Posted on 11/22/2005 7:11:21 AM PST by nckerr
I agree that God hates divorce... but I wonder why you never talk about Ezra where God commanded the men of Israel to divorce their wives? Preaching half a gospel is still just preaching half a gospel.... isn't it?
"yet in Ezra he commanded the men of Israel at that time to divorce their wives"
Well wasn't that to divorce their idolatrous wives? Again we see that God is a God of mercy considering what COULD have happened....
because the men had married pagan women during their time of exile.
This is reflected in Paul's (much later) warning for us to not become yoked with non-believers.
But God hates divorce... period. Right? That means never get divorced or you'll be judged. Isn't that what you're saying? Yet the bible says God commanded the men of israel to divorce those women who weren't His. Isn't that right?
So all of those divorced people that you judge... do you ask them first if they were married to an idolator before they got divorced?
Certainly a two parent family is the biblical ideal. And when divorce happens (for whatever the reason), yes it is more difficult to raise the children, obviously. However, in an abusive marriage, the children are so adversely affected, that it is better to divorce (assuming counseling has failed)not only for the children's sake but for the sake and safety of the mother. (assuming it's the man who is abusive). God never expects people to stay in a situation where they are being abused.
My pastor teaches God hates divorce very strongly, as he should, but he also has said that if you find yourself a single parent, beacuse of an abusive marriage, etc. God will cover for you and that I believe and can testify to.
Peace.
There is a difference between spiritual abundance and material abundance. Scripture points us towards the former, not the latter.
Conversely to your opinion, scripture tells us over and over again to reject worldliness, to reject the desire to seek material gain, and to be wary of false teachers. Heaven is our goal, not material abundance.
The Lord meets our needs - to suggest otherwise is to deny the sufficiency of His grace.
Joel Osteen and the rest of the "name it and claim it", power-of-positive-thinking group are nothing more than the latest form of idol-worshippers and snake-oil salesmen. They focus only on what we can get from God, instead of us giving to Him what He is worth.
I don't believe that is entirely correct. I live in a city where there are mega conservative churches on every block.
I don't know Willow Creek at all. So I take your word for it. And praise God if they are preaching Christ.
Warren is another story. When that whole thing came out during those killings in Atlanta I thought his defense of the faith was dreadful. And the quotes from his book amazingly shallow. I have a problem when someone promotes a book to believers other than the Bible. I see him doing more than offering a bible study book etc. but more like Paul didn't explain it right so here is my text. That I reject completely.
"You're confused, my friend. Getting kids plugged into youth groups, etc., has absolutely NOTHING to do with replacing mom or dad or both. Nothing. Zip, nada, zilch to do with it.
I'll explain further, but you seem intelligent enough that I shouldn't have to."
Save your condescension for someone else.
And just do this for me: point me to the office of "youth pastor" in Scripture. When you do that, I'll be on board.
Till then, I'll continue to point out that the youth pastor is most often the youngest person on staff, the least experienced, the least literate in Biblical matters, the least mature spiritually...then they are told to shepherd the most vulnerable. Something's wrong with that picture. Moreover, the vast majority of evangelical youths who have been brought up in this model leave the faith by the time they are sophomores in college, according to those who collect this sort of data.
If you are interested in investigating opinions which might challenge yours, you could read some articles here:
http://www.visionforumministries.org/sections/ncfic/articles/
But I have to warn you. If you read these articles in good faith and do the exegetical work, you might get very uncomfortable with your previous opinions.
Believe me, I don't lump in Saddleback with the others (although I could personally never attend a church that large).
The Purpose Driven Life is quite biblical (no matter what the King-James-Only, Calvinist naysayers here say).
Wow, so you have 20,000 and up in attendance on every block?
What city is this? Chualar, California?
Oh, sorry. I meant 10,000 and up.
Republicans don't need to preach to these big churches.
Most are charasmatic or "true" evangelical and that are already convinced...
....by real conservatism when it exists.
The GOP needs to respect these folks but they don't need convincing except to vote for RINOS maybe when the alternative is worse....
...something we all loathe doing.
These Christians should not be confused with the salvation thru deeds alone crowd which is mostly just feel good-be nice Christianity and is composed of apostate liberals from top to bottom.
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Let's hope that Danielle is just started down a path of "right turns"...
first, leaving California, then getting some church exposure, and maybe more
good moves along the path.
("leaving California" is said with a bit of joking...there are more than
a few bastions of deceny in CA)
I actually meant those here who seem to be claiming that worship is only for the "elect" - that we shouldn't be letting the rabble in whilst we worship.
There are two previous posts in this thread that imply just that.
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