Good response. There is much that we could continue to debate in good faith. But your response is both reasonable and charitable, and points to where we need to focus.
Thanks. I have spent a lot of time with devoted Catholics and Charismatic Catholics, with Pentecostals, with Southern Baptists, with solid Presbyterians and numerous other denoms, and of course, with Lutherans since I’ve been attending a Missouri Synod Lutheran Church for 20 years.
What I know now is that I know very little, even after studying the Bible for 30 some years. I’m finally at peace about it. Yes, my mind still struggles to know FOR SURE about some things and I still question things in my mind (e.g. can people “lose” their salvation or is it just, as the Baptists believe, that they never really HAD it to begin with but it just looked like it; OR, the biggie of all time, transubstantiation vs. consubstantiation. My head hurts on that one; Another big one is the doctrine of the elect. In fact, my Bible Study Class which has been convening for about 15 years have a few topics that whenever they come up, we all just groan in unison because we know we’re never going to solve it - ha ha). I’ve read Augustine and the other early church fathers and thankfully my Lord doesn’t require that I understand everything intellectually. I just know HIM. He called me and I heard his voice and I know that only his sheep know his voice. I will never understand why he called ME and why I heard; I just know I am so eternally grateful and joyful that HE did and I did - another mystery of faith.
I am so fundamentally concerned over the truly lost in this world - the atheists, the secularists, the Muslims, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and so on that when I meet a brother or sister in Christ that doesn’t quite dot his “I” the way I do, I just rejoice that he loves my Lord. Obviously, there are some big doctrinal issues that cannot be played with (Christ’s divinity for instance)but I think we can be charitable to one another in this challenge. I do think it is good that we all debate these things because we can all learn some things from one another - especially patience, forebearance and self-control (right?)
As the Bible says, “Come let us reason together.”