Re: [Church_of_Christ] Re: Are we misunderstanding the scriptures?
Ed....answers in green
Beth: You referred to what you are teaching as, "accepted "traditional" positions." That is the problem facing the churches of Christ today.
ED: I do not mention "accepted universally" or "universal tradition" as proof. The scripture is proof. But when I question something that is universally accepted, I want to be very sure I have thoroughly studied the matter before I reject it. There is ususally a good reason something like this is universally accepted.
Beth: Yes! and that reason being???? traditions of men which means that "SOMEONE" or a goup of people "INTERPRETED" scripture a certain way.... the way "THEY" understood it and it has been passed down from generation to generation because no one ever questions it....until recently when some of us started to realize that all was not well in what we thought was sound doctrine instituted by the Lord;
Let me ask you a question. Do you believe that Alexander Campbell and all the other men who were caught up in the restoration period perceived and interpreted scripture the exact same way as you do? I don't think so. So many changes have been "instituted" by other men who have fine tuned it till "THEY" thought they had it right, but you know and I know that there are some things that have changed...(maybe ever so slightly) from generation to generation and now "FINALLY" we have it "EXACTLY" right...no wiggle room at all...cut and dried. So if you think that what you have been programmed to believe is exactly what the Apostles taught while they were on this earth....think again! Because "ALL" those men who started the reformation movement as we know it thought they had "ALL" the answers and were EXACTLY right too.
Beth: As many have stated on this topic we are no longer under the law. There is no cut and dried rules. The "ONLY" thing we are "COMMANDED" to do in scripture is to meet to exhort one another.
ED: You have been led to believe this and it is simply false. The church is translated "assembly" and it is elsewhere identified as "the house of God", an allusion to the OT temple and what went on in the temple, worship. Elsewhere, we are all stones making up the temple of God, in shich we lift reverent praise to God. I can worship God alone, just as I am churched alone. But only when my stone takes its place together with all of the other stones making up the temple of God am I the temple of God in the fullest sense. I am a part of the assembly because I belong to it, but I am only assembled when we are gathered together. The first takes its meaning from the second and divorced from the second it loses its meaning!
Beth: I appreciate your attempt to prove that what I said is simply false, but let me just say something very simple. I can meet with other members of the body every minute of every day to "worship God" and if I do not take God with me in His Temple (ME) then I may as well have stayed home. In other words....if we go to a building site to worship and are not truly worshipping God, but rather going through the motions and performing all the rituals that we do every time we meet then we are "just meeting" for a get together. We are the Body "universally"
Beth: . . . We have become so :"ritualistic" in what we call worship that it doesn't even resemble the early church.
ED: I would like to know what you have found in our worship that the NT assemblies did not do.
Beth: I read Clay's explanation in another post and he expressed my views exactly.
<snip>
ED: I am sorry that has been your experience. It is not mine. We love one another. We help one another. We are there when needed. Our worship is a joyful expression of the salvation within. I honestly am sorry for your bitter experiences.
Beth: Well, I think that's wonderful, but I have lived in 3 states and have gone to many, many congregations and I haven't found one yet that I believe that is taking care of their members as they should and I hear that everywhere I go and have heard from many on these lists that have experienced the same. Let me make one thing perfectly clear....I have not had any "bitter" experiences with any congregation.
ED: Whoever has been condemning to hell anyone who disagrees with them, has overstepped their bounds. Last I heard, the Lord will judge us all.
Beth: Well, Ed you have truly been blessed because when I was being nurtured in the church that was preached from the pulpit repeatedely and still is by many in this area. The fact that you have not experienced this is telling me that you have truly been blessed by not being taught a doctrine that has been wildy rampant in the church of Christ for decades. Things have "finally" begin to change as far as doctrine in the past few years....praise God.
Ed....Some men's judgment precedes them to judgment, but that certainly doesn't apply to folks who are trying to serve the Lord and who don't understand everything; like me. As for IM, I choose to remain within that which I can identify as early Christian practice. Others go beyond. It's that simple.
Beth: Again! you can only use CENI to identify that IM was dis-allowed by God.
We don't want to see you go, but if you must, the address is Church_of_Christ-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
Post a Comment