tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318602258345864078.post3994402334735943545..comments2023-06-03T06:32:58.978-07:00Comments on Dogma Eat Dogma: HereticalUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318602258345864078.post-12504423533660550672012-02-22T12:29:57.861-08:002012-02-22T12:29:57.861-08:00Scott,
Thanks for clarifying your position.
I a...Scott,<br />Thanks for clarifying your position. <br /><br />I agree with you in the way that you want an open dialogue within the Church as a whole. The local church should have pastors concerned with ensuring that it, the church, has a sound doctrine. But you are right that it is not the job of leaders in the church to chase down others. <br /><br />For example, if my dad came to your church and started to teach prosperity gospel or universalism I would hope that your church leadership, yourself included, would ask him what the heck he was doing. But if Ross went around as an elder of Faith Christian to other churches and demanded that they conform to his specific doctrine that would be wrong.<br /><br />We as local churches have the right and responsibility to explain sound doctrine. We don't not have the responsibility to oversee other churches. That is Christ's role.<br /><br />Thanks again for the discussion Scott. It's fun and worthwhile to think about these things. And I hope you can stomach your prof. enough to get through the class.Matt Rayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02288488456742791826noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318602258345864078.post-53328434956518835092012-02-22T11:11:25.672-08:002012-02-22T11:11:25.672-08:00Thanks Matt, I appreciate your honesty. I'm a...Thanks Matt, I appreciate your honesty. I'm actually surprised *anyone* reads anything here. I'll need to be more careful how I say things. ;)<br /><br />I wouldn't expect anyone to agree with me 100%, most of the time I don't even agree with myself 100%. And that's my point. Grey area abounds.<br /><br />There are times when we may find ourselves needing to help people understand things more clearly about God, about Jesus. People often need that, want that, for their own spiritual health. <br /><br />When hunting down people with wrong beliefs becomes a "primary purpose" of the church... it has gone too far. Crusades (Billy Graham perhaps excluded) have proven historically to be an exceptionally bad idea. And heresy hunting smells a lot like a crusade. <br /><br />The church grows through questions asked and new ideas suggested. Not all of those ideas are good (ie. relativistic ideas that God is just a conception in our mind to maintain morality), but neither - in my opinion - are some of the ideas we've inherited from the past two thousand years (ie. "female relegation to supporting roles in the church," "slavery is to be accepted," "killing people is okay if we can justify it" and "Republican is religiously right").<br /><br />I'm simply suggesting that we should listen carefully to the questions being asked and the points being made. We can be honest and disagree, but Scripture is open to a wide berth of interpretation and Church history illustrates vastly contrasting interpretations being held as orthodox throughout time. And even now, the same authoritative scriptures are used by different groups to support opposing doctrines.<br /><br />I've spent the last year reading through the Church Fathers and I can tell you with great confidence that despite our reverence for those "pillars of orthodoxy" like Irenaeus, Athanasius, Augustine - they would have labeled you and I heretics, without blinking, for a number of our beliefs. <br /><br />For me, that puts things in a unique perspective. I'm just not arrogant enough to believe that we've finally got it all figured out.<br /><br />(It might put this post in perspective if I told you the same professor in the same lecture asserted that we shouldn't use television in presenting the Gospel because that technology has been used as a vehicle of entertainment. Of course, his lecture was being broadcast over the Internet.)Scott Dossetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04498349908514741460noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318602258345864078.post-23679577059995835302012-02-22T07:20:47.051-08:002012-02-22T07:20:47.051-08:00Well, I'm not sure I'm with you 100% on th...Well, I'm not sure I'm with you 100% on this one Scott.<br /><br />I agree that we have no infalliable source of authority in the church, regardless of what is said of the Pope. However, I believe a major role of church leadership is to maintain and teach a pure doctrine. Paul was very concerned with this in his ministry.<br /><br />That being said, the example of Priscilla and Aquila is the one we should follow most often. Apollos was teaching an incomplete gospel. Rather than calling him out in public they invited him to their home and explained the full Gospel to him more clearly. If they would have called him out in public his ministry would have been eliminated. But because Priscilla and Aquila handled the situation with grace, Apollos became one of the early Church's greatest missionaries.<br /><br />Bottom line: doctrine is important. We should find out what is worth fighting for in our doctrine and not stir trouble in the other areas. But when Christians disagree we need to handle the situation with grace because we are on display to the world. They are watching us to see how we love.Matt Rayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02288488456742791826noreply@blogger.com