Would you bend the rules to win a soul?

No.

Whatever is not of faith is sin. I don't know of anyone saved by sin.

 

Mima. you go and tell it. I'm an old married guy but I think I love you and what you do, if you :godisgood: know what I mean,

 

First off, if it is not stated in the Bible, it is a "man made rule" to begin with. And I have no problem wi th 'breaking' one of those non-existent 'rules', even when it has become "canonized rhetoric".

If something is 'wrong' it will 'contradict' some Scripture principle, somewhere, somehow; if it doesn't contradict that, it is personal bias, opinion, or preference, not a Biblical principle, and the only time I will accede to it, is in deference to the principle of the 'weaker brother' in certain things. And one doesn't have to do anything "under the table" in any way, to get the point(s) across, so to speak, either, IMO.

Ed

 

Well said, Ed! (Hey, that rhymes!) :type:

 

Thanks, Ed.

It would break my heart to realize that I had somehow twisted scripture to gain one's trust. That would result in all night on my knees, hand resting on 1 John 1:9. Oh Precious Lord, forgive, would be my cry, among my tears.

It's always scripturally sound (I started to type "a good idea") to have the Bible in thine hand when from the mouth thou wilst expand.

:wavey:

 

You know, I often read this but have never seen any proof of it so I withhold judgment on it. Do you have any quotes from Finney or examples from his life to prove this?

 

Well, I never got an answer to this. TCGreek is a solid guy, so I suppose he simply missed this...or maybe his expertise is not in church history so much as in Greek. :smilewinkgrin:

Unless someone responds to this I will abandon the thread. But I don't want to leave poor Finney insulted without response. (Finney is the boogey man of a certain branch of theology, which has created myths about him such as the one TCGreek mentioned, or the myth that he invented the invitation.) So here is how Finney really practiced evangelism:

"All ministers may be, and ought to be, so filled with the Holy Spirit that all who hear them shall be impressed with the conviction that 'God is in them of a truth!'" (The Autobiography of Charles Finney, Condensed and Edited by Helen Wessel, p. 76)

"In regard to my own experience, I will say that unless I had the spirit of prayer I could do nothing. If I lost the spirit of grace and supplication even for a day or an hour I found myself unable to preach with power and efficiency or to win souls by personal conversation" (ibid, p. 105).

So how did Finney practice evangelism? Prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit, folks--just as we should. :type:

 

It also opens the door for a huge lawsuit with damages in the millions.