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Old 04-20-2017, 10:56 PM
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Esaias Esaias is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Zion aka TEXAS
Posts: 26,009
Re: Christian Persecution increasing

I attended a small house church-sponsored camp meeting years ago down in houston. A bunch of Church of Jesus Christ folks from Tennessee came down, and almost an entire Baptist church from Louisiana, among others. I preached in that camp meeting, exhorting everyone there on the subject of Acts 2:38 salvation and the absolute need to be filled with the Holy Ghost THE BIBLE WAY. The pastor of that Baptist church came up to me and thanked me for being obedient to the Spirit and preaching the truth, because according to him "some of the folks in our church needed to hear this truth from somebody besides me".

After talking with him and the other folks during fellowship it stunned me that there were small, independent "Baptist" churches that believed in the Oneness of God, the absolute Deity of Jesus Christ, baptism in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and the necessity of receiving the Holy Ghost, tongues and all. As far as their worship and preaching you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between them and us.

I've come to believe that labels don't mean as much as we often think they do. I've been to "Pentecostal" church meetings that would make a Lutheran fall asleep. And I've seen some Baptist meetings that would put many "Pentecostals" to shame. And yes, such Baptists are usually found in the rural South, the Ozarks, or the Appalachians.

I've learned that "Baptist" doesn't often tell you anything about what they believe, how they worship, or how they live.

Kind of like the label "Pentecostal" nowadays - the sign over the door often doesn't prepare you for what's actually happening inside.

I notice the only label the early church acknowledged was "Christians". The only name they cared about was the name of Jesus Christ. They called each other brethren, disciples, believers. They spoke of their religion as the Way, the Truth, the Life, as holiness, as righteousness, as the Good News. They didn't care about labels, names, or any other of the trappings of denominationalism. They united on the basis of a shared experience, faith, and practice, an experience, faith, and practice they shared with the apostles of Jesus Christ. They were distinguished from others by that same experience, faith, and practice.

To "denominate" is "to give a name to", it is to "create a distinction by means of a named label". The word "heresy" literally means "sect". Too many sects in the city, not enough of the CHURCH in the city.

Amen? Help me out here, y'all. Can I get a witness?
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