Red Sky at Morning
Superstar
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2017
- Messages
- 14,664
@Lisa
I will not reply extensively as I am sure you will agree that truth has nothing to fear from examination, and people are welcome to make up their own minds about any of us who post here.
We each have people within the “crowd of witnesses” of faith that we gravitate to. For you, I suspect you admire both John the Baptist and Elijah. You may relish that feeling of confronting the modern priests of Baal in righteous anger.
For me, I see great merit in the times we live of Paul’s address at Mars Hill. He is coming in contact with a culture that knows little of God, and makes connections with the literature the Greeks read and the society they lived in, in order to relate to that group of people.
There is a difference between relating and colluding. In the first case you have someone who is perhaps a stranger to you and a stranger to the gospel. The way you interact with others tells them something of what is in your heart. In the collusion case, you overstep the mark and take sides against the gospel in attacking the message.
I choose to relate to people and quote from a variety of sources, not because I think these sources on a level to the Bible but because they have echoes of that truth that people who may have dismissed the Bible might connect with.
You are welcome to carry on sharing the good news of Jesus whichever way the Holy Spirit leads you - and so will I*.
*Please forgive me if I don’t attempt to battle you over why I choose to relate to others the way I do. I will NOT be doing that. We are very different people with very different experiences. My own experience indicates that certain forms of confrontation solidify an opposing view in the person you are attacking. This old story develops the idea well.
I will not reply extensively as I am sure you will agree that truth has nothing to fear from examination, and people are welcome to make up their own minds about any of us who post here.
We each have people within the “crowd of witnesses” of faith that we gravitate to. For you, I suspect you admire both John the Baptist and Elijah. You may relish that feeling of confronting the modern priests of Baal in righteous anger.
For me, I see great merit in the times we live of Paul’s address at Mars Hill. He is coming in contact with a culture that knows little of God, and makes connections with the literature the Greeks read and the society they lived in, in order to relate to that group of people.
There is a difference between relating and colluding. In the first case you have someone who is perhaps a stranger to you and a stranger to the gospel. The way you interact with others tells them something of what is in your heart. In the collusion case, you overstep the mark and take sides against the gospel in attacking the message.
I choose to relate to people and quote from a variety of sources, not because I think these sources on a level to the Bible but because they have echoes of that truth that people who may have dismissed the Bible might connect with.
You are welcome to carry on sharing the good news of Jesus whichever way the Holy Spirit leads you - and so will I*.
*Please forgive me if I don’t attempt to battle you over why I choose to relate to others the way I do. I will NOT be doing that. We are very different people with very different experiences. My own experience indicates that certain forms of confrontation solidify an opposing view in the person you are attacking. This old story develops the idea well.
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