Posted on 01/02/2014 10:13:07 AM PST by DouglasKC
Hi Kevmo..thanks for the courteous question.
I would say the scripture clearly teaches that Jesus is and was God himself. I know that many people do not have this understanding. If I were to engage such a person I would attempt to persuade them from scripture that this is true if they would hear me. If not, I would shake the dust from my feet and move on. I would not "condemn" them in the sense that I would be insulting or hostile to them. I know that Christ will reach them eventually.
Hope that helps...
Vman: The incivility of these vile elements does nothing for the cause of FreeRepublic, Christianity
Kevmo: You would accuse Christ of being “incivil” or unChristlike or “doing nothing for the cause of christianity” when He condemned false teachers of His day as ‘sons of satan’. In addition, you would add ‘vile’ to one of the descriptions of Christ’s behavior.
Vman: Yep.
***Then you accuse Christ of being unChristlike. Why any FReeper would listen to you is a dangerous spiritual mystery.
***First they seek to be tolerated. Then, when they achieve sufficient power because they’ve been tolerated for too darn long, they demand that any opposition to their heresies be squelched. ***
Dog gone! That sounds like some other groups like the gays and lezies!
I would say the scripture clearly teaches that Jesus is and was God himself.
***Then all of this anti-trinitarian Universal Church of God stuff is baloney?
Jesus had such harsh words for false teachers. There is no reason for us to do anything but follow His lead on that. Such false teachers as those who deny that Jesus is God Himself are properly condemned as ‘vipers’, ‘sons of satan’ and, simply, heretics.
Then neither is it yours.
You can't be telling him he can't define it without you, by default, defining it yourself.
Because nothing gives you the right over someone else to dictate definitions.
Details, details......
It’s kind of the mote and beam thing, isn’t it?
OH?
Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
I would not “condemn” them in the sense that I would be insulting or hostile to them. I know that Christ will reach them eventually.
***Jesus, who in your own words is God Himself, had very harsh words for such false teachers, calling them ‘sons of satan’. Why do you hold a higher view of how to deal with them than even the God of the Universe had? Christ “condemns” them in no uncertain terms to hell. He was insulting and hostile to them.
Who are the “Ravenous Wolves of Free Republic” that you rant so hard about? It appears it isn’t the trinitarian caucus. Who is it?
Thinking, apparently, that by doing so makes THEM holier than the church goers.
((“But so many churches/people condemning other people is the exact reason I don’t go to church! I just don’t, and I guess never will understand, why so many Christians must act holier than thou. “
The common thread that keeps many people from attending any church.))
Satan wins guys. I know how you feel though. Don’t let hypocrites wreck your fellowship, just politely write them off if they don’t respond to a loving reproach. And, yes, you will have to write some folks off.
Here is the essential divide my Friends, at least here on FR. It is between those whom I will call the “libertarian” Christian - the folks who believe that the ONLY opinion that counts is their own, and the Thomistic view that we, as individuals, are never complete by ourselves, but rather we need others. On the Natural level we need communities and on the Supernatural level we acknowledge the Mystical Body of Christ as a corporate body with decision making and teaching authority handed down to us from the Apostles.
Listen to a much wiser man than I explain:
In the Religion forum, on a thread titled The Ravenous Wolves of FreeRepublic, xzins wrote:
“The followers of Jesus is his Church, following Jesus is to live his gospel.”
It is not possible to read the letters to churches in the New Testament, to read of churches founded in Acts and of their loving to gather together, to read the letters to churches in the Revelation, and to come away from all that with the idea that “lone wolf” Christian is what Christ had in mind.
It isn’t. The entire New Testament is testimony that such is not the case.
I’ll go further: there is no such thing as individual Christianity.
Individuals can be Christians, but Christianity is corporate.
ALL my posts are king, theologically correct, none offensive to Anyone and perfect when I send them.
It’s not MY fault if some demonic force alters them before they get all the way to FR’s servers!
Because nothing gives you the right over someone else to dictate definitions.
***Except that earlier he seemed to hide behind the skirts of catholicism, so we should be able at a minimum to use catholic definitions. No doubt he will feel the relativistic need to assert relativism over catholicism, but that’s an exercise for future baloneyism.
I don't even know where to start to separate the wheat from the chaff that I've been accused of believing. So I won't. If you're curious there are links to my church on my profle page, both the local congregation and the UCG main site.
Jesus had such harsh words for false teachers. There is no reason for us to do anything but follow His lead on that. Such false teachers as those who deny that Jesus is God Himself are properly condemned as ‘vipers’, ‘sons of satan’ and, simply, heretics.
I think the main reason he was condemning them was for their hypocrisy. They pretended to be the gatekeepers of religion in their day but inwardly were rotten and corrupt...the ravenous wolves of his time. AND he was Jesus, the Lord, who could righteously judge a man's heart.
And yet:
"Now if any of you will deny the plurality of wives, and continue to do so, I promise that you will be damned;
and I will go still further and say, take this revelation, or any other revelation that the Lord has given,
and deny it in your feelings, and I promise that you will be damned.
Brigham Young - JoD 3:266 (July 14, 1855)
I just KNOW you are going to comment NOW!
Yeah; Native Americans are althroughout the Book of MORMON; too.
“I saw a striking contrast in the progress of the Indian people today ... they are fast becoming a white and delightsome people.... For years they have been growing delightsome, and they are now becoming white and delightsome, as they were promised.... The children in the home placement program in Utah are often lighter than their brothers and sisters in the hogans on the reservation.
At one meeting a father and mother and their sixteen-year-old daughter were present, the little member girl-sixteen-sitting between the dark father and mother, and it was evident she was several shades lighter than her parents—on the same reservation, in the same hogan, subject to the same sun and wind and weather.... These young members of the Church are changing to whiteness and to delightsomeness.
One white elder jokingly said that he and his companion were donating blood regularly to the hospital in the hope that the process might be accelerated.
(Improvement Era, December 1960, pp.922-23). (p. 209)
HMMMmmm...
The chair recognizes CityCenter.
You have the floor.
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