Another post to start the New Year, this time with some articles which I found last month, which were edifying or otherwise helpful.
First up is a great article about “10 Old Wives’ Tales About Church Growth.” This article is good at demonstrating part of the error with the seeker-sensitive and market-driven churches. Now, this is not a site I normally would have visit, so I have to give a hat-tip to my fellow blogger Steve Bricker.
Stan, over at Winging It, had an excellent article about marriage, based on what he calls the Genesis Principles.
Lighthouse Trails Research Ministry blog had a good list of books Christians should avoid. All these books promote contemplative prayer in some way or another. It’s a good list to be familiar with.
Are you interested in the truth about St. Nicholas and his connection to Christmas? The Gospel Coalition had an informative article. I enjoyed the article especially because my wife and I had just recently visited the National Czech and Slovak Museum while they had a huge display about Nicholas and the history and legends surrounding him.
A very interesting article examined God’s probable attitude towards the cult known as Westboro Baptist Church. This is the “church” which likes to protest at funerals, claiming the person or people were killed by God because of the sanctioning of homosexuality in America. I think God does indeed hate WBC.
Have a blessed New Year!
5 comments:
Hi, Glenn. I'm pretty sure Chris at Def-Con wasn't saying that we should call them brothers and sisters. He was saying we should be slow to declare that they aren't. Don't call them brother, don't declare that they are lost.
Completely withhold judgment on the question, in other words. It isn't really our place to judge their eternal destiny. It is our responsibility to judge their teaching, and to warn when it is in error, but you don't have to go all omniscient about someone's eternal state to warn about their error.
That is what Chris is saying, and (though he didn't cite Scripture to back it) it is Biblical.
Hi Jon,
Well, I think I sort of made that same claim, in that I said as long as they are Christian we can call them brothers and sisters without endorsing them. The thing is to be sure they are not saved before we no longer call them brother or sister.
Glenn, I think there's two errors to avoid. The first is to be too willing to call someone a brother. The second is to be too willing to declare that someone isn't.
It seems to me if there is any reason to doubt, we should do neither. If I'm following you correctly, you'd extend "brother" even when there is doubt, until you are certain he's not. In that, I think we'd differ, but perhaps I misunderstood.
I'm sure we agree 100% on the need to give warnings in such cases, which is the main thing.
Jon,
If I have real doubt, then I'd say to NOT call the person brother or sister nor to say that they are; be as you said, "to do neither."
OK, thanks for clarifying, and sorry I misunderstood. Lord bless.
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