Cooperative Baptists, Texas partners ponder whether God knows the future

Congratulations. Since I believe that I have a choice in the matter, you have rendered me unsaved. I'm not sure who's more thrilled with that judgement, God or Satan.

So methodists aren't Christians either? There goes all the family members on my dad's side. You've rendered them non-Christians as well.

Or, you could realize that your system of theology is based more upon a logical system than what the Scriptures actually say. (As I did.) Believe it or not, but I trust in Christ's finished work - but He "finished" it for all men. It is up to them to believe and repent.

It is a sad day when people openly question another person's salvation because of theological differences. The prerequisites for salvation include believing, repenting, and confessing. UNfortunately, I just may be sent to hell because I wasn't a Calvinist. 'Tis a shame.

 

The funny thing is this: I'm not a strict Arminian, and I'm definitely not an open theist. However, I've read their works and can say loudly that what they believe isn't a damnable heresy. I don't believe that God is going to make their salvation null and void because they read the Bible differently than I do.

Come to think of it, I wonder what they think about people who would say the Bible is not (gasp) inerrant? Are they allowed to enter the kingdom of heaven?

 

Scott, I think the Apostle Paul assessed the root of many Christians' prides and prejudices, when he wrote:

We know that we all have knowledge.
Knowlege puffeth up, but charity edifieth.

The sad thing about most of us Christians is that once we're truly converted, and enjoy the liberty of being holy in body and in spirit, free from bondage to sin, we begin to think we must have a monopoly on the Truth.

Your comment about the inerrancy of scripture is also well taken: just because we have an english translation, the KJV for example, that speaks to our hearts and effectually delivers God's grace to us in every form, we should not wrongly assume that it is therefore the ONLY true Word! The tablets Moses carried from Mt. Sinai were "written with the finger of God," perfect and inerrant, but our Bibles are translations. A translation can be good or bad, but it can never be on perfectly equal footing with the original work, because syntax and grammar are hardly identical in any two different languages, and most english words have an abundance of synonymns that are equivalent and interchangable-- and many Christians ignore this fact.

God may help an honest, educated man to make a good translation (Wm. Tyndale, for example, in 1534), but to assume that such a work must therefore be the ONLY good translation is without foundation. Anyone taking the trouble to study the history and process of english Bible translations will discover that the translators revised, revised, revised...and could do so ad infinitum except for constraints of time!

It's a shame that so many sincere Christians become dogmatic to the point of arrogant eccentricity, categorically condemning and damning to hell anyone who fails to agree with their pet doctrines. We should all seek common ground in the fundamental truths that save a man, not in ancillary issues that breed contention and strife.

[ July 03, 2002, 11:02 AM: Message edited by: Poor Richard ]

 

Yes! Yes! Yes! That's it! Christ saves people in spite of their theology, not because of it! None of us can claim to know the mind of Christ - we do the best we can with our finite minds to understand the infinite mind of God. To claim that a person is not saved because their thinking of God isn't the same as yours, instead of the fact that they are not saved because Christ is not Lord of their life is to completely twist the Gospel message.

Thanks for the awesome post, Richard!