No, because faith is not subject to proof or disproof. I have no problem with anyone's faith. I have a problem with those who state their faith as if it were a provable fact. When they say "the Bible is the word of God" instead of "I believe the Bible is the word of God." Or when they tell me "Indwelling spirit moves me" versus "I believe the indwelling spirit moves me."
Well, for those of us who believe the Great Commission applies to us, we have to do a little better than that. :) Since you all don't believe in evangelism by the laity, it doesn't occur to you that your faith should be something you can SHOW to another person as being something they can relate to. If someone wandered in off the street into your Church and asked why he should accept your faith, I can only guess at the answer. :) Suffice it to say that I suspect it would be singularly weak.
But, that's just the way your Church is set up. Sharing God's Good News is not your problem, it is for others to do. One big difference is that with your position you, or even your priests, cannot show another person anything that is REAL to him, whereas to the Reformed (and other Protestant) evangelicals, that is what we seek to do.
Bible thumpers obviously believe that their faith can be proven, which is why they force feed the Bible down everyone's throat, while admitting that God gives us faith!
In personal ministry, no Bible-believing Christian I know or have heard of force feeds the Bible on anyone. The Bible teaches not to do that:
1 Peter 3:15 : But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, ...
Therefore, whoever you're talking about is not us. Also, I assume that this verse does not apply to you, however, it does apply to us.
kosta, IIRC,
you fuss at me just as much; at least about as much
when I put things
I believe; feel; sense . . .
as when I hurridly put them otherwise. I prefer to qualify such statements, too. I haven’t observed that qualifying such statements makes a microgram’s worth of difference to the naysayers hereon.
IOW, I think your fussing protestation to FK on this issue is a straw dog.
Therefore, whoever you're talking about is not us. Also, I assume that this verse does not apply to you, however, it does apply to us
Actually, FK, that's exactly what we would do. If someone comes and asks, we tell him and we tell him that it's not just the faith, but a life in faith. And we also tell them that it's not easy.
We don't go to places and bring gadgets and food and what not to attract attention and "buy" interest and then brainwash people with endless verse. We invite them to the Divine Lituery and explain ot them at the fellowship what and why we pray the wya we pray and what it is that we believe and how it is that our faith gioverns our life.
Despite persecutions and virtual imprisonment of orthodoxy for hundreds of years, it remains the second largest Christian Church. It didn't get to be that way by osmosis.
This is pretty powerful stuff. I think you can make a case that to not preach THE GOSPEL when given the opportunity is to deny Jesus.