Brothers and Sisters,
I will be taking a long hiatus from these forums even though I have not posted that much on them anyway with the exception of a few remarks on the “prophetic credentials” thread and a few others. I have been given the task of shepherding a flock of believers and that will be sufficient to consume all my energies in prayer and seeking of God.
One thing that has disturbed me so much in reading so many of these forums is the on and on debate between those that consider themselves “Calvinists” and those who tend toward “Arminian” theology… these debates could go on ad infinitum. It is sad when we put on any kind of “glasses” in looking into the perfect Word of God rather than simply studying each and every scripture and trying to find in that scripture minus some preconceived notion what God would have us do, what God would have us know… individually. There were Pharisees and Sadducees at the time of Christ who had their learning and their arguments… but who was saved? And forget your interjection there… it is already anticipated.
The poor had the Gospel preached to them. The children came to Him and he said that unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. A child, my brothers and sisters does not try to analyze every word and put it into this and that category and assume all kinds of subtleties about words but simply takes the simplest meaning of the words spoken and responds to them.
Certainly we can all study the Greek and Hebrew meaning of this that and the other word of the text, and many of us have and will continue to… but not for debate and argument, but simply to get to a clearer answer to the question, “what would you have ME to do?”
Paul said,
2 Corinthians 11:3 (KJV) 3But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
He also said to that same congregation:
1 Corinthians 2:1 - 5 (KJV) 1And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. 2For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 4And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 5That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
It is my understanding that the purpose behind this whole SI website, is to encourage revival and an awakening. And I submit to you that the awakenings and revivals that have happened in church history were not because of perfect theology because none of us can build a box big enough to contain God… Solomon said the heavens cannot contain Him… but in spite of flawed theology. There are errors in the teachings of all men; because there is no way that our finite minds can comprehend the infinite.
Some of the simplest of men had the greatest successes in reaching lost souls, and some of the greatest revivals happened not because of some understanding of 5 points or any points except the simple understanding that “he that cometh unto God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek HIM”. And God has answered prayer from sincere and hungry souls from every “theological stripe” you can name, simply because they started seeking God.
Pride is the opposite of the Spirit of Christ and there is certainly just as much room for and evidence of pride at both ends of the spectrum. The Jews at the time of Christ were proud because they were the sons of Abraham with all that they inferred from that distinction, and yet John smashed their theology with his call for repentance and then for fruit as evidence of that repentance and with the very revealing challenge that God is able to raise up stones in their place. He is, after all the Creator.
The continuation of argument on the subject is so much like the challenge that the Lord gave during His time here where He said of that generation that they reminded Him of children in the marketplace… you know the reference without me having to go there.
Please let us put aside the colored glasses as much as we possibly can and realize that it is not what any of these men have figured out that counts, but “every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”.
May God bless and keep each of you.
Clint
