Poster | Thread |
| Re: | | I am pro-Jesus.
I am pro-Bible.
...and that puts me at odds with anything else. |
| 2010/11/22 13:08 | |
| Re: | | Now, why can't I say things so concisely?
;-) |
| 2010/11/22 14:01 | | roadsign Member
Joined: 2005/5/2 Posts: 3777
| Re: If only things were black and white | | QUOTE: No one is anti-people.
This is no doubt the intent, Pilgrim. Yet, I cant help remembering Zwingli who executed someone for insisting on believers baptism by immersion! Executing heretics was common behaviour back then. Today Christians use words just as effectively to damage people even when they believe they are defending truth. When they get the backlash, they may very well assume that they are persecuted for Christs sake when they are actually be persecuted for their un-Christlikeness.
PILGRIMS QUOTE: Jesus twice said in Revelation, that "I hate the doctrine of the Nicolaitans".
This is a great point, and it leads to many other points - for example, the context. These Ephesian Christians are definitely on Jesus side when it comes to the Nicolaitans. Yet they are being judged for having forsaken their first love. (Rev. 2:4) In other words they are being told: You folks are all fantastic at diagnosing the heretics, but you are not good at diagnosing your own hearts. You have strayed away from Christ - even while you are zealously persevering for his names sake.
Perhaps I am tossing in a monkey-wrench here, and my apologies! I am not attempting to downplay the falseness of false teachings or the need to address them. Its just that we must think about where and how we draw the lines between black and white. Just a wee example, to explain my concern: I have a friend who, in our conversations, would often denounce her Catholic past. It was easy to agree with her. We found no difficulty condemning historical papacy. Our discussions were tempting my friend (and me) to feel superior. They also did more to help her feel justified in leaving the church than to recognize her need for a Savior. We needed to change our focus from the badness of the badguys (who were not even a threat to either of us) to the truth about our inner selves.
Thats where Im coming from. Perhaps it seems that I am compromising the cross because I resist our tendency to focus on the problem of the heretics. But, really, I am calling us, myself included, towards the cross, where alone we are purified and transformed into lights of the gospel.
For our struggle is not against the flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, and against powers of this dark world. Eph. 6: 12
Diane
_________________ Diane
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| 2010/11/22 15:16 | Profile |
| | 2010/11/22 15:49 | |
| Re: A different color than black or white....The blood color. | | It's a very good observation that you made Diane, [ Roadsign ]. We can elevate ourselves as righteous as we step upon the obvious unrighteous; [Catholics and their doctrines].
The battle is to speak the truth in love and stand in Christ, as the battle is presented to us. Jesus desired that His people, the Jewish Pharisee's, would repent, and lay down their covetous heresies that elevated them.
He said in Matthew 23:15 "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.!".......................
By saying so, does this mean that He didn't love them? Of course not...He did. Yet, they were murdering people who followed them, that surely thought that this was the way to God; as are the masses in Roman Catholicism. ...............................
"But, really, I am calling us, myself included, towards the cross, where alone we are purified and transformed into lights of the gospel."...Diane... Amen.. ..................................... And While we are doing so, let us reach out in love to those who are perishing, not as self righteous, but desiring them to know the One true God, not the counterfeit.
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| 2010/11/22 16:04 | |
| Re: | | Quote:
Now, why can't I say things so concisely?
Years of practice... (if you only knew)
:-) |
| 2010/11/22 18:07 | |
| Re: | | Neil, Sorry, I did not listen to Ian and am listening to it now. I love Ian Paisley and his courageous stand for the Lord through the years. The political world is married to the religious world and it was no more evident than when they worked together long ago to ban him from the USA.
I think recently (2009) he has been allowed back in. |
| 2010/11/22 20:03 | | roadsign Member
Joined: 2005/5/2 Posts: 3777
| | 2010/11/22 20:24 | Profile |
| Re: | | Well, yes, I think when you talk about Catholic doctrine all kinds of monkey wrenches get thrown in. It is very easy to go off on several different tangents.
I would agree with what BrotherTom recently said.
"The battle is to speak the truth in love and stand in Christ, as the battle is presented to us. Jesus desired that His people, the Jewish Pharisee's, would repent, and lay down their covetous heresies that elevated them."
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| 2010/11/22 20:28 | |
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