Posted on 07/17/2007 3:50:58 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback
AND, they’re both good, AND they’re each a matter of preference, not sin.
...and (since I got my threads crossed, here) I must clarify this: The “both good” and “matter of preference” analysis applies to the “other” thread.
Apples/Oranges applies to this thread as a matter of asserting that the point at issue is fundamentally different from the one in the “other” thread.
“My church/your church” issues, where both churches are founded upon the core apostolic creed, are simply matters of personal preference.
“My church/your church” issues, where one church is founded upon the core apostolic creed, and the other is hostile to it, are not simply matters of preference.
“My faith/your faith” issues, where one faith is The Faith and the other is not, are matters of eternal Heaven and Hell.
The “other” thread has the nature of the first kind of issue; this thread has the nature of the second and/or third.
In none of the three types of issues ought speech be at all repressed as a matter of Law.
That's your opinion, to which you are entitled. Ultimately, GOD will be the judge of what is sin and what is not, what is good and what is not. He will separate the sheep from the goats. Meanwhile, He has some pretty interesting warnings to the seven churches in the Book of Revelation!
It is troubling, however, to see that our religious liberty may be shut down at any moment, if the Gospel is determined to be "hate speech" by power of law. (It's already law in Canada.) In Sweden they actually jailed a minister (Rev. Ake Green) for preaching against homosexuality. It would be chilling if the Body of Christ allowed that to happen here. It would muzzle our ministers in the pulpit, and the laity who go forth and proclaim the Good News to all.
If this were to happen, we may be sitting at the prison table before going to God's table. The Adversary would like nothing better than to silence those who belong to Jesus.
Yes, and YOU, as a saved person, sealed and imbued with the very Spirit of YHVH, can READ His word for yourself and understand -- with His Divine aid -- what is sinful, and what is not. That is part of what Jesus meant when, describing the indwelling Spirit of God, he said, "...and He will guide you into all Truth". God does, ultimately, decide, but he ALSO tells us what He's decided by the testimony of His Spirit within us.
It would be chilling if the Body of Christ allowed that to happen here.
True. And with THAT grave issue hanging over our heads like the new "sword of Damocles", does not NOW seem like a REALLY good time to shove aside perhaps everything but the barenaked Apostle's Creed and quit making mountains out of the molehills that we've allowed to divide us? If ever there were an appropriate juncture in which to exhort the Body to take action "For Christ's sake...!" does THIS not rise to that degree of urgency?
As I noted somewhere before, I've been constrained in the Spirit to continue reading, and conversing with YHVH about I John 4:7-21. You couple that text with Jesus "New Commandment" in John 13:34, and we who are in Christ just flat do NOT have ANY excuse to stiff-arm other brothers and sisters. Less so as the days grow dark.
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