Posted on 11/02/2013 8:38:54 AM PDT by spirited irish
Your pope already began to tell you. Don’t you want to listen to your pope?
If one wants to say that the Church micromanages, one can point to exactly how.
Just one example.
Are you truly interested in this? Maybe you should start with what your pope said.
And let me make it plain why I ask.
Are you interested in knowing you can have less micromanagement in your personal Christian life? Or are you just interested in defending your organization’s warts because after all they’re your warts right or wrong?
I’m not defending. Anything. The accusation was that the church micromanaged
The question is, what does it micromanage?
That’s like asking a fish where the water is, almost.
Anybody who tried to live up to just the official catechism as it exists would have his or her hands full. And it’s not true you can keep losing and gaining your salvations, you read the bible grimly.
I don’t mean everything in there is bad, by the way. There’s some stuff that a lot of evangelicals would do well to know. But there’s also so much moderation by men by policy when there should be dynamic control by the Holy Spirit. God works through all that stuff but it isn’t the free gospel.
In general, “it’s a sin to ____” statements, when not directly backed up by scripture, require scrutiny. Some make spiritual sense; some are gratuitous attacks on the free gospel.
Because the gospel statements are not given to mankind in the form of “it’s a sin to ____” but “it is righteousness to ____”. Righteousness is the thing that is free and that is where gospel power is.
Very interesting link, thanks.
Thank you so much for this engaging essay, dear spirited irish!
Not sure where that states how the church micromanaged anyone
micromanaging? Where, exactly?
On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18
Psalm 100
A psalm. For giving grateful praise.
1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his[a];
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations
The Reign of the Lord’s Anointed
Psalm 2
Why do the nations rage[a]
and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
3 “Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.”
4 He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury, saying,
6 “As for me, I have set my King
on Zion, my holy hill.”
7 I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You shall break[b] them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
11 Serve the Lord with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
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