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"Any time you've got a church focusing on love and unity," the pastor would say, "you've got a church that doesn't care about correct doctrine."
I would say the exact opposite is true.
Jesus taught believe him, he did not teach beliefs, beliefs to be believed, he taught the way of the Father, a way when followed results in walking in the abundant life he spoke of.
Love vs. doctrine is a false dichotomy. Love itself is a Christian doctrine. Love the Lord your God with all your strength, all your mind, all your soul - and love your neighbor as yourself.
Where it all goes awry is when a kind of universal brotherhood of man, or universal fatherhood of God, is preached instead of the Biblical view. It goes awry when people purport to reduce Christianity to (or in other words, strip it of) its essential elements in favor of some kind of generic religious system that teaches ethics. To do so is to preach a false gospel, one that will not save your eternal soul.
Great lecture by R.C. Sproul on the dangers of theological liberalism.
I don't know the full context in which such a statement was uttered. However, it seems to be a fair statement. At first impression, it's a loving statement, because I would assume the pastor who made it is concerned about preaching a message that can lead others to salvation. Here's a great illustration of why...
This is so wrong on so many levels! This is precisely why things like the social gospel, or theological liberalism, are so insidious. Let me state this quite plainly: such a message is powerless to save anyone's soul. What saves souls is this: that Jesus died on the Cross in an act of substitutionary atonement for the sins of those who will believe upon Him.
It doesn't matter how loving or how moral anyone tries to be. No one can be saved without Christ's substitutionary righteousness. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one can come to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). Any other way that is not built upon Jesus's substitutionary atonement is the broad way the leads to destruction. Matthew 7:13-14 (KJV):
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
You are correct. Many of us reject the idea of substitutionary atonement. There was a thread on just that topic not too long ago.
The idea that something must die to atone for one's sins or they are doomed is an ugly practice from ancient times. Those Bible verses can indeed be quoted to try to frighten people into believing that this is so, and it seems to have worked well on some of you. But if your faith is based on fear, how can it be related to God? That's the burning question at the bottom of it all. It just does not ring true in our very heart of hearts, and that's what causes people like the OP and others to walk away from a fear-based religion.
You are correct. Many of us reject the idea of substitutionary atonement. There was a thread on just that topic not too long ago.
The idea that something must die to atone for one's sins or they are doomed is an ugly practice from ancient times. Those Bible verses can indeed be quoted to try to frighten people into believing that this is so, and it seems to have worked well on some of you. But if your faith is based on fear, how can it be related to God? That's the burning question at the bottom of it all. It just does not ring true in our very heart of hearts, and that's what causes people like the OP and others to walk away from a fear-based religion.
When you goet off the fence playing both sides i will take you seriously. You bring nothing to this forum other than speaking from both sides of your mouth, then turn to insults when anyone stands up to you.
You seem to think people are on a fence if they are not proselytizing or bashing someone else's faith with every post. I'm just not afraid of diverse belief systems and my ego is okay enough that I don't need to parade any beliefs...it doesn't matter anyway, you're still going to die one day and perhaps lay in a cemetery next to someone who never believed anything you ever expoused.
You are correct. Many of us reject the idea of substitutionary atonement. There was a thread on just that topic not too long ago.
The idea that something must die to atone for one's sins or they are doomed is an ugly practice from ancient times. Those Bible verses can indeed be quoted to try to frighten people into believing that this is so, and it seems to have worked well on some of you. But if your faith is based on fear, how can it be related to God? That's the burning question at the bottom of it all. It just does not ring true in our very heart of hearts, and that's what causes people like the OP and others to walk away from a fear-based religion.
Well, quite frankly, we see in the New Testament that lots of people who once followed Jesus did indeed stop following Him, never to return, when He preached things that they were unable to accept. The sixth chapter of John shows this quite well.
Nothing new under the sun...
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You seem to think people are on a fence if they are not proselytizing or bashing someone else's faith with every post. I'm just not afraid of diverse belief systems and my ego is okay enough that I don't need to parade any beliefs...it doesn't matter anyway, you're still going to die one day and perhaps lay in a cemetery next to someone who never believed anything you ever expoused.
The problem we see is that you don't seem to recognize when some of those beliefs cause harm to others.
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