Results 1461 - 1480 of 1928
|
||||||
Results from: Notes Author: Reformer Joe Ordered by Verse |
||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1461 | Creating converts to Islam? | 1 Cor 1:12 | Reformer Joe | 32484 | ||
Well, first of all I do not really "target for recruitment" for my church among other church-goers. Unless they are part of a non-Christian cult, that is. While I often do encourage those who find themselves in a bad church situation to find a good one, I am by no means so myopic to think that my church is the only suitable one. There are three criteria for what constitutes a biblically-functioning church. Not all may be to my personal taste (nor mine to the taste of others), but a true church meets these criteria: 1. The whole counsel of God, as found in the Old and New Testaments, is proclaimed and held to. 2. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are rightly administered. 3. There is a system of plural elder/overseer rule by which sound doctrine is guarded, and where those preaching or living lives contrary to sound doctrine are disciplined (Titus 1). If any of these do not meet the guidelines of Scripture, then one should be questioning their church leaders as to why not. --Joe! |
||||||
1462 | Creating converts to Islam? | 1 Cor 1:12 | Reformer Joe | 32502 | ||
You are correct that the teaching should be Christ-centered and stand firm upon the idea that the only way to Heaven is through faith alone in Christ alone. However, there are still a lot of congregations which hold to this one idea and ignore a great deal of other revelation in Scripture. For example, there are two other Persons in the Trinity, and I have attended a great many churches and heard a great number of sermons where the holiness, majesty, and wrath of God the Father are rarely, if ever, mentioned. There are also churches that teach that God sent Jesus Christ to die for people because He "saw something in us worth saving." Many churches talk about the Holy Spirit in the same way that Obi-Wan Kenobi talked about the Force in the movie Star Wars. I myself have been a member of churches which completely downplay the inmportance of God-honoring works in the believer's life (thereby denying Ephesians 2:10). You are correct that the bare minimum should be the proclamation of Christ as the only Savior for the human race. However, the Bible contains a great deal more information about the "how's" and "why's" of the redemption of God's people. As the Westminster Shorter Cathechism puts it, "the Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man." This is what I mean by the whole counsel of God, and it is sorely lacking in many so-called churches today. You are correct that if a church has the biblical Jesus at its center, that everything else should fall into place. For the biblical Jesus himself said, "If you love Me, you will obey my commandments." (John 14:15) --Joe! |
||||||
1463 | Creating converts to Islam? | 1 Cor 1:12 | Reformer Joe | 32956 | ||
Brian: I was wondering where you had disappeared to! You wrote: "Christ bestowed unity on his Church from the beginning." This an interesting statement, one that has been examined in the history of the church. In what exactly does this unity consist? We see from the epistles that there were indeed divisions and contentious people and false teachers in congregations almost from the beginning. Paul even had to rebuke Peter publicly at one point! Obviously, we differences among Christian denominations today, and divisions because of those differences. So what is your understanding of this "unity" which Christ bestowed upon the church? "If an individual seeking God is within the light of a true Christian community, regardless of our personal feelings as to how imperfect the community or incomplete the light: we are not justified in attempting to pull that person from the light, on the belief that the they will eventually receive a more complete light within our community. I agree with you here to a certain extent. Of course, what makes a community a "true Christian community"? The people of God are defined by the Word of God. Also, how "imperfect" does the light have to be to fall out of that "true Christian community" category? A very good example are churches which hold to certain orthodox doctrines (e.g. the Trinity) but are led by greedy and abusive leaders. The fact is that just because a congregation labels itself a Christian church does not mean that it is one. What is your criteria for determining whether a community is a Christian one or not? --Joe! |
||||||
1464 | Creating converts to Islam? | 1 Cor 1:12 | Reformer Joe | 33217 | ||
Brian: You wrote: "Our unity is in the Trinity and all it represents." So ANY church that affirms the Trinity is a truly biblically-functioning church? "Looking to Paul and Peter, or more specifically Jerusalem and Paul, as justification for disharmony among Christians is wrong." I wasn't looking to them for justification, but rather showing that there was disagreement in the church from the very beginning. There has never been a time since the very inception of the church where there has been a lack of disagreement. Most of the church councils (such as Nicea, which gave us the formal codification of the Trinitarian formula) arose from disputes among teachers in the church. The epistles were largely written as defense against false teachings WITHIN the flock. Much of your own Catholic teaching relies on Trent, which was the Roman church's defense against that old "heretic," Martin Luther. Anyone who has done even the most cursory study of church history can easily affirm that there has been at least as much conflict as consensus. You quote Luke 9:49-50 in support of your view. I agree that the "company" I keep is not the only true church. However, we also must take into account passages like Matthew 7:21-23 to realize that not everyone who claims the name of Christian is indeed a Christian, despite their false claims to having done His deeds; and, by extension, every church that claims the name of a Christian church is not a Christian church. I would never diminish the efforts of a Christian church to proclaim the true gospel. It is my duty as a follower of Christ to faithfully tell others of His word, including those who are being told an incomplete or false gospel. The lowest common denominator of biblical Christianity is not simply affirming that God is One in being and Three in Person, in any case. Neither official Catholic teaching nor classical Protestant teaching would hold to that. --Joe! |
||||||
1465 | Creating converts to Islam? | 1 Cor 1:12 | Reformer Joe | 33246 | ||
Your words are not terribly clear, because this whole line of circumlocution can really be summed up in your REAL point: that Protestants shouldn't evangelize Catholics. And I will stop evangelizing Catholics when you all have the evangel right. --Joe! |
||||||
1466 | Creating converts to Islam? | 1 Cor 1:12 | Reformer Joe | 33297 | ||
Brian: You wrote: "It is not the proper way to serve God." Tell that to the student at my school who has grown up a stranger to Christ in a nominally Catholic environment but came to embrace Christ rather than the church of Rome on Saturday. If the RCC and its magisterium actually didn't raise individuals to be complete strangers to Christ, then maybe your argument would hold some water. Fact is, just like my mother-in-law did several decades ago, this student has found eternal life apart from the local Catholic parish and not within it. Hence the need for a Reformation... --Joe! |
||||||
1467 | How can anyone be saved? | 1 Cor 2:14 | Reformer Joe | 60778 | ||
Warm and cozy love wasn't the predominant sensation at Pentecost. 'Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?"' --Acts 2:37 Nor the jailer: 'And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, and after he brought them out, he said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"' --Acts 16:29-30 A feeling of God's love certainly can be an aspect of conversion, but a deep sensation of one's own condition as an object of God's wrath is also a powerful motivator to embrace Jesus Christ as well. The Holy Spirit both convicts us of our sorry state and persuades us of God's love for us. However, I wouldn't go so far as to say that sincere, biblical conversion is a response to a feeling but rather the active work of the Holy Spirit in our natures and wills. --Joe! |
||||||
1468 | How can anyone be saved? | 1 Cor 2:14 | Reformer Joe | 60779 | ||
Emmaus: You wrote: 'Sounds like adding the "work" of preaching to Christ's finisfhed work in order to accomplish God's plan of salvation.' Properly understood, the preaching is not a work that accomplishes anything itself. However, it is the medium through which the Spirit works: "I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God." --1 Corinthians 2:3-5 It is biblically true that people will not ordinarily be saved without the work of preaching (Romans 10:14), but it is not the work of preaching that is active in saving someone, but rather the Holy Spirit working in and through the medium of preaching. That's why Reformed Christians refer to preaching as a "means of grace," because it is an avenue through which the Holy Spirit works. In the rest of 1 Corinthians 2, Paul distinguishes that the work of preaching itself accomplishes nothing on its own when he says the following: "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised." --1 Corinthians 2:12-14 So the unregenerate will not understand nor respond favorably to the message of God, because they have not the Spirit. It is only when the Spirit purposefully works in the life of the hearer of the external message that the message is understood and believed. This is in keeping with Isaiah 55:11, which says that God's word will not return void, but will accomplish every last thing that God intends it to. So, God uses the works of His people (the church) to accomplish his purposes. This includes preaching and the sacraments and prayer. None of these things do anything in themselves (at least in the classical Protestant understanding) but they all are appointed by God as the means by which he conveys grace upon his people. --Joe! |
||||||
1469 | How can anyone be saved? | 1 Cor 2:14 | Reformer Joe | 60839 | ||
You wrote: "Sounds like the work of preaching which is not a work is a lot like the all that does not mean all." Not at ALL! :) First of all, preaching is a work. It is not the preaching itself that that saves. The Holy Spirit sovereignly works through the preaching He inspires to bring people to Himself. Secondly, this work is not a work on the part of the hearer (and potential convert), but on the part of the preacher. When Paul says in Romans 4 that one is saved by faith apart from works, it is pretty safe to assume that he has works on the part of the justified sinner in mind. Works are definitely involved in justification; they just aren't the convert's works. The Father does the work of sending the Son and pouring out His wrath on the Lamb. Jesus' work was perfect obedience to the Father and serving as the sunstitutionary, sinless sacrifice. Jesus' work continues in His continuous intercession between us and the Father (Hebrews 7). The Holy Spirit's work is to apply the benefits of Christ's death to the convert. God sovereignly uses the works of His people to do it, which He has prepares beforehand that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10) and which he works in us to produce (Philippians 2:13). So salvation is God's work from first to last. He in His grace and love allows His people to be a be agents and means, to co-labor with Christ. --Joe! |
||||||
1470 | How can anyone be saved? | 1 Cor 2:14 | Reformer Joe | 60898 | ||
You wrote: "The Calvinist perspective often gets hung up on the idea that if a human has to ?accept? God?s free gift of salvation, then it takes away from the sovreignity of God or the effectiveness of Christ?s sacrifice." A human being DOES have to receive Christ by faith. Calvinists do not deny that. Because of the fall, however (humanity's fault), unregenerate humans are morally incapable of wanting Jesus Christ. You wrote: "Meanwhile I will leave Jerry over there unable to believe in Me, and Jerry will go to hell, regardless of what his personal choice would have been. In my understanding this is the Calvinist perspective." Jerry's personal choice in that circumstance will be to reject Christ. He makes a very real choice. Jerry gets to do what he wants with Jesus Christ." You wrote: "However, I believe that instead God chose to have Christ?s death on the cross be sufficient to take away the sins of anyone who accepted that forgiveness." So do Calvinists. Who will accept that forgiveness? Read Romans 3:10-18. Read 1 Corinthians 2. Read Romans 8:6-10. You wrote: 'This does not take away from God?s sovereignity at all. It is not that God was unable to save people without their ?help? (even using the Calvinist perspective that simply accepting a gift is ?help? or ?work?). Instead it is that God chose to have salvation work that way.' Scripture, please? --Joe! |
||||||
1471 | Denominations is shameful? | 1 Cor 3:4 | Reformer Joe | 92542 | ||
'My spouse said, "Your truth sets me free." He wanted a divorce.' Not a very good Catholic, then... --Joe! |
||||||
1472 | Denominations is shameful? | 1 Cor 3:4 | Reformer Joe | 92656 | ||
One other thing to remember about Paul's admonition to the Corinthians is that Christ and Paul and Apollos and Peter were not at odds with one other. It's not like all of these individuals were seeking to take the gospel off into different doctrinal directions, nor were any of them on some "power trip." The factions that developed in Corinth could not have been based on theology or authority, because there were no schismatic authoritative or theological disputes among the apostles. --Joe! |
||||||
1473 | Of course I'm bitter! You would be too. | 1 Cor 7:5 | Reformer Joe | 66663 | ||
"I'm always astounded that when I ask my question about my wife breaking God's Word, the answers I get involve my responsibility." I don't know why you would be astounded at that. This is StudyBibleForum, and the Bible says: "For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body." --Ephesians 5:23 You wrote: "Heaven forbid that she should be held accountable for 20 years of pushing her husband away! Heaven forbid that she is the one who is disobedient and actually tempting me to commit adultery!" I don't see where anyone denies that she is being disobedient or not tempting you toward adultery. That does not negate your biblical responsibility to hold her accountable for her sin. If she has been pushing you away for 20 years without you taking action before now, then the problem is greater than simply her sin. Who permitted her to move to a separate bedroom? Where is the church in confronting her with her sin? "She won't go to counseling." Are you members of a church? An unrepentant, sinning wife should be confronted by the pastor or elders of your church. "She won't repent because she doesn't think she has done anything wrong." That is where she is wrong. The Bible says: "The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control." --1 Corinthians 7:2-5 A wife depriving her husband is definitely sinning and helping Satan tempt him toward adultery. You wrote: "It makes me angry that the counsel I get from my Christian brothers and sisters always puts this monkey on my back. I've carried this monkey alone, without help or encouragement to the point of exhaustion." And what counsel have you sought from the leadership of your church? God established church discipline for a reason. "But if I did chose to divorce her on the grounds of 2 decades of her unfaithfulness, I defy you to condemn me as sinning." It is not a question of me condemning you. However, you have given no indication in your posts of anything you have done either to assert your authority as the head of the household or to seek help from those God ordained as overseers of the church. If you have done so, we are not mind-readers, so attacking us for responding to half the story is pretty petty. It seems to me that you have been keeping this a secret for the last two decades. This Forum is for Bible study, not to serve as a substitute for wise counsel from the leadership in your church. My only advice is to talk to those who know you and your wife personally as well as the word of God and their role in overseeing the flock. --Joe! |
||||||
1474 | Can a divorced person remarry? | 1 Cor 7:15 | Reformer Joe | 38955 | ||
At the risk of becoming a deer in the headlights myself, I am going to ask a couple of questions by way of suggestion. First of all, is there a friend or family member with whom you can safely stay? Secondly, and more to the point biblically, since you say that he is beginning a preaching career, I am assuming that you are members of a local church. What system of church discipline is in place in your congregation? Have you brought this situation before the elders in your church so that your husband can be confronted with his sin? I am not saying that wise counsel cannot be found here, but one of the roles of the church is to rebuke and correct sinners such as your husband. If this behavior is a complete secret from anyone else in your congregation (especially the shepherds of the flock), perhaps it shouldn't be. You do have to think of your own safety first and foremost, but your husband's problem is a spiritual one, and whatever legal action you take, Scriptural action should be taken if possible. And that means confrontation from brothers in Christ. You will be in my prayers. --Joe! |
||||||
1475 | Can a divorced person remarry? | 1 Cor 7:15 | Reformer Joe | 39010 | ||
Which is why another church should be sought! Kenneth Hagin doesn't escape my notice, but thanks for the post! --Joe! |
||||||
1476 | Can a divorced person remarry? | 1 Cor 7:15 | Reformer Joe | 39013 | ||
Shelly: Thank you for sharing your story. This is a sad statement on the church you were attending, and you need to be completely aware that they are NOT operating in a Biblical fashion. Synagogues of Satan abound in this country, posing at God-honoring churches. The church that does not confront your husband's sin is not functioning as a biblical community. Do you have a new church which is supporting you and helping you grow spiritually? Having worked with individuals who have suffered spiritual abuse of this sort in the past, I know that it is often difficult to walk into another situation that could end up just like the one before. If you need some suggestions on where to find a good, Christ-centered, God-exalting church, please feel free to email me (address in my profile). Also, you could always try to send some email back to your husband. Passages like Exodus 20:14, Ephesians 5:25-33, and Malachi 2:13-14 come to mind. :) --Joe! |
||||||
1477 | Do YOU belive in the Bible? | 1 Cor 7:15 | Reformer Joe | 39074 | ||
I think where you are wrong in your thinking is here: "Isn't LOVE a feeling?" Biblically speaking, I would say, "No." Love is an attitude of the spirit that results in self-sacrifice for the well-being of another. Anger is a feeling which comes and goes. So is happiness and sadness and fright. Love is a conscious decision that one makes. Look at 1 Corinthians 13. It is hard to come away from that chapter with the idea that love is merely an emotion. In other words, love is not a reaction, something that happens to us or that we fall into. Love is something that we DO. As far as the different interpretations of Scripture are concerned, people do indeed interpret the Bible differently; however, that is not to say that all interpretations are correct. Nor is it to say that I have made the correct interpretation in every jot and tittle of God's revelation. It is completely false to think that one can make the Bible mean whatever one wants it to mean, which is the logical conclusion one comes to if every interpretation is as valid as any other. --Joe! |
||||||
1478 | Can a divorced person remarry? | 1 Cor 7:15 | Reformer Joe | 39079 | ||
lly: Since you are getting some very bad advice from certain quarters on this forum, let me recommend a short book for you that examines the biblical view of all of these. Scripture should be our guide in all these matters, and many folks here have been listening to some very bad Bible teachers if they say that there is NEVER reason for divorce. Go down to your local Christian book store and find or order a copy of _Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage, and the Bible_ by Jay Adams. It is solidly Bible-based, and will give you a very clear perspective on this issue. Having been a part of this forum for a year now, I will say that no amount of presenting your case will get some people to understand or change their minds. Therefore, you may want to consider not responding any more to people with whom you disagree. --Joe! |
||||||
1479 | Can a divorced person remarry? | 1 Cor 7:15 | Reformer Joe | 39101 | ||
Actually, it's free! To say that a woman is bound to stay married to an adulterous husband is contrary to the words of Christ: "It was said, 'WHOEVER SENDS HIS WIFE AWAY, LET HIM GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE'; but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery." --Matthew 5:31-32 Notice that there is an exception to the "no-divorce" clause. Her husband quite clearly violated his covenant vows to his wife, so he is the one who caused the dissolution of the marriage. The Westminster Confession of Faith sums it up this way: "Adultery or fornication committed after a contract, being detected before marriage, gives just occasion to the innocent party to dissolve that contract. In the case of adultery after marriage, it is lawful for the innocent party to sue out a divorce and, after the divorce, to marry another, as if the offending party were dead." (WCF 25.5) No one is required to divorce an adulterous spouse, but the Bible certainly gives grounds to do so. Remember that righteous Joseph was planning on divorcing Mary quietly when he found her pregnant. The angel did not condemn his decision, but rather explained why the decision was based on misleading evidence. Furthermore, it is simply blasphemous for a man who calls himself a minister of God's Word to be aiding and abetting the violation of God's law in such a blatant and cruel manner (I am talking about the pastor in this case). But that's what happens when we place our pride and personality above the clear biblical mandates on church discipline. Your words in this situation were not only contrary to Scripture, but delivered in a most uncompassionate manner. Try working on tact a little. There are times when individuals need be be confronted with sin (such as the husband in this case); however, we are to speak the truth in LOVE. --Joe! |
||||||
1480 | Can a divorced person remarry? | 1 Cor 7:15 | Reformer Joe | 39107 | ||
She certainly did mention adultery in at least one of her posts. What is not called for in most cases like this is not a quick "textbook answer," anyway. Reconciliation between spouses is certainly a God-honoring thing, but so is confrontation of sin and dealing with it. And Christian counseling very often is not that Christian these days. All I am trying to say is that giving a quick, knee-jerk response to a complex situation often doesn't take the whole issue into account from a biblical perspective, and often ends up offending a hurting person needlessly. It is interesting that you find my theology interesting. I hold what people write up to the standard of Scripture, and I think it is truly a blessing that God has equipped His church with sound teachers who can offer such great exposition of His Word! I consider the theology I hold to to be quite biblical, and welcome any correction from the Scriptures to show me where I am wrong on any point. --Joe! |
||||||
Result pages: << First < Prev [ 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 ] Next > Last [97] >> |