Non Denom. Unity

[Godlovesmetwo]

I have a dream. That one day people won't be judged by the Christian denomination they belong to on this forum.
That we can agree on everything? Stop.
No that's not going to happen.

That we can at least wish each other well
wish each other peace and happiness now and in the future
because we all want the same thing, don't we?
Peace and Happiness.

Inter- faith Fellowship is possible
Leave our differences on the shelf
Come together here now
Share a laugh maybe
Or just say Hi
United in Christ
Amen

 

[Extraneous]

Let everyone take off the faith badge, and we will rest in the shadow of the almighty. When you have God and His commands, you need no denomination nor its rules.


Psalms 1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”

3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler
And from the perilous pestilence.
4 He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
6 Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.

7 A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it shall not come near you.
8 Only with your eyes shall you look,
And see the reward of the wicked.

9 Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
10 No evil shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
11 For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways.
12 In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13 You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra,
The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.

14 “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation.”

 

[aiki]

I have a dream. That one day people won't be judged by the Christian denomination they belong to on this forum.
That we can agree on everything? Stop.
No that's not going to happen.

That we can at least wish each other well
wish each other peace and happiness now and in the future
because we all want the same thing, don't we?
Peace and Happiness.

Inter- faith Fellowship is possible
Leave our differences on the shelf
Come together here now
Share a laugh maybe
Or just say Hi
United in Christ
Amen

Ephesians 4:13-15
13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,
15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ--

Inter-faith fellowship is not possible. If Christ is the fundamental unifying principle, how can a disciple of Jesus have unity with one who denies him? There can be no unity when this is so. Paul the apostle points this out:

2 Corinthians 6:14-17
14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?
15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?
16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people."
17 Therefore "Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you."

Unity is not the most important thing. Truth is. The Truth who is Christ. As people move closer to the Truth, they move closer to others who have likewise moved closer to the Truth, and as this happens unity follows quite naturally. But there can be no real fellowship between light and dark, between truth and falsehood.

Happiness and peace are all well and good, but they are not the prime goals in God's economy. Holiness, love, self-sacrifice, truth, integrity, courage - these are all much, much more important than happiness and peace and often are only preserved and developed at the expense of both.

Selah.

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

Unity is not the most important thing. Truth is

Trouble is we are all deluded into thinking our particular faith holds the absolute truth.
We like to think, "ah at last I can relax and be on the winning team."
example... "those poor catholics who worship Mary", "those poor protestants who worship a Jesusless cross."

 

[aiki]

Trouble is we are all deluded into thinking our particular faith holds the absolute truth.
We like to think, "ah at last I can relax and be on the winning team."
example... "those poor catholics who worship Mary", "those poor protestants who worship a Jesusless cross."

And that's why the Bible must be the final word on Christian belief and practice. The Bible is not Catholic or Protestant. It keeps us from becoming "deluded" in our thinking about God and His Truth by being objective and authoritative, and independent of any denomination or organization.

Selah.

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

Ok I won't mention all the different interpretations of the Bible then.

 

[aiki]

Ok I won't mention all the different interpretations of the Bible then.

But you did just mention them...So, what of them? All they tell us is that we must apply ourselves to studying the truth carefully. Not all interpretations are equal, you know. Some are just plain bad. You will have to sift through the various interpretations and critically assess them to find the ones that best accord with what the Bible actually says.

Selah.

 

[Returner]

I haven't found any Christian denominations that helped me grow in faith.
All I know is that most churches that I visited were more worried about tithes/donations than really educating their members.
I just read my Bible and reflect on the verses in order to help become a better Christian.

 

[aiki]

I haven't found any Christian denominations that really helped me grow spiritually.
All I know is that most churches that I visited were more worried about tithes/donations than really educating their members.
I just read my Bible and reflect on the verses in order to help become a better Christian.

This is a sure way to guarantee a weak and confused relationship with God. It also defies the command of Scripture. If you are a born-again disciple of Christ, you have been made part of his Body, the Church. You have been given a spiritual gift that God intends you should use to the benefit of a local community of believers. By God's design, that local Body of Believers also serves a strengthening, educating and correcting role in the life of the believers who constitute it. This is why the following command appears in Scripture:

Hebrews 10:24-25
24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,
25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Selah.

 

[Returner]

This is a sure way to guarantee a weak and confused relationship with God. It also defies the command of Scripture. If you are a born-again disciple of Christ, you have been made part of his Body, the Church. You have been gifted with a spiritual gift that God intends you should use to the benefit of a local community of believers. By God's design, that local Body of Believers also serves a strengthening, educating and correcting role in the life of the believers who constitute it. This is why the following command appears in Scripture:

Hebrews 10:24-25
24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,
25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Selah.

I'd rather learn more about being a Christian from the Bible itself than from a preacher that is interpreting the Bible in a wrong biased way.
Same goes to local believers.
I am part of a universal global group that follows Jesus Christ and it's called being a "Christian", which is Gods church. It's not a physical building.

 

[aiki]

I'd rather learn more about being a Christian from the Bible itself than from a preacher that is interpreting the Bible in a wrong biased way.

Well, we all would, wouldn't we? But not all preachers have got it wrong; and some may even understand better than you or I what the Bible says. Why not benefit from their superior understanding?

I am part of a universal global group that follows Jesus Christ and it's called being a "Christian", which is Gods church. It's not a physical building.

Right. As I said, every believer is part of Christ's Body, the Church. But as the verse from Hebrews that I quoted commands, you and I are to be assembling together with other believers to exhort and be exhorted by them. There is no such thing as a "lone wolf" Christian or a Christian who is an island unto himself. No, such Christians are actually like a severed body part that, being separated from the body, is useless, feeble and unhealthy. You ought - and need - to be attached. So long as you aren't, you're like a hand that lays alone on the ground, cut off from the body that gives it purpose and strength.

1 Corinthians 12:18-21
18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.
19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.
21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."

Selah.

 

[Returner]

No preacher/pastor has superior understanding of the Bible.
Everyone on Earth who is a true Christian has equal understanding of the Bible.
No one has more superior understanding of the Bible than God himself.

All the quotes of the Scripture that you are copying and pasting can be read in so many different ways without reading the whole chapter or even the whole epistle/book.

Don't shame people who trust the Word of God AKA Bible more than people of the Earth.

Love should be the message and not segregation of fellow Christians.

Don't be afraid to read the Bible as it is. Refrain from listening to your own prejudices that corrupt the Bible in your brain.

We are in this together and not against each other.

Why do some "Christians" want to be mightier than the Holy Bible and make others feel bad about themselves?
Trying to pervert what the Bible says and listening to a preacher who has faults?
I think those are called hypocrites.

You seem to mistaken of what being a true Christian is all about.

Well, we all would, wouldn't we? But not all preachers have got it wrong; and some may even understand better than you or I what the Bible says. Why not benefit from their superior understanding?


Right. As I said, every believer is part of Christ's Body, the Church. But as the verse from Hebrews that I quoted commands, you and I are to be assembling together with other believers to exhort and be exhorted by them. There is no such thing as a "lone wolf" Christian or a Christian who is an island unto himself. No, such Christians are actually like a severed body part that, being separated from the body, is useless, feeble and unhealthy. You ought - and need - to be attached. So long as you aren't, you're like a hand that lays alone on the ground, cut off from the body that gives it purpose and strength.

1 Corinthians 12:18-21
18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.
19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.
21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."

Selah.

Well, we all would, wouldn't we? But not all preachers have got it wrong; and some may even understand better than you or I what the Bible says. Why not benefit from their superior understanding?



Right. As I said, every believer is part of Christ's Body, the Church. But as the verse from Hebrews that I quoted commands, you and I are to be assembling together with other believers to exhort and be exhorted by them. There is no such thing as a "lone wolf" Christian or a Christian who is an island unto himself. No, such Christians are actually like a severed body part that, being separated from the body, is useless, feeble and unhealthy. You ought - and need - to be attached. So long as you aren't, you're like a hand that lays alone on the ground, cut off from the body that gives it purpose and strength.

1 Corinthians 12:18-21
18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.
19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.
21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."

Selah.

 

[aiki]

No preacher/pastor has superior understanding of the Bible.

Come on, now, you must know this is false. Are you seriously telling me that a man of God who has walked with his Maker for seventy years and has read the Bible through from cover to cover nearly a thousand times and who has studied the theology and doctrine of Scripture many hours a day for multiple decades understands no more of the Bible than you or I? Seriously? The man I just described was my grandfather who could quote Scripture from memory for hours at a time. I know he knew far more of God's word than me and judging from what you've written in this thread, I am certain he knew far more of it than you.

Everyone on Earth who is a true Christian has equal understanding of the Bible.

Brother, this is simply false. The writer of Hebrews criticized those to whom he wrote for being immature in their understanding of the spiritual truths of the faith.

Hebrews 5:12-14
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

How could this criticism be true, if, as you say, all Christians have an equal understanding of the Bible. Why would the apostle Paul warn of deceivers and false teachers if all believers understand the Bible equally well? How could deception occur if every believer was as well-versed and knowledgeable in the Scriptures as every other believer? Deception and false teaching would be impossible in such a circumstance! But yet, Christ, Peter, Paul and John all warn against false teachers. (Matt. 7:15; Phil. 3:1, 2; 2Pe. 3:17; 1Jn. 2:18)

No one has more superior understanding of the Bible than God himself.

Well, of course not! And I've never suggested otherwise.

All the quotes of the Scripture that you are copying and pasting can be read in so many different ways without reading the whole chapter or even the whole epistle/book.

Yes. And? Show me that what I've said in regards to the passages does not accord with the immediate context and larger context of Scripture. I can show you that it does.

Don't shame people who trust the Word of God AKA Bible more than people of the Earth.

I'm not. But don't think you can go it alone as a believer. You just simply can't. You've already shown in the few comments you've made that your thinking about Scripture and the Body of Christ is awry. The longer you're alone, the worse this off-kilter understanding will become. That's what Paul was getting at when he wrote:

Ephesians 4:11-16
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,
15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ--
16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

Did you get that bit about those equipped by God to be pastors, and teachers and evangelists are to equip the saints for ministry and teach them so that they are not "tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine"? This is an important function of the Church. And those believers who remain outside of the community of believers cut themselves off from this teaching, and correcting, and stabilizing function of the Body of Christ.

Love should be the message and not segregation of fellow Christians.

Love is part of the message, yes. But holiness, truth and faith also are vital aspects of the Christian system of belief, too. And as I've explained above, believers who segregate themselves from the Church are acting contrary to the teaching of God's word.

We are in this together and not against each other.

Amen!

Why do some "Christians" want to be mightier than the Holy Bible and make others feel bad about themselves?
Trying to pervert what the Bible says and listening to a preacher who has faults?
I think those are called hypocrites.

You seem to mistaken of what being a true Christian is all about.

None of this makes much sense. Who wants to be mightier than the Bible? I don't. Do you?

And who is perverting the Bible? I'm not. Are you?

There is no preacher who is totally without faults. There is no person anywhere who is fault-free. Being free of faults is a standard you yourself don't meet, so why expect it of a preacher? That's not the standard of the Bible (1Jn. 1:8).

Selah.

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

No preacher/pastor has superior understanding of the Bible.

You going to offend a lot of preachers by saying that.
I feel that some are genuinely inspired by the Holy Spirit and are preaching a healthy positive message. I can't understand much of the Bible on my own and need teachers to at least explain the historical context and vocabulary. But I fear there are many interpreting the bible to suit their own agenda, not God's. We have to pray to the Holy Spirit to make sure we aren't following false teaching/prophets. I personally find if they are too serious, they are probably false. I prefer ones with a sense of humour.

 

[Returner]

This is why so many people don't even want to be Christians.

It's because everyone is arguing about every little detail about how to be a Christian.
It disgusts new converts.

And yet we're so scared that someone will get offended.

Jesus Christ offended so many of his potential followers in such a radical way in order to change their hearts and minds, which then led them to follow HIM.

Jesus Christ is the ONLY preacher that I know of. Nobody else.

Again I say to you all: Church is not a building.
Church is inside us and the Bible is the ONLY word of God.

I'm glad that preachers/pastors might feel offended.
They are making money off of the Gospel...and that is disgusting and offending to God.

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

Again I say to you all: Church is not a building.
Church is inside us

Now that I totally agree with! I'd just replace "Church" with God".

 

[Citizen of the Kingdom]

....
That we can at least wish each other well
wish each other peace and happiness now and in the future
because we all want the same thing, don't we?
Peace and Happiness.
....
Leave our differences on the shelf
Come together here now
Share a laugh maybe
Or just say Hi
United in Christ
Amen

Those who don't have Christ don't have peace and cannot stand for peace in others.

Best wishes for this thread, there used to be numerous ones like this Particularily in this subforum. You may want to check the rules of this particular forum to eliminate those who debate such simple things.

The only purpose of Deeper Fellowship is self explanitory

 

[Extraneous]

@Returner

You dont need a preacher, i agree. Not if you're mature in understanding, which really isnt that hard. Maturity is about being separate from the world, separate from its politics, patriotism, and other carnal things, because these things war against our soul. Our citizenship is in heaven, as paul teaches us. We are not supposed to be divided over political parties and nations, but rather be united in Christ alone and seek the kingdom, not a worldly nation.

Im not sure preachers are actually equipped to teach this nowadays though. They dont see where people are stumbling over such things, and they dont teach their flock to avoid them. Lots of people use that Hebrews scripture to suggest that its commanded to go to Church, however that was when Church was actually run by real apostles. We are however in the end times now and its better to search the scriptures and find the truth, rather than listening to any preacher.

If people truthfully wanted to stir each other up into love and good works they would be exhorting us to stop following the worldly division and contentions of politicians and denominations, and instead speak the same thing which is Christ and him alone. THey would not forsake the assembly of this website by arguing over politics and religion, but instead would use it to preach the word. However, a lot of people dont endure sound doctrine anymore, and would rather debate politics and theology.

 

[tickingclocker]

Those who don't have Christ don't have peace and cannot stand for peace in others.

Best wishes for this thread, there used to be numerous ones like this Particularily in this subforum. You may want to check the rules of this particular forum to eliminate those who debate such simple things.

The only purpose of Deeper Fellowship is self explanitory

Thank you. Some of the people here came to this one because of all the debating about how many angels can (or should to some) dance on the head of a pin.... or some such nonsense. Enough. I don't blame them for seeking out a quiet place to worship God, and share His glories among ourselves, focusing on HIM. Where you don't need denom labels. Just love. I just found this forum, too, for the same reasons. Please don't debate here. We're thoroughly sick of it.

 

[tickingclocker]

Paul, with your first sentence, I started thinking.... What if we changed Dr. Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech to read Christians?:

"I have a dream that one day Christians will rise up and live out the true meaning of Jesus Christ's Gospel: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all Christian denominations are created equal in the eyes of God."

I have a dream that one day on every street in the world Christians will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood in Christ.

I have a dream that one day even the most talked about and despised church, sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that all God's children will one day live in a world where they will not be judged by the label of their denomination but by the content of their character, and their love for God and neighbors.

I have a dream today." And I WILL have it every day until I see His Face.

Someday the Bride of Christ will have all her denominational parts combined together in love, in Jesus Christ. Ever see a bride so beautiful and radiant that she literally took your breath away? That's her. I can see her. You just have to keep focusing at ALL of HER, not on those who want to tear your focus away to what they demand you see. They wish to imagine her without one of her eyes, or hand, or elbows, because they don't happen to agree with those bits. But she's not their Bride. She's the Bride of Jesus Christ, and He loves every bit of her just as equally.