Results 8301 - 8320 of 8433
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Author: EdB Ordered by Date |
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Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
8301 | What drew him to the group? | Acts 5:34 | EdB | 7676 | ||
Thanks Nolan, this is a common story hurting Christians looking for answers. Most of the time the “Christian” church is too busy shooting the wounded to help. I have seen this scenario happen over and over. I would guess 90 percent of Mormon and JW converts are hurting Christians. I once knew a sweet young girl that made a mistake (had the baby instead of aborting it), gave her life to Christ and turned her life around. However the really “righteous women” of the church drove her out before she could contaminate any of their sons. The same boys that were bedding any girl that would look at them twice. She left in tears. I tried to talk to her and she said something I will never forget, she said I use to attend a Jehovah Witness church and you know something like this would never have happened there. Thankfully she didn’t go back the JW She found a great church, with loving people. And after a few years she met a fine young man, they got married and now the whole family is serving the Lord. |
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8302 | How can Christians listen to this? | Acts 5:34 | EdB | 7675 | ||
Prayon your right on (no pun intended :-) ) Unfortunately this is happening more and more as the mega churches are faced with need for continuing growth. It will continue until people find themselves in crisis then they seek the authentic, they seek men and women that can direct them to God. |
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8303 | Did Gamaliel give sound advice? | Acts 5:34 | EdB | 7672 | ||
Prayon I liked what you said but let me emphasis something. While what Gamliel said did in fact lead to the freeing of the Apostles, which was good. It can not be construed in any way to being God's standard to judge a true ministry. Look at the prophets most of the time nobody wanted to even be near them. They preached from bottom of wells, in prison or in jeopardy of death. Look at the Apostles all with the possible exception of John died horrible deaths. You said if we discount cults then what Gamliel said would be true. That is applying man’s reasoning and logic. Let me assure every one of God’s ordained ministries has succeeded, He has never failed. It might have been long lived or short lived but it accomplished exactly what God intended it to accomplish. Each and every believer that lit Nero’s garden with the flames of their bodies had a successful ministry. The instant James’ head fell from his shoulders God’s glory was attested to. To many people look for the world’s definition of success in ministry (how big is it, how old is it, how many missionaries does it support, what programs are in place, how beautiful the building, how rich, and etc) instead of God’s standard does it bring glory and honor to Jesus? Is it accomplishing what God wants it to accomplish? The real question should be is it reproducing itself (Jesus’ likeness) in others or is growing fat in itself? |
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8304 | What drew him to the group? | Acts 5:34 | EdB | 7598 | ||
Excellent example, did you find out what drew the man to this group in the first place? Was it relationship? charm of the leaders? desire to be accepted? I would love to know what made him join and stick with them. | ||||||
8305 | Is there anyone else who has input? | Acts 5:34 | EdB | 7597 | ||
Jim thanks for responding your input is important but I kind of figured that you would not have been deceived. I was interested in possibly getting somebody else's responses. |
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8306 | Any deceptions stories out there? | Acts 5:34 | EdB | 7590 | ||
Jim you absolutely right we must check out everything we hear. I'm interested in hearing from people that have experience this deception first hand. I want to know what tried to deceived them, how they realized they had been deceived and what they are now doing to prevent it from happening again. |
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8307 | Is it just charisma? | Acts 5:34 | EdB | 7582 | ||
I guess what I was hoping for was a response that would focus on the charisma of man. It seems lately people are taken with the charm of the man rather than what he really says or does. We have elevated pastors and evangelist to celebrity status and therefore put them above common scrutiny. Could this be the reason we so readily accept their theatrics and never challenge their teachings? | ||||||
8308 | Denominations, why? | Phil 1:1 | EdB | 7572 | ||
Charis I don’t think anyone can supply a Biblical answer since denominations are more or less man made. However I will try to explain the reasons I see for denominations. First leadership we see an example in Acts 12:17 with the implication of James being the leader of the church in Jerusalem. It has been surmised that in the first through third century each church had a pastor or a pastor would be shared by two or three smaller churches. However in each city there was a man charged with the oversight of the churches of that city. Denominations may well be the natural extension of this city grouping of churches. Leadership implies government and even church leadership must have some form of government. We all know there are many and widely varying forms of government. There is one person in charge making the decisions, the whole church collectively voting on decisions, and the elected/appointed body of representatives charged with making decisions. There are many variations of one or all three of these that effectively or not so effectively govern organizations and churches. People naturally gravitate to the form of government that best suit their needs. I have seen abuses in all forms so there is no conclusive argument for any one form. However I do believe a man pastoring a church should submit himself to someone, if for no other reason than accountability. Denominations fill that need. Charis you said not to use the size factor but I think that one point is too big to ignore. First a denomination can supply printed materials, books and other resources one church or organization could never hope to. Then there is missionary support, a grouping of denominational churches can collectively support many missionaries where one church may not be able to totally support any. We must include hospitals, colleges and institutions, many colleges started as seminaries and bible schools to train up pastors and missionaries. There have been many abuses but many denominational bible colleges remain faithful to that purpose. The ones that have turned secular they still served to educate the population examples Harvard and Yale. Hospitals are mostly started by a denomination. Without the denominational support many would probably would have failed to have been built or stay open. Senior adult care facilities are springing up all over the place many are denominational supported and from my experience preferable to government or private institutions. Theological beliefs help to group people. As we have all seen in this forum there is more than one way to believe and still be a Christian. I think grouping together in like mindedness is essential for the life of a church and any hierarchical oversight. Denominations therefore became the next logical step. I don’t think denominations were the intended result of people gathering together in like mindedness, however that is what evolved. We all know power corrupts and total power totally corrupts. Case in point the Catholic church before the reformation. I think having multiple and various denominations limit the power of each. I don’t see badness in denominations, however I see disaster in what they have become. By competing with a win at any cost attitude denominations have pitted Christian against Christian. We never fairly teach what another denomination believes we only convince our members that another denomination’s belief is wrong and therefore we have a obligation to help save others from that error. We mock and belittle people of other denominations and soon animosity and hatred prevails. In many cases in our zeal to rid ourselves of denominationalism, we avoid all use of catechisms, hymns, and creeds. However these were proven and repeatable forms of instruction which are lost to many churches today. The results are churches filled with people that have no real idea of what it is they believe and if they have some concept, have no way to articulate or to put it into words. Without this basic capability they soon feel disenfranchised and begin to drift back into the world. Denominations are not in themselves bad it is what man has turned them into that is bad. However isn’t that true of anything man gets involved in? |
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8309 | Interesting answer any other thoughts? | Acts 5:34 | EdB | 7551 | ||
Interesting answer any other thoughts? | ||||||
8310 | How can Christians listen to this? | Acts 5:34 | EdB | 7529 | ||
I have a question or concern that goes with this thread. Why do people so easily accept the false as truth? As I have said I have seen men teach heresy but use the name of Jesus frequently and have people accept them as men of God. I have asked a listener that was enthralled with such a speaker about what he said and even after showing them the error that he taught, I had them defend and deny that it was so. They either say, “Well I didn’t hear him say that.” Or they say, “He really didn’t mean it that way, you took what he said wrong.” I know genuine Christians that can listen to junk and never hear it. How does that happen? If you question them as to whether they believe a particular falsehood they will instantly say no, yet they just listened to a speaker preach it and they love him. How can that be? |
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8311 | Performance or Preaching? | Acts 5:34 | EdB | 7492 | ||
Hank, how nice to have you back! Without a doubt many times it is entertainment. Too many people think attending church gives them entrance to heaven. Therefore they feel that since they must attend they might as well find the most entertaining to attend. There is one church that the Pastor raises from below the platform in a cloud of smoke and flashing lights. He then preaches his sermon and at the end he ascends up and out of sight again surrounded by smoke and flashing lights. Watch any Christian TV network for a day or two and you will probably see much more. However the thing that has me concerned is the heresy that is being taught. There is more junk in many of our churches than there is in the neighborhoods that surround them. I have seen just about every form of heresy taught/preached from pulpits and the people walk out raving about the what a mighty man of God the preacher is. When will the people learn that just because the man says Jesus a few times doesn’t make him a disciple or even a believer. I have seen men give all kinds of credit to Jesus however their Jesus is not the son of God but rather an deity of their own invention. No wonder Jesus responded the way He did. "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?' 23"And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; Depart From Me, you who practice lawlessness.' Matthew 7:22-23 Are others seeing this same lack of discernment? |
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8312 | Did Gamaliel give sound advice? | Acts 5:34 | EdB | 7421 | ||
Nolan you asked a great question. Many people believe that since it is in the Bible it is inspired. God permitted uninspired sayings, quotes, and words of man to be included to provide completeness to the pictures He was painting. Gamaliel’s advice while advantageous to the disciples and seemingly making sense is not inspired nor is it correct. Many false religions, leaders and cults have endured while many Godly ventures have failed. Today many people apply this test to ministry, if they see a fast growing ministry they naturally say it is must be of God. Yet many fast growing ministries are racked with false teaching and just plain junk. In the same sense many faithful and totally correct ministries seem to stumble and grope through never making a big impact. I think this is where discernment comes into the picture. Too few Christians use discernment in their evaluation of men and a ministry. I saw a nationally known Evangelist, call a woman onto the platform one evening in a congregation of 700-1000. He was in a playful mood and he proceeded to tease with this saint. He told her little sins she had committed before she was saved, little things like her and “husband to be” sneaking a little wine and telling her mother they hadn’t. He did it in a very playful and non condemning way. Everyone was laughing, the poor dear saint was blushing, it was funny. The people in the congregation were in awe of this mighty man of God that can read this saints “mail”. The applause was thunderous! Then the Holy Spirit said to me if God forgets our sins and moves them as far as the east is from the west how can this man possibly know about them? Then He (the Holy Spirit) answered the question, there was only one way "familiar spirits". This man was moving in familiar spirits either intently or unintently but doing so none the less. Nobody was using any discernment to pick up on it. This man did many similar things through the course of his 3 week revival services. Each night it was a packed house and each night he did something equally revealing. Yet each night 700-1000 people walked out of the church raving about how Godly this man was. Yet down the street a young unknown evangelist was preaching his heart out glorifying Jesus and magnifying God and he had 25 – 50. No Gamliel’s advice sounded good and thankful made sense to the listeners securing the release of the disciples, but it did not establish a standard by which to judge ministries by. |
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8313 | Can I express my opinion? | Bible general Archive 1 | EdB | 7388 | ||
JVH0212 I think I understand, I think? I still have the concern that someone that may be looking for direction or an answer to a question and may stumble upon the erroneous response and decide since it hasn’t been challenged by other contributors it must be correct. JVH0212 I think (my opinion) it is fair to challenge another man’s interpretation of the Bible. Many times we read what we are conditioned by environment and previous training to read. We assume more than anyone of us care to imagine. It was said by someone else in the forum and of course it was refuted, but I still believe it to be true. ‘We all have religious beliefs that have been influenced to some degree by others’. All the ideas we have about God, man, sin and salvation are not just ideas formed purely by reading the Bible. I further submit that when we do read the Bible these ideas, beliefs, reconceived notions, and prejudices effect how we comprehend what we are reading. Have you seen the example of the 6 hidden “f’s” in a story. They are hidden in the word “if’ and most people reading English do not focus on “if” as a word therefore they can only find the two or three “f”s in other words used but cannot find the ones in the word “if”. All three men you mentioned are in fact very intelligent theologians, however they too stand at opposite corners, on a few issues. Experts don’t always agree, nor should anyone expect them too. I suspect(I guess)there must be over 100 translations of the Bible, because either a person or a team felt they could do a better job than the previous. The original or manuscript languages are not as cut and dried as many believe. Look how many times there are misunderstandings here in the forum and I think we are all talking English. One of the biggest things in life I learned is that, things that appear obvious to me are not always so obvious to everyone. When someone responds to a question, answer or note different than I did I must first ask myself what did they see that I didn’t and what is it I see they don’t? I have had threads that have ran 20 or more responses and to this day I don’t believe many of the people that responded understood what I was asking. It was because language in fluid and what communicates to one person does not always say the same thing to another. Let me say I'm not trying to convince you on anything or to judge what you did. I just felt a need to express my opinion. |
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8314 | I'm curious why did you do this? | Bible general Archive 1 | EdB | 7357 | ||
I’m curious why did you do this? Your correcting something someone previously said in the forum, but unless you append your question and the answers to that thread in error how will anyone see the correction? I can and have searched for who incorrectly stated there are only 3 things in heaven. However someone reading that thread will never see the correction unless they somehow stumble upon this thread. Would it not have been better to append your question and the answers you receive to the thread that contained the error? I hate to ask this but my curiosity has gotten the best of me and makes me foolish enough to tread where I’m sure I will invoke someone’s wrath. |
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8315 | Goodbye, Friends | Eph 4:29 | EdB | 7132 | ||
Dear Hank I apologize for not writing this sooner but some things needed my attention earlier today. It is with a very heavy heart I read of your decision to pullout of this forum. I too agree with Charis that we all desire your rapid return. I also totally agree with the rest of what Charis said. I was convicted reading it and have repented. Let me add as I have said before to the forum I fail to understand why everything has to turn into a “I’m right your wrong debate.” Can’t we learn to discuss issues. There has been some very interesting "thoughts" brought up in this forum, that I for one would have enjoyed exploring. I have a desire to learn the reasoning that formulated those ideas. I want to know and understand why people believe things different than I do. Yet in a heartbreaking number of cases the discussion immediately digresses into a “your wrong” type of confrontation. Why does somebody have to be right or wrong if they see something in the Scripture in a way different from another? I think it is fair to ask for a clarification of a point or how they handle scripture that to our reading may appear to be in conflict with their position. The problems comes when we tell others they are wrong, or infer they are lost and condemned to hell. I think we all have an opportunity to learn from this forum if nothing else than how to have a peaceful idea interchange with fellow believers. I pray Hank will reconsider his position and return to the forum. If nothing else to keep me straight and JVH0212 from answering all the questions :-). Just kidding!!!! |
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8316 | But didn't He? | 1 Tim 3:2 | EdB | 7075 | ||
Nolan I appreciate you brother. I have yielded on this subject. I know that your position is the classical interpretation of this scripture. It has been mine for as long as I can remember. I was just fascinated that Paul at the leading of the Holy Spirit chose terms that convey marriage (husband and wife) when he could have just as easily used terms that were totally neutral and devoid of any overtone of marriage. Paul could have said a man or woman of sexual purity. Or a man or woman that abstains from sexual immorality. I was questioning if there might be some reason for the particular language he used. Apparently everyone feels there isn’t. And some have even cast me in the light of being an idiot for even daring to think such nonsense. I have said my last on this subject, however to me it is still an interesting subject. |
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8317 | Elder must be 'the husband of one wife'? | 1 Tim 3:2 | EdB | 7067 | ||
Whoa! I apologize. It was a feeble and from you reaction poor attempt at humor. I just thought it was funny you said what you did in the response to my message. I sat here and chuckled over how you had constructed that response I thought you had done it intentionally to get a laugh. I'm sorry I took something you evidently meant to be taken literally and seriously and tried to turn it into fun. Did you notice my smiley face winking ;-) verse a straight smiley face :-). I think we all need to take a deep breath here this forum is getting way too serious and everyone including myself seems to be on the defensive. PS not everyone hates you or Hank Hanegraaff, I like you both. Your Brother in Christ. |
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8318 | Hank where did I say all of this? | 1 Tim 3:2 | EdB | 7059 | ||
Like I said Hank your an interesting guy. There is more to you than most comprehend. I will believe what you said was meant as an apology, I will accept it as such. And in turn I offer my apology should you feel I have unjustly maligned you in any way. I think this part of this discussion should end. |
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8319 | Elder must be 'the husband of one wife'? | 1 Tim 3:2 | EdB | 7055 | ||
I know you said this didn't apply to me, but considering it's placement one could almost consider that a cheap shot ;-) | ||||||
8320 | Hank where did I say all of this? | 1 Tim 3:2 | EdB | 7054 | ||
Hank you’re an interesting person. You have a way of backing off a point making the other person the villain. Case in point you said you did not tell the story of your divorced friend who continued in the ministry to show that what had transpired was okay, that you were just reporting the facts. Isn’t interesting you decided to report the facts in a discussion on divorced ministers? You in fact were using the story in an attempt to validate your point! There is nothing wrong with that! The problem I have is how you then took what I said and turned it on me. I never said you were sanctioning divorce so why mention it? I never attempted to adjudicate the fore mentioned divorce case so why mention it? I never pointed a finger in fact I went out of my way not to impugn anyone so why imply I did? I certainly did not cast any self righteous glare as I would have been the first to leave the day Jesus said “he who is without sin let him cast the first stone”. Without the work of the cross and the precious cleansing blood my fate would be sealed. So why even mention a “self righteous” “glare”. I never pointed a finger, I merely asked if we knew God’s will in this situation. I further ask you to show me where I impugn or even attempted to impugn God’s wisdom. I stand in awe of God, I never questioned what he said I questioned what man said God said. I could take offense (but I won’t :-) ) at your attempt to imply I was questioning God on this or any other subject. All these words you used in your response to my comment, all inflammatory, all without just cause. Yes Hank you’re an interesting guy. |
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