I have learned these things from interaction on Christian forums:
1) Relativism rules! – Everyone seems to have his/her own truth and we are expected to tolerate everyone’s right to determine truth. (However, that tolerance is not extended to those who deny that truth is relative).
2) If you insist a biblical foundation is required for what we believe, and if you question someone’s right to their own truth, you are a Pharisee.
3) Some things are just too hard and cause too much strife so we are better off avoiding them.
4) Play the Word vs Spirit game, taking the side of the Spirit if you want to appear REALLY free in the spirit (unlike those dogmatic Pharisees).
5) Promote sound teaching and someone will take offense or will contradict it.
I have learned these things in my own relationship with the Lord – through allowing the Holy Spirit to teach me from His word.
1) Doctrine reliant on selective proof texts is highly questionable
2) Scripture is not a book of doctrine – it is a biography, a history, a love story all centred on God and His relationship with mankind, culminating in Him presenting His Son with a pure bride, after which they GENUINELY live happily ever after.
3) Before I can understand a single verse, a single chapter, a single book from the bible, I need at least a basic understanding of the whole bible and how each part fits together.
4) ALL doctrinal disputes would be resolved if EVERYONE looked at what scripture ACTUALLY says in context rather than trying to reinterpret parts of scripture to support a desired belief.
4 comments:
Any genuine move of God will ALWAYS line up with His word, because GOD DOES NOT CHANGE. Indeed, the very first purpose listed for the divine inspiration of scripture is DOCTRINE (2 Timothy 3:16), and it is directly stated that no saint can be matured or even be fully equipped for the good work God has sent them to do without it. There are only 2 kinds of doctrine mentioned in the Bible: sound doctrine, and doctrines of devils. No middle ground is ever mentioned. Thus doctrine isn't just important; it is absolutely essential. To have a 'revival' or any other spiritual event absent of any regard for sound doctrine will only produce more Todd Bentleys, and will only allow more witches, warlocks, diviners, necromancers, Knights of Malta, 33rd degree masons, and other occult practitioners to continue to enter in and deceive the flock.
The sad truth of the matter is that the western church does not want true revival, because then the western church would have to depart from its wicked and selfish ways. The leaders would have to stop raping the bride and taking all of her money (the evangelical church in the US controls over $3.89 TRILLION in assets, more than most nations possess), and they would have to start using the money already present for actual gospel purposes instead of for the furthering of their financial empires and the purchase of luxury items.
The western lust for spectacle is not content with a genuine work of the Holy Spirit. It is rather intent upon feasting its eyes upon parlor tricks, lying wonders, and mystical experiences no matter what their origin, as the western church is too eager to chase after these experiences to be bothered with sound doctrine or 'theology,"
Theology is the study of God, and the knowledge of God. It is because the church has rejected a genuine knowledge of God that it is so easily deceived. I have encountered numerous prophets and other believers who look upon doctrine and theology as "religious," as their new age preachers have taught them to do, and not one of them can tell the difference between demonic power and the power of God.
You want revival?
Then shut up, read your Bible closely for a change, and REPENT of your disregard for God's sovereign word. Then pray, pray and pray some more.
It is impossible to pray too much. Most of us pray too little.
Get to know the Lord, and not just know a little bit about Him.
Let go of the postmodern belief that doctrine and theology are "religious" and "irrelevant," and evaluate all these things by the WORD OF GOD, and by no other standard. Be thorough in this; don't just refer to the half-verses used by the new age charismatics to gull you into spiritual blindness.
You may regard this as harsh, but to that I say:
Quote:
Open rebuke is better than secret love.
Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
--Proverbs 27:5-6
The preceding was written on Revival School several years ago by a poster named Apostolic Awakening. I happened to save it before the board went down as it was a very powerful message.
Yes, a very powerful message!
A much needed message.
But those neglecting doctrine and “theology” are not the only heading along the wrong path. Many who esteem these things do so using the wrong foundation.
A lot of accepted “theology” is merely inherited tradition, passed on from one generation of teacher to the next. Church and denominational doctrine are taught instead of what scripture actually says.
Too few people search the scriptures for themselves but put their trust in what others tell them about the scriptures.
There is only one God. The worship of, or obedience to, any other deity or doctrine is idolatry. In a man based pagan idolatry, a god of man’s concoction, a supposed deity is given the characteristics that men envision their god of having (or the characteristics men want their god to have), along with assigned attitudes and the ways of pleasing, or at least appeasing, their god. They ascribe to this god a list of do’s and don’t’s to be followed by it’s worshippers and benefits or punishments based upon their relationship with the doctrine of their beliefs. This is Idolatry. Yet this is what the modern church has done, in preaching a 'different Jesus' than the one scriptures refer to. They have pulled from scripture, only those things about God that they wish to incorporate into the God of their making...and calling in Christianity.
Yes anonymous,
and this false god and this false Jesus are sustained through the theologies of men, which are based on hand-me-down teachings supported by favoured portions of scripture.
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