Posted on 08/07/2023 8:15:04 AM PDT by Jan_Sobieski
“You mean like people who say things like this”
No, actually, ‘cuz that’s not a judgment of anybody in particular; it’s a frank observation of a reality that shouldn’t exist.
Your splinter/log instinct is solid, but it calls for Jesus’ conflict resolution mandates laid out in Matthew 18. IOW, if you think somebody’s got a splinter in their eye, Jesus lays out how you must approach resolving that conflict.
EXAMPLE: How many Christians howling in print online about Joel Osteen have ever talked to the man personally about their concerns? Read Matthew 18 and you’ll see that’s Step 1. How many have organized a small team of pastoral elders to sit down with the man and step through unresolved perceptions and issues? That’s supposed to be Step 2.
It certainly seems to me that Jesus’ directives, which are all incumbent upon us as His followers have, been shoved under the bus in favor of folks taking to the keyboard.
I’m not decrying people being Bereans, and flagging teachers who strike a note discordant with Scripture; that’s what’s supposed to be going on all the time. But the RESOLUTION strategy in Matthew 18 is crystal clear: NOBODY has license to “tell it to the whole church” if they have not followed through the prior steps in Jesus’ conflict resolution process first.
I’d like to see sincere, and Christ-like attempts being the go-to, not the exception. I mean...what if the Southern Baptist Convention got together and sent a humble, sincere delegation of 3 or 4 Elders to have objective Scriptural dialog with Bill Johnson out at Bethel in CA?
I don’t have any illusions that they’d come back in total agreement, but don’t you think such efforts would go a great way to differing theological streams being able to say, “We acknowledge that we don’t see eye-to-eye on some things, but we having fellowshipped together with them can confirm without doubt that their hearts are open before God, that they are sincere adherents to The Way, that the things upon which we disagree aren’t impinging upon Salvation... we have come to love them as Brothers in Christ, and they us, and we affirm that we, as the SBC, ought rightly to bless their lives and ministry, and pray The LORD of The Harvest increase the fruit thereof.”
Wouldn’t that result, emanating out of humble, loving obedience to Jesus’ Matthew 18 commandments, be FAR AND AWAY preferable to the too-public infighting we see scattered about the broader church today?
Jesus asserted that the world would be able to ascertain that we are His followers because of our EVIDENT LOVE for each other.
All I’m really driving at with all of this is our love for each other is NOT EVIDENT looking at “the Christian world” from an outside perspective, and it’s NOT the world’s fault, and it’s sure not incumbent upon the world to fix it.
In John 14, five times in ten verses Jesus binds our love for Him to our obedience to Him. The 5th time He sets Himself as The Example saying, “I obey The Father so the world will know that I LOVE Him.”
THAT — adoration-driven obedience — is supposed to be The Gold Standard throughout all Christendom.
What I decry is that it very clearly is not.
You took opportunity to bash those who hold to the ptretrib rapture, then go on to defend Joel , then make it all about other people,,?,,
Then write a couple hundred words to dodge that.
Sorry
Not impressed
Not convicted
Not edified
But you do you.
Bless your heart.
Not to mention obscurly defend the UN and pedophiles , then take issue with being called out .
Whole lot of love you shown bashing all of your brothers who hold to the plainly biblical doctrine of the harpazo.
“You took opportunity to bash those who hold to the ptretrib ...”
That’s just an example of the execrable problem Paul addresses when he talks about one saying “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos”...
I didn’t need to pick eschatology as the topic area; I could have made it far worse by using Calvin and Arminias, or freewill vs sovereignty, Catholicism vs Protestantism — there’s any number of such examples in Christendom.
I’m calling into question the too-common practice of equating one fallen man’s Bible commentary with the actual text of Scripture. It’s one reason I would never give an annotated or footnoted Bible to a new convert; people read the footnotes and begin to get the idea the footnotes are The Word of The LORD.
Any given commentator may end up being right, but I’d far rather those who give him credence are right because his way of thinking is clearly in the text. If you agree with one man’s commentary, do so because you INDEPENDENTLY find it in the text, not because the commentator is a high-profile Personality.
As for “defending” Joel Osteen...
How is disliking how much derision he gets a defense of him?
How is me assertion that Jesus’ commandments in Matthew 18 apply to those who are giving him grief a defense of the man?
At the bottom line, I made NO defense of Joel Osteen; I levied the rock solid assertion that Jesus’ commandments about how Christians should be treating each other in the arena of resolving conflicts AREN’T OPTIONAL.
What Jesus laid out there is mandatory, and it’s manifestly the case that VERY FEW who actively gripe about personalities or ministries they dislike have ever even begun to follow that set of directives.
As for your “Bless your heart” why not be plain and say “@!%!@ you”? It doesn’t make your sneering disdain more Christlike or excusable just because you put it in “Christianese.”
“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he,” no matter what words come out in print.
The Lord rebuke you.
I think you totally missed the point of his post.
Hey Madrigal-Berloz, how many fingers am I holding up?
Wrong. I am using BOTH hands
So not a UN “Chief” but some expert reporting to some UN body...
Child Rape. When the brimstone starts falling, don’t look back.
I think you totally missed the point of his post.
/\
And I think his post was just cover for his bashing of his preterist doctrinal pet peeve he managed to slip in his post that had zero to do with the op subject.
Not the first time for him either.
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