Church... {sigh}

[Guest shiloh357]

3 hours ago, JohnD said:

Well since you are making such a point of this...

And you don't know what my calling and ministry are or what I do or do not do (which is borderline judging with improper judgment).

 

Yes, you say that is you presumptuously sit in judgment on the Church and thus other believers...

[JohnD]

1 hour ago, shiloh357 said:

Yes, you say that is you presumptuously sit in judgment on the Church and thus other believers...

The Bible says in 1 Peter 2:3-9 believers in Jesus Christ are a nation of priests. 

Do you deny this?

[JohnD]

1 hour ago, shiloh357 said:

Yes, you say that is you presumptuously sit in judgment on the Church and thus other believers...

Do you deny that the traditions of men nullify the word of God?

Mark 7:13

[Guest shiloh357]

10 hours ago, JohnD said:

The Bible says in 1 Peter 2:3-9 believers in Jesus Christ are a nation of priests. 

Do you deny this?

I am not denying that at all.  That was not even part of my point. 

10 hours ago, JohnD said:

Do you deny that the traditions of men nullify the word of God?

Mark 7:13

Jesus was referring to the way the Pharisees made their traditions superior to and more authoritative to Scripture.

Everyone, even you, have traditions.   Tradition has its rightful place in the life of the Church.   Traditions are not intrinsically bad, but people can misuse them and put too much importance on them.  There are good traditions that can be vehicles for true worship of God.  All true worship has structure and order.  Nothing wrong with that.

My earlier point is that too often, people use the Holy Spirit to intimidate other people into  not questioning their teachings and thus have little tolerance for people who think for themselves and cannot be led.  The Holy Spirit gets blamed for all kinds of wrong teachings and really bad theology.

Usually those touting that they are led by the Spirit are anything but unifying, since they assume that they alone are the ones being led by the Holy Spirit and anyone disagrees with them is not.

[Marilyn C]

I think many people have been led to assume that man`s organisations, calling themselves the church, are the ONLY way believers can gather. If you don`t attend their meetings then you are `backslidden, or not under authority, or think yourself better than others, or not working for the church,` etc etc. People feel threatened if you aren`t attending a recognised organisation of man. 

It would be well to remember that ALL man`s organisations started as a few people gathered around a certain truth they had received and then over time it became formalised into a denomination of man. God`s truth`s cannot be contained by man`s organisations. The Charismatic move (even with man`s errors) swept across all of man`s boundaries. The same is happening now, only it is the system itself that is being questioned and it is fighting to hold on to its position as the only authority for believers.