Comments on: All In

By: Michelle White

Michelle White — Tue, 26 May 2020 05:04:46 +0000

Do you listen to BibleProject’s podcasts? Their teaching of the Bible (a narrative taught by explaining the Hebrew and Greek, culture, etc) saved my faith as after not only I was abused by our pastor & his wife, but so was our oldest son & daughter. After growing up in an unhealthy church environment & then experiencing it as an adult & as a parent I had had enough. I had so many questions and wrote them in my Bible. All of my questions have been answered through these podcasts and the Bible FINALLY make sense. And their only agenda…TEACH the Bible in its original context & intent.

By: Zach

Zach — Mon, 11 May 2020 19:45:51 +0000

Hi Mrs. MacDiarmid! Out of curiosity, are you referencing Tim Challies’ article “If the Bible Is Wrong, I’m So, So Wrong,” or another article?

https://www.challies.com/articles/if-the-bible-is-wrong-im-so-so-wrong/

By: Darin

Darin — Tue, 05 May 2020 23:33:20 +0000

Gina, I liked what you said, and you gave a picture of what it should look like. We need to be able to humble ourselves, and in love talk about this. When we have disagreements, we should ask questions.

1. Put your feet on both sides and ask, if the way I believe, could it stop the chase, to get closer to Jesus, or stop the race or hinder it.
2. Which side may or may not hinder or grieve the Holy Spirit?
3. Put your feet in Satan shoes and ask, if I were Satan how would I deceive them, or trick them, or lie to them, so they would think they are right with God.

Look at Paul, he ran his race to very end. Am I running the race? Do you see the Holy Spirit in your life and the supernatural, or do you believe the Holy Spirit doesn’t work like that anymore? If you believe the second, I will say, Satan has trick you and lied to you.

By: Charlotte

Charlotte — Mon, 04 May 2020 18:23:44 +0000

Wow! I love the observations and the honesty Katie. I too have felt what you are talking about with the “all in” or your out! Whoa! Wait a minute! I have many non-christian friends who like to challenge me about the far right and the politics of the “Moral Majority”. Their challenges always center on the display of poor moral values and the alignment among Christians in perpetuating those poor values through support. All I can say in return is that like any other group of people, be it ethnic or religious, they don’t speak for everybody and they certainly don’t speak for me. Your article is spot on for my experience, and I feel reassurance in reading it. Thank you for articulating it so well.

By: Gina Rupert

Gina Rupert — Mon, 04 May 2020 06:21:55 +0000

Thanks for writing, Katie. Coincidentally, on my blog reading list right next to your post was Scott Saul’s, titled “We Disagree, Therefore I Need You.” Yes. Unity in Jesus’ love has to be the church’s priority, far above deciding who is “right” or “wrong” theologically (in fact, does the latter even have to be on the list of priorities at all?) In my NT class, I just finished a group project in which we had to present two sides of a controversial issue in the church. My classmates and I didn’t all agree, but we’ve spent the last 6 weeks growing and learning together, praying for each other, enjoying each other’s company (over Zoom, of course.) This experience has renewed my hope for the church, especially in the age of social media rants and politicized religion.

By: Darin

Darin — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 00:54:03 +0000

Katie, I like this post and yes, we need to ask questions on theology and Church doctrine. This is where it gets very messy, because I can give you every denomination of Churches, from Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Mormon, and I could go on and on. They all have their own doctrine and beliefs, and if you go against what they believe or have differences, it gets very heated. Our hearts are so hard we cannot even put our feet in their shoes and try to figure out where they are coming from, and they are wrong, and I am right. The God Head has revealed this to me and has showed me, this is all Satan doing.

There is only one truth, and in the Word of God there is only one Church. Satan has come into the Church and taken truths and half-truths and deceived us and has divided us. Look at Paul’s story he was a Christian persecutor and on the way to Damascus he sees Jesus, and everything changed. Paul did not walk with Jesus; he was not taught by Jesus. Paul did not go to college and learned everything he wrote. It was all God inspired and downloaded through the Holy Spirit. Paul was transformed into the image of Jesus and Paul became the rebuke of the Church. He wrote letters calling them out and giving truth and promise to get them back in line with God. I believe todays church hangs on to the promises and they will not look for the truth and the condition to receive the promise, meaning when you hear a promise in the Word read the scriptures before and after to see if you’re in that condition to receive it, and do you see these promises in your life?

For revival to happen the big Church and the little church(individuals) needs to realize this has happened, and we need to turn back to God and ask him how we can fix this. This is going to take a lot of humility and surrender and asking for the help of the Holy Spirit to soften hearts and be able see it through Gods eyes.

I am going to ask the Church, and the church some questions to make you think on this, and if you have the courage to ask the Holy Spirit to guide you, and have an open heart to receive what he will show you and convict you of. But before you read these questions will you be able turn over your heart, mind and soul to God and let him teach you what he wants to show you. Say this prayer and take it to heart.

I pray to you O Heavenly Father everything I know to be true about you and your word take it away from me. Teach me your truth through the Holy Spirit. Have him guide me and convict me where I need convicting. Teach me your ways not church ways or human ways. I want to hear from you O Heavenly Father.

1. When was the last time you verified your Church Theology and Doctrine through the Word?
2. Once you have done question one, do you have the courage now to pray to God and ask him to lead you to the truth and search scripture and put your feet on the other side and prove me wrong, or show me how Satan has deceived me?
3. Does your Theology and Doctrine, has it provoked arguments and division with other Christians to where it looks like the warning in Gal. 5: 13-15 13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh[a]; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[b] 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

Here is something else to think about: What is Theology?

I think it is human mindset. Every denomination of Church can trace back when it was formed and who was it that created the denominations. They all used scripture to write their doctrine and their beliefs, and I think Satan crept in and deceived them and they interpreted to fit their beliefs. Like I said, there is only one truth, not one hundred. Satan has divided ONE Church into many. Remember God’s goal is to be united in one Spirit and have the mindset of Christ.

By: Dan Hess

Dan Hess — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 22:02:54 +0000

Thanks, Katie.

By: Neal F Brower

Neal F Brower — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 16:17:36 +0000

“I’m with Paul in believing the church is bigger than the wise think it is and messier than the clean want it to be (1 Cor. 1:22).”
Katie, I am with you. We are one body under one head. This is the church. You and I are body parts of it. What you are exposing is what I’ve come to refer to as the ch**ch. You may not want to be a part of that. I don’t, and I’m a denominational official!
Christ and Him crucified!
Thank you for calling us to account. For clarifying. Ever since Jesus and Paul made sin and foolishness the core requirements of adoption as children, we’ve been promoting behavioral perfection and human wisdom the qualifiers for the elite level of our evangelical caste system. It is ludicrous. And even this, the Father is using. How mysterious is that?

By: Rachel

Rachel — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 15:21:04 +0000

I’m with you Katie. it’s so discouraging to witness this mindset pervade the church, and it often seems fruitless to argue against because people of this persuasion are so convinced of their own righteousness. There was a time I fell into this camp. Speaking for myself, I clung to this mindset because of fear that I wasn’t “pure” enough or “right” enough. But isn’t that just the problem? The lack of trust that Jesus is *enough* for me to boldly approach the throne of God.

A few more thoughts–

Pride separates us from God. That should scare us and cause a lot of self-examination. Unfortunately the nature of pride is sneaky. The reference to a circumcision of the heart in the Bible is a prayer said by the Israelites for God to “see if there is any way of hardness in me.” That’s a good prayer for all of us.

The people who are so certain that their version of theology is correct of use the phrase “the CLEAR teaching of scripture” as a weapon against people who question their interpretation. It confounds me that they ignore Peter’s acknowledgement even to his own contemporaries in 2 Peter 3:16 that Paul’s writings can be hard to understand. Even back then in the same culture, time period, and language, things weren’t “clear.”

As I was reading the article, I got an impression in my heart that God may be using this challenging time in the American church to sift us and cause us to seek His wisdom more than ever. There’s no formulaic answers. We have to lean on His grace and wisdom every single day. He’s with us, and the best thing we can do is keep our eyes on Him.

By: Frank

Frank — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 14:48:44 +0000

Preach, sister! I wasn’t raised in the church, and my initial exposure to Biblical Theology is through things like The Bible Project, Dr. Michael Heiser, and NT Wright. The more I read, the more I realize how muddy and complicated a lot of Scripture is, since we are so far removed from the context of the ancient world, and aren’t the original audience that these letters and Gospels were written to (much less the Old Testament).

I sometimes feel like I am an alien in the church. Just even hinting at the idea that we need to step back, humble ourselves, and realize we know less about Scripture than we actually know causes people to FREAK OUT! When I try to explain to my small group why we need to study more than just the Bible to really really understand the culture as much as possible so when we do read the Bible, it has even more meaning to us than we could have imagined, I get blank looks or outright hostility.

My point is that you are definitely not alone, I pray for us all to try and practice humility in the face of self-exultation, and that we hold firmly to the hope that is in us through what Jesus has done for us.