Quote:
Originally Posted by LUKE2447
Oh and Mike how many views of atonement and justification have you studied outside of your clearly Reformed drenched views?
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You should check your spirit, brother. Throughout this entire thread you are constantly trying to attach derogatory labels to every viewpoint that opposes your own. This is an attitude that I remember very clearly from my days in a legalistic UPC church (still in a UPC church today, but one that is filled with the spirit of Christ rather than the Pharisees).
My philosophy: love Truth more than anything in the world, even more than you love Jesus. Sounds edgy, doesn't it? Well, I've come to realize that there are many people who claim to love Jesus. The problem with this is not everyone who claims to love Jesus is anything like Jesus. They've got horrible sin problems, terrible attitudes, they have filthy mouths, they backstab, they gossip. But boy do they love Jesus.
So it's quite apparent that simply 'loving Jesus' doesn't do anything for you. You have to actually be loving the REAL Jesus, not some made-up Jesus that is a scarecrow concoction of all your personal beliefs about Jesus. You have to find the real Jesus and be like Him.
But how do you do that? By loving Truth above all else. When you love Truth above all else, you will find Jesus.
Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father except through me."
I don't want to let myself be at ease just because I feel that I love Jesus. What if I'm loving a false Jesus?
The problem with trying to pigeonhole everything and instantly discard it is that you will inevitably throw some truth away. Narrow is the path that leads to eternal life. Don't you think we should be constantly seeking for truth, just to be sure we are really on that narrow path? It wouldn't take much error to stray from a narrow path. And where do you think these Labels come from? They come from other men. Just because you smell a whiff of what you believe to be 'reformed' or 'emergent' or 'OSAS' or whatever doesn't mean what is being told to you is wrong. You should seek out the truth in what is being told to you rather than discard it whole cloth simply because some other man told you if it even slightly resembles his definition of 'reformed' or 'emergent' or 'OSAS' it should be thrown out.