Why all the fighting?

I stay mostly quiet on this forum for good reason; I don't wish to offend over finer points of doctrine. It seems there are some members that have something to say about everything, no matter the subject. As of late it seems to be doctrinal issues surrounding the Strange Fire Conference. While I am a cessationist, I do not wish to pick fights via forum with those that say they are of Christ. I just pray that God will lead others into all truth by the scriptures. I see all types of people here in the forums: charismatics, reformed, pentecostals, legalists, baptists, methodists, cultists, you name it they are all here. Where is the gospel in all of it? Christ is the source, He is the beginning and the end. So I challenge you all, let us work on the gospel and nothing else. Our fundamentals need to be flawless before we instruct on our opinions.
With all Christian love, to honor the Lord Jesus Christ who died that we might live,

Joshua Myers (newcenturion)

Bro Joshua,

I’m not trying, in the least, to offend you with my response but I have to tell ya, I got a bit of a chuckle reading your post. In all honesty, this is not fighting! Since when is stating your position being disagreeable? Only to the person we are disagreeing with! Right?!!

But really, you should have been here about about 5 years ago... whew! Bro's Greg and Paul has busted chops and taken names to get it as calm as it is now! Just search the name ‘waltern.’ I love sermonindex and I say this nicely but these forums are a complete bore compared to then! LOL It was like the wild, wild west at that time and you think "we’re" fighting!

God bless,
Lisa

PS: Please search: waltern and KJV OR waltern and Ken Ham posts and enjoy!! :)

What some might call fighting, others might call learning. I believe it was Jesus Himself who said the gospel would set family members against one another, in a rough way!

One thing I have learned in my Christian walk is that it is very easy to be deceived. I can look in the mirror and see a man who in some measure at least believes nonsense that keeps him away from deeper intimacy with God. I don't know where those deceptions are, but when I expose my heart and my life to others in the same predicament, good things come in, and not so good things get challenged- and often eliminated.

You say Josh, that you are a cessationist? You will meet and read some people here who see things very different from that position, with testimonies to back up what they believe and live in. If your heart is open, you may come to appreciate what you are hearing and the Holy Spirit will respond with revelation you didn't have before.

I am not saying your positions are right or wrong, just that when you and the Holy Spirit are communicating, you will learn and grow. Much of that will come through your exposure to other Christians, other members of the body to whom you are connected by a common faith.

One of the treasures of my life is a memory of a time when I was about 20 and was explaining my cessationist/ Calvinist theology to a young man who I had discovered in a church we were both attending. He grinned at me.

"Do you really believe all that stuff?" He gently chided.

And so began a marvelous conversation where over some weeks he opened the scriptures and some history that revolutionized not the facts, but the way I approached them. For me, the first step in the discovery of truth was to climb off a high horse of pride.

I try to stay off that horse, but occasionally I find myself back up there, and truth is elusive.

So come on in and join the conversation. If your heart is right, the opinions and proclamations won't hurt you. Feel free to poke holes in the balloons, we can take it!

Matthew 11:12 NKJV
[12] And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.

There is a very fine line between an edifying debate and a dead argument. When that line is crossed, the Holy Spirit will usually communicate it to our spirits. That is the time to withdraw yourself from the conversation. You are only responsible for yourself in this category.

When an unedifying argument ensues (or the same topic begins popping up in other threads), it usually means an agenda is present. Agendas are frowned upon here for this reason, and if persisted, the agendee can be asked to leave. Very often they will leave on their own. We understand that we all have doctrinal biases, but SermonIndex is simply not the place to air them. We don't want this place to end up like all the other fighting religious forums on the internet.

If that line hasn't been crossed, the "hatching out" of a topic is encouraged. It is during this "hatching out" phase where God has at times revolutionized my own theology and humbled me. Other times it bolsters my own convictions and gives me a stronger affirmation of why I beleive what I do. In either case, debate can be healthy when engaged in a spirit of meekness and with a humble, open heart.

If your life is right with God outside these forum walls, you'll know what to in every circumstance here. That is the key to profitting from all these discussions and the key to all discernment.

Brother Paul

There is a good chance that if you would have been born into a Mormon family, you would be a Mormon today. Likewise a Jehovah's Witness family... Likewise again a Buddhist, Islamist, even atheist.

So when you look around and realize that probably 95% of the world's population believes you are mistaken in whatever you believe, you might turn that around and think that you and the other part of that 5% are right, and the rest are all wrong. Is that a fair assessment?

Growing up we receive some training in what to think, little messages pouring into our little brains shaping the adult that will come to be. My upbringing was somewhat fundamentalist Presbyterian. So I went to years of Sunday School, asking questions, and becoming convinced that the Presbyterian perspective on life and theology was the closest to correct.

I also came to believe by the time I was 20 that I knew everything there was to know about systematic theology, salvation, the Holy Spirit, the authority of the Bible, the history of the church... well, pretty much everything. There would be small details outside of my vast store of knowledge of course, but those were not important. I had the big picture and all the parts in place.

Quite frankly, it had never occurred to me that I could be mistaken. Everything I had learned made perfect sense to me, so therefore it was all correct. Duh!

That was 50 years ago. But one of my first "teachers" who helped me see a little past myself introduced me to Psalm 73. In the psalm, the writer comes to grips with the dilemma of his own self-righteousness. He has been blinded by it, even though he thinks he sees clearly. At verse 17 he utters these words: "until I went into the sanctuary of God..."

I...........had never been in the sanctuary of God. I had apparently thought a church building was the same as the sanctuary of God. Oh, how wrong I was!

I would commend every believer to seek Him in His sanctuary, and lay very good odds that once you have met Him there, you will not see things the way you did before you went in! When He sheds light on you, He knows exactly what darkness you would rather He not see. This is a moment when you and God will deal with your stuff/ His stuff as though no one else exists or has stuff!

I constantly pray that I might be lead away from evil, falsehood, distractions, dead works, and deception. I know how these work against me, and make me useless to His purposes.

Also, I know He has gifts for me designed to perfect His Son in me. I will not argue, criticize, or diminish these gifts by thinking I know better than He does what I need!

One thing is sure. God loves His Son, and all who believe into Him. He is committed to driving away everything in you and me that does not look like His Son!

I sometimes put my viewpoint across because once you have eperienced true repentance and a change because of that in your life and the blessing that flows from Christ and the closeness with Christ you now experience .... after all this you become as one who is against the promotion of 'no repentance' and 'by faith alone' teaching on the site.
I was in purgatory on this planet before God pushed me to the edge of a cliff and made me jump.

QUOTE:
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I also came to believe by the time I was 20 that I knew everything there was to know about systematic theology, salvation, the Holy Spirit, the authority of the Bible, the history of the church... well, pretty much everything. There would be small details outside of my vast store of knowledge of course, but those were not important. I had the big picture and all the parts in place.

Quite frankly, it had never occurred to me that I could be mistaken. Everything I had learned made perfect sense to me, so therefore it was all correct. Duh!
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Oh, Sidewalk, this made me laugh! I am sure by now you have developed a sense of humor so you can understand my mirth?

I can relate quite well, thank-you! :-)

ginnyrose

Thank you Mark!

And I will join you, still wanting to get deeper into The Sanctuary!