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NASB | 2 Timothy 3:6 For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 2 Timothy 3:6 For among them are those who worm their way into homes and captivate morally weak and spiritually-dwarfed women weighed down by [the burden of their] sins, easily swayed by various impulses, |
Subject: Solo Scriptura -- Radical Individualism |
Bible Note: Dear Ed, I rather doubt that there are external pressures that can be blamed for the many failure of the leadership in your denomination. The potential for any person to fall is there. It is rooted in our descendance from Father Adam. I think that the problem might be at least one of the following two issues: 1. No universally accepted set of written doctrines are available to Pentecostals. Thus, neither clergy or laity can be examined -- nor can they examine themselves. That means that you get all the junk coming in to your churches from Creflo Dollar to Kenneth Copeland. Ordination cannot properly take place because examination of the applicant could and probably is all over the map. The same issue occurs when a church goes to hire a pastor -- he might believe anything. So the guy hired is not a matter of his being fit to the congregation. Even the congregation doesn't know what they believe. 2. The second issue is the problem of autocratic polity. If there is no standard, how can a man be held accountable? These pastors do not turn to other pastors for support. They probably feel like they cannot show any weaknesses. Church discipline is rarely upheld (Swaggart was an example of that); and when it is, it is shrugged off because "God told me to keep on teaching!" These problems are in no way strictly an issue with Pentecostals. Many other groups, ranging from Wesleyan to Independent Baptist suffer from these problems. Christ never intended His church to operate in this fashion. Down through the centuries believers have thought and rethought these things. What is more, they came up with a wide variety of solutions. Of course, we don't see those solutions in action. Take Charles Spurgeon as an example. What we have are many of his sermons, lectures, and publications. No one saves the congregational covenant or plans or the minutes of the business meetings. What survives is his teaching. I can guarantee, though, that the Metropolitan Tabernacle didn't function autocratically. It didn't in John Gill's time and it doesn't now with Dr. Peter Masters. You see, the fewer problems of Reformed pastors is not that they are more learned, more disciplined, nor more pious. Instead it is the prudent structuring of support that they have, from initial calling, through ordination, and pastorate. Nonetheless, when any of these pastors and elders end up in a situation in which they do not have accountability, they can and often will fail. I have attended a couple of Pentecostal services. I have had far more exposure to Foursquare churches -- they are no doubt similar. I have to admit that none of it made any lasting impression on me. I tend to have very good recall of sermons. The only thing I remember clearly was taking my ten-year-old son with me. He was so frightened by the things taking place around him that he begged me to leave. I don't even remember what was happening that scared him. What is liberal versus conservative theology is very different than you imagine. Even if you had learned some church history, you wouldn't see the connection that is so prevalent in modern churches due to the liberal theology taught in the early part of the last century. Regardless, if you heard what they had to say, it would sound very familiar to you. Anyway, don't get so apoplectic about who I am and what I say. To be honest, I rarely read your posts. By the grace of God I am what I am. Indeed, if one who holds to orthodox Christianity did not get some push back from the world, it might be time to worry... for to be friends with the world is to be at enmity with God. In the end, He will sort us out. Let's pray that he shows us both mercy and less meritorious consequences! In Him, Doc |