----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, April 02, 2004 10:28
PM
Subject: [TruthTalk] Education - Is it
evil?
From: "Wm. Taylor" <
[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>
Judy
says > I used to believe that anyone who claimed to be
Christian should be perfect.
Judy, I think there are unbelievers who still believe this. Do you
believe that maybe the language Christians use -- for instance, "Christian
perfection" -- may be fueling the misunderstanding? Do you believe your
language might lend itself to that sort of misunderstanding on the part of
unbelievers?
jt: No because I wouldn't talk this way to an
unbeliever.
BT: What about unbelievers who read these posts. Are you not talking to
the world every time one of your posts hit the archives?
jt: This is an internet list Bill. You can try to be
anything you want on the internet because ppl can not observe your daily
life. It's our interaction with others daily that is important so far as
our spiritual life is concerned. Husband/wife, kids.
IMO unbelievers are of this opinion because the god
of this world whispers to them so that he can accuse the believers to them who
obviously do not measure up.
BT: I agree with you about the whispering thing. What do you think
the whiperer whispers when Christians have already done the dirty work for
him?
jt: He's still the one doing it, whether through
Christians or through the old unrenewed heart and mind. OTOH I don't think the "sin consciousness" talk helps the cause
of Christ either. Do you?
BT: I'm not sure what you mean by "sin consciousness" talk. Is this
something I have said? If it is, will you refresh my memory? Is it not better
to love our neighbors while being honest about our own shortcomings, than it
is to condemn them while misleading (or maybe lying) about the obvious?
jt: It's what you hear constantly. I'm just an
old sinner saved by grace etc. We don't need to be honest about our
shortcomings, they see them. Nor are we in the position to condemn anybody; if
they are in sin then they are already condemned. They need to see enough light
in us to cause them to want to come to it. When the Church is impotent and not doing the works of Christ what is
there to draw the unbeliever?
BT: I hear you. One might conclude there is nothing to draw the believer.
Yet Christ continues to build his church inspite of its/our ineptitude and
sin. I think this is a wonderful testimony to God's grace. Don't you?
jt: I agree that He is the one building it - I'm not
sure that what we see is the one He is building though. At the end there will
be two, the true and the false. Most of the time they (unbelievers) don't
listen to the rhetoric. jt
BT: Yeah, well I am not as confident about that as you. Again it must be
the Father drawing people to the Son through the Holy Spirit, because the
world, it seems to me, is always more than willing to hear and report problems
from the Church/Christian life.
jt: Sad thing is that too often they are right.
Just as God used the pagan nations to judge Israel - He is using the world to
lift the skirts of the professing Church. If we don't judge ourselves He
will judge us and He is doing just that.
