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NASB | 2 John 1:10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 2 John 1:10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching [but diminishes or adds to the doctrine of Christ], do not receive or welcome him into your house, and do not give him a greeting or any encouragement; |
Subject: Is it because we are afraid that the per |
Bible Note: In my experience in attempting to communicate with members of two particularly well-known cults in America, I've been the one considered the lost sheep, the errant one, the prodigal son. It is I, who think of my theological bent as orthodox, who is the object of their missionary efforts. So conditioned by their cult have they become, and so zealous in spreading their concept of the truth, that they don't actually listen to what I have to say or even to what the Bible has to say; they listen with a singular objective in mind, and that is to refute the plain truth of the Bible by superimposing their cult teaching upon it. It is not a great deal different from holding a conversation with a dead tree stump. So, Ed, I concur easily with you in your conclusion that, by and large at least, it would be more productive to talk with someone who professes no faith than with someone who has been sucked in by a cult. This is not to say that cult members should be excluded from Christian missionary efforts or considered a totally lost cause. But witnessing effectively to cults is, I believe, a special kind of witness that demands special skills in which most Christians perhaps should be, but are not, trained. --Hank |