Amish

I read that on a website about the amish. Maybe it pertained to a certain order or just to instruments. Good to see they all aren't giving music up.

I think being an example is excellent. If you compare your life to that of an amish, you'd tend to double think some stuff you do. I know it's important to go out into the community and share the gospel and be a shining example there. It'd be nice if they weren't so passive in their approach, but I bet it works on some souls.

Why would you claim that most aren't saved? What basis is there on this other than they might depend on works rather than grace? Any proof this is their doctrine? I really don't know much about them, but I often am around menonites.

And as for rebellious teens, aren't all teens that way pretty much? I wouldn't discredit a denomination based on a few crazy kids! I was one!

 

I read that on a website about the amish.

Sorry, but I couldn't let that one go. An Amish website. That just sounds funny.

 

They don't need to "witness" to each other. Amish people are culturally theocratic from birth. They are brought up being taught the Gospel from the time they come out of the womb.

The way they live their life is a witness.

 

Assuming we are still referring to the Amish here, my question would be this:

If the fruits of the Spirit can be seen in the life Steve lives, just who is Joe to doubt Steve's salvation, no matter what doctrine Steve adheres to?

Jesus said:

Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Matt. 7:20

Paul said:

Let us not be desirous of vain glory,provoking one another envying one another. Galations 5:26

I wish we could get away from this idea that Christians who are different from us are not really Christians. If a person has believed in his heart and confessed with his mouth, that person has been SAVED. In my bible, there is a period after that sentence. It doesn't go on to say anything like "provided he is baptized a certain way," or "provided he witnesses to everyone he sees," or anything else of that nature. I don't find these things to be related either to salvation, or to the manifestation of the fruits of the Spirit in our lives.

Paul said:

But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
1 Corinthians 12:18

According to Paul, we don't all have the same job to do at the heavenly office, so to speak.

 

Any person that has come to know Christ, repent of their sins, and believed on the Lord Jesus can be saved. This person can be Amish, Baptist, etc. They may or may not bear the fruit of the spirit based on their growth in the Lord.

When I with the Amish, I always try to talk about the Lord...about how He can't be happy with the way things are now...about how my life used to be and that I am so thankful that I can now live for God.

The point is, I make it a practice to acknowledge God in a nonthreatening way to them. This gets them talking about spiritual things and opens a door for me to relay to them, that what matters is that we should solely trust in God/Christ and not depend on anything else. That away if they do believe in certain other things necessary for salvation, they can see that it is only in Christ. At no point have I belittled their beliefs or put down their way of life or tried to change them, just bring them to the Lord and let Him do rest.

 

I totally agree. There can be lost people in any religion. (Or in this case sect.ordinung)

Cheryl

 

I don't know a whole lot about Amish people and their beliefs. In PA (Im in NJ) but Pennsy has a huge number of Amish people. I do know that they have differnt beliefs than Baptists, and I do know they really despise "outsiders." They live like people would live in the old days.

Get around by horse drawn carriges, but updated, they are required to have signals and reflectors. I have been to PA on many, many occasions and have never run into an Amish person. They all keep to themselves.

But I also agree with someone else who posted that there are lost people in every religion. That's what it all comes down to.

 

You are saying that lost people are okay in their condition? You know, the more I read of primitive theology, the more the lines really are defined. </font>[/QUOTE]No, he's saying (I think) that lost people are best reached by those who can reach them without violence to their persons, their families or their culture. Given the nature of their culture, unsaved Amish can probably usually be best witnessed to by saved Amish, and salvation doesn't involve internal combustion engines. Just as the salvation of Gaels and Indians doesn't involve slapping them if they speak their own language, or removing them from their families to attend boarding schools. (This is not to glorify any culture, but to remind us that we too are cultural beings, none of us has the pure Christian aculturality. The saints do not all wear ties. etc.)

I have a second cousin who recently married an Amish boy from Kentucky. His parents are very observant, but he and my cousin drove back (from Washington to Kentucky) for her to be vetted by them; on the way they stopped by some relatives of his in Iowa, who debated for hours about whether it would be a sin to ride to Kentucky as passengers in his car. They ended up deciding it would be okay. FWIW...

Haruo