Subject: need for a bible-anyone |
Bible Note: You wrote: " Scripture is sufficient for me. I recall the rich man wanting Lazarus to go back and warn his brothers so they could avoid eternal torment. Abraham?s response: ?If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.? Luke 16:19-31 If you want to refute what God has said, you show there weren?t any Scriptural baptisms occurring." Wow, Jesus and the parable of the rich man and Lazarus has NOTHING to do with what I am saying. I am not refuting anything God said. You, however, are insisting that what you call "Scriptural baptisms" were occurring consistently somewhere, somehow since the first century, with not a shred of historical evidence to show that such was the case. So we have three options, the way I see it: 1. What you call "Scriptural baptisms" are not Scriptural baptisms (or at least not the ONLY ones). or 2. They were indeed Scriptural baptisms, but Scriptural baptism is not absolutely necessary to be saved. or 3. Most, if not all people between the end of the first century and the "restoration" of the Church of Christ are in Hell, with the church non-existent for well over a milennium. You wrote: 'Why would they need to ?hook up?? Plant the seed (The Word of God), you yield the same church,the church the Lord established, the church of Christ.' So you are talking about a re-establishment of the church, after all. Some "visible church" you have there, if you can't give a single example of the visible church for a span of 1200 years! It really makes passages like this come alive, as well: "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit." --Ephesians 2:19-22 No matter how you try and portray it, what you are describing are "new plants" (churches) springing up the Bible being "sown" (a misapplication of Matthew 13, since Jesus was talking about individuals and not churches). We still have one or two men, completely on their own, disconnected completely from church history, claiming that everything has been wrong since the first century, and establishing a new movement claiming itself to be a restoration of the earliest church. In this regard, the Churches of Christ share a similar legacy as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (hey, they even have a "correct name"!) and the Jehovah's Witnesses. In fact, the quote I gave earlier in this thread, undisputed by you or RAVEN, which began by stating: "To let God be true means to let God have the say as to what is the truth that sets men free. It means to accept his Word, the Bible, as the truth. Hence...our appeal is to the Bible for truth." is actually taken from a book on my shelf entitled "Let God Be True," published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. So we can clearly see that claims to be the restored early church and to cling to the word of God alone can actually be in error. Same with the Churches of Christ. --Joe! |