To hear his outraged critics, President Bush considers himself above the Law. The latest example is his pardoning of “Scooter” Libby, a convicted felon. This is blatant cronyism, they say. Wait a minute. Here is another case of wrong definitions. Mr Bush did not pardon Mr . Libby. He commuted the prison time to which the Judge sentenced him, and that, only after the Judge refused to delay the execution of that prison sentence while Mr Libby appealed his case. Mr Libby remains a convicted felon. He will lose his license to practice law- his profession and career. He must pay a large fine and serve two years probation. He has not been pardoned. Part of his sentence has been commuted and it is legal for the President to do this. He will serve the rest of his sentence. As I have said umpteen times, proper definitions and using the correct word in an argument are very important.
Two local churches are co-sponsoring a workshop this month about sharing the Gospel. Well and good. I wonder how the Leader will define “Gospel”, especially as this workshop is geared to post moderns and they, typically, eschew the use of propositional, i.e.- doctrinal statements, absolutes and claims to true Truth. Rather, they prefer friendship evangelism and influencing others by personal relationship and example. They usually define Salvation as simply having a personal 1:1 relationship with Jesus. This is very inadequate, to say the least. No matter what the methods taught in this workshop to share the Gospel, if the Gospel they are sharing is not defined Scripturally, the workshop is for nothing. I have no idea how the Leader of this workshop will define Gospel, (their leaflet does not say) but I hope they will not confuse God’s full pardon of sin for commutation of some of sin’s just punishment.
