Quote:
Originally Posted by tv1a
I wonder if EB would be as quick to defend the charismatic ministers who sin with the same passion he does defending the legalists. The street runs both ways.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sister Alvear
The truth is: people from all walks of life..err....
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But that's not we've been told.
We've been told that lines and fences make a difference.
You cannot logically espouse both positions at the same time.
If standards are powerful, and keep us from sin, then it stands to reason that this sort of stuff would never happen - especially among the very men who've created the lines and fences.
We've all heard...
- When a church loses standards it loses the power and favor of God.
- People who don't follow standards are loose, and sinful.
- Obedience to a pastor's standards builds a hedge from sin.
- You can't be saved without holiness (read "standards").
This is a man who firmly believed Lee Stoneking's tripe about the power of a woman's long, uncut hair. His church embraced the doctrine.
The doctrine states that a man and a church are protected so long as the women of the church keep the scissors out of their hair.
Protected from what? At various times LS and Ruth Reider Harvey have posited that uncut hair guarantees protection from adultery, accidents and other calamities.
In the end we see the foolishness of standards preaching. It creates a false sense of security based upon what we do. Instead, we should distrust our own heart and lean on Jesus to protect and keep us from evil.
This all leads back to a distorted soteriological baseline. Measurements save instead of Jesus. We lean to our own understanding rather than trust Him to direct our paths.
In the end, we fail. Miserably. Repetitively.
I truly wish those of you who so vehemently state "it happens among all groups" now would remember this, going forward, as you preach and teach.