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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Why do people lose interest and leave? | Bible general Archive 1 | Sir Pent | 21147 | ||
Dear Forumites, I think that there has been a slight frustration building for quite some time regarding our forum here. Reformer Joe has recently articulated it well. There are many threads which are either of minimal value (see Kalos' questionable question post), or which leave little room for discussion (like where is such-and-such). Then there are the neverending discussions on issues such as Calvinism vs. Arminianism (with the recent additionof Amyraldianism). While these are still threads that need to be addressed on the forum, I believe that some of the most regular members (especially who have been here for a while) could lose interest. I wonder if this partially explains a trend that I discovered while looking at the history of the forum. There are some members who have been here forever like Kalos, Charis, and Hank. However, there are also many people who are very active and supportive for a time and then just kind of disappear. Some of these RCScroll, RElderCascade, Brent Douglass, Xapis, Heir of God, KBurgee, Melchizedekau, Reformedreader, Jim, InHzsvc, and GMsmith101. And there's also our most prolific poster Nolan Keck, who has been on sabatical for over a month. I think that it is worth addressing to discover a way that we could continue to improve the forum so that people will want to stay. Their experience and valuable input is sorely missed when they leave. What does everyone think? For those of you who have been here a long time, do you remember why some people left? Why have you stayed? Are people really frustrated, or do I interpret Reformer Joe and others incorrectly? |
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2 | Why do people lose interest and leave? | Bible general Archive 1 | waldo700 | 21163 | ||
I was frustrated that there seemed to be so few interested in what Scripture might say. So many come with their own preconceived or pet theologies and I feel we all work too hard at defending our positions -- rather questioning our positions and really challenging them so that we arrive at the truth of Scripture. Also, in defending a position, or conclusion from Scripture, many resort to a simple barrage of verse upon verse upon verse. One would have to be an utter master of the Bible, to the point of being on the level of famous well-known preachers and apologists of the past, in order to counter Scripture upon Scripture, each disconnected from its immediate and broader contexts. It seems firing "prooftexts" at one another is a lot easier than making all the different positions of Scripture harmonize into a single, coherent whole. This requires more than prooftexts; it requires theology. It's not that I would not like to be such a master of Scripture; but when one has a hobby such as this (or any other) forum, can one really take so much time and effort in these conversations: often not to just defend doctrine but merely to protect our ego from embarrassment? Finally, if we really choose to live out the Bible, we need to use our time wisely. And with all the personality problems which come with trying to discuss the Bible, sometimes repeated posting of opinions to a forum seems hardly a godly use of our time. Just my opinion, waldo garcia |
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3 | Why do people lose interest and leave? | Bible general Archive 1 | Sir Pent | 21167 | ||
Personal Note ................................... Dear Waldo, Thank you for sharing your sincere and heartfelt experiences. I would appreciate your thoughts about my idea to have people go through individual books of the Bible? |
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4 | Why do people lose interest and leave? | Bible general Archive 1 | waldo700 | 21176 | ||
One more thought: I think the purpose of the forum overall is a bit ill-defined by Lockman. They wanted an online "study" Bible, but has really become a place of debate about ideas. It is hardly a place where I could come to look at Scripture itself and find the best of Orthodox Christian teaching on a passage, (all views fairly presented, since that's really what a Study Bible is). And I believe there is a lack of leadership. There does not really seem to be anyone leading the thing or giving it direction. It's anarchy -- itself an unbiblical way to approach fellowship. As for your idea on people being responsible for individual books of the Bible: I think it is an idea with a lot of merit; but it might be hard to implement -- hard to obtain the commitment required to make it work. That's because, for many, this is a hobby (I mean the forum, not Christianity) and what you are suggesting would require a lot of work and commitment. However, I still think it is an idea with a lot of merit and I would have more to say if the idea were expanded and further developed, so we could all see what it really looked like in practice. Too bad Lockman can't put some moderators in here to evaluate such an idea and perhaps implement it in an orderly fashion... or if the moderators are well-trained, to lead the studies themselves. Another solution is to start your own forum, which is fairly easy to do. For instance, I have a forum at http://forums.delphi.com/choosecalvinism/start and many other Christians have forums on http://forums.delphi.com/ as well. Maybe there could be a forum there for the fellowship of those who hang out at the Lockman Study Bible Forum, too. ??? waldo garcia |
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5 | Why do people lose interest and leave? | Bible general Archive 1 | Sir Pent | 21198 | ||
How can it work?................................ Dear Forumites, Waldo brings up a good question. How could we implement such a large undertaking. It would require a significant commitment to provide commentary on an entire book of the Bible. At the same time, there is a solution. To begin with, each person could choose a book whose size and complexity would be suitable for the amount of time that they were willing to put forth towards this goal. Someone with little time to contribute could do one of Peter's letters, while someone with more time could do a gospel, while someone else with a ton of time could do Genesis. There could of course be some circumstance that would cause a person to not be able to finish, but even if that were the case, progress would still have been made. Having commentary on half of Romans is better than just having it on the 20 verses that everyone talks about all the time. I would also recommend that a person who wanted to be responsible for a book of the Bible have some sort of minimum number of posts to the Forum already (perhaps 100). Of course, there's nothing to stop anyone from doing this sort of thing on their own, but I think that it would be important to have some sort of way to ensure that such an important task was handled respectfully. Also by having a history of posts from the author, one would be able to see where that person was comming from more clearly. This would help us all take individual comments that a person would make about a book in the context of their overall beliefs. This would also probably diminish "knee-jerk" objections to that often have led to long debates that are eventually discovered to be based purely on a misunderstanding. So what's everybody think? Could we make this work? Are you willing to try it? I think that God has assembled a collection of very gifted and Godly Christians in this Forum, and would like to see this happen. Are there people ready to make some commitment? |
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6 | Why do people lose interest and leave? | Bible general Archive 1 | Sir Pent | 21204 | ||
Personal Note .................................. I hate to leave while this all gets figured out, but I've got to take off for the weekend. I'll look forward to comming back Monday to see what you guys figure out. P.S. One other post mentioned how there will still be people comming to visit the Forum and ask questions that aren't related to specific passages. I would recommend that we of course keep trying to help answer those people and point them in the right direction. This new idea is not to replace that, but to supplement it. |
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