You and I am not in disagreement, in part. Let me tell you how I believe we differ.
I do not see “partial” children of God. You seem to do so.
Yes, different approaches to different people, but not to use over the top chastisements to those you disagree with. In your eyes, you may “count coup” for a put down or whatever, but you probably may not bring them one inch closer to God for all your pyrotechnics.
Will God honor your current efforts? I don’t know, but are you really willing to chance this destructive approach, for both the salvation of your own soul and that of theirs?
God bless.
Sursum Corda
Mormons at freerepublic have converted to Christianity because of these threads, it seems contrary to your efforts to shut down the Christian response to Mormonism.
In post #19, I included this Jesus assessment of the Pharisees:
John 8:44,47: You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies…The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.
Would you dare accuse JESUS of "seeing" less than "children of God" in those Pharisees -- where YOU would see them distinctly from how Jesus saw them? Would you be consistent & pretend to lecture Jesus on this?
When the apostle Paul asked the Galatians who "bewitched" them, do you claim to say he was "over the top?"
Likewise, as Paul was leaving the church of Ephesus, he warned them with this high-priority alert:
"I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears." (Acts 20:29-31)
Paul's cultural priority? (Defend against the false disciples who will proselytize the flock and draw away men unto themselves!)
Tell me something, SC: Was the apostle Paul "over the top" to reference these men as "savage wolves?" (Yes or No?)
And if you did something tearfully night and day for three years -- as Paul did in Ephesus -- do you think it's rather important? So what? We're just to conclude, "Oh, the man who contributed a good chunk to the New Testament -- what does he know about cultural priorities?"
Likewise, in post #19, I cited Jesus telling the Pharisees the following... (do you, or do you not, deem these statements as "over the top" -- and why or why not?
27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
33 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
You assume (it seems) the error here of some sort of "neutrality" -- as if people & their heresies are out there in "neutral" limboland.
People are NOT spiritually neutral...they are either truly alive in the true Christ, or they are spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1) & still in bondage to their sins (John 8:31-34; Romans 6)
Would you not be at least as humble as Peter?
When Peter (Cephas) was in error about assimilating the Gentiles into the church, what did the apostle Paul do? 11 When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. (Galatians 2:11)
Even vast significant error inside the church needs to be opposed (at least face to face).
And, per, the apostle Paul's daily night-and-day warning to the church in Ephesus for 3 years, false leaders are to be opposed as well. Jude told his readers (Jude 3) to CONTEND for the faith once delivered to the saints.
Paul told Titus to defend vs. heresies.
Whole or half; it mattereth not.
A person is either SAVED or not.
John 3:18
Sursum Corda