? Especially within the JW religion do we find theses Bible "laws" often hidden behind what they like to call a principle.
I agree that there is much we can learn from the Bible. But to take it literal as if a man that wrote a letter over 1,000 years and more ago is just, IMHO, now, completely absurd.
I've looked back at some of the love letters my wife and I wrote each other over 10 years ago. And were anyone to read them now, should I expect anyone to feel the content within it was directed to them, unless I mentioned them in the letter? No, and this is how I currently feel about the Bible.
CoC