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,