Quote:
Originally Posted by joe707
I would like to respond to some of the other comments, there are some very good issues raised. But Pastor, you are spot on. At least you can see beyond the words. I do not doubt the strength of your convictions – or indeed your knowledge of your Bible. What I call into question is the LBC claim to know God, truth, faith, love, awareness and - not least - care. And I would be prepared to take up that gauntlet, because I have seen some of the things that supposedly pass for ‘truth’ and ‘care’ here. And there are problems.
Please remember, it is not your intentions I question here, merely the way they are played out. English is indeed my native language. And I really would prefer this continue in a public forum, please. What is the worst that can happen?
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Well Joe, the worst that could happen is that you could get banned or be struck by lightning. Here's the problem. You cannot take up that particular gauntlet. For your purposes, our answers would be subjective and possibly even unconvincing. But I am sure you have heard the phrase "We are a God-fearing nation". The Bible teaches us to fear God's wrath, not to expect His love. That's what it says, period. Of the 31,101 verses in the Bible, less than 200 of them do not refer, directly or indirectly, to violence and/or punishment, or God's wrath.
This started changing in the early twentieth century when evangelists, and Aimee Semple McPherson in particular, was having an off day and preached love instead of fear. She noticed that her collection plate was fuller that day, so she started preaching only the 'feel-good' parts of the Bible. She was followed by Mary Baker Eddy and Christian Science, and then a long line of traveling salvation shows and eventually an entire industry of television evangelists, scientologists, wiccans...and now...almost all church services are sing alongs, rock concerts, feel-good verses and lies. All you hear in church is what you want to hear; how much JESUS loves you, why everyone will go to heaven, why women have souls, slavery is bad, and people toss a fifty into the box so that GOD will look the other way for a week or two while they go out and keep sinning.
But it doesn't work that way. You can't pick and choose the parts of the Bible you like and ignore the rest. You can't create GOD in the image you want. And you can't go through life acting out and still expect Salvation™ because JESUS was crucified and spilled His blood to give you the freedom to run amok on earth, thus you are guaranteed a free ticket to Heaven.
That's what we tell people. That's what the Bible says, and that's all we have to go on. The "truth" is the Good Book. It's not debatable. It's not interpretable. And since the advent of television and the dumbing down of America, it's not even accessable. High school graduates no longer have the basic skills necessary to survive in the world, much less study a book they can't understand.
We don't sell anything here and I am the first to admit that we resort to a couple of card tricks to keep from being sued by everyone and his brother. So debating our convictions is pointless. We have them and we offer them freely with the gift of Scripture. But since ALL organized religions claim to be the One and Only, or the Mother Church, or follow a fast-talking Latter Day Pedophile, challenging our beliefs is not going to prove to be a successful strategy.
That said, we will still engage, but we cannot debate Bible against Bible. We use the KJV1611 (Authorized) Bible and hold it to be the correct version.