The pope is right about some things and wrong about others. The pope approved a rewrite of the Lord's prayer changing 'lead us not into temptation' to 'do not let us fall into temptation'. His idea was to disambiguate a possible connotation that Jesus might lead people into temptation himself. I think it should be left as it was because of possible further, sequential changes that could occur. It is not really possible to make language so exact for meaning that collateral connotations won't exist. It is better to keep the word as close to the original as possible in order not to let the meaning be vulnerable to intentional conformity to the world.
It is a matter of understanding English and how it is used. One can draw inferences from language, find connotations that differ from era to era. The pope is an ESL guy- that may have something to do with his choice. Calvin's ideas about determinism would have the elect saved anyway. That is not on the point of rewriting the Bible to conform to one's own ideas about language-meanings. Asking God not to lead into temptation is simply a request to not encounter temptation on the road God leads upon. I suppose one could compare it to asking a guide on a Mt. Everest climb not to lead us too near the edge on the way to the summit, even though, it may be necessary on the way up.
When God had the angels guide Lot and family from Sodom, what if they had to pass through a notorious red light district to exit the city? Would that have been a temptation Lot hoped to avoid? Would Lot have been wrong in asking God not to lead them to or through temptation hoping in some way to take a scenic route with just desert plants instead of many depraved souls? Ought God have rewritten reality and created a special passage tunnel with the temptations screened out for Lot and family? In other words; 'Do not lead us to or through Las Vegas, CNN or H.B.O.'
After the fall, mankind is already in temptation as something of a natural condition. One does not need to 'fall' again into temptation. When one is born again- spiritually regenerated and brought out of the realm of the spiritually dead by the Lord. One is saved and the salvation is pre-determined by the promise of God. Some day when many people live in space and micro-gravity someone may want to eliminate the unfamiliar 'fall' as a pejorative reference to gravitational fields associated with planets. They may want to replace 'fall' with 'float'. 'Do not let us float into temptation'. Then someone living on a new water world will find that offensive and change it to 'Do not let us drift into temptation'. Another living in low gravity may rewrite 'Do not let us bounce into temptation' etc.
It is a matter of understanding English and how it is used. One can draw inferences from language, find connotations that differ from era to era. The pope is an ESL guy- that may have something to do with his choice. Calvin's ideas about determinism would have the elect saved anyway. That is not on the point of rewriting the Bible to conform to one's own ideas about language-meanings. Asking God not to lead into temptation is simply a request to not encounter temptation on the road God leads upon. I suppose one could compare it to asking a guide on a Mt. Everest climb not to lead us too near the edge on the way to the summit, even though, it may be necessary on the way up.
When God had the angels guide Lot and family from Sodom, what if they had to pass through a notorious red light district to exit the city? Would that have been a temptation Lot hoped to avoid? Would Lot have been wrong in asking God not to lead them to or through temptation hoping in some way to take a scenic route with just desert plants instead of many depraved souls? Ought God have rewritten reality and created a special passage tunnel with the temptations screened out for Lot and family? In other words; 'Do not lead us to or through Las Vegas, CNN or H.B.O.'
After the fall, mankind is already in temptation as something of a natural condition. One does not need to 'fall' again into temptation. When one is born again- spiritually regenerated and brought out of the realm of the spiritually dead by the Lord. One is saved and the salvation is pre-determined by the promise of God. Some day when many people live in space and micro-gravity someone may want to eliminate the unfamiliar 'fall' as a pejorative reference to gravitational fields associated with planets. They may want to replace 'fall' with 'float'. 'Do not let us float into temptation'. Then someone living on a new water world will find that offensive and change it to 'Do not let us drift into temptation'. Another living in low gravity may rewrite 'Do not let us bounce into temptation' etc.
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