At 09:06 6/13/2001 -0700, -=A=- wrote:
>It's been a while since I kicked the bee hive..
<big grin>
>Last night I talked with a long time member of
>the Assemblies of God,and they were able to tell
>me off-hand with conviction that the Baptist
>beleve that the gift of toungs is "of the devil"
>
>It struck me odd..
It should have. One thing that I have learned as I grow in Jesus Christ is
that we need to be careful how we speak about our brothers and sisters in
Christ, and to avoid categorizing Christians and making unfair
generalizations. It is often difficult to determine what is going on inside
of a church based on the name on the sign outside of the building it meets
in. I really did visit one Baptist church where the preacher did publicly
contradict the teaching of the Holy Bible with respect to speaking in
tongues. That was only once, and I have been in lots of Baptist churches. I
know of many baptists (even Baptist preachers) who speak in tongues, and
who affirm that this really is a gift of the Holy Spirit.
>Many times folks name a church in our fair city and
>lecture on it's failure to preach the full gospel
>or define it's beliefs as something less than desired.
I have even heard AG churches named as failing to preach the FULL Gospel,
but that isn't very productive. It is better to check our own eyes for
telephone poles and make sure that we are preaching the whole Gospel of
Jesus Christ, and make sure that we are walking in love with our brothers
and sisters in other "denominations."
>A great part of Royal Ranger deals with the teaching
>of the "church" but what part of these teachings
>holds that we should in any way *Respect others
>belief's?
Perhaps the Golden Rule is sufficient... but there is more in the Bible
about unity in the Body of Christ, walking in love, and taming your tongue.
This does bring up an important issue. How much should we tolerate, and how
much should we reject as false doctrine?
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Even people with
bad doctrine can be saved by calling on Jesus Christ, putting their faith
in Him, and confessing that He is Lord. That doesn't mean that we need to
believe that doctrine doesn't matter, or accept all doctrines (even
conflicting doctrines) as valid, but it does mean that we don't have to go
around condemning our brothers and sisters. Isn't it much better just to
preach and teach what we believe to be true, and let the Lord guide both us
and them closer to Himself (and thus all believers closer to each other)?
>*Perhaps a "Compareitive religions merit" would
>build bridges and shine the light on the true
>path. Must I as a RR Adult leader teach AoG is
>the only way?
I'm not sure if such a merit would really help in the way you suggest. I
good, long look at the Holy Bible would help a lot, though.
___
Michael Paul Johnson AKA Soaring Golden Eagle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Outpost 362, Mountain Creek Community Church, Dallas Texas http://mtcreek.com
http://eBible.org/mpj/ Jesus Christ is Lord!
_______
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