I concern myself with the Direct relationship between The Lord and I , I will tell people about what I believe the Lord has done for me in my life. I will not get to excited when instutitions made up of Sinful people( we are all sinners at heart) start catering to "Those People " to boast their bottom line. The Book of Revelations does not limit itself to the sinful getting worse, The World as a whole will get worse before The next coming. All of what we are seeing The Lord knows would happen and He has a Plan for all of it.....
Hebrews 10:24-25 show the church must be involved in a believer’s life. John 13:34-35 also prove Biblical fellowship and community is a must.
I agree. While a person can be a believer, and do good works, the number of people who do that and are not involved with a church are about as scarce as hens teeth. The Bible teaches us that Christian fellowship is a must, and that includes the church.
If someone is attending a church who's policies they don't agree with, and who believes that those policies go against the Bible and what God has taught us, then it is a very simple thing to find a church that they feel right about. Many times those same people will start not attending a church, using the excuse that they don't agree with what that church is teaching, and they next thing you know, they have gotten completely away from the Lord.
It's really not all that hard to find a church that is still teaching and preaching the word of God. It requires effort on your part to search them out, but the reward will be worth it.
I binge-read this thread, so if I missed or repeat some points that have already been made, please forgive me.
The gentleman in the OP eloquently defends the faith. Those denominations and/or individual churches and/or individual church members who cave to the demands of the liberals of the world love the praise of men more than the praise of God. Let us pray that woke churches and their members repent of the heresies they are now embracing.
I disagree with the premise that organized religion is a joke. The church as an organization is ordained and promoted in the Bible. Pastors, elders, and deacons are positions/officers of the church organization and are specifically pointed to in the scriptures. It is organized religion that enabled Christianity to flourish and spread shortly after Christ’s resurrection. It is organized religion that sends missionaries around the world. It is organized religion that sends disaster relief teams to places that experience some sort of calamity. And it is organized religion that provides men the opportunity to study scripture and take that knowledge out to congregations around the world.
Do some churches lose sight of their original purpose? Yes, as does every other type of human organization: governments, corporations, schools, hospitals, etc. regardless of size. Are all of these things a joke as well? No, we need all of them. We need them to be better, not gone. Take schools as an example. I am a proponent of homeschooling. But I don’t advocate simply letting a child stay home and expecting them to teach themselves what they need to learn. They need a teacher, and they benefit from being with other students. (I do think that sometimes other students can be a detriment to learning, in which case homeschooling is better.) Likewise, a Christian cannot be expected to stay away from church (organized religion) and learn as much about Christ as well as he would in a church with fellow believers. I’m sorry, but I am afraid that many of those who avoid attending church while claiming to be Christian would often simply rather enjoy a second Saturday. I’m not questioning their salvation mind you, just their wisdom and possibly their commitment. It is certainly possible, particularly in the internet age, to engage in a course of self-study of the scriptures, but I can’t help but doubt that there’s much of this going on. Oh, and if one doesn’t attend a church there’s no collection plate to contribute to either.
I hope that this doesn’t come across as sounding holier than thou. For a period of years, I was not in church myself. I have had disappointments in churches (as organizations) and in church people (as individuals), so I understand how things can happen to sour people on church attendance. But I believe that when such things happen, we are supposed to forgive and move on. That may mean reconcile with the organization or individual one has a beef with, or it may mean literally moving on to another church, or it could involve both. Just remember that Christ is not the problem, He is the answer.
The biggest problem our country has is not systemic racism, it's systemic stupidity.
I've read, Columbus, and his men had an Indian chef tied to a stake, all ready to set the wood on fire, and gave the chef one last chance to convert. The chef said, if Heaven is full people like you, I don't want to go their.
These premises insured by a Sheltie in Training ,--- and Cooey.o "May the Good Lord take a likin' to you"
I've said this before but it needs to be said again in every discussion about sexual sin.
1 Cor 6:18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
Note that word 'but'. It separates sin outside the body from sin against the body, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. This passage indicates that sexual sin is worse than other sins because it's against the Holy Spirit. Remember than the only unforgivable sin is also against the Spirit (this isn't it). You don't want to mess with the Holy Spirit.
You come to the unfounded conclusion that sin against the body is sin against the Holy Spirit. That is not what the passage says. What it says is that sexual sin is against your body, and you shouldn't treat your body like that because it doesn't belong to you anymore.
It isn't telling you that sexual sin is the worst sin in God's eyes. You only see it that way because of your focus on sin. The whole church focuses on how bad sin is and what we need to do about it. The biggest reason is so you can feel better about your small sins compared to somebody else's big sins.
All the while you argue about what is a sin and what isn't, and what's the proper method to get rid of sin. One argues you must be baptized, then you argue about how you should be baptized, then you argue about confession and repentance and any other thing you can think of that makes your group better than another group. If your focus was on grace rather than sin, you could understand that God took care of the sin problem through faith, and it don't matter a damn if you sprinkle or dunk, or any other thing Christians get bent out of shape over trying to take care of their own sin by correctly following instructions.
You beat me to it. I always chuckle when the "holy" proclaim God to be in the sin rating business. It's never not funny. Yet they can't understand why the "unclean" see them as hypocrites. I know in his mind the Rock thinks he is doing the world a favor. I understand how he gets there with the holiness & legalism he so dearly loves to cling to in his church. Sadly, he is a stench (just as stinky as those he rebukes) to the Almighty's nostrils, just like the rest of us. It's along the same lines as the Christians with racist views so rampant in these forums.
I think Rock is good people just like 99% of church people. These people would help a stranger as far as giving them the shirt off their back. They really are the salt of the earth. The problem is anytime you place yourself in a group, you become susceptible to group think. You have to believe that your group is somehow a little better than a different group, else why join any specific group in the first place?
I'm sure most Christians can give all the technically correct answers about faith, grace, and redemption but when you carry those concepts to their fulfillment, there is really no need for organized religion other than doing good works, and any bunch of good people can do good works without being a part of a domination. To serve a useful purpose, the church has to become the "teacher" of what is necessary for salvation, and they basically sell that knowledge for a price. The standard is 10% of your income. Now to compete in this lucrative marketplace, it becomes necessary to specialize in the rules, and we get umpteen dozen different denominations arguing about the dumbest things imaginable.
Thus, the whole thing falls away from the simple gospel that God forgives you. Now go love yourself and everybody else to the best of your ability.
So, if someone doesn't walk into a building with a cross over it on sunday they aren't part of the 'Church', or of lesser understanding and lesser standing?
I think Rock is good people just like 99% of church people. These people would help a stranger as far as giving them the shirt off their back. They really are the salt of the earth.
Totally agree. He's sincere. and wrong, sometimes. As am I.
I've read, Columbus, and his men had an Indian chef tied to a stake, all ready to set the wood on fire, and gave the chef one last chance to convert. The chef said, if Heaven is full people like you, I don't want to go their.
I quote Mahatma Gandhi: " I like your Christ. I do not like you Christians. You Christians are so unlike your Christ".
This thread clearly vindicates his opinion.
Perhaps. Gandhi hated blacks too.
Gandhi had his faults just like the rest of us. I hear he liked to sleep naked with a bunch of young girls, but hey, who can blame him, right. I applaud him for giving it a good shot. At least he stood up for something, unlike some people.
I used to attend a church in South Oklahoma City. The first time I ever went there, I was zoomin’ around on my VTX 1800 on a late Saturday afternoon...having no intention of goin’ to church...and I saw their sign out front that said “Services Tonight at 6 pm”. I looked at my watch, it was 5:50 pm...and I swear I just felt led to go...so I whipped into the parkin’ lot, and went in, wearin’ my shorts and tank top and tennis shoes. From the get-go, to say I was “blown away” woulda been an understatement. At the end of the service, they passed around some wicker baskets for a collection...and the pastor said, “if you’re an adult, and you’re in need of food or shelter or clothing, if you see some money in that basket that would help you meet this need, please feel free to reach in there and take it.” I was floored. I continued to go to that church for the remainder of my time in Oklahoma. And that pastor said the same thing about that, every time, at the end of the service when a collection was being taken. I’d never experienced anything like that before at a church, nor have I experienced anything like that since, at a church.
I haven't seen who actually did the deed, but it was during an expedition to Cuba by Velázquez, after Hatuey arrived there to stir up the Cuban caciques and waged guerilla war against the Spanish. Not saying Hatuey didn't have some points, but understand that the Spanish were not all, not nearly all, practicing Christians. Instead of getting your stories from communists (https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/hatuey/ ), you should read the accounts by Columbus (who should probably be declared a saint if he has miracles attributed to his intercession) and Cortez. Both were great Christian men except Cortez seems to have had an attachment to adultery (Don't know if he overcame that). I don't know what the situation was in the islands, but Cortez ushered in an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity to Mexico and Central America.
I quote Mahatma Gandhi: " I like your Christ. I do not like you Christians. You Christians are so unlike your Christ".
This thread clearly vindicates his opinion.
Perhaps. Gandhi hated blacks too.
Gandhi had his faults just like the rest of us. I hear he liked to sleep naked with a bunch of young girls, but hey, who can blame him, right. I applaud him for giving it a good shot. At least he stood up for something, unlike some people.
There's one reason to not like Christians. I'm sure they did not approve of that!
