Subject: Harsh Treatment? |
Bible Note: Inquisitor, I don't understand your post at all unless you are saying the following. 1.) That anybody who accepts a label by that are saying they follow a man other than Jesus. That is rediculous. 2.) All Christians should naturally respond to being given a label as if they are being told that they are not a Christian, which again is rediculous. You ask me what I think. And here is my honest opinion. There are some Christians who spend time discussing matters of theology and some who try to avoid it. Those who try to discuss it by absolute necessity must use titles to refer to different views or the entire process of communication breaks down. Now when those who aren't use to discussing various theological positions happens upon these conversations, sometimes they get deeply offended because they think all these lables are being thrown around out of pure meanness. And it is at times very hard to get them to understand that this is not at all the case. I'll give you a good example. I am a calvinist, I readily admit it. My wife has come to believe the same doctrines which I mean when I say this. However, she's not use to these titles and is slightly offended to be given a title that SOUNDS like it means she is something other than Christian. So in response she has now decided to rename calvinism as biblicism. So now that's how she refers to it. Its from this same sensibility you are expressing. Well, what shall we think of that? Well, in one sense we think, "good for her." However should she come into discussion with other believers and start refering to her "biblicism" either one or two things will happen. One, they will have no clue what she is talking about because nobody knows what a biblicist is! Or the second thing that will happen is that they will automatically assume she is referring to what they themselves believe. Because at the end of the day, we all own the title of biblicist in our own mind don't we? We all believe that what we think is the "biblical" view point. So just simply saying we all believe scripture does not communicate. We can't discuss with terms we all define with our own meaning. So what we need are terms that freely and openly communicate what I personally believe scripture teaches. It is a necessity of communication, nothing more. In Christ, Beja |