thoughts.
This is in response to a post that was in a response to my previous post...confused?
anyway
it told me there was an error, which means that it was to big to leave as a comment, so here's my response.
first off- " Let me say right now that I do not see Rob Bell or Rick Warren as the leaders of my church. They are not the leaders of our church. They are the leaders of their own respective churches with their own respective followings."
i disagree with that whole concept. These men are preaching the gospel (the gospel being Jesus' death and ressurection as the sole reason we can have fellowship with God), and unless you can find evidence of them doing otherwise, they are leaders of your church.
that whole argument comes down to what is "the church"
and the way i look at it is, my church consists of believers everywhere, because they all have just as big of an impact even if they don't choose to use it.
we are all a part of this kingdom work, after all.
i agree with you, once again, there needs to be checks and balances even in the church... especially in the church, because history has always shown too much power being corruptive.
everyone has the responsibility to hear what a pastor is saying and weigh it in their own hearts to see if what they are saying is truth. that's why it's great when you leave a church service with questions that you need to seek for answers. if you find that the pastor's teachings directly disagree with the Bible, then it's time to act.
acting, in this scenario, means proving your postion, and first trying to talking with the pastor or elders of the church.
i realize in bigger churches, it's hard to contact the pastors, so sometimes this awareness needs to be raised in other ways... but not through word-vomit and biting sentences that do nothing but divide us further.
______________________
now about Rob Bell's statement on the creation of the world.
“God leaves the world unfinished, and invites people to take part in the ongoing creation of the world.”
this statement is right on!
God created the world and He did call it good. He, along with that, created us human beings in His own image. This image enables us to think for ourselves, create, and have relationships.
before you start raising the questions of "does abigail think that humans can create just like God" of course i don't. everything we do is because God gave us the ability to do so.
we are creative beings, and this is a huge way that we are different than any other creation that God made.
we cannot create something out of nothing, like God... but we sure as heck can create things in the world.
God seeing His creation as good should raise a lot of questions to us. He definitely didn't mean the earth was done growing, transforming, and learning. On the contrary, He saw what He made and knew everything that would take place on this "good earth" the sin, destruction, and hatred.
How could God have meant "done" by the word "good"?
He left this perfect creation to imperfect creators. He told us to subdue the earth and name creatures and to live.
He left the world to be discovered.
this all being said...
it is our responsibility to search and question. it is also our responsibility to do so in a God-pleasing way. my comment about the "write your own book of theology!" was definitely not to be taken literally... just simply so that people realize that it's not easy and should be treated with respect even if not respected as they are being questioned.
anyway
it told me there was an error, which means that it was to big to leave as a comment, so here's my response.
first off- " Let me say right now that I do not see Rob Bell or Rick Warren as the leaders of my church. They are not the leaders of our church. They are the leaders of their own respective churches with their own respective followings."
i disagree with that whole concept. These men are preaching the gospel (the gospel being Jesus' death and ressurection as the sole reason we can have fellowship with God), and unless you can find evidence of them doing otherwise, they are leaders of your church.
that whole argument comes down to what is "the church"
and the way i look at it is, my church consists of believers everywhere, because they all have just as big of an impact even if they don't choose to use it.
we are all a part of this kingdom work, after all.
i agree with you, once again, there needs to be checks and balances even in the church... especially in the church, because history has always shown too much power being corruptive.
everyone has the responsibility to hear what a pastor is saying and weigh it in their own hearts to see if what they are saying is truth. that's why it's great when you leave a church service with questions that you need to seek for answers. if you find that the pastor's teachings directly disagree with the Bible, then it's time to act.
acting, in this scenario, means proving your postion, and first trying to talking with the pastor or elders of the church.
i realize in bigger churches, it's hard to contact the pastors, so sometimes this awareness needs to be raised in other ways... but not through word-vomit and biting sentences that do nothing but divide us further.
______________________
now about Rob Bell's statement on the creation of the world.
“God leaves the world unfinished, and invites people to take part in the ongoing creation of the world.”
this statement is right on!
God created the world and He did call it good. He, along with that, created us human beings in His own image. This image enables us to think for ourselves, create, and have relationships.
before you start raising the questions of "does abigail think that humans can create just like God" of course i don't. everything we do is because God gave us the ability to do so.
we are creative beings, and this is a huge way that we are different than any other creation that God made.
we cannot create something out of nothing, like God... but we sure as heck can create things in the world.
God seeing His creation as good should raise a lot of questions to us. He definitely didn't mean the earth was done growing, transforming, and learning. On the contrary, He saw what He made and knew everything that would take place on this "good earth" the sin, destruction, and hatred.
How could God have meant "done" by the word "good"?
He left this perfect creation to imperfect creators. He told us to subdue the earth and name creatures and to live.
He left the world to be discovered.
this all being said...
it is our responsibility to search and question. it is also our responsibility to do so in a God-pleasing way. my comment about the "write your own book of theology!" was definitely not to be taken literally... just simply so that people realize that it's not easy and should be treated with respect even if not respected as they are being questioned.
posted by Abigail at
1:22 PM
1 Comments
