Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: iadt1kr@prism.gatech.edu (J. Kenneth Riviere (JoKeR)) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Are You In The Right Church? Message-ID: Date: 22 May 91 05:01:39 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology Lines: 65 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article NU169273@vm1.nodak.edu writes: > ARE YOU IN THE RIGHT CHURCH? > ============================ > >SINCE THERE IS a considerable difference between various >churches, all cannot be right. [Details deleted. The provisions most relevant here are that pastor, officers and teachers are free from questionable habits and practices, and that the church rejects being unequally yoked with unbelievers (the unconverted). --clh] >K. Paulson I guess I've misunderstood what a chuch is for. If unbelievers are unwelcome then I'm baffled as to how those who don't know Christ are to learn about Him. If only people who lead sin-free lives are acceptable as leaders, then how can the churches function without leaders since none of us are without sin? I thought that church congregations (which are themselves part of the universal church, the "body of Christ") were a place for people to worship God, however imperfectly, and to learn about God and how to live as God would have us live. If congregations which fall short of the ideal presented by Paulson's postings are not acceptable to God, then what are they? "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matt. 18, v.21) Yet it would seem that Paulson is telling us that this is only true if we are gathered in His name *and* we have a perfect church. I expect that this comment can be expected to generate a shower of responses supporting Paulson's affirmations of proper behavior for churches, much as my previous comments about "This Present Darkness" got little response outside of enthusiastic endorsements for the advantages of excommunication. However, I find little commonality this legalistic approach to leading a Christian life. Certainly, keeping God foremost in our minds is an admirable goal, and we should live as Jesus teaches us to live, but by our very nature we are fallible creatures and fall short of the glory of God. If our good lives were the means of our salvation then what is the meaning of Grace? When discussing some of these points with a retired pastor of my acquaintence he recounted a story of which this type of legalistic argument reminded him. He had been counselling a pastor of a large church. This pastor was having doubts about the work he was doing in the large Baptist church of which he was pastor. At one point the counselled pastor declared to my acquaintence his frustration at the way his congregation hated sin! "There's no love of God in them, but my, do they hate sin!" There are so many Christians who seem so intent on following rules for leading good lives and on eliminating sources of temptation that they seem to forget to love others. "Faith, hope, love abide, ... but the greatest of these is love. Make love your aim." (I Cor. ch. 13, v.13 - ch. 14, v. 1) This is longer than I had intended, but I find it so frustrating to see Christians who want, not just to seek the Lord and His will for themselves, but to judge others and to declare their own superiority over others, whether those others are non-believers or are Christians who have different views as to what it means to live as a Christian. I rejoice in all who have accepted Christ as their savior. Why do so many Christians feel compelled to condemn those with whom they disagree? -- J. Kenneth Riviere (JoKeR) Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332 uucp: ...!{allegra,amd,hplabs,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!prism!iadt1kr ARPA: iadt1kr@prism.gatech.edu