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Tom
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353
| Posted 6/18/2007 9:27 PM (GMT -6) |   | |
I had to post this before shutting down. Here’s a nice site: http://www.theresurgence.com/. They feature a lot of Mark Discolls’s stuff and a good bit on the Emerging Church. I was looking at their Statement of Faith page and found this.
What does Resurgence not believe?
To help clarify our beliefs, we believe it may also be helpful to declare what we do not believe. In stating who we are not, we do not seek to attack those who disagree with us, but rather distinguish ourselves so that it is clear who we are, as well as who we are not. However, we are willing to dialogue with and befriend those who disagree with us as the lines around theology are not the boundaries of our friendships.
· We do not believe that any form of revelation is superior to the 66 books of the Old and New Testament because they alone are the inerrant Word of God and our highest authority.
· We do not believe in Open Theism because we believe that God is sovereign over all of history.
· We do not believe in atheistic evolution because we believe that God created the heavens and the earth as well as man and woman with particular dignity as His image bearers.
· We do not believe in naturalism because we believe that miracles, Satan, demons, and other supernatural phenomena are real and subject to God.
· We do not believe in the essential goodness of human nature because we believe that our first parents sinned against God and that everyone since is a sinner by nature and choice.
· We do not believe in feminism because we believe that men should responsibly lead homes and churches with sacrificial love like Jesus Christ.
· We do not believe that salvation is possible apart from Jesus Christ because sin can only be forgiven through His sinless life, substitutionary atoning death, and literal physical resurrection.
· We do not believe in salvation after death because death is followed by judgment and conscious eternal life either in heaven or in hell.
That’s all fine and good (except for them pointing out Open Theism!). What I thought was really funny was that after point out all the things they DON’T believe in, things they DISAPPROVE of, they end with this:
· We are not polemicists who believe that it is our task to combat every false teaching but are passionate about preserving the integrity of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
You gotta love it!
See ya’s.
Tom
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One Love
Registered Member
Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888
| Posted 6/19/2007 6:33 AM (GMT -6) | | Wisdom from surprising places...
From A wikipedia article on "The Force" (Star Wars)
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Dark Side of the Force
Peace is a lie; there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
............................................................
Fear
"Fear is the path to the dark side..."
All sentient creatures experience fear at some point in their lives; it is a defense mechanism designed to impel creatures away from danger. One feels fear when they believe they may lose something valuable to them. Fear for one's own life is the most common motivator, but the fear can be for the lives or friends of loved ones, or even something as trivial as the loss of a possession or opportunity.
One acts out of genuine fear when they abandon reason and logic in order to eliminate or escape a threat. Unreasoning fear is characterized by desperation and frantic attempts to escape the danger at any cost. People who use the most lethal weapon available (regardless of their proficiency with it), attack all-out without first determining the actual degree of danger, or abandon threatened allies to save their own lives are almost certainly acting out of fear. Their journey to the dark side has begun.
Anger
"...fear leads to anger..."
Like fear, anger is almost unavoidable for sentient beings. It is symptomatic of frustration- stress without a suitable means of release. Such tension results in violent behavior, aimed at relieving the frustration all at once. It can be brought on by a variety of factors, but most commonly relates to fear. The fear of the consequences of failure can create tremendous surges of anger in sentient beings.
Someone acting out of anger loses the ability to show mercy; the target of his anger must feel his wrath. One gripped by anger often takes unnecessary risks in order to punish or destroy the target of his ire. Victory is not good enough if the foe is still moving. The angry do not wish to address the situation when they are rational; she needs to vent her fury now, while her blood is boiling and her enemy is within reach. Such a person deliberately gives her anger free rein, and thus gives in to the dark side.
Hatred
"...anger leads to hatred..."
Stress can also result in a more subtle kind of anger: hatred. Hatred is a simmering resentment, the outward expression of which may start small but gradually escalates into full-scale acts of violence. Hatred festers inside someone until eventually they come to believe that the target of their hatred somehow has less right to exist than they do. In their own mind, they reduce their enemy to a nebulous menace, the source of all the things they despise and of all the ills that plague them. To their thinking, the target of her hatred consciously attempts to thwart them. But it is not a personal vendetta; their enemy clearly threatens all that they touch. The hateful person has a right and even a duty to destroy their enemy and, what's more, to undo all that their enemy has wrought.
Hatred is often identifiable by an accompanying sense of righteousness; the person feels that he is morally bound to eliminate the thing that he hates. For him, considerations and mitigating circumstances are not a factor. Lenience is not an option. Justice is his to administer, and he does so with the assurance that anyone can plainly see the correctness of his decision. But whether he is right or wrong, the very fact that he acts out of his belief and nothing else brings him one step closer to the dark side.
Suffering
"...hate leads to suffering."
Hatred often springs from a sensation of inferiority. What one cannot control, one frequently hates. But when a person has the power of life and death over the object of his hatred- a single individual, or even an entire galaxy- he can cause suffering. Mental, verbal, and physical abuse are his tools; through these methods, the person denigrates and depersonalizes his victims- making them no more significant than objects, to be used or destroyed as he likes.
Malice is the ultimate expression of hatred, because the object of such hate invariably suffers. A person who wishes to cause suffering has no sense of pity. He callously causes pain, injury, and anguish, because he knows no one has the power to stop him- he is in command. But he has graduated beyond the need to destroy what he hates; to him, keeping his victims alive but always in fear of death reminds them of his authority over them. As long as he can continue to exert control over them, they feed his contempt for them. But should they challenge him, they present a threat, and he must destroy them. Thus, he returns to fear, and trances his path to the dark side all over again.
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If you keep trying to draw lines in the sand to separate yourself from others, you will keep building prisons for yourself.
If you have enemies in your mind, you will keep CREATING enemies.
That's one reason why we should love our enemies.
But alas...
Inquistions.
Salem.
Crusades.
Geneva.
Theological heresy "witch-hunts" (ETS, perhaps?)
Poor, poor Christendom.
Things have been on the "dark side" for long enough, don't you think?
"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be One, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be One as we are One— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete UNIty. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to SONship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.Post Edited (UNISON) : 6/19/2007 6:46:36 AM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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Starkman
Registered Member
Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1747
| Posted 6/19/2007 12:08 PM (GMT -6) | | |
Hmm! We call kings "Sovereigns," though none of them knows the future in any form that can even be measured with God's knowledge, who, Open Theists say, created the world with an open future.
We must remember, I suppose, what we forget when we mistakenly call kings sovereigns"; that "sovereign" means complete foreknowledge of every single iota of everything that will ever take place, as the following definitions (Dictionary.com) demonstrate:
1. a monarch; a king, queen, or other supreme ruler.
2. a person who has sovereign power or authority.
3. a group or body of persons or a state having sovereign authority. 4. a gold coin of the United Kingdom, equal to one pound sterling: went out of circulation after 1914.
–adjective 5. belonging to or characteristic of a sovereign or sovereignty; royal.
6. having supreme rank, power, or authority.
7. supreme; preeminent; indisputable: a sovereign right.
8. greatest in degree; utmost or extreme.
9. being above all others in character, importance, excellence, etc.
10. efficacious; potent: a sovereign remedy.
as the American Heritage demonstrates:
One that exercises supreme, permanent authority, especially in a nation or other governmental unit, as:
A king, queen, or other noble person who serves as chief of state; a ruler or monarch.
A national governing council or committee.
A nation that governs territory outside its borders.
A gold coin formerly used in Great Britain.
as the Online Etymology Dictionary demonstrates:
c.1280, from O.Fr. soverain, from V.L. *superanus "chief, principal," from L. super "over" (see super-). Spelling influenced by folk-etymology association with reign. Milton spelled it sovran, as though from It. sovrano. Meaning "gold coin worth 22s 6d" first recorded 1490s; value changed 1817 to 1 pound. As an adj., attested from 1330; of remedies or medicines, "potent in a high degree," from 1377.
as the... oh, we get the point, I'm sure: "sovereign" means knowing absolutely everything, no exceptions, as the above definitions prove.
Gads!
One of the things I don't believe in--to stay in the vein of To help clarify my beliefs, I believe it may be helpful to declare what I do not believe in--is Christians (namely) not doing their homework and research, particularly with an open mind, so as to avoid inaccurate conclusions about what fellow brothers and sisters believe.
Thankfully, though, I am not a polemicists who believes that it is my task to combat every inaccurately understood teaching, but am passionate about preserving the integrity of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Amen and amen (and awoman for you feminists),
Starkman
Post Edited (Starkman) : 6/19/2007 12:11:40 PM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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