Originally Posted by Coonskinner
(Post 393623)
I still read here and post here. Haven't "left" anywhere.
To Prax and others who say some of us are "not up to" defending the doctrine...let's get real. :)
I've been doing the forum thing for several years now, and I have done more than my share of stepping up to the plate and going round and round with all comers. I'm not intimidated by the recent crop of liberal intelligentsia here, some of whom seem to think their insights are new and fresh...:)
For goodness sake, on old FCF I climbed in the ring with Newman day in and day out. And there aren't too many libs around now that can unzip her Bible cover when it comes to the sort of debate we are talking about. So the old "they are intimidated by people who know the Word and ask questions" deal won't fly. Hogwash.
I have just reached a place after several years of duking it out where I am not as energized about the debate process anymore. I am not so sure it is all that productive for me. In fact, I have begun to feel as if I would be better served to scale back my participation in that kind of debate.
I had a pastor through my teens and early twenties who had been a presbyter for decades. He told me once, in a moment of candor, that he felt he had been on the district board too long. He said he had dealt with so many issues involving unscrupulous preachers, men falling into sin, etc. that it had begun to affect his thinking. He said he found himself wondering if there was anybody that was real, and true. He was becoming suspicious because of dealing so much with the bad apples.
I love this Apostolic message. I love this precious Truth. It is more to me than just an intellectual exercise. It is in my heart and soul, in the marrow of my bones.
I am finding that I am weary of spending signifigant portions of time seeing things unspeakably dear to me mocked and scoffed at.
In the past three years or so, I have seen my wife's home church and my home church both go totally charismatic.
I have seen the devastation that has been wreaked in many lives when the fabric of their souls was wrent by some preacher who thought he had a new revelation, and their mooring was destroyed. I have heard their cynical words and listened to them express their doubts about everything you can imagine now.
I've watched them drift farther and farther from God and truth...people that I love. Some of them my own family.
And so, over time, I guess I have become more and more sensitive about the issue. More and more, when I see the same spirit that wrecked two good churches I loved being given a voice and a platform, rather than climb back in the ring to debate people whose minds are already made up, I just cringe, remember my backslidden loved ones, and click the red X at the right hand corner.
I found FCF about a year before all the changes began to takeplacein the churches I reference.
I was able to tell my family when it all began exactly what the progression would be when our pastor began to articulate the same concepts I read about on FCF. I knew where it was going.
They have since, some of them, admitted that I called it exactly like it turned out. My every sad prediction came to pass.
So honestly, the debate just isn't much fun to me these days.
The Word of God is my life. The propagation of this Truth is what my world is about. It is serious to me. Sacred.
I know all the arguments; I know the counter-arguments. I've been well-schooled on these boards.
But I am not much interested in continuing to fuss the same old fusses over and over again. I don't really enjoy it anymore.
Once in a while I still like to jump in, but the relish is gone.
I'm not mad at anybody, and I have never been a crusader to try and "change" this forum or any other. I don't think I am that important or powerful, and I would never be so presumptuous as to think I should demand that a whole group of folks alter what they are doing just for my personal comfort level. If a place gets to be not so much to my taste, I don't try and get the whole world to get in step with me; I just move on myself.
I am not "abandoning" the forum. There are folks here that I have come to appreciate and enjoy interacting with.
CC1, for example, has proven to be a real friend, not just here but in real life. I love him and his family. We don't agree on some things, but he's my friend. I pray for him. I will always appreciate him.
There are lots of others.
So I will hang around some for that reason. but don't look for me to be as involved in hashing out the same old issues as I have been at other times, because I most likely won't. I'm sure there will be times when I can't resist weighing in on something...but that isn'tlikely to be the norm.
Anyway, I hope you all know that there is no great conspiracy, and no dark, hidden agenda. No deliberate, organized conservative "exodus." Just more than likely the passage of time, and the changes that come with it.
Blessings to you all.
|
