No
I thought you were going to do some teaching on the scripture and verse concept of "eldership of leadership". Preachers sadly have no scripture and verse left. It is replaced with opinion and speculation on what surely must have been "meant" by the words. Your offer to teach is now withdrawn.
"Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”"
The temptation to set onself in God's place / be like God was a sin way before the Papacy. LOL to be like God is the temptation leading to the "original" sin.
So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must WE bring you water out of this rock?” 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.” "My" church. "My congregation". "My rules" "My message" It is very dangerous to believe or speak these words. All of it, everything, is His. Taking ownership of it for oneself is grave.
Sez James:
Never pull each other to pieces, my brothers. If you do you are judging your brother and setting yourself up in the place of God's Law; you have become in fact a critic of the Law. Yet if you start to criticise the Law instead of obeying it you are setting yourself up as judge, and there is only one judge, the one who gave the Law, to whom belongs absolute power of life and death. How can you then be so silly as to imagine that you are your neighbour's judge? A re-iteration of the teachings of Jesus.
On the subject of witnesses and conviction. There was a young man named Ron Williamson who lived in Ada, Ok. His mother and sisters were pentecostals. He was convicted / sentenced to death for a murder he did not commit and subsequently released after DNA (conclusively) identified the real killer.
After his release here is part of his story (summary: in your churches, it takes NO witnesses to convict/put someone to death):
"It was almost like we had to reacquaint ourselves with him since he'd been out of our lives for so long," Renee said. "The next day after he was released we had such a good day with him. I told him to bear with us, that we had a lot of questions and were very curious about what his life had been like on death row. He was very sweet about it and graciously answered our questions for a few hours. One of the questions I asked him was, 'What are all those scars on your arms?' He said, 'I would be so depressed that I would sit and cut myself.' We asked him what his cell was like, was the food edible, etcetera. But after many questions he looked at all of us and said, 'I'd rather not talk about it anymore.
Let's talk about something else.' And we honored his wishes. He would sit outside on the patio at Annette's house and sing and play his guitar. Sometimes we could hear him from inside, and it was all I could do to hold back the tears listening to him and thinking about what he had been through. He would go to the refrigerator and just stand there with the door open looking at what he might want to eat. He was amazed at all the food in the house and especially knowing he could eat any and all he wanted. He stood at the kitchen window in awe and commented about all the nice cars we were driving, some he had never heard of. He commented one day while riding in the car how different it was to see people walking and running and going about their busy everyday lives."
Ron was excited about returning to church. Annette had not told him about the incident with the pastor, nor would she ever. Mark Barrett and Sara Bonnell were invited; Ron wanted them there with him. The entire Williamson entourage arrived for the Sunday worship hour in a rush and stormed down to the very front row. Annette was behind the organ, as always, and when she began the first rather rowdy hymn Ron jumped to his feet, clapping and singing and smiling, truly filled with the spirit.
During the announcements, the pastor made no mention of Ron's return, but during the morning prayer he did manage to say that God loved everyone, even Ronnie.
Annette and Renee boiled with anger.
A Pentecostal worship service is not for the timid, and as the music cranked up and the choir began rocking and the congregation got loud, a handful of church members made their way over to Ron for a hello, a hug, a welcome back. Damned few. The rest of the good Christian folks glared at the murderer in their midst.
Annette left the church that Sunday, never to return.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Evang.Benincasa
Do you believe in a Papacy?
Jesus sent His disciples out one by one, or two by two?
Also, how many witnesses do you need to put any man to death?
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