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To: drstevej
Thank you for your reply and your questions!

Is there truth beyond the "core" belief in Jesus?

Indeed. The indwelling Holy Spirit leads the believer into Truth:

If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; [Even] the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. John 14:15-17

But the Comforter, [which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you - John 14:26

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, [that] shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew [it] unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew [it] unto you. - John 16:13-15

Indeed, the Bereans were noble in checking what they were being told by searching the Scriptures every night. The Scriptures reveal God truly, but not fully. Thus the Scriptures can only take the seeker so far; it is much like trying to know an entire movie when one has only seen a few minutes of it. To further know Truth the seeker must be a believer, a born again Christian who has the indwelling Holy Spirit, and he must continually ingest the living Word (John 6).

What does "OK" mean here? Are these differences incidental and unimportant? Are Arians OK?

Again, I appeal to 1 John 4 in post 242 for the criteria in testing the spirits, i.e. profession of faith and love. Moreover, Jesus gave us this instruction in the Sermon on the Mount:

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither [can] a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

In Galatians 5:22-23 the fruits of the Spirit are named. Therefore, I personally determine whether or not to listen to what a Christian person, minister, church or whatever is saying or whether to turn away as follows:

If I look around at all they are saying and doing and I see love everywhere, I listen; if I see hate, I turn away. If I look around at all they are saying and doing and I see joy, peace and patience, I listen; if I see sorrow, turbulence and anxiety, I turn away. If I look around at all they are saying and doing and I see kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control, I listen; but if I see meanness, cruelty, roughness, fickleness and impulsiveness, I turn away.

This is a discernment of spirits, not a judgment of the people themselves. Thus if I were to walk into a service and the minister began preaching that non-whites are to be hated, I would walk away.

247 posted on 02/24/2004 3:59:01 PM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: Alamo-Girl
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, [that] shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew [it] unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew [it] unto you. - John 16:13-15

AG, what do we do with the fact that cult members will tell you the spirit was confirmed their faith ?

Who's spirit is right ?

254 posted on 02/25/2004 10:18:14 AM PST by RnMomof7
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