Quote:
Originally Posted by Amanah
It may be about rules too, but you can't say it's not about relationship for Apostolics.
I had an incredible relationship with God the 13 years I was an UC. And I don't doubt that the preachers I knew loved God and loved people.
What hurt me was the elitist and controlling attitudes, and the feeling that I could never be good enough, no matter how hard I tried.
What is hindering me now, is that many have abandoned the old time pentecostal mind set and legalistic preaching, fine, but many have also gone even further and altered the message.
So we are at a crossroad where people have gone from having standards shoved down their throats to having to stand on their own two feet and find a place to stand for themselves.
It's a whole nother journey when you are trying to set your own moral compass and define truth when the lighthouse is being obscured by a storm.
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This is an interesting sentence, and worthy of discussion.
Amanah, I spent many years in bondage to legalism, and while I yet live by many of those standards, I have been freed from the mindset that accompanied them.
Before, I would wonder why people who gave up on standards changed doctrine too. During my own transformation I realized the reason. The truth is that the basic doctrine of many Apostolics is wrong at it's core. And when a foundation is off level the entire structure starts to tilt.
The problem is that people in OP start with a belief that they need to help God save. They view baptism as a work, and the baptism of the Holy Ghost as a vehicle to Heaven instead of an empowering experience.
This leads to a lot of efforting. Trying to get people to speak in tongues. Trying to get people to line up. Trying to become perfect.
And yet no one ever achieves perfection because it's impossible to do so.
Legalism is like a mannequin. The end result is a hollow shell. It looks like Christianity, but it lacks the life and joy that Christianity should bring.