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Fallacies
I ask for three falllacious items to be considered:
1. Since a fictive character, addressing a fictive listener about a fictive situation has no standing before the Judgement Throne of God, the accusation of a failure to follow the precepts of Matthew 7 or any other part of the Gospel is not applicable. Fictional speakers do not bear moral obligation to the Gospel.
2. By what authority, credential, or right can a person who disclaims adherence and obligation to the Gospel, raise a moral judgement against any believer who is perceived to have failed in adherence to the precepts of the Gospel? The Apostle Saint Paul stated it in 2 Corinthians 6:15 (I like the RSV, here): Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?
3. The great question that the Gospel puts before humanity and this world is stated by Christ Himself in Matthew 22:42---What think ye of Christ? Not of his followers, not of their flaws, foibles, and failures, but of Him. Saving Faith is placed in the person of Jesus Christ---not in the persons of his followers, either historical or contemporary. All of Christ's followers are imperfect persons---hence they need a Savior. The question directs its hearers to Christ, not His followers. The responsibility to believe is to Christ, not His followers. It cannot be shifted on to His followers. The attempt to do this is an evasion of the responsibility to answer the question as He stated it in the Scripture cited above. Evasion may make the slippery soul feel more comfortable, temporarily; it may even give a sense of self-righteous, smarmish superiority to that soul, But that strategy is only an evasion, and will be proven, eventually, for what it is. And is not.
