APWU Local 536

This site contains information and links for local members of the American Postal Workers Union.

APWU Local 458

Union of postal workers in Portland, ME.

APWU Local 458

Union of postal workers in Portland.

IATSE Local 114

Representing unionized members of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees in Portland, ME.

IATSE Local 114

Representing unionized members of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees in Portland.

Lewiston Firefighters Association - IAFF Local 785

Union representing firefighters in Lewiston, ME.

Lewiston Firefighters Association - IAFF Local 785

Union representing firefighters in Lewiston.

Maine Education Association

State affiliate of the NEA, the MEA is a unified,  democratic professional organization advocating for its 25,000 members while inspiring them to be leaders in the educational process. News, information and links of interest to Maine educators can be found here.

Maine Education Association

Union representing teachers in the state of Maine. Affiliated with the National Education Association.

Maine Education Association

Nonprofit representing teachers in Maine.

basicallyblues wrote:

>
> There are also absurdities as to this being literal.

Interesting how you just blurt this out after first noting that one
cannot be dogmatic about it. Has it been established that this is a
parable? If it is, it is the _only_ parable in which one of the
characters is named.

There is another interesting point to be made. If events referred to in
Jesus' parables may not have been historical occurrences, there was
nothing in the details of those occurrences untrue to life. Stop for a
moment and think about that. For instance, in the events referred to
in the parable of the prodigal son, though such an event may not
actually have happened to three specific members of one family, there
is nothing in the parable contrary to the circumstances of life. There
is nothing in the parable that could not have happened, and nothing
contrary to the culture of that time. The same is true of the other
parables. If the story in Luke 16:19-31 is a parable, Lazarus and the
rich man were not actual persons and this incident did not occur.
However, if this is not an accurate illustration of the true state of
individuals following death, then it must be stated without reserve
that this parable is strongly different from all the others.

Some writers object that the point of the passage is not speak to
things eschatological. Sanders, for example, states that "so
literalistic an interpretation is by no means generally accepted in the
scholarly community, especially in light of the fact that the point of
all three parables in Luke 16 is to instruct us about the use of
wealth, not about eschatology." This seems, however, to be an example
of the common and unsubtantiated fallacy of assuming that the only
lesson to be drawn from any one parable is the central or primary one.
That assumption is seriously in need of some justification. For if
the basic teaching is like the conclusion of a syllogism, then for the
conclusion to follow as true from the premises and the syllogism to be
valid, those premises must also be true. Therefore one may draw from
the passage the premises as well as the conclusion.

>
> what kind of reasoning and by what principles of justice can it be
> maintained that simply because a man enjoyed the good things of this
> life to the full for threescore years and ten he must suffer the
> agonies of a burning hell for billions times billions of years, yes,
> for eternity?

And, as I presumed, this is the primary basis of your objection. You
first setup your presumption that there is no hell and then you read it
into the text. Yes, I know how earnst Jehovah Witnesses are about
this. We've been over this passage and the whole theological issue of
eternal damnation, not cessati