In article , Bob Felts says...

>Matthew Johnson  wrote:

[snip]

>> >Why, Job was so righteous that he had to admit that "I
despise myself
>> >and repent in dust and ashes."  [J 42:6]
>> 
>> Aha! So you ARE relying on a tendentious translation! No, that is
>> NOT what God said to Job.
>> 
>> On the contrary: the Hebrew of that passage is maddengly vague. It is quote
>> plausible to translate it as something quite different. Use google to see.
>
>In the finall analysis, it doesn't matter,

Yes, it does matter. If for no other reason, because your much-vaunted "other
avenue" below peters out so quickly. Yes, you have led yourself down yet another
blind-alley, Bob!

> since I have another avenue
>which is more deadly to your position.

No, it is not.

>It has to do with the question
>which you didn't answer:  did Job die?

Now I know why you vainly imagined this is so 'deadly' to my position, but your
false confidence only reveals the depths of your confusion. But such depths of
confusion are only to be _expected_ out of a reader who took the side of the
evil false 'friends' of Job, agreeing with all their bitter and false
accusations against the great saint!

But how wrong you were to do this is revealed by what God _really_ said about
Job, which has already been pointed out to you, and you are pretending not to
notice: God called Job 'perfect', and throughout the _entire_ length of the
book, never "took back" his word, never said "oh, well, Job
_was_ perfect, but
lost it".  On the contrary: even at the end of Job's trials, God calls Job
'righteous', and says that _everything_ Job said about God was right, and
everything your ideological allies said was wrong!

Have your really forgotten already, Bob, how Job was praised at the end of his
trials as still perfect? Remember what He really said:

   ... the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: 'My wrath is kindled
   against thee, and against thy two friends; for ye have not
   spoken of Me the thing that is right, as My servant Job hath.
   Now therefore, take unto you seven bullocks and seven rams,
   and go to My servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a
   burnt-offering; and My servant Job shall pray for you;
   for him will I accept, that I do not unto you aught unseemly;
   FOR YE HAVE NOT SPOKEN OF ME THE THING THAT IS RIGHT, AS MY
   SERVANT JOB HATH.'  (Job 42:8 JPS)

So all the things Job said that _you_ label as sinful, God himself calls "the
thing that is right". And all that _you_ label as righteous is grounds
for "MY
wrath is kindled against thee".

So to answer you question, yes, Job did die. But if he had died for any sin of
his own, God would _not_ have praised him as 'perfect', and confirmed it with
these words at the end of the book.

Besides: Christ died too, and even you will admit that Christ was without sin.
So why are you so sure that Job had to have had sin in him? Because you are
_confused_ by Reform theology, that is why.


-- 
---------------------------
Subudcat se sibi ut haereat Deo
quidquid boni habet, tribuat illi a quo factus est.
(St. Augustine, Ser. 96)

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