But if we keep coming back to scripture to varify or affirm our mental wonderings, we cannot get far from the truth. Surely God can cover the slack!!
I see Bill and Jonathan and Lance and Perry and you and me and Iz and Chris and slade and ..... doing this very thing --- returning to scripture to affirm our position.
jt: I don't know about God covering the slack. Mental wanderings can carry us down some destructive paths... ask me how I know?
and Church discipline appears to be non-existent in our day so we must be responsible to discern between good and evil and hold fast to that which is good; Paul warned about wolves in sheep's clothing (Acts 20:28-31) and some were of their own selves.
I make a difference between the mental wonderings of a immoral thinker and that of a child of God -- submitted to Christ and wanting to do and think the right things. I am sure you have changed your mind about a number of things, spiritual.. Me? maybe a hundrend or more individual matters are intellectually different from me than 20 years ago. I was wrong so I changed my mind, hoping I am now right but believing that God in Christ on the Cross, has secured all the time in this world for me to get it finally right -- you too. Until then, we are made right (Ro 14:4) I remember Bill saying that when he got certain things right in his thinking, it made his practice of holiness that much easier (my summation -- Bill's wording was no doubt more to the point.) All on this list, including our Mormon friends, have this shared goal. I see it in their (all of us) writings.
Yes but wasn't church discipline primarily used to deal with rank immorality? The "false prophet" was a danger to the church when he pressed his dogma to the point of division. He was to be excluded for divisivenss. I don't think you are saying that Bill is a wolf in sheep's clothing, although I have heard some strange things about his manner of dress.
jt: Paul dealt with the man having an affair with his father's wife. Peter dealt with Annanias and Sapphira for lying about money. Paul wrote to Timothy telling him to deal with those who sinned before all so that they would learn to fear. Our son-in-law has been conned and scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars by a person in Church leadership who has done the same thing to two other families and this person declared bankruptcy last week so the money is probably gone for good but the problem is still leading singing and teaching in the Church. This must be a stench in God's nostrils just like perverted priests in the RCC. These things ought not to be. The pastor takes our son-in-law out to dinner and gives him printouts of scripture to look at and meditate on. John
how would you have handled something like this in your Church? They talk about business and Church matters having to be separate etc. but our son-in-law never would have met this person or gone into business with him had he not been at this particular Church and made such a good showing after the flesh. His outward appearance is perfection, clean and pressed, brand name clothes, drives an Expedition; but he has an Amway mindset and the big break is always on the way - in the meantime he rips off God's people. Is Church discipline the answer to this?
John responds: a terrible thing. Hopefully your son-in-law continues in the Lord.
John
