Featured Self-righteousness in Christianity

Isn't that the point, Sis?

de·bate
/diˈbāt/
Noun
A formal discussion on a particular topic in a public meeting or legislative assembly, in which opposing arguments are put forward.
Verb
Argue about (a subject), esp. in a formal manner.

 

To challenge the notion that we should never be harsh and pointed when dealing with people who do not know hermeneutics from Herman Munster.

To fight for the right "to rebuke them sharply... that their mouths may be stopped."

Titus 1

To point out the hypocrisy and self-righteousness of all of us and to confront the notion that people who go around pleading for constant sweetness occupy some high ground when they are as harsh as the ones they rebuke whenever it SUITS THEM.

There is a forum strictly designed for nothing but fellowship on this site. This is called Baptist DEBATE forums.

Debate. This is NOT JUST FELLOWSHIP.

We are talking about weighty matters. Things are going to get heated and they should and we ought to stop acting like it is WRONG when we have MYRIADS of Bible teachings to the CONTRARY.

I cannot help in what manner of repute you choose to hold me. That is your decision.

Jesus had a HORRIBLE reputation in his day- one that got him crucified. I'm no Jesus, nor even a Paul, or I'd be bolder.

I expect that I challenge the thinking that is common on this board and I expect to be hated and disliked and called all kinds of things and accused of all kinds of things by people who don't want their way of thinking challenged.

I don't claim to be any better than anybody else on this site. I just challenge this hippy influenced notion so popular in this politically correct-obsessed age of Joel Osteen-ruled Christianity.

 

That's what you prefer today.

Yesterday you preferred to confront the semi-pelagians.

Tomorrow you may prefer something else.

When the fact is that ALL OF THIS NEEDS TO BE CONFRONTED everyday and something besides the MOOD we are in should dictate how we go about it and which ones we want to confront on any given day.

Consistency is called for.

 

I agree.

But some folks seem to be oblivious to their own.

 

You're not reading the right Bible then.

 

The point of this thread is to fight for the right TO argue.

 

I have three very close friends which have bee my friends for about a decade and a half.

All three of them are preachers.

All three of them are well educated.

All three of them, with me, came out of a very backwards, fundamentalist, thoroughly Arminian movement to the ministries we have today.

We LOVE each other. We also love the truth and want to know what it is and whether or not what we hold to is it.

We have fought like dogs over some things. A few years ago we had an EXTREMELY heated debate on alcohol.

One of them held to teetotalism with FEROCITY. There was yelling. We went back and forth over the merits of both positions for hours one night then for hours the next night. It took a week of this.

Then he said, "Ya'll are right. It is poor hermeneutics to try to build doctrine out of Proverbs alone and I have no other Bible to support this idea and the Bible in several places does COMMEND the responsible consumption of alcohol."

There was not ONE MOMENT in all of that- not one- that we were not the closest of friends. The frustration was part of the friction NECESSARY to move from one place to the other.

We are MEN and we talk like MEN talk and we understand that. We are not overly concerned with feelings. We are not women and we think there is a difference and it is not just PHYSICAL. Men do not, nor SHOULD they speak to each other like women speak to each other.

And what I think we have in modern Christianity in this culture is the effeminization of the Church.

And I think the reason some men on here hate what I say is because it reflects upon their embrace of this Joel Osteen type ministry (not the substance of it but the STYLE of it).

They think I am saying that they are like the hen-pecked husband whose wife rules the roost and that they lack the manliness to be stern and pointed. And I am saying that.

And I think we need a revival of manly discussion and preaching that is not totally opposed to friction and fierce debate.

I think we need this more than just about anything because the Gospel is getting buried in this culture underneath tons of posies and lace.

We need BOTH women and men- but what we DON'T need is for everybody to talk like one or the other.

 

This is a DEBATE FORUM.

The primary thing we DO here, based on how this forum is labeled, is "constantly be finding topics to argue about."

We have a fellowship forum for the other stuff.