"Regarding this next item, I'm not at all pleased. I am getting the picture that when you meet together it brings out your worst side instead of your best! First, I get this report on your divisiveness, competing with and criticizing each other. I'm reluctant to believe it, but there it is. The best that can be said for it is that the testing process will bring truth into the open and confirm it." (1 Corinthians 11:17-19. The Message)
The more I read Paul's first letter to Corinth, the more I am convinced he wasn't against healthy debate. He was just against becoming so dogmatic that we are polarized toward men and not Christ.
While we all come to a discussion board seeking unification in Christ, we can't all be right just because we confess Christ. Our argument needs to be sound since the power of reason is also the gift of God and will always prevail against dogmatism in a healthy debate.
So, while all of us professing to know "the truth" get our turn in illuminating why we believe something to be true, if a statement or belief is seen by others to have little or no support in the inspired word, we shouldn't get too upset over being corrected. (Saying the Bible contradicts itself is not an argument.) Being wrong is humiliating. It's how we learn. But being unwilling to learn is just plain stupid.
In Christ,
sw
But I do also have the right to say what some say is wrong, or just plain barmy, or totally outside the teachings of Jesus, or so sick it beggars belief!!
Derek
And who decides what teachings are right or acceptable or outside of Jesus' teachings? Just what is the standard? That is the problem you get with a discussion board that has no creed or statement of beliefs.
It's the wild west here. Anything goes! Just make sure you put it in the Controversy section. :thumbsup:
Dear fellow searchers for a living faith,
At the beginning of this thread I posed a few questions.
It was intended those question should elicit your personal views on how you would react to what you may see as an attack on Christian faith.
I hoped you might also say how you would throw your weight into protecting those who get submerged and lost when they see only a Babel of conflicting views. These ones often cease posting very quietly!
This thread was not started to lobby the prime movers here into taking action against anyone for vociferously pushing, way out, dogmatic, anti-Christian views.
Brother Isomam answered with his personal view and showed very honestly how he had changed from a 'white knight' approach to one of seeing that all our eternal destinies are in the process of being shaped and how our journey will be completed well in the future.
Brother Iso, it is good we can laugh at ourselves...some thirty years ago I was accused of behaving like a 'white knight' by one of my senior managers. :)
I think I see things, perhaps, in a similar way to Matt, but would have a somewhat different approach but one cannot argue against the wisdom of God's Word, Matt, posted.
Yannis: You said:
Derek
And who decides what teachings are right or acceptable or outside of Jesus' teachings? Just what is the standard? That is the problem you get with a discussion board that has no creed or statement of beliefs.
It's the wild west here. Anything goes! Just make sure you put it in the Controversy section.
When Paul talked about the gospel, he and the other apostle preached...a Christ centred gospel...he said that any other gospel preacher was accursed. Surely you know what the gospel the apostles preached was?
An hybrid gospel is being dispensed here on occasions.
Surely, Yannis, it is not a Wild West forum here like H20? Forums that cannot balance freedom with responsibility go down the tubes.
We have to act as Christians, as our Bible trained consciences tell us we should.
WCL
Derek
Well this is an online forum with moderators who do a great job at keeping things inline.
It is also a place which allows various veiws, many that are in a state of changing opinion as they look into God's Word.
It is a haven for many who were allowed only 1 opinion or risk losing family, friends, jobs etc that now are FREE.
It in no way should be intended to replace the weekly gathering of Believers for the edification of each other (meeting in the real world is of utmost importance ) you can't Skype a hug or wipe a tear away
The Gospel should be a non issue as to what it is as Paul laid it out
for us in 1 Corinth 15:
1Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
In the early church that met in homes there was no place for those who preached " Another Gospel " as to divide and devour the flock.
And the same is said of the Church today.
However if a lost soul trapped in a religious system ( just like the Pharisees ) comes to your door or stops you on the street or chats on the net. SHARE the GOOD NEWS Scrap your Religion trade in for a Relationship instead. COME TO JESUS
John 5:39 You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, 40yet you refuse to [b]come to me to have life.
" In Christ "
BB:happyheart::heartbeat::happyheart:
However if a lost soul trapped in a religious system ( just like the Pharisees ) comes to your door or stops you on the street or chats on the net. SHARE the GOOD NEWS Scrap your Religion trade in for a Relationship instead. COME TO JESUS
Everyone who is claiming to be Christian believes they the true believers, and everyone else who are not in the same kind of system don't have a true relatinoship with Jesus.
Just my two cents.
I have found myself in the humbling position of being wrong many times in my life. I guess although painful, it has opened my heart to the fact that if I can realize I am wrong and change for the better, so will others who seek God.
Speak the Good New, share the seed, God will make it grow, and it will turn over strongly entrenched things. Speak to all who will listen, and praise God in your life.
God can make anyone new in Christ. Show that testamony of it happening with us, and share that hope with others. We never know when they may hear. Our work is the same as our lord's, let us shine his love.
Love to all
Lynn:heartbeat:
Joh 12:47 And if any one hears My Words and does not believe, I do not judge him, for I do not come to judge the world, but to save the world. :48 He who rejects Me and does not receive My Words has one who judges him; the Word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
Joh 12:49 For I have not spoken of Myself, but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say, and what I should speak. :50 And I know that His command is life everlasting. Therefore whatever I speak, even as the Father said to Me, so I speak.