We are getting too tolerant.....

[SUNSTONE]

Smoking is a sin?

I must have missed that passage in the old family bible.

The bible says that our bodys are the temple of God, and that we are to take care of them.

The bible doesn't specificly say anything about crack, pills, drunk driving, porn, mcdonalds , so do you think these things aren't sin?

 

[Henaynei]

anything we do willfully for pleasure that shortens our life could be called a sin.... for we are taking the choice of when and how we die from G-d's hands... IMHO

 

[jharper219]

I don't know if there is anyone from the Newnan, Georgia/metro-Atlanta area out here and I am not the greatest spiriutal authority in the wolrd...but here is what I am seeing in my "world" in the charismatic churches around me and things I hear from leadership in the churches and from people held in high regard/considered part of the spiritually elite/in crowd in the churches. No one dares question them because we can't afford strife as we must unify the body so christ will return sooner...and if you wrongly doubt or question a move of God/sign or miracle...you will grieve the Holy Spirit and lose your salvation. Yes, this is being said privately in warnings to people. Read some of the following quotes and statements coming from pastors, youth leaders and various teachers well reknowned in the community.

"Man, I was listening to Todd Bentley teaching last night. He was talking about how a witch astral projected herself and he woke up to see her hovering over hsi bed. He got up and ordered her to get out or he would cut her silver cord...you know, that is what they mention in ecclesiastes...the silver cord of life...man, he was gonna use his power and authority in Jesus to break that cord...and she vanished in fear because that would have killed her if her soul/spirit were out of her body....man, way cool!"

"I was listening Todd Bentley last night and he talked about one of his visits up in the Third Heaven where he saw how the angels got around...it was like they thought where they wanted to be and they teleported there instantly...well, if the Kingdom of God is here and we are tearing at the veils of heaven the way the woman pulled at jesus' garment and pulled out her promise for healing...then why can't we pull down that promise of things already done in Heaven and do this too? We should have the power to think where we want to be and teleport there too...why not here? why not now, God? Well, I have done it...the other day I lay down for a nap and found myslef looking at my sleeping body and as I went through a doorway I found myself in some middle eastern guys home...he offered me a meal and we talked and talked...finally i knew it was time to back and saying goodbye i said i didnt know if I was gonna end up in my body again or if satan was gonna cut the silver cord and my life woudl end and God would take me to, etc" I had to leave the meeting, I couldnt stand anymore.....


No one questiosn this 24 year old...he is like superman in the youths eyes and the adults eyes for all the cools things he tells about that God does with him...and the pastor and especially the pastor's wife of my church are very insistant that he be at any alter ministry or prayer for healing, prophecy etc. It is almost a wierd dependency on him.

"We need to pray to God to give us a broken heart for the signs and wonders...because it is only through them that a lost wolrd is going to be convicted of sin."

"We don't need to worry about preaching the gospel and ralley's to bring youth into the church...we need to be focused on uniting our younger generation who is on fire for God in prayer...through various events. The gospel has already been preached everywhere in the world...and Bob Jones prophesied that God told him he was coming back for a billion souls...and those many souls have come to the Lord. The work is done...yeah, if we get to share the Gospel with a few peopel and they get saved...that is good and all...but the work is done. It's our job to get the Bride ready for Jesus's return"

"You know, in the past 25 years God has allowed me to witness and take part in so many miracles and healings...healing the sick, the crippled, and castign out demons even...and you know, I was just thinking the other day...wouldn't it be like really neat if God were to let me raise the dead?"

"We don't need to be religious Pharisees...you don't have to question the signs and wonders you see and keep going through the pages of your Bible trying to see if somethign liek that has happned or is scripturally accurate...don't blaspheme the Holy Spirit...we need need to stop using that as an excuse just to hide behind our unbelief...we dont want to blaspheme the Holy Spirit..."

"We waste way too much time reading with our noses stuck in a Bible...reading about God when we could be encountering God who is right in front of us and among us.

"We are the nameless faceless generation...as the new generation we will see and do things the adults and older christians cannot...the spiritual gifts are our toys...the alter is our toy box. It is an upside down Kingdom you know!"

"Man, it was really cool...me and Steven were playing Holy Spirit the other day...you know...practicing to use our spiritual gifts and become more sensitive to the Spirit. We were both on cell phones and we kept challenging each other to guess what color I was thinking of...what number...etc. etc...it was like really cool"

"You know, so many people have misunderstood what the Bible means when it talks about Jesus and the rapture. Christ isnt goign to return in the real sense of the word...he is already here living within us...in our hearts...and it is through us as we learn to grow in our power and authority to bind the things of the devil and unlock the storehouses of heaven and bring down those kingdom promises and He will rule through us as we restore God's Kingdom on earth. This rapture or "being caught up" is talking about the joy that will be in our hearts as we...blah blah blah"

We have no real Bible study groups in my church...we have groups that learn how to be prophets and the practcing resembles learning to be clairvoyant, we have groups that practice and learn to meditate and go up to the Third Heaven...not many use their bibles in church except to share a scripture at open mic or use it if it supports a teaching or new thing we hear from various big evangelists and prophets...and it is our hope and mission that we will infect other churches in the community to want what we have in God. Is anyone a little creeped out yet? I am....

We are not supposed to judge and condemn people...basically the judgement that Jesus warns about really is the kind of judgement that teh religious leaders made when talking to the boy who had been born blind...the one that Jesus healed...they treated him like trash and tore him apart...damned him fo reternity with their judgement...but we are called to speak the truth in love and not be afraid to exort and correct when necessary. We wield that scripture where Paul tells us to cover each others offenses with love...at least that is how we quote it to each other in warning...and that is why we have a too tolerant church in America with no real discernment. Jesus told us to go to our brother who sins against us and try to show him the error of his ways...bringing witnesses to what is said/discussed and even the whole church into the matter if the brother remains unrepentant...and to even be out of fellowship with him if necessary. I would think Jesus outranks Paul...just a little. And if there is a false gospel or teachign being given to us...we are called to speak out the truth and deal with it. Wasn't it a real tragedy the way that one group of chrisitans that came to the lakeland revival and began warning peopel not to go up to the stage and were preachign the gospel...wasnt it sad how the people rebuked them, mocked them and turned on them? The issue really isnt about todd bentley and the whole lakeland affair...that is just a symptom...when are we going to not be afraid to stand up for the Gospel...and the truth. In this time, more than ever, we need to be repenting, taking inventory of things and teachings we need to get rid of...and get backto the basics...the Bible, prayer, and seeking a relationship with God...and goign out and bringing back the lost...instead of seeking ear-tickling teaching that make us feel good or seeking soem awesome supernatural encounter with God. We are truely becoming an entertainment seeking generation. Are we tired yet?

 

[Elijah2]

“Tolerance” is a word that seems to be used a lot lately in the Body of Christ, the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. But do the members understand the “new tolerance” embraces another belief. We are encouraged to, not only to tolerate other beliefs, but to accept them as valid, even though they immoral.

Traditional “tolerance” used to differentiate between the person and the belief, but today, “all truths are equal” and if we question any we are labelled as being “intolerant” or “over-critical”, and at the same time the “new Pharisees” of the Body of Christ have risen up in legalism.

The ecumenical movement has opened its arms to nearly every conceivable false religion, and other religions, including those holding to “another gospel”, a new-age gospel. Most don’t realise that many churches today, couldn’t put a claim to be a “Bible-believing-Christ-centred” church.

Many, don’t teach the simple Biblical Gospel of faith in the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ as a substitute for our sins, saving the human soul. Instead, the main church of religion adds other things that lead to a continuing sacrifice, other mediators, and various works that affect the salvation of a man’s soul. Even though according to Scripture there is only one true Gospel.

A number of decades ago, one could have wondered how the religions of the world could really unite, as their salvation doctrine opposed each other. Yet today, the 21st Century we are seeing this happening before our very eyes, because of this “new tolerance”. The method of this “new tolerance” is to “find the things that unite”, and churches move into the gift of practicality, and forget about the things that differ and count. Sadly the things that really “differ” are often the fundamental and foundational doctrines of the faith.

This “new tolerance” extends to other facets of church life. We tolerate the fashions of the world and its methods and marketing strategies, and incorporate them into our daily church life, so we fit into the worldly assessment. We tolerate carnal behaviour in churches, when years ago it would have brought discipline.

Today it’s unloving and unkind to “discipline” Christians who cause offence, sin and trouble in the church body. We "tolerate" false prophets and false teachers who bring public shame to the Body of Christ. We "tolerate" the music of the world in the church, because the music sounds like, looks like, and appeals to the flesh, like that of the world. We "tolerate" Christian organisations who churn out music and leaders who induce rebellion in the hearts of our young and not so young; and worse, we tolerate the teaching behind the music, and wonder why so many of the leaders in it, have fallen in shameful sin. But, we are "tolerant", because we are Christians.

We live in an age of “tolerance”, and it’s no longer “loving” to be “intolerant” in many of these things that we see and discern to be wrong. It is just not popular to swim against the tide and shake the tree. It is easier to stand for nothing or be impaled on the fence of compromise.

Most Christians today hate controversy. But, when we read of the early church leaders and the great men and women of our Lord Jesus Christ down through the centuries, it shows that any greatness expressed was the very act of contending for the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Many of them were actually quite “intolerant” of false ecumenism, and the fashions of the age (Romans12: 2). They were no strangers to “controversy” and many stood in quite lonely places at various times in their lives. But it was because of these strong voices that the tide of apostasy was often “HELD BACK”. But today, there are very few of these men and women of our Lord Jesus Christ, who stand fast and stand firm, and apostasy today is running rampant through the Body of Christ. The “War Cry” of Jude 3 has no place in the Body of Christ today, “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints”.

Be blessed in Jesus’ Name.