Subject: Harsh Treatment? |
Bible Note: Inquisitor, I didn't respond to your verses because I had no idea what you were trying to show by them. If anything the verses you used thoroughly established my view! For did not Christ himself give their errant doctrine a name? I can only come to one of two conclusions. Either you intend to argue against something regardless of whether it is what anybody is saying which is called a strawman arguement, or you completely don't understand my view I'm trying to express. Here are some things you are speaking against as if we are taking the opposite view when nobody, including myself would disagree with you. 1.) You say that nobody should regard a particular mans's teaching above scripture. Nobody is arguing that a person should! When I say that I am a Calvinist I do not mean by that that I am an ardent follower of John Calvin. There are several things that Calvin says which I believe he is dead wrong about. He believed in and tought infant baptism and I think he's dead wrong. I am not a follower of John Calvin. BUT the particular five doctrines that have come to be termed today as Calvinism, those I do believe and I believe them only because I believe they are clearly taught by scripture, not because John Calvin happened to teach them. When I say I am a calvinist it is not declaring myself as a follower of John Calvin but rather a simple way in one word to express my affirmation that those particular five doctrines are actually taught in scripture as true. It really seems, as I said, either you don't know what I mean when I say that, or you intend to argue against a strawman position which nobody is defending. 2.) You keep insisting scripture is against name calling. Nobody thinks scripture is for it! We are not at all suggesting that scripture is in favor of insulting or calling people derrogatory phrases at all. That you think we are defending such a position makes me think once again, either you don't at all understand what I'm saying or you intend to argue against this strawman position which nobody is defending. So let me offer this. I agree that we should not say mean things to each other, and I agree that we should exclusively follow the teachings of scripture and not those of any man who is teaching something contrary. Does that bring us into agreement? In Christ, Beja |