Results 1 - 2 of 2
|
|
|||||
Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | God and gods? | Matt 11:11 | following him | 123314 | ||
Hello Tim; I've prayed and thought hard about responding to your note. For some reason it has desturbed me greatly. Please don't take this wrong. I sat on the outside and watched this whole episode of "Pointing him to the truth." I did not say that you should let them have free reign to say or teach whatever they want. My concern was how the forum responded to him. Since Bradk mentioned it here is one of the rules of the forum, " You agree to interact with each other in a Christian spirit, with respect and grace." Does this just pertaint to belivers or is everyone who logs on entitled the same respect and grace? Perhaps you should go back and reread ALL the posting toward ralph2 forget the ones he sent just look how the forum responded. If all that was pointed in my direction there is no way I would consider it love. Put yourself in his place would you consider it love. Would you consider it "pointing him to the truth." When a JW has the boldness to come to a forum like this and "strut his stuff" he is not looking to convert anyone, and the chance of converting him are practically non existent. He is only here to puff himself up and walk away with thoughts of "I did battle with the forces of darkness and have prevailed. I have come away still holding to the truth" And that is exactly what happened. The forum gave him what he wanted. He went away victorious while the christians showed themselves to be unloving and intolerant. At least thats his view. And from my vantage point he would have been right. I am not saying that you should let such a major error go unchallenged or maybe I should say unanswered or that we should tolerate false doctrine. But there has got to be a better way of responding to these guys than what I saw here. Perhaps when a JW surfaces the forum could designate one maybe two at the most people to enlighten him without drowning him in a sea of posts showing him how his beliefs are heretical etc. Perhaps you could do it, out of all the posting yours and Zsuzi's were the most curtious and respectful inspite of what ralph2 said. I have gained a great deal of respect for both of you because of this. Sincerely in love |
||||||
2 | God and gods? | Matt 11:11 | Zsuzsi | 123319 | ||
Hi following him, "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love." 1Corinthians 13 (NASB) I agree - we can preach the Love and Care and Light of our Lord in the most convincing way ever possible, but without ACTUALLY loving and and caring and being the light for "the others", they will rightly think they are the victorious, innoncently persecuted and rejoicing servants of God. But on the other hand, our service to them must not become a 'stumbling block' to people whom we are supposed to shepherd; SBF is a public forum, where new or even "becoming" Christians also come to learn - about the Trinitarian, Christian theology and faith, not the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses about two or more 'gods' and various heavens etc. There is a great danger that new Christians misunderstand the real Christian doctrine if even on a forum like this they get a mixture of different, including non-Christian, ideologies. We are responsible for the 'little ones', and the Lord Himself entrusted us with this task - this is why we do sometimes have to 'pull the plug'. I gave Ralph my e-mail, he can talk to me about this if he wants to. He certainly must be treated and respected as a human person possessing dingity, having been created in the image of God - just as we are. But, just as we do, he also must keep himself to the original purposes and rules of this forum included in the ToU, which he agreed to before joining. There is a careful balance between loving people who fiercely argue with us about the Truth and loving people who depend on our more mature Christian guidance. It is really nice to have people who think like you on this forum. May God bless you, Zsuzsi |
||||||