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The more important question is, do you believe Jesus? For example, John 3:16.
You'd love the world more if you DIDN'T commit assisted-suicide-child-sacrifice fusion for it, but just benignly educated it with overwhelming love and capability.
The more important question is, do you believe Jesus? For example, John 3:16.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TRANSPONDER
Perhaps so. What you believe may be more important than which church you attend.
Church attendance is just an extension of the Christian life. It's a place to meet with other believers to worship, study God's Word and participate in ministry. It doesn't have to be a building with a steeple on top, but every believer should meet together with other believers, so that "iron sharpens iron". There are no "lone ranger" Christians.
Last edited by Horn of ‘83; 03-28-2016 at 08:36 AM..
Church attendance is just an extension of the Christian life. It's a place to meet with other believers to worship, study God's Word and participate in ministry. It doesn't have to be a building with a steeple on top, but every believer should meet together with other believers, so that 'iron sharpens iron". There are no "lone ranger" Christians.
Except that in my experience it is not so much iron sharpening iron as it is making nice, going along to get along, and avoiding the violation of numerous taboos, lest some fragile ego perceive an existential threat where none exists.
The metaphor "iron sharpening iron" is supposed to evoke knocking each other's rough edges off but in practice it is "provoking one another to good works", which is a nice way of saying "guilting each other into doing their duty".
Of course you will inevitably claim that your church is different -- everyone does -- but at the end of the day the purpose of "gathering together" is simply to reinforce each other's confirmation bias and conformity to the norms of that particular sub-society.
Except that in my experience it is not so much iron sharpening iron as it is making nice, going along to get along, and avoiding the violation of numerous taboos, lest some fragile ego perceive an existential threat where none exists.
The metaphor "iron sharpening iron" is supposed to evoke knocking each other's rough edges off but in practice it is "provoking one another to good works", which is a nice way of saying "guilting each other into doing their duty".
Of course you will inevitably claim that your church is different -- everyone does -- but at the end of the day the purpose of "gathering together" is simply to reinforce each other's confirmation bias and conformity to the norms of that particular sub-society.
No one is forced to attend a particular church. I suspect if a person really wants to find a church home, they can. If a believer can't find a suitable church to serve from, the problem lies within said believer, not the church.
Church attendance is just an extension of the Christian life. It's a place to meet with other believers to worship, study God's Word and participate in ministry. It doesn't have to be a building with a steeple on top, but every believer should meet together with other believers, so that "iron sharpens iron". There are no "lone ranger" Christians.
Yes, I'm with Mordant, there. The purpose of Churches is to reinforce the membership -feeling. On you own one can drift away. Tracie Harris' video talk on Christianity and "good for families" is an eye -opener on the way Church attendance keeps the faithful n line.
Most people who leave the church and never go back have unforgiving against the people of God and then God himself , as Jesus is one with His people ..... So it is best to forgive the church and God as unforgiving can be a grave error if nothing is done ........ Still you could find a new church with those who obey Jesus commandments
Off topic, but I am curious why a lot of Christians post this same type of gibberish. Does growing up in a certain church or faith teach you this weird language and phrasing? What does unforgiving against the people of God even mean? I see a lot of similar oddities in many posts in this forum and they all seem to have a devout Christianity background. Is this a special lingo you pick up after years attending certain Christian churches?
Off topic, but I am curious why a lot of Christians post this same type of gibberish. Does growing up in a certain church or faith teach you this weird language and phrasing? What does unforgiving against the people of God even mean? I see a lot of similar oddities in many posts in this forum and they all seem to have a devout Christianity background. Is this a special lingo you pick up after years attending certain Christian churches?
I'm always amused by the habit of posting an argument or opinion or exhortation in the form of Bibletext. Don't see it so much these days.
Off topic, but I am curious why a lot of Christians post this same type of gibberish. Does growing up in a certain church or faith teach you this weird language and phrasing? What does unforgiving against the people of God even mean? I see a lot of similar oddities in many posts in this forum and they all seem to have a devout Christianity background. Is this a special lingo you pick up after years attending certain Christian churches?
It's called 'rhetoric' and no one knows what it means. This probably includes the user of the rhetoric.
No one is forced to attend a particular church. I suspect if a person really wants to find a church home, they can. If a believer can't find a suitable church to serve from, the problem lies within said believer, not the church.
As a believer, I always used to say that if I ever found the perfect church, I'd join it and ruin it ;-)
I don't therefore avoid church because it's "full of hypocrites" because that's just a way of saying it's full of people. I suck as much as the next person. I avoid belief systems that don't justify my belief, which is another matter altogether.
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