Featured Insight into me

I don't respond in your threads because in spite of getting an education - something I wish I had much more of - you have retained the screaming and hollering in condemnation that was part of your upbringing.

I think you bring alot to any conversation that is valuable. But too often it's just hard to get to it with all the smug superiority you show at times.

I was taught by John R Rice that people can disagree because of my position, but i ought to make sure they don't disagree because of my disposition.

Now go ahead and tell me I ought to shut up because I don't read enough or have enough education. :tongue3:

 

In some weird way...I have always thought it wise to sort-of comprehend the nature and the personality and the presumptive back-ground of the PARTICULAR individual you are trying to rejoinder/debate with/speak with...

I have a similar experience, but not exactly:

I was raised in an essentially "conservative" Southern Baptist Church...wherein I was saved and baptized...but, I REALLY became a dedicated and "sold-out" Christian while attending a KJV-only Independent, Fundamental, chicken-eating, sin-hating, pulpit-pounding Baptist Church (sometime in my early twenties)

Thus, for instance, while I don't believe that the KJV is "perfect" or "twice-inspired" or some provably false idiocy like that....I also sort of loathe the lame sort of "NIV"-preaching I was raised on...
Frankly...I would still argue today that (pound-for-pound) no other translation will EVER match it's specificity and beauty in fact accuracy (even if imperfect).

My experience was almost the converse of yours....I dis-liked what I thought to be the milque-toast" I thought I was raised in, and came to embrace the tenacity and dedication to truth-claims I saw in more fundamental Churches.

While I don't agree with ALL of the tenants of many fundamentalist Baptist Churches...I respect and admire their dedication to what they believe to be truth.

It's as though you were raised listening to Ron Paul...and came to embrace a little more Mitt Romney...
and I tired of the perfect hair (and amazing cuff-links) of Mitt Romney and came to respect the honesty and straight-forwardness of Ron Paul...

It comes full-circle though doesn't it?
:laugh::laugh:

 

What I am going to say I say very gently and only as advice.

Education is good and we should never stop studying. We can continue by taking formal classes, reading and in discussions. We should read widely and all points of view.

Going to a Bible college and a seminary is good. I commend you for doing so. It gives an education, but, IMHO, a narrow education. Now is the time to branch out and take classes in other disciplines to broaden your education. Perhaps the best way is to take classes as a local community college. Don't worry about following a degree path. Take a wide range of courses and build on what you already know and broaden the base of your education.

There are excellent free online courses and lectures.

Learning is for life and should never stop as long as we can hold and read or listen.

And never forget every person we meet, regardless of educational background, status, race, creed, color, ethnicity ... every person can be our teacher in one way or another.

 

I agree with this conclusion.

Our authority is found in God's Word - which we'd better know in context before we go spouting off personal preferences & self-righteous standards.

 

Actually I wasn't saying anything about hitting a pulpit and yelling. I was talking about your attitude here on this board.

I fully understood your point. You just lose listeners who probably agree with you by your seemingly incurable arrogance.

Thanks for the insight into your character.

 

1.) If it weren't Biblically untrue....
I would think that Ron Paul (even if I don't dig his foreign policy) was the Messiah

2.) Unfortunately, the English language is de-volving in it's capacity for specificity and explanatory power, and because of this, I maintain that, un-fortunately...the KJV still will (and always will IMO) maintain the word for word explanatory power never again to be emulated or copied...
In a perfect universe...a better translation COULD be possible, but the English language is losing it's abilities. In a better world the English language would not be so over-simplified, that is something Orwell warned us of: a simplified language he called "Newspeak"...subtleties of meaning become lost, and as a result words can become relativised, and subsequently...truth itself becomes relativised...This is so prominent today it's ridiculous. Orwell was a prophet.

3.) As far as "milque-toast" Christianity...I agree...but we have to be SOOOO careful....There's a fine-line between being un-movably dedicated to truth and being a mere Inquisitor...
The tee-totalling threads are teachable moments for us:
We, one the one hand, need to respect and defend the "faith as delivered unto us"...but at the same time, we must distinguish between that, and mere traditions of men...
It's a tough row to hoe sometimes.
Jud 1:3 ¶ Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort [you] that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
Here's a difficult dichotomy we have to be cognizant of...
Paul's respect for the "right" traditions...and the error and problems associated with blind adherence to tradition:

Gal 1:14 And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.
2Th 2:15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

Embedded within 2 Thess 2:15.. is the key perhaps...It must be by "Word" (probably from an apostle only) or "Epistle" (which we have access to today)...

We MUST respect our elders' traditions...as being perhaps the wise-counsel of yesteryear. I will NOT lambast the preaching of Billy Sunday, as his preaching was incredibly relevant for his era...all the yack about "demon-drink" and what-not...

But, Billy Sunday did not always exegete the Scriptures perfectly in his preaching either:

God decidedly used him in his era and thus we must respect the tradition he has handed down to us...but, he is not the perfect Biblical teaching about all things relevant to that issue...

We look to the "Epistles" as Paul said for our guidance...

We heed Sunday's warnings, and thus, we do not despise the traditions of our fathers....
But we test all Universal Truths by the measure of the Epistles................................

And...when someone asks me to preach again...I'll do so, until then, sorry about subjecting the audience to my interminable musings

Well....I'm sorta sorry, but not really.

 

Luke likes folks who tell it straight. OK.

 

Speaking for myself..I would never use ones cathartic vulnerabilities as weapons in a debate. Such would not be kosher. I do appreciate insight into you.

In return, I was a military brat, growing up all over these United States and two foreign countries. Always attended SBC oriented churches, on rare occasions Base Chapel services. I attended for two years Baptist Bible Institute, now known as Florida Baptist Theological College. One of my life's great mentors was Dr. J.W. Lee, Prof of OT. I exchanged the study of "chronicles" for the study of calculus and have taught college for 26 years. Looking back, I probably have greater opportunity to directly impact lives as a teacher as much if not more than I would have as a pastor or staff member.

 

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

I suppose the problem is that those fundamentalists you refer to, and your debate opponents on this board, DO think they are well-informed on the subjects they rant about...Just as you do. And then there's the question of how informed and educated must one be before they are "allowed" to beat the pulpit in condemnation.

 

Let's face it, Luke is talking about me. In another thread he named me specifically several times. There are several others that annoy him, but I am the one he dislikes the most.

Luke's problem is insecurity. He wants everybody to think he is smart and well educated. Truth is, Luke IS very smart and well educated, but he doesn't have a lick of common sense. One thing Luke will learn someday is that institutions of learning don't always teach the truth. One of the best places to get your mind totally messed up is college. Someday he is going to realize he has been fed much error.

God gave us the scriptures and told us to study. If a person diligently studies and prays they can come to a good and accurate understanding of the scriptures.

 

In some ways, Winman, you're the other side of the luke coin.

Besides that, you shouldn't show family portraits on line. :tongue3:

 

I admit, that was rather cruel, but I know where Luke keeps his goat tied up.

Truth is, I am from North Carolina, my grandfather was a farmer. But he was a very smart man who owned several businesses, his brother was a doctor. I am proud to be a redneck and a hillbilly.

You have to like who you are, that is what Luke needs to learn. It doesn't matter where you were born, you can go as far as you apply yourself.

 

Then why in heavens name are you a Southern Baptist???

 

Tom, still think that picture I posted was inappropriate?