Results 1561 - 1580 of 1928
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Results from: Notes Author: Reformer Joe Ordered by Verse |
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Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1561 | But aren't they mutually exclusive? | Gal 2:17 | Reformer Joe | 13977 | ||
Norrie: One other thing reagrding your first paragraph. Was your drug-induced kill spree part of God's moral will? Absolutely not! I agree. Was the opportunity to sin and the sin itself part of God's sovereign will? If it was not, then it would not have occurred. That does not mean that God made you sin. And, of course, if you were slipped some drugs and acted out of a lack of control, I don't know if that would be classified as sin in the first place, anyway. --Joe! |
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1562 | Israel was the original race ? | Gal 3:14 | Reformer Joe | 82847 | ||
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1563 | God chose Israel first. Why? | Gal 3:14 | Reformer Joe | 82988 | ||
God selected a particular nation through which He worked out His redemptive purposes for those from every tribe, tongue, and nation (Revelation 5:9; 7:9). God never had in view saving only the physical descendents of Jacob. God said to Abraham: "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice." --Genesis 22:18 Of course, being a pfysical descendent of Jacob didn't guarantee salvation, either. 'But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but: "THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED." That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.' --Romans 9:6-8 "Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles." --Romans 9:21-24 'Opening his mouth, Peter said: "I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.' --Acts 10:34-35 |
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1564 | God chose Israel first. Why? | Gal 3:14 | Reformer Joe | 83155 | ||
You are quite welcome! --Joe! |
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1565 | God can use woman in the ministry? | Gal 3:28 | Reformer Joe | 37054 | ||
Your conclusions here are not supported by the clear revelation elsewhere in Scripture that male leadership of the flock is the standard set forth. "For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you, namely, if any man is above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion." --Titus 1:5-6 "It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?)" --1 Timothy 3:1-5 Paul makes it very clear that men are to hold the office of overseer. One might respond by arguing that that was to be done because of cultural reasons, but there are a couple of problems with that opinion: 1. In the pagan culture in which Christianity was taking root, priestesses were not uncommon at all. There would have been little or no cultural backlash to the Christian religion having females leading worship, so we must conclude that it is not merely a "judgment call" on Paul's part. 2. Paul does not present his statements as his personal preferences. He states the qualifications for elders as universal truths. Seeing as these universal truths are found in the Bible, we must assume that they are divinely inspired just as every other part of Scripture. 3. Perhaps most importantly, Paul goes into the reasons for why the elders must meet these qualifications in 1 Timothy 3. He tells Timothy (and us) "if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?" He draws a direct parallel between running the household of one's family and running the household of God. And the Bible makes it very clear who the head of the household in a biblically-functioning family is to be: "Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 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. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything." --Ephesians 5:22-24 Wives are to be subject to their husbands as the church is subject to Christ. The husband is the head of the wife. Taking that back to 1 Timothy 3, we see that just as the man is the manager of the household, so God's household is to be managed by men. Marriage is a picture of Christ's relationship to His church, and the man and the woman are assigned different but equally important roles in the family. So, too, in the church, men and women alike have been given spiritual gifts with which to glorify God, but the position or office of the woman in the church is not to be one of leadership over the man. Taking the whole counsel of God into consideration, this is the only reasonable conslusion to draw. --Joe! |
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1566 | God can use woman in the ministry? | Gal 3:28 | Reformer Joe | 37057 | ||
"The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Prisca greet you heartily in the Lord, with the church that is in their house." --1 Corinthians 16:19 "And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them" --Acts 18:2 "Paul, having remained many days longer, took leave of the brethren and put out to sea for Syria, and with him were Priscilla and Aquila. In Cenchrea he had his hair cut, for he was keeping a vow." --Acts 18:18 "and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately." --Acts 18:26 I see nothing here that indicates that Priscilla was an elder/overseer/pastor. The only thing that these verses show is that Priscilla was the wife of Aquila, that there was a church in their home, and that both were committed to proclaiming Christ. They are undoubtedly partners in ministry, but there is absolutely nothing that would indicate that Priscilla played a role as an overseer in the church in their home You are absolutely correct that women can and should minister within the church, but the role of overseer is clearly not one of those ways if we honestly examine the qualifications of overseers in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. --Joe! |
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1567 | God can use woman in the ministry? | Gal 3:28 | Reformer Joe | 37058 | ||
Feel free. The source material isn't mine, after all! :) --Joe! |
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1568 | God can use woman in the ministry? | Gal 3:28 | Reformer Joe | 37173 | ||
You wrote: "Let me try to give an example. My husband is my head, but not all the other men in my church or community. My husband may request me to clean his toilet and I would do so. But if a man walking down the street grabbed me by the arm and demanded that I clean HIS toilet, because only men can be in leadership, and all men have the headship over all women, then I'm sure that I would refuse." You are arguing here against positions I have not taken. Nowhere have I said that EVERY man is your head. I wrote precisely what Scripture says: that just as God has ordained that the husband oversees his own hosehold, so God has ordained that being male is one of the qualifications for overseeing the flock. Not EVERY male in the congregation is the head over EVERY woman, but it is clear from Scripture that the overseers of the congregation are to be male. Those overseers are to shepherd both the other men and all of the women in the congregation. There is no distinction in Scripture between a "pastor" and an "overseer/elder," so while God does gift of teaching to women, He does not give them the authority to use it in the context of being an overseer. --Joe! |
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1569 | God can use woman in the ministry? | Gal 3:28 | Reformer Joe | 37178 | ||
With all due respect, you are expending a great deal of energy to try and make a case on very circumstantial biblical evidence. You wrote: "Many Bible scholars believe that the office of pastor-teacher is one office, because in leading a group of people, teaching and guidance are both needed." Of course teaching and guidance are both needed, but that does not mean that all teachers are pastors. God has granted me the gift of teaching, but I do not exercise it in the role of pastor/elder in a congregation. You imply that Paul used the term "fellow worker" to mean exclusively church leaders. Them you cite Luke as being a physician. Where do you find the office of "physician" in the church? Listen, my wife is my fellow worker as well, but it would be silly to call her a church leader. "Fellow worker" means just that: FELLOW WORKER. The church met at their house. Other people refer to where my wife and I live as "their home." That does not mean that she is has equal biblical authority in the scheme of things. Priscilla is mentioned first sometimes. And? You seem very desperately to want to grant something to women that God does not Himself grant. You are looking at what amounts to minor references to individuals and give them a debatable meaning which goes against clearly detailed, elaborated passages which make the opposite claim. Not the best Bible exegesis, in my opinion. --Joe! |
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1570 | Is "slavery" condemned in the Bible? | Gal 3:28 | Reformer Joe | 48791 | ||
I am not upset by these questions. There are simply other places on the Internet where they fit better. Please find one of those sites (I suggest newsgroups that begin with alt.christnet) to question the reliability of the Bible. To do so here is to violate the guidelines of those who own this Forum. I didn't make the rules, but the agenda here is not to cast doubt on God's word. For our purposes here, the truth of the Bible is considered an established authority. --Joe! |
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1571 | Did Jesus go to hell after dying? | Ephesians | Reformer Joe | 26497 | ||
Thomas: Getting to heaven is pretty simple? "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it." --Mathhew 7:13-14 What Satan really loves is Christians who say that discussion about doctrine and false teaching are just "splitting hairs." It makes his job so much easier! Let's see what hair-splitting we can find in the New Testament. "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'" --Matthew 7:21-23 "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ." --Colossians 2:8 "As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines" --1 Timothy 1:3 "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15 "I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." --2 Timothy 2:1-4 "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves." --2 Peter 2:1 "holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict." --Titus 1:9 "For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward." --2 John 7-8 "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." --1 John 4:1 Discernment is not "chasing after the wind." We are called to love the truth, to obey the truth, and to love our God with all our minds. Salvation is easy to miss because Satan is always at work manufacturing alternatives. It is a shame that so many self-proclaimed Christians don't want to do the hard word of holding fast to the truth. --Joe! |
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1572 | Predestination | Eph 1:4 | Reformer Joe | 41750 | ||
You wrote: "One of the main problems with Theological Universities is that they are often guilty of spending enormous amounts of time, effort, and energy teaching students about the Great debates in church history" First of all, theology is not a dirty word, nor should it be reserved for those dreaded "theological universities." It is this kind of anti-intellectualism that has made the church so impotent today. It is completely ridiculous to think that it is possible to read Scripture "without any human influence." Isn't it quaint that it is the kind of thing the Jehovah's Witnesses and other cults tell us to do. "If you read the Bible apart from the church, you will see that WE are right!" Come on. You are influenced by all kinds of people, both Christian and non-Christian, before you open up your text. We are sinful people who believe what we want to believe many times, and in our sin we often do not listen to the Holy Spirit, or misinterpret our own sinful desires as "God talking to us." That is why God has given us the church to collectively interpret Scripture correctly (i.e the Holy Spirit works in and through the communion of saints). He has also equipped certain people with the gifts of teaching and knowledge to serve the church in passing on the traditions in the Bible (i.e. the Holy Spirit works through His Word as taught by OTHER people). To reject the church's role in interpreting Scripture and the role of teacher as a vital one in the church is to dishonor God's gifts to the believer. NEVER has God intended the Christian life to be "me, my Bible, and the Holy Spirit." False notions like this are why people have such disrespect for theology and sound teaching, and a love for our own, "personal" meaning of Scripture, no matter how off-the-wall it may be. Lastly, God has revealed Himself and His characteristics in His Word. That means he wants us to understand some things about Him and the way that He operates. Again, to say that it is pointless to examine how God works in salvation -- to make light of His self-revelation--is to dishonor God. We must get away from the idea that it is useless to know what God has to say about Himself. Obviously both cannot be right in this debate, but to call it an unimportant one just demonstrates one's love of ignorance. And that is something on which Arminian and Calvinist will stand in agreement. --Joe! |
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1573 | Predestination | Eph 1:4 | Reformer Joe | 41752 | ||
For someone who thinks that this debate is useless, you certainly are arguing one side pretty fiercely. Please, folks...use the SEARCH feature! There is nothing that Lionstrong and I have not written in the last year that can possibly add anything to the Calvinist side of the debate, and Tim has by far done the best job I have seen on the Arminian side (even though I still disagree with him!) This is what we call RE-HASH. Go type in the words "elect" or "predestination" or "free will" in the Quick Search box, and let's move on. --Joe! |
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1574 | Predestination | Eph 1:4 | Reformer Joe | 41754 | ||
"So what is the danger of believing one is either destined to salvation or to hell and has not choice in the matter?" None, if it is the truth. The danger would be in not giving the complete truth regarding assurance and justification by God's grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Just because the truth requires some explanation does not make it any less the truth. To substitute what is more simple (or what is false) for the sake of ease of understanding is to dilute the gospel, and to misrepresent God. Incidentally, the doctrine of assurance of salvation (eternal security, perseverance of the saints, once saved always saved, or however you want to put it) is by no means a "Baptist"-only doctrine. With all due respect, I have seen a great number of people in your particular tradition who are nothing more than Pharisees, trying to earn heaven by their works; or worse, people who place undue importance on sign gifts as THE distinguishing mark of the "true Christian." You are a hypocrite by accusing others of following teachings that have no Scriptural basis. My wife grew up in such theological circles as you, and I can tell you dozens of stories of complete dishonor and disobedience to God by people who placed the teachings of men over the commandments of God. And then we can stop talking about those in leadership positions in these churches and move onto the rest of the congregation. The bottom line is that everyone would be very well-served by taking a good, long look at church history. An immense amount of the kookiness we see in American evangelicalism today would be remedied by closely examining the origins of such traditions. What we see today has all been done before, with different names and different saints being raised up to defend the truth of God's Word against such false traditions that crop up over and over again. --Joe! |
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1575 | Predestination | Eph 1:4 | Reformer Joe | 41813 | ||
Please...PARAGRAPHS! You write: "Yes I know the theolgical words for these concepts but why use them when only those that are Theological students would understand them." What "theological words" are you talking about? Justification? Atonement? Redemption? Sanctification? Elect? Predestined? Propitiation? Grace? All of these words are theological words that are right there in Scripture? Does God really want us "dumbing-down" His Word, or does he want the church to train all believers to understand these concepts? You wrote: "I am not saying a saint is sinning in going to a Theological University, but have you noticed that we have no biblical example of it in the New testament?" In the New Testament, we had the traditions of the apostles in the words of the apostles. And I am not talking about the New Testament books themselves, even though they faithfully reflect the apostolic tradition. But tell me, if there was no biblical example of the theology school, where did Timothy get his sound doctrine from? The NT wasn;t written yet, so where did his sound teaching come from? From sound TEACHERS (in his case, Paul). It was Paul's demand that Timothy himself be a sound TEACHER, so that he could TEACH others (2 Timothy 2:2), and so on. Nowhere in the New Testament do we get the idea of training in righteousness occurring apart from the church. So while there may not have been seminaries in the first few decades of the church, the good ones today serve a very biblical function. I will state wholeheartedly that the church needs to be teaching a lot more theology in its sermons and Sunday schools, rather than leaving it solely up to degreed institutions. You wrote: "The reason the church as a whole in America is weak in preaching in the pulpit is that the ministers do not pray and study the Bible as they should after graduation." I think that is ONE reason, but by no means the only reason. "I would dare say most ministers across denominational lines hold degrees and can argue their side of Calvin or Armenian and yet their preaching is aneamic." You might dare say that, but do you have any evidence to back that up? I have heard a great deal of anemic preaching in my day, and the Calvinist preaching that I sit under now is anything but anemic. It is thought-provoking, stimulating, convicting, Scripturally-accurate, and most definitely Spirit-filled. Have you actually been to a church closer in teaching and doctrine to the Puritans and the Protestant Reformation before, or are you just going by what someone has told you (such as because they do not have electric guitars and a drum kit and a "worship team" that the church is "dead")? You wrote: "They go on like this year after year and have no clue the reason their congregations are drying up is that the flock is hungry for a fresh WORD from God" Gee, I don't find God's Word that I have right now to be terribly stale. Perhaps if people would do the hard work of turning on their thinking caps and thinking God's thoughts after Him, rather than seeking the next spiritual high, our churches would be full of people rejoicing in God's sufficient and revealed truth instead of constantly seeking "new revelation." You wrote: "They are hungry for truths expounded upon in the Bible that will bring them more into the image of Christ and they are not afraid to be rebuked, they want it, they ask for it." I agree completely; but this is not something that is foreign to Reformed preaching. You wrote: "However the heart of the saint must be that they have total faith in the Anointing and that God can and will lead them into all truth." Please explain this anointing...what exactly is it, and where is the Scriptural support for your view of what it is? --Joe! |
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1576 | Predestination | Eph 1:4 | Reformer Joe | 41814 | ||
You wrote: 'I know that a man is going to be affected by other teachings he has heard, but you can still make a conscience effort when you approach scripture to say "God I want to see things clearly, if I am having a wrong understanding becuase I have heard things said a certain way and it is not in the bible let me see that and agree with your word instead."' Yes, but again you are overlooking the fact that our minds are stained by sin, and the Holy Spirit works through the preaching of His Word as well. What do you say to an individual who goes off on her own with sincere efforts to hear what the Spirit says, and comes back with interpretations that contradict your sincerely sought-after views? Did the Holy Spirit speak to her or to you? Or does He contradict Himself? This is why God has constantly worked both in the individual believer and collectively within His church. If your view is in left field compared with historic Christianity (2000 years of millions of people of God searching the Scriptures and seeking to maintain and pass on the traditions of the apostles), then chances are that you are the one in error. You wrote: "Can it be that a person reading the Bible today with that heart might see something that is not taught in Bible School?" Depends on what Bible school. :) And again, is that thing that we see an accurate interpretation. Simply feeling with all your heart that God told you something does not mean that it was really God telling you something. Do you really think that, after 2000 years of the church, you are going to spot something that has been completely overlooked by ALL of those who have come before? Something "NEW" is generally something "not-so-new" and quite often "error" that has been previously addressed in Church history. Lastly, you wrote: "And the flock is hungry for this. About the last thing the flock wants or needs is to hear Calvinism. :)" So now you are speaking for the what the flock wants and needs? Please. I seriously doubt you have taken a poll of every evangelical Christian, explained Calvinism accurately (which I would bet a significant sum that you have wrong yourself), and asked them is they want or need that. The fact is that Biblical TRUTH is such a scarce commodity on this overstimulated religious landscape that that could very well be considered the "fresh" word that people have not heard and experienced! --Joe! |
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1577 | Predestination | Eph 1:4 | Reformer Joe | 41816 | ||
True...not to mention using our spiritual gifts for the building up of the body of Christ. We are not buildings unto ourselves, but as Peter says: "And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." --1 Peter 2:4-5 We are saved individually, but we are saved into something much larger than ourselves, something that stretches out and back through time and space. Thanks for your words of encouragement! --Joe! |
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1578 | Predestination | Eph 1:4 | Reformer Joe | 41821 | ||
You wrote: "If I have faith and walk by faith in the Spirit I can hear God and know what a verse of scripture really means and how I am to live it." And how does God speak to you? Audibly? And what about when someone claiming to be just as "Spirit-filled," perhaps even in your own congregation, maybe someone you even admire as a great man of God, tells you that you are wrong and that it means something else? The book of 1 John, from which you deduce that no man needs to be taught anything if he has the Spirit, is itself a book full of teaching. If these people need no teaching at all about anything, then why in the world is John teaching them??? You are seeming to say that teaching is for the "second-class" Christian who cannot hear God on his own. Please tell me that is not what you mean! By the way, the apostle Peter himself, the great orator of Pentecost, said that Paul's writings were often hard to understand (2 Peter 3:14-16). Am I to understand that the Spirit was not speaking clearly to Peter? Okay, and you are making some pretty sweeping generalizations about schools of theology. Yes, there are without question some liberal seminaries out there. They teach garbage and do indeed deny the reliability of Scripture. SOME seminaries do that. Big shock. Counterfeit Christianity has been with us since the days of the apostles. That does not mean despair of learning the truth from gifted teachers in seminaries that exalt God and His Word. Your story that you think you heard about Billy Graham having to leave some school somewhere at some time is quite enlightening...down with all seminaries! --Joe! |
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1579 | Predestination | Eph 1:4 | Reformer Joe | 41824 | ||
Jensen: You wrote: "Predestination does not exist, can't, never will. OR freewill does not exist, can't, never will. "I go with the former :-) It just makes sense to me." Well, better you go by what makes sense to you than what the Bible may teach on the subject! :) If only *I" had one of God's incredible "time tunnels"! Then I could really understand how God lets His creation be sovereign over His "choices." --Joe! |
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1580 | Predestination | Eph 1:4 | Reformer Joe | 41872 | ||
The invisible church (i.e. the true saints of God) has always existed in connection with the visible church. You are correct in stating that the two are not the same. However, the visible church, although it has impurities which sometimes seem to outweigh the pure elements within it, overlaps the invisible church. Again, the biblical model is NOT flying solo with the Spirit. You mention all of these "true saints" before the Reformation that never joined the Roman Catholic Church. You say that there is little or no history of them at all, so how do you know of their existence? Perhaps you could cite at least a couple of examples so we could know who you are talking about. What true Christians existed outside of the visible church (whether that be Rome, Eastern Orthodoxy, the Coptic Churches, or whoever)? Since you are claiming that they existed, there must be at least one or two concrete examples. You keep repeating that the Spirit of God leads us into all truth. That is patently obvious to all true Christians. What you seem to keep minimizing is that it is most often not a solitary experience. The Holy Spirit works in our hearts as we read Scripture with faith and as we pray in accordance with His revealed truth in the Bible. The Holy Spirit works in our hearts as he works in the heart of a faithful minister of His Word, speaking truth which resonates in our Spirit-filled hearts. I believe the Holy Spirit works through the Lord's Supper (the Word visualized) to confirm in our hearts that we belong to Him. In short, the Holy Spirit primarily works in connection with His Word, but He doesn't limit Himself to private conversations (i.e. just us and Him). By the way, the classical Protestant problem with Roman Catholicism is not its adherence to tradition, but the fact that it has mixed apostolic tradition (seenn infallibly in Scripture, and I believe reliably in the early church councils) with tradition of its own making. Folks like Emmaus will disagree, but the problems in the RCC arose when the Church shifted from being an INTERPRETER of apostolic revelation to considering itself a SOURCE of revelation equal to that of Scripture (and, of course, considering itself as the DEFINER of what the apostolic tradition is rather than the PRESERVER of it). --Joe! |
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