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Baal or Christ - that is the question

JohnMarsten

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In another thread the idea was contemplated that the Romans killed both members of the true church and of the false churches alike....

To be honest I didnt know there were false churches back in the day (could anyone tell me which one was true and which were false that just btw, and pardon my obvious ingnorance in that matter).

Anyhow, so from what I gather is that both were killed, no matter if true or false christians...

Have they died for Christs names sake? If so, I guess they were both on the same side, and saved for eternity, so being in a false church wouldnt have that terrible effect.

If not, well, then really believing in the name of Christ might not have that desired effect at all...

--- and that brings me to a new point that is fortunately beyond EGW (at least I hope so), the thing is I heard a sermon by an SDA preacher not too long ago...

He compared todays church situation with all those various churches believing in so many different doctrines and stuff and draw a bridge between it and the old testament Baal situation.

Claiming that during that division of Israel, the remaining two tribes had fallen under the sway of Baal worship. He further claimed that they actually thought they were serving God as the word Baal allegedly meant 'LORD" so they thought they were serving the LOrd, personally I guess they would have rather been a little shortsighted and I am disinclined to believe that but it still seems to be a valid possibilty. Being under the sway of the heathen religion they had lost sight of truth and honestly argued with Jerobeams (hope I got it right, didnt double check it) prophet why he was against the Lord and stuff.

The preacher continued by claiming that there are lots of Jesus\es today, and asked the more or less rethorical question which Jesus are you following/serving. By further stating that people just think they believe in Jesus but it may be the wrong Jesus, further giving proove by stating that it was important (and I guess this is the EGW connection) that the believers will follow the lamb whereever he goes, and now that the Lamb has gone into the most holy, the believer will follow him there, and those who stopped in the holy place have lost track or something and that it was important to know where Jesus is at the moment (in order to be saved or with Him), personally its a worrying idea, a little bit shaky I guess, but it has its substantiality in the bible and can be apparently made very compatible with EGW and the general adventist belief.

What is your take on that?

Coming back to the origin of my post, that would mean that those who died for Christ name's sake but were in the false churches might have died in vain, I mean they would have died anyway sooner or later but apparently just believing in the name of Christ doesnt help too much...
 

Pythons

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The true Church listened to and observed the directives of the Apostolic Authority...
...The false or Gnostic Church did NOT.

Acts 15 is an excellent place to see how this worked at the ground level...
...A matter of Salvation was brought up in the Church of Antioch.
...To solve the question it was taken to the Apostolic Authority.
...Who made a 'binding' determination on what was to be believed.

Everyone who opted to opt out of that Apostolic determination....
...Ceased being a member of the true Church.

Acts 1,1
The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments UNTO the apostles whom he had chosen

The determination of what was to be believed and be a part of Faith and Morals...
...WAS one such commandment transmitted via Apostolic Authority.
...Those kinds of questions would remain as long as there would be people.

Therefore, subsequent Councils no different than the Council of Jerusalem...
...Would continue to be called and held to answer those questions.

And just as today, even back then some people didn't care for the determinations...
...The Holy Spirit made through the Apostolic Authority.

There were many Christians who died for their Christian Faith prior to 325 A.D....
...And the examples of those who were killed do not appear to be theologically Adventist.
...They appear to be Catholic / Eastern Orthodox.
 
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JohnMarsten

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I see no body has an opinion on that...

just in case somebody wondered, the guy who preached lateron left the SDA together with his wife because of some arguments with the leadership, so its not necessarily strictly SDA philosophy presented here...

Personally I think its a nice concept but flawed in many respects...
 
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