The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum A church reaches out to the world around them

Ted,

Don't you find that to be rather ironic? I mean, why would anyone even need "grace" if there was no "sin"? For Scripture says, "But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:" (Rom 5:20) It is virtually impossible to comprehend to any degree the grace of God without first comprehending to a large measure the nature and effects of sin. One cannot appreciate the crucifixion unless one first knows the reason for the crucifixion. One cannot begin to appreciate the love of God until one has come to know the depth of sin that is in their own heart.

"Modern evangelism" and so many other organizations, denominations, churches, etc., use words found in the Bible but without knowing or denying what those words actually mean according to the Bible. In most instances, they choose words which will bring the best results to their goal. The bottom line is that to "succeed" you need to use psychology, emotional appeal and clever techniques. Sounds like Madison Avenue to me! Charles Finney, of course, revolutionized the method of evangelism by first rejectining the doctrines that biblical evangelism was founded upon. His methodology, which is that embraced and used by probably 90% of the church today, even by those who claim to be "Reformed/Calvinist", is founded upon semi-Pelagian doctrine.

Secondly, I'm wondering if you might comment on something you quoted from the Pastor's letter:

"The Bible teaches that all of us are sinners, and though God always loves us, He hates our sin and calls us to repentance and holiness. . . ."

I'm particularly interested in your thoughts on the highlighted portion; i.e. God loves everyone always, but hates sin.

In His Grace,

I'll try to hit that one out of the park for you . . . . . .

God loves those whom He has called to Himself, my brother.

With deep appreciation for the One Who calls us,
Ted

Your "God loves those whom He has called to Himself, my brother," did not answer Jeff's question. He asked you to comment on "and though God always loves us, He hates our sin."

Does God always love us? How does God always love us and hate our sin? How much does God hate us? In what ways does God love us? etc.

In the words of Homey the Clown, "Homey don't play those games."

[You know the answers to those questions, brother. I think that's the point of much of this board, to His great praise!]

God chose the one's He would love, and then loved the one's He chose. Or is God Arminian?

No, I am not taking them out of context. The context was that God loves everyone, including homosexuals. But that's simply not true: God does NOT love everyone.


They are already alienated from God, but they don't realize it. The more we lie and say that God loves everyone, the more we lull people into a false sense of security about their relationship with God.

"whatever" <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/shrug.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for thoroughly engaging my critique. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/rolleyes2.gif" alt="" />

I think you're taking his words out of their context, which makes engaging impossible.

Paul

And I think you are out of context with scripture. As I asked before, I now ask again, any scripture?


God bless,

william

just as the writer of the email cited it.

But you didn't bother to explain HOW I've taken them out of context. You have failed to engage me.

Ted, I do know the answer, however I am interested in yours? You seem to be avoiding the question/answer?

PS: I am sorry if you think correct doctrine is a mere game..... These are the bullets we shoot in this hood homey. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/takethat.gif" alt="" />

How about something a little more? I didn't see anything there like you are teaching.


God bless,

william

I have read the pastor’s memo over again and again. I just finished rereading it twice before writing this response.
I come to the following conclusions based solely on this one piece of correspondence:

1. He and his staff are encouraging the church to step out in faith to engage lost people in the context of the world beyond the walls of the church.
2. He is encouraging them to not worry about compromising their convictions. As an example he uses the story of the young person who has “dropped the biblical definitions of sin, and the example of Jesus in John 8.
3. The challenge is to balance both intolerance of sin with grace (& love).

He then shares the letter he wrote to a person who was interested in visiting the church but was open & honest about his lifestyle. In that communication he attempted to show the church’s clear teaching that about sin & grace offered to sinners, and that homosexuality is unacceptable to God. He tried to be respectful but upfront. Which is apparently how the “inquirer” communicated with him.

That’s my analysis.

What would you say to this person if he/she wrote to you?

Paul