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Featured Alternative Evangelism

Discussion in 'Other Christian Denominations' started by Earth Wind and Fire, Jul 5, 2018.

  1. Earth Wind and Fire

    Earth Wind and Fire Well-Known Member
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    Taken from an article by William Short, OFM. I find his prospective (actually the view of the Franciscans, both interesting and provocative.

    Christ at the Heart of Reality

    “We thank You for as through Your Son You created us, so through Your holy love . . . You brought about His birth.”

    At every hour of the day Christian preachers on radio and television send a constant message into thousands of American cars, living rooms, and workplaces: “It’s all about sin!” God sent Jesus Christ into the world because we sinned; he had to suffer because we sinned; the world is a passing theater scene on which the drama of human sin is played out.

    At the end, the sinners will be punished. It would seem that sin is the center of the universe; and both evangelical Protestant and Catholic preachers repeat that message. Does the Franciscan tradition say anything different?

    The Franciscan view, rather than focusing on sin, emphasizes the love of God, enfleshed in Christ, as the center of reality. In the 14th century John Duns Scotus was asked, “Would Christ have come if Adam had not sinned?”

    Contradicting the predominant thinking of his age (and ours), he answered: “Yes.” Christ came because the divine Trinitarian communion of persons wished to express divine life and goodness. For that reason the whole universe was made in the image of the divine Word, and that Word came to participate in the life of the universe as a created being, a creature, to show in a concrete, material way the form and model of all creation, made in the divine image.

    The Incarnation, the fact of Jesus, not the fact of sin, is at the heart of reality. The circumstances of that Incarnation included suffering and death, caused by human sin, and Jesus’s generous giving of life for others reversed the effects of sin. But salvation from sin is a consequence of the Incarnation, not its motivating cause.

    How might this view express itself in practice? It demands the difficult belief that goodness, not evil, lies at the heart of human experience, and that religious institutions have a role in expressing that belief. It would require of us an “alternative evangelism,” one which, in word and action, portrays a God in solidarity with human suffering out of love, rather than a God who demands the sacrifice of victims. The focus is not on “fighting sin” but on “giving life.” Such an approach could find eloquent expression in campus ministry programs; in the way Catholic doctrine is presented, in the public expressions of religious faith organized on a campus, whether for students or the wider community
     
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  2. Yeshua1

    Yeshua1 Well-Known Member
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    Apostle paul contridicts this though, as he saw the main truth being that while we were yet sinners, jesus died for us in our stead, and that makes sin the heart of the matter!
     
  3. Earth Wind and Fire

    Earth Wind and Fire Well-Known Member
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    Does it? Why did He create you then? So he could solely be the savior to sinners
     
  4. Yeshua1

    Yeshua1 Well-Known Member
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    God created me to glorify Himself, as he will be able to show off forever just how His grace and mercy could save even a worm such as I!
     
  5. RighteousnessTemperance&

    RighteousnessTemperance& Well-Known Member

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    This does not directly answer the hypothetical question, but God and man in full fellowship is the focus. God’s immeasurable love is essential to that. Our comprehension of that love is key to reciprocation. If we miss that, we’ve badly missed the message indeed.

    6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.--Romans 5:6-8

    37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.--Romans 8:37-39

    14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.--Ephesians 3:14-20
     
  6. Yeshua1

    Yeshua1 Well-Known Member
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    Jesus death was in the ultimate sense to bring glory to His Father, as He provided the way to have a Holy God be able to legally redeem a fallen sinner..
     
  7. Earth Wind and Fire

    Earth Wind and Fire Well-Known Member
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    Augustine felt the need to formulate a doctrine of original sin in order to highlight the saving grace of God. By the eleventh century, the need to explain the damage due to the sin of Adam and Eve became the principal reason for Jesus Christ. If Adam had not sinned, Christ would not have come. No sin, no Jesus. The reason for the Incarnation (God assuming flesh), therefore, found merit in sinful humanity, rendering generations of people focused on their faults and failings. Salvation through Christ meant being rescued from a fallen world. And this is the premiere thinking of most Christians today. Therefore sin is necessary for salvation, is that correct?
     
  8. Earth Wind and Fire

    Earth Wind and Fire Well-Known Member
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    Think about what you just said for a moment. You proclaimed God as a “Showoff.” Just who is he showing off to and why is he doing it?
     
  9. Yeshua1

    Yeshua1 Well-Known Member
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    Not a show off, but getting the due respect and glory that the holy One should!
     
  10. tyndale1946

    tyndale1946 Well-Known Member
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    Its all about Christ... The OT and the NT... The focal point has always been Jesus Christ... As long as I have been in the Old Line Primitive Baptist Church every sermon always had Jesus Christ... If Jesus Christ is not contained in your message you are not preaching... The Apostle Paul said that is all he knew and all he preached... His preaching was centered around Jesus Christ... What I have yet to understand is why when brethren reach the book of Revelation Jesus Christ seems to disappear... The Anti-Christ shows up, the millennium, the rapture and who knows what else... The focal point is still Jesus Christ, not you and me... Brother Glen:)

    1 Corinthians 1:23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;

    1:24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

    1 Corinthians 2:1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.

    2:2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

    2:3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.

    2:4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

    2:5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

    2 Corinthians 4:5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.


     
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  11. Yeshua1

    Yeshua1 Well-Known Member
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    It is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and so he should be its prominent and primary focus!
     
  12. RighteousnessTemperance&

    RighteousnessTemperance& Well-Known Member

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    I’ve repeated my summary answer, and now I ask, how could God best communicate to us the extent of his love? Perhaps the most popular verse around is John 3:16:
    “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
     
  13. Earth Wind and Fire

    Earth Wind and Fire Well-Known Member
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    OK you are looking for verses... there are many

    Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness I have drawn thee."

    (Jeremiah 31:3)

    "Since [you are] precious in my sight...and I have loved thee...Fear not: for I am with [you]."

    (Isaiah 43:4-5)

    "As the Father has loved Me [Jesus], so have I loved you."

    (John 15:9)
     
    #13 Earth Wind and Fire, Jul 6, 2018
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2018
  14. Earth Wind and Fire

    Earth Wind and Fire Well-Known Member
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    And as far as going out of your way to express love, here is a proactive verse— Matthew 5:43-47
     
  15. RighteousnessTemperance&

    RighteousnessTemperance& Well-Known Member

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    Do the verses you cited exclude the involvement of sin (your original question)? Do they point to as great an expression of love as revealed in Christ on the cross? You will need to really flesh out your proposal, but I don’t predict success. My question is not about how great God’s immeasurable love is, but about how we could best comprehend it, experience it, be included in it, share it. A primary atheistic complaint is that God did not skip all this and create us already transformed and sinless in heaven. The Satanic answer is that God does not really love us.
     
  16. RighteousnessTemperance&

    RighteousnessTemperance& Well-Known Member

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    The last verse you cited in the list above is Jesus before heading to the cross. A fuller quote makes it clearer. John 15:9-13

    As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.​
     
  17. RighteousnessTemperance&

    RighteousnessTemperance& Well-Known Member

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    Such verses do not exclude sin at all; they actually assume it.
     
  18. Earth Wind and Fire

    Earth Wind and Fire Well-Known Member
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  19. HankD

    HankD Well-Known Member
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    Actually He was already there and walked with Adam/Eve in the "cool" ("ruach- wind or breeze") of the day.
    The question should be more explicit IMO - Would the Logos have become flesh and why?

    My answer would be yes - to perfect the fellowship of God and man.
     
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  20. Earth Wind and Fire

    Earth Wind and Fire Well-Known Member
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    I agree
     
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