Everyone should at least hope that whatever group they belong to is the one that is Biblically affirmed, correct, accurate. The when they find that they do have problems in doctrine as compared to the Bible -- be ready to admit it and find where God is leading them
At this point I don't live by such hopes even though I do watch or listen for certain things to pay attention to and possibly be involved in. I've had my views changed through personal exegetical studies. I've found most to be camp loyalists who exhibit what looks almost like a fear to consider something different than what they've already accepted over the years.
That is a good step. I had to do that when I was a young adult as soon as I realized that I was not at all sure how the things I believed actually fared in the Bible if you just let the Bible speak. In the end that experiment turned out be a great blessing.
For example Matt 10 'He who does not hate mother or father,,, is not worthy of me". I could just take that at face value and say "I suspect there is more to it that this - but for now I will write that down and then see how quickly it is updated by God's Word to get a more accurate understanding of what it is saying"
The separation for me was a perceived necessity and I was not young many years ago when I realized the necessity. I too learned to just let the Text speak for itself and I worked to make the same point when teaching to some degree interactively as much as I thought possible & found productive.
It seems we have had similar processes. I have had a mental file throughout the years where I got what I'll call a check in my spirit when I'd see or hear something said from Scripture that seemed wrong or seemed to need elaboration. Over the years these checks inevitably would be satisfied with corrections or more information at times that were not my own.
As Eph 4 says "Every wind of doctrine" is out there.
Sure does. And the degree of acceptance of it doesn't say much for the level of maturity of what professes to be His corporate Body.
I agree that while exegesis and the sola scriptura testing method are the right tools and methods to include in searching for truth, it does not completely eliminate "pilot error" in that our preferences, traditions, family, friends will always influence us to be "less accurate" to some degree and we will need to ask God to lead us step by step.
While working in the computer industry about 40 years ago we used to watch for "cockpit problems" - as you say "pilot (operator) error" instead of hardware or software issues they were suggesting. It's really no different in this Faith arena and I'm sure you know the more we learn the more we know we don't know. In addition, as you note, the distractions and influences are ever present, although I did go through a fairly lengthy period of a decently isolated time in my early years of studies.
When something is posted and a Bible text given -- do you see responses of the form "here is why you can't trust that scripture" , "lets go look at this other source instead since that text does not work very well with my preference" etc and sometimes it is in the form "lets not look at that scripture as it speaks to this topic, lets look at one that fits my preference better".
In other words do you find responses where it appears you "need to not look" at certain texts for a given idea to survive?
If so - then that is a clue.
I've seen those who attempt to shift from the Word to personal experience and to extra-biblical sources of this or that type. I was trained and ordained in a camp and taught the views of other camps but from a perspective with its commentary. I've read exegetical studies from various camps. I've watched and read the Messianic progress since the 80's. I was surrounded by Pentecostals to some degree. Frankly it's all preferences or loyalties or ??? which seems to be one of the points of your thread.
From day 1 my being led was basically that if our standard is not His Word in Christ by His Spirit, then it's a free-for-all, which is pretty much what I saw going to different churches in S.CA. It didn't seem much different than the world. I was not temporally young, had a fair degree of life and professional experience & personnel management on a national basis behind me, some international experience, then my own business, was not naive in many respects, and honestly was a bit staggered by the nonsense I saw that called itself church, whether large or small, older or younger. The seeming agendas, personal absurdities, push to conform to various views and activities, etc... was... I better not say.
Honestly, Bob, the what's the problem point within your thread is high in my interest list as I've said. It occupies my mind and my prayers to a fair degree. I had an intense prayer experience not too long ago where it was highly impressed upon me greater than ever before how far gone this world is and how different things are meant to be and will be in virtually every respect and system. I'm sure you know how our realizations can come in degrees or levels over time. This was an escalation I wasn't really expecting. Since then, I'm also looking more and more critically at our Church traditions and practices and questioning Him about them. Your thread is timely. There is really something wrong IMO. As I said earlier, I'm cautiously open to reading input from other points of view because I know I don't know the solution or have it all right. But there's so much squirrely stuff out there and my contentment has
only come, and vividly so, in private times with Him immersed in His Word at His feet for lengthy periods in Spirit.
Thanks for the interaction.
