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MSeaman Member
Joined: 2005/4/19 Posts: 772 Michigan
| Real Christianity by William Wilberforce | | I just started reading Real Christianity by William Wilberforcs. What an excellent book! I will try to post some quotes from it. I encourage you all to read it. :-D _________________ Melissa
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2007/10/10 11:13 | Profile |
| Re: Real Christianity by William Wilberforce | | Hi Mellisa Yes it is an excellent book. I read the original version several years ago which is hard to read. This revised version is excellent. When you get near the end you may be totally confused and think some modern day author has taken over and is writing about America or the west. A wake up call to that which passes for Christianity. In their day they were called enthusiasts, not a term of endearment, we need some genuine enthusiasm today, and I dont mean jumping up and down in church, but radically changed and sold out lives...................Frank |
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2007/10/10 13:12 | |
MSeaman Member
Joined: 2005/4/19 Posts: 772 Michigan
| Re: | | Hi Frank, Actually, in the first chapter, I thought it sounded like he was talking to the American Church as it is today. Just imagine what he would have thought if he could see professing Christians today... _________________ Melissa
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2007/10/10 13:21 | Profile |
| Re: | | Hi Melissa He would not recognize it. Hvae you read Tozer?.............Frank |
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2007/10/11 11:37 | |
MSeaman Member
Joined: 2005/4/19 Posts: 772 Michigan
| Re: Finally...some quotes from Chapter 1 | | I hope you dont think I am being arrogant or overly harsh on cultural Christians. Look at the facts. Do cultural Christians view Christian faith as important enough to make it a priority when teaching their children what they believe and why they believe it? Or do they place greater emphasis on their children getting a good education than on learning about the things of God? Would they be embarrassed if their children did not possess the former while basically being indifferent about the latter? If their children have any understanding of Christian faith at all, they probably have acquired it on their own. If the children view themselves as Christians, it is probably not because they have studied the facts and come to a point of intellectual conviction but because their family is Christian, so they believe they must be Christians also.
The big problem in these cases is the fact that these men and women have arrived at their conclusions apart from any study of the Bible. The Bible sits dusty on the shelf. These people are biblically illiterate. Their knowledge of the Bible is that of a child.
I fear for the future of authentic faith in our country. We live in a time when the common man in our country is thoroughly influenced by the current climate in which the cultural and educational elite propagates an anti-Christian message.
Is it any wonder then that the spiritual condition of our country is of little concern to those who dont even educate their own children about true Christianity? Their conduct reflects their absence of concern, not only for the state of Christianity in our own country, but also for the need to communicate the message of Christ to those in other parts of the world who have not heard this truth.
The problem with this way of thinking is that authentic faith cannot be inherited. When Christianity is viewed in this way, intelligent and energetic young men and women will undoubtedly reach a point where they question the truth of Christianity and, when challenged, will abandon this inherited faith that they cannot defend. They might begin to associate with peers who are unbelievers. In this company, they will find themselves unable to intelligently respond to objections to Christianity with which they are confronted. Had they really known what they believe and why they believe it, these kinds of encounters would not shake their faith one bit.
What a difference it would be if our system of morality were based on the Bible instead of the standards devised by cultural Christians.
Christianity is based on a revelation from God that is filled with information that the natural mind could never have imagined. The wealth of this knowledge will never be mastered without diligent effort.
I just wanted to share a portion...Read it here:[url=http://www.cbn.com/special/amazingGrace/articles/Beltz-Wilberforce-Ch1.aspx]Chapter 1[/url] Then get your own copy! :) _________________ Melissa
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2007/10/12 11:39 | Profile |
MSeaman Member
Joined: 2005/4/19 Posts: 772 Michigan
| Re: | | Quote:
appolus wrote: Hi Melissa He would not recognize it. Hvae you read Tozer?.............Frank
Frank, Did you mean he wouldn't recognize the church? I haven't read Tozer, but I have heard some of his sermons. I do have at least one of his books...but at this time my reading time is limited. Next year at this time, I will have more time to read and Tozer is definitely on the top part of my list. _________________ Melissa
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2007/10/12 11:41 | Profile |
| Re: | | Great quote Melissa. What passes for Christianity in America is not very ifferent at all form what passed for Christianity in Wilberforce's time. It seems that the religious of all times are very resilient. In the Bible the Lord talks about wheat and tares. I am originally from Scotland but now living in Kansas, certainly a farming State outside of the cities. Its only by living in Kansas that I would even have any clue that a tare is a weed that is very hard to distinguish from the wheat. It is only really apparent as the harvest time approaches. It seems that the "Church,"may have been run, for most of its history, by the tares. The wheats biggest enemies do not come from without but from within the field. As it is in agriculture, so it is in the world of the Church. All down through the centuries, true, authentic Christians have been persecuted by the orginized church, the worse offender probably being the Catholic church. Now there are many more large denominations and this only makes it more complicated for the genuine follower of Jesus who has actually had a genuine born again experience, who actually have a new heart. The authentic Christian will face the problems, to one degree or another, in every denomination, that all authentic Christians have faced down through the corridors of time. This will be true whether they are in a large denomination, or a small Pentecostal church. |
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2007/10/12 16:07 | |
MSeaman Member
Joined: 2005/4/19 Posts: 772 Michigan
| Re: | | I am in agreement. I see all these people saying 'I used to be a Christian, but now am an atheist.' I want to say no you were never a Christian...but then that starts a big fight that I am not equipped to handle. :) Wilberforce has hit the nail right on the head. People think that Christianity is just another religion you are born into. They don't realize that it is a personal relationship with the Creator. And without that, I guess they are right to choose disbelief than dead religion. the result is the same either way.
_________________ Melissa
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2007/10/12 17:05 | Profile |
psalm1 Member
Joined: 2007/1/30 Posts: 1230
| Re: | | Mseaman,I agree in part ,in that when aa person starts reaading the word for themselves they will see things that they were taught wrong and see things left out. The term full gospel is a classic. None of us are. I'm glad you dont tell people they never were christians. That is part of eternal security doctrrine. ....David |
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2007/10/13 11:19 | Profile |
MSeaman Member
Joined: 2005/4/19 Posts: 772 Michigan
| Re: | | David, It isn't my place to judge others, this I know, but in this world of easy believism, when our churches are full of false converts...that is how I feel sometimes. I don't believe in the eternal security doctrine, in fact I find it very disturbing. And I am far from believing that I have "arrived." Or that I am better than anyone else. Usually, I am at the far end of the opposite spectrum. :(
_________________ Melissa
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2007/10/15 9:50 | Profile |