Have You Looked Around Lately?

[jabcat]

I was out looking at some other sites, including a Universalist blog and some facebook stuff.  I'll admit, I ended up a bit disturbed.  To me, there is a frightening array of apostacy out there - advocating for things that are clearly otherwise defined in the scriptures, promotion of New Age philosophies ("it's about love", not necessarily trust in Jesus Christ; and all beliefs are OK, they're leading to God), and doubting and criticizing the legitimacy of the scriptures (pick and choose what you want, who knows what's inspired or not,etc.).  There are so many voices within Christianity, including Universalism, that I just have a hard time identifying with.  I began to think "I don't fit".  

But then it made me think of the group of believers here at Tentmaker;  how, although we may have our little temper tantrums and toss a few plates of food at each other now and again, still by far, the majority of the folks here still look to and esteem Jesus as the Savior, and properly translated and Spirit-revealed scripture as trustworthy.  I'll tell you, it melts my heart and makes me appreciate the group of believers that gather here.  We may even be in the minority in some ways, i.e., not chasing vain imaginations of the foolish human mind that sets itself above the Master, but when you look around out there, it sure can make one appreciate our brothers and sisters here.

God bless you.   :HeartThrob:

[WhiteWings]

James,

6 billion people 6 billion views.
Gary, certainly a devoted UR man. Same for Ray. I never seen a debate between them but I'm sure they at least have one different view on a certain subject.
So with 6 billion people we have 6 billion shades of gray. From ET to ED to UR. Or from Christianity to buddhism to new age.
So I would be suprised that you did not find what you wrote.
People just join the group that shares most of their believes.
Locked threads show the believes that are not shared.
:winkgrin:

[jabcat]

Tony, let me try to be more clear about my thoughts and feelings.  I'm not really talking about differing views.  I believe we have a healthy spectrum of that here.

I'm really talking about this;

by far, the majority of the folks here still look to and esteem Jesus as the Savior,  and  properly translated and Spirit-revealed scripture as trustworthy.  

I guess I expect the world to act like the world, and an unbeliever to act like an unbeliever.  But when people call themselves Christian Universalists, maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I would expect they'd hold to Jesus as the only Way to the Father, and the written Word as a standard by which to go.  Then when I look around I am reminded that many don't, and I see the apostate slippery slopes to which that leads, i.e., one can then conjure up any doctrinal fantasies the mind can imagine (and do  :bsad:).  By comparison it highlights the faithfulness of the group here, having both their differences and agreements with respect for the scriptures and Jesus as THE WAY -  as I said, it makes me appreciate the TM family more.   :thumbsup:

[WhiteWings]

I understand you James.
But different views for example can lead to groups of people that feel Scripture can't be fully trusted because man made copy/translation errors.
Or because Jesus died for mankind it no longer matters if people believe in Him. Saved=saved.

I once read the view that there is only one thing that get you in heaven or hell.
People that get buried goto heaven. Those that get cremated goto hell.
So I'm not easily suprised...

[jabcat]

I once read the view there is only one thing that get you in heaven or hell.
People that get buried goto heaven. Those that get cremated goto hell.
So I'm not easily surprised.

WHAT!!!!????  NOW ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT'S NOT TRUE????  AFTER ALL THIS TIME I'VE KNOWN YOU, YOU'RE JUST NOW TELLING ME THIS????     :doh:


:mfriends:

[Molly]

The name of Jesus is very powerful.  I've seen it over and over again.  Paul says that to them who are perishing, Christ crucified is foolishness.  I would choose the more powerful connotation of that Greek word, 'absurd.'  They consider it 'absurd' that the crucifixion of Jesus should have anything to do with them.  What they are really saying is shut your mouth, stop talking about Jesus, it's absurd.

Imagine hearing that in a 'Christian' church--where even atheists are welcomed.  Welcome to the world of the antichrist.

So, when Oprah says there are 'many ways to God,'  what God is she talking about?  She's pretending to be 'religious,' but is she really talking about the god, Satan?  Our Bible tells us there are many ways to Satan--the road is wide.

Where I live, the universalist churches are the Oprah book of the month club.  I won't even walk through their doors, and I wince when my friends describe the services, just like they wince when I mention the name of Jesus.

Every universalist church should be run like this board.  If you want to announce that everyone will be saved that should always be coupled with--but there is only one name under heaven by whom you will be saved.  And, there is only one Way to God.

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: I know exactly what you mean, Jab......they that have fallen to the New Age mantras have been led away of their own lusts, unless God led them to "go there". There is only one reason for going into that "kingdom" and that is to learn the language so you can be used to speak to bring the others out of that prison. God's version of a "translator".  :laughing7: Blessings....

[eaglesway]

  We also have a tremendous opportunity among those people. Many of them are where they are because they could find no alternative to the "hell and damnation" religion that masquerades as Christianity. Sometimes I prefer their company.

  As unseemly as it sounds, the gospel must be "rehabilitated" before some of them can have the veil removed so that the god of this world is no longer blinding their eyes to the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of All.

  I personally identify even less with the gospel whose god is content with the endless torment of billions of souls than I do with the god who is wearing 17 different faces and names.

At least I can tell them (as Paul did at Mars Hill; Acts 17) that my Jesus loves them all and my Father will have them all as One in the grand plan of things. Perhaps, when a few of them see that, they will bow the knee and confess with their tongue that Jesus is Lord of ALL- because He died to SAVE THEM ALL.

Come, let us reason together, though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow. Ho, everyone who thirsts, come, drink freely of the water of life.

  When I look at all the groups, I am likewise daunted. But when I just put one foot in front of the other one day at a time- every individual I meet is either thirsty (give that little one a drink of water for His names sake), or not (yet the spirit is hovering over the face of the waters, perhaps a word in season Today will later generate a thirst for the living water).

   When I am wise enough tell the ones who oppose themselves that Jesus loves them and walk away (when the conversation begins to grow fruitless), I walk away in the confidence that He loves them more than I, and the spirit of truth will finish the work in His way and time.    Peace, John


"For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.' Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

    "The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;

    and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him,

    though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His children.'
(Act 17:23-28)

Wow....I love Jesus, the Logos of God.

[jabcat]

Good posts guys.  Thanks.   :angelharp:  Music to the ears [heart].

[Beloved Servant]

When they have nothing to say, they say nothing at all.

[micah7:9]

 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.
Psa 48:2  Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.

Praise The Lord.

[thinktank]

I once read the view there is only one thing that get you in heaven or hell.
People that get buried goto heaven. Those that get cremated goto hell.
So I'm not easily surprised.

WHAT!!!!????  NOW ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT'S NOT TRUE????  AFTER ALL THIS TIME I'VE KNOWN YOU, YOU'RE JUST NOW TELLING ME THIS????     :doh:


:mfriends:

I allways thought of you as a bloke jabcat  :grin:

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: Amen, Eaglesway..... :thumbsup:

[jabcat]

I once read the view there is only one thing that get you in heaven or hell.
People that get buried goto heaven. Those that get cremated goto hell.
So I'm not easily surprised.

WHAT!!!!????  NOW ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT'S NOT TRUE????  AFTER ALL THIS TIME I'VE KNOWN YOU, YOU'RE JUST NOW TELLING ME THIS????     :doh:


:mfriends:

I allways thought of you as a bloke jabcat  :grin:

Oops, wrong emoticon.  hahahaha     I don't know why I thought one of these needed ribbons in their hair.  Gee whiz, I was cornfused.  Let's try this one;   :handshake:

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: Were you thinking of Ahh-nold and his "girly men" comment, LOL? Couldn't resist.... :winkgrin:

[thinktank]

I once read the view there is only one thing that get you in heaven or hell.
People that get buried goto heaven. Those that get cremated goto hell.
So I'm not easily surprised.

WHAT!!!!????  NOW ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT'S NOT TRUE????  AFTER ALL THIS TIME I'VE KNOWN YOU, YOU'RE JUST NOW TELLING ME THIS????     :doh:


:mfriends:

I allways thought of you as a bloke jabcat  :grin:

Oops, wrong emoticon.  hahahaha     I don't know why I thought one of these needed ribbons in their hair.  Gee whiz, I was cornfused.  Let's try this one;   :handshake:

Don't lie, you were calling whitewings a big girls blouse  :laughing7:

[reFORMer]

I think that probably the greatest gift God has given me is a hunger to know God and His Word.  That's because the greatest gift He's given me is The Holy Spirit and The Holy Scriptures; yet, without the desire to pursue, obtain and experience God, as well as the drive to understand what He's said that makes me read and study, I would wither back into the world.  We are lead by hunger.  Still, it isn't easy to keep digging when everyone around you is so nonchalant about the things of God.  Actually, it is often hostility to open sharing of His Word, and not just about "The Greater Hope" either.  Solomon said, "Whoever is wise, is wise for himself alone."  It looks a lot different after years of that kind of being alone.

Notice how "one another in the Lord" should be alongside our greatest gifts, yet it is still lacking realization.  When it's not about giving the fruit of your search to those who appreciate it, but it is only for your own edification, there is a loss of motivation.  Over and over, for years at a time since I've known the LORD, I find there's not one person or family to whose house I can go to find fellowship with those delighting in what God is doing or what we're finding in the Word.  It is not just agreement about certain doctrines I'm pointing to.  It's about sharing more about Jesus.  The hungry wick draws the oil for the flame to consume.  No hunger and your lamp goes out.

Traditions of Institutional Christianity are significantly to be blamed.  When all we can do is be enablers for the man on stage, passive audiences for a professional preacher with titles of honor from other men, we never exercise to our own spiritual development when we meet, critiquing one another's expression of Christ.  The Church is not on the program.  All we learn to do after 40 years is to sit down and shut up.  Little wonder I meet so many Christians with whom I can only have a one way conversation.

One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple. (Psa 27:4; AV)

Luke 10:38-42; AV:
38 Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.
40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

Philippians 3:8-14; Concordant Literal Translation:
8 But, to be sure, I am also deeming all to be a forfeit because of the superiority of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, because of Whom I forfeited all, and am deeming it to be refuse, that I should be gaining Christ,
9 and may be found in Him, not having my righteousness, which is of law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is from God for faith:
10 to know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, conforming to His death,
11 if somehow I should be attaining to the resurrection that is out from among the dead.
12 Not that I already obtained, or am already perfected. Yet I am pursuing, if I may be grasping also that for which I was grasped also by Christ Jesus.
13 Brethren, not as yet am I reckoning myself to have grasped, yet one thing --forgetting, indeed, those things which are behind, yet stretching out to those in front --
14 toward the goal am I pursuing for the prize of God's calling above in Christ Jesus.

[eaglesway]

Not one stone will be left standing upon another.

[Cardinal]

 :cloud9: GLORY! I got blessed reading reFORMer's post, then got blessed reading yours,  Eaglesway.

"E", I  "heard" that differently for the first time! Not one stone (we are lively stones) will be left standing upon (in the false authority of MEN) another. WOW! More confirmation for what He's shown me REALLY happened as a result of the day of Pentecost, thank You Lord...... :girlheart:

[Beloved Servant]

reFORMer, we are not alone!


But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,"
His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones.
I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.
                                                                — Jeremiah 20:9

[Molly]

:cloud9: GLORY! I got blessed reading reFORMer's post, then got blessed reading yours,  Eaglesway.

"E", I  "heard" that differently for the first time! Not one stone (we are lively stones) will be left standing upon (in the false authority of MEN) another. WOW! More confirmation for what He's shown me REALLY happened as a result of the day of Pentecost, thank You Lord...... :girlheart:

Meaning the only foundation will be Jesus Christ?  Each man will build on Christ instead of on other men? The Christ is a hologram.  That's why the stones fit together.



11For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

12Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

13Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

--1 Cor 3

[shawn]

The name of Jesus is very powerful.  I've seen it over and over again.  Paul says that to them who are perishing, Christ crucified is foolishness.  I would choose the more powerful connotation of that Greek word, 'absurd.'  They consider it 'absurd' that the crucifixion of Jesus should have anything to do with them.  What they are really saying is shut your mouth, stop talking about Jesus, it's absurd.

Imagine hearing that in a 'Christian' church--where even atheists are welcomed.  Welcome to the world of the antichrist.

So, when Oprah says there are 'many ways to God,'  what God is she talking about?  She's pretending to be 'religious,' but is she really talking about the god, Satan?  Our Bible tells us there are many ways to Satan--the road is wide.

Where I live, the universalist churches are the Oprah book of the month club.  I won't even walk through their doors, and I wince when my friends describe the services, just like they wince when I mention the name of Jesus.

Every universalist church should be run like this board.  If you want to announce that everyone will be saved that should always be coupled with--but there is only one name under heaven by whom you will be saved.  And, there is only one Way to God.

Why wouldn't an atheist be welcomed into a church?  I would think they need Jesus as much as the rest of us.

[Cardinal]

:cloud9: GLORY! I got blessed reading reFORMer's post, then got blessed reading yours,  Eaglesway.

"E", I  "heard" that differently for the first time! Not one stone (we are lively stones) will be left standing upon (in the false authority of MEN) another. WOW! More confirmation for what He's shown me REALLY happened as a result of the day of Pentecost, thank You Lord...... :girlheart:

Meaning the only foundation will be Jesus Christ?  Each man will build on Christ instead of on other men? The Christ is a hologram.  That's why the stones fit together.



11For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

12Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

13Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

--1 Cor 3

:cloud9: Yes, meaning He's both the foundation and the head/authority. To stand upon another, to exalt oneself above another, is the sin of the Nicolaitans, differentiating between the clergy and the laity. Blessings....

[Molly]

:cloud9: GLORY! I got blessed reading reFORMer's post, then got blessed reading yours,  Eaglesway.

"E", I  "heard" that differently for the first time! Not one stone (we are lively stones) will be left standing upon (in the false authority of MEN) another. WOW! More confirmation for what He's shown me REALLY happened as a result of the day of Pentecost, thank You Lord...... :girlheart:

Meaning the only foundation will be Jesus Christ?  Each man will build on Christ instead of on other men? The Christ is a hologram.  That's why the stones fit together.



11For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

12Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

13Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

--1 Cor 3

:cloud9: Yes, meaning He's both the foundation and the head/authority. To stand upon another, to exalt oneself above another, is the sin of the Nicolaitans, differentiating between the clergy and the laity. Blessings....

That's really great.  That explains why sometimes he's called the cornerstone and sometimes he's called the capstone--head and feet.  wow.

[Molly]

Why wouldn't an atheist be welcomed into a church?  I would think they need Jesus as much as the rest of us.

These are very secular churches. Formerly Unitarian, now they have equal respect for all faiths and no faith.  These atheists are hardcore and aren't there to meet God; they are there to meet girls. lol 

One week the budhists will run the service, one week the wiccans, one week the new-agers, one week the book of the month club.  All faiths are equal and welcome.  [Atheism is a religion, right?] Jesus is portrayed as a great humanitarian.