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esoteric satanist symbolism - The New World Order - as above so below - good is bad and bad is good religions coming together to set aside their doctrinal differences - one world religion. the symbolism is inverted symbol represents the transmutation of our world

This morning, as I read through some of Acts asking the Lord to speak to me whatever He might want to say, I was particularly struck by something that I wanted to bring up for discussion. I am not saying that what I say next is of the Lord necessarily...only that I want to discuss it so that I can discern what the Lord's heart on the matter is better than I could by myself. That presupposes that I may not be seeing things entirely correct so bear that in mind as you read the rest of this post. The Lord seemed to speak to me about how disputes within the church should be handled. Doctrinal disputes. Before I share what He seemed to lay on my heart let me digress just a bit to lay out what I believe is the modern way of handling such disputes for contrast with what I read in the New Testament. Modern churches believe certain doctrines. Many times those doctrines define what the church is about in part if not in whole and the core doctrines are often found in doctrinal statements put out by the church. Statements of faith if you will. The church leaders teach those doctrines. Any deviation from those doctrines is discouraged if not outright frowned upon or not allowed. Anyone who comes along and starts teaching something contrary to those doctrines without the blessing of the church leaders is considered rebellious and one who causes division. Challenges to such doctrinal beliefs cannot happen publicly but must be brought to leadership in private. For their careful consideration. If they decide that the challenge has no biblical basis the challenge is not allowed to make it past them and ends right there. It is a very rare thing for challenges to established church doctrine to go anywhere within established leadership. Established leadership rarely if ever changes their mind about established church doctrine. Today's churches tend to relegate the teaching task to one man. Mostly if not entirely the Head Pastor. Though many churches do have other Pastors such as an assistant Pastor who teaches sometimes or may even bring in an outside speaker, such is not the norm. Usually the Head Pastor handles most of the teaching. Any such teaching from anyone other than the Head Pastor must conform to established church doctrine or it is not allowed. Only men who can confidently be counted on to teach that which lines up with church doctrine are allowed to teach. Churches that have home groups do have home group leaders that teach there too but most such leaders only teach what is in line with what was preached on the previous Sunday or use an outline that has been pre-approved by church leadership in line with their goals for the flock. The home group usually just cements or expands upon what has been taught on the previous Sunday. Deviation from established church doctrine is not allowed. That has been my experience of church throughout the years and I believe it accurately reflects the norm within churches as to how they handle doctrinal purity and doctrinal differences and disputes. Let's look at some of the fruit of this modern way of handling doctrinal differences and disputes. Conformity - there is conformity to doctrine within the local church. Any non-conformity does not rise up to cause a problem. This is NOT to say that there is unity of belief! Only conformity (even if just outward in some) to established church doctrine as taught by church leadership. Division - at first glance one might conclude that conformity should lead to less division and not more but the approach I have briefly described above actually leads to more. Why? Because anyone coming along and being led of the Spirit to believe differently than established church doctrine has one of two choices. Suppress what the Spirit has laid on their heart or go find another church. If they can't find another church that lines up with what the Spirit has led them to believe they go start their own (which new church will almost invariably revolve around the doctrines of the person who starts it in turn). Pride - the above approach to doctrinal differences can (NOT will) lead to pride on the part of church leaders whose beliefs go unchallenged. Some become very set in their ways and cease to have a teachable spirit before the Lord. A humble spirit that will learn even from a donkey (remember Balaam's donkey who spoke to the prophet) if God should want to speak through such. That is just some of the fruit that comes to mind which leads me to ask...is the modern approach biblical? I'll continue in another post later as time permits but if anyone has anything to say about what I said above I am eager to hear it. Carlos