So I guess I'm just being dense and argumentative? Sometimes I dial for humorous and get irritating. Insert puzzled shrug here. My apologies.
I don't actually have that much experience with excommunication, but I've thought about it--especially during business meetings.
gotribe said:
The church excommunicates primarily to communicate the seriousness of the person's spiritual jeopardy and to convince him to repent and be restored. It is always done with the hope and even expectation that the person will see the sinful error of his ways and repent.
This helps.
J_Edwards said:
Pilgrim is NOT saying the Church determines who is elect...
Of course not, but it seemed to me he was giving too much credit to the church which has proven untrustworthy in times past. Again, no offense--probably just a stiff-necked Baptist thing.
I guess what the issue is to me, mainly, is that any group of folks could decide that a person needed this done and get it right. I've seen too many churches go awry after justifying their actions with a prayer meeting. That said, I can see that a group acting under prayer, conviction, and having the obvious evidence of a person's sinful activities at hand could do it right.
