Back with some new perspective

[ILG]

Originally Posted by hometown guy

Lol.. I think the rule around here is that You are only allowed to question the motives of the conservative pastors...

I think that all pastors motives are allowed to be questioned (along with everyone else's motives.) I'm just saying that all sides should be viewed when it comes to trying to assess motive.

[KeptByTheWord]

IF what we believe is truth... then truth should be able to stand the test of questioning... right?

What difference does it make "when" he started to question what he believed, as long as he began to study it for himself?

And if he was studying to find truth, shouldn't truth be able to stand and defend itself against any questioning?

IF we are not allowed to question and hold up to the light the things we believe as truth, how can we know they are truth, unless we question?

This kind of mentality where you "don't question, just believe" is exactly where the RCC got their power and control...

[n david]

Originally Posted by KeptByTheWord

What difference does it make "when" he started to question what he believed, as long as he began to study it for himself?

It makes a difference when the organization with which you're licensed makes this one of the key pillars of the org, next to the Godhead and Acts 238. It makes a difference when it's done only after being questioned by well educated people. This should have been studied and done during the application process for licensing. I'll acknowledge, unfortunately some Pastors are lazy and don't really study for themselves until they're forced to. Perhaps this is one such Pastor.

[shazeep]

Wadr, i would suggest that it is the very act of 'organizing' and licensing that is at fault.

Originally Posted by Praxeas

Does God have an organization?

[Roxanne Murphy]

Okay, apparently my initial attempt at brevity caused confusion in some minds, and my attempt to clarify wasn't helpful to some. My apologies. Let me try to make this very, very simple in hopes that it will help (albeit I do have my doubts).
So, here is my pastor, a 3rd generation oneness Pentecostal PK/MK, trained and taught 'doctrine' in a oneness Pentecostal church (a big, well known church that trains many for ministry in their own proprietary Bible school). This is all he has ever known, and the culture relies heavily on faith in the authority of leadership to properly interpret and apply God's Word to guide the saints to live for God. Because you are steeped in this holiness culture, you see the scriptures through the filters the culture provides. You are taught to find ways to make the scripture fit the teaching, and when on tenuous ground, you default to the authority of the pastor/bishop/elder/general board.....and trust that God has given these men understanding beyond what He gives to everybody else.
Anyway, being a well educated person himself in a secular college after his Bible school days, he did begin to study and dig into what the scripture does and does not say about a lot of things, 'holiness standards' included.
What was missed by a few folks in my first post was a very important defining phrase that came immediately after "well educated people": who were seeing the Word of God through eyes and hearts not previously influenced by the 'holiness' culture that our church had, compliments of the denomination to which we belonged.
This circumstance was not the catalyst to studying the scriptures, that was already happening for quite a while. Rather, it was the point where, in honesty and transparency of heart, he chose to act upon what he was already seeing from his studies.

[rgcraig]

Wow, just wow'

[Luke]

Originally Posted by ILG

Well, if you are pastoring you are not going to preach against what your organization teaches unless you are very sure you are right. So, there would be a time between the questioning and the taking of a stand that he probably wasn't preaching it much but just quietly questioning and living it.

I do not preach what I do not believe.

[n david]

Originally Posted by Roxanne Murphy

Okay, apparently my initial attempt at brevity caused confusion in some minds, and my attempt to clarify wasn't helpful to some. My apologies. Let me try to make this very, very simple in hopes that it will help (albeit I do have my doubts).
So, here is my pastor, a 3rd generation oneness Pentecostal PK/MK, trained and taught 'doctrine' in a oneness Pentecostal church (a big, well known church that trains many for ministry in their own proprietary Bible school). This is all he has ever known, and the culture relies heavily on faith in the authority of leadership to properly interpret and apply God's Word to guide the saints to live for God. Because you are steeped in this holiness culture, you see the scriptures through the filters the culture provides. You are taught to find ways to make the scripture fit the teaching, and when on tenuous ground, you default to the authority of the pastor/bishop/elder/general board.....and trust that God has given these men understanding beyond what He gives to everybody else.
Anyway, being a well educated person himself in a secular college after his Bible school days, he did begin to study and dig into what the scripture does and does not say about a lot of things, 'holiness standards' included.
What was missed by a few folks in my first post was a very important defining phrase that came immediately after "well educated people": who were seeing the Word of God through eyes and hearts not previously influenced by the 'holiness' culture that our church had, compliments of the denomination to which we belonged.
This circumstance was not the catalyst to studying the scriptures, that was already happening for quite a while. Rather, it was the point where, in honesty and transparency of heart, he chose to act upon what he was already seeing from his studies.

Okay, so the first post was incorrect in the timeline you gave. He didn't "set out" to study after the well educated questions started coming; rather, he was already well into the process and you simply miswrote the timeline.

I was also a 3rd gen UPC PK, trained and taught in the UPC doctrine all my formative years in the church ACE school - complete with the UPCI "Pentecostal Doctrine" textbooks; though, I wasn't a mindless robot who believed everything without studying myself.

It's sad the number of ministers, especially Pastors, who admit they never have studied standards or other doctrinal issues for themselves, instead relying on what they were spoon-fed.

[Praxeas]

I wasn't raised in any Church

[shazeep]

Originally Posted by Luke

I do not preach what I do not believe.

Amen. Begs the Q, "Do you then preach what you believe, and they do not believe?"