Banned from ChristianForums (CF)

[A_Man]

You do know that this forum, CB, is run by the same people, right? But I don't see silly moderating here like I did there.

I got off CF because a certain mod seemed to have my number. I spent a year on there mostly on the prayer wall praying for and encouraging people, but that didn't matter. All I can say is, be nice to the atheists on that forum, lol! Freedom of speech is completely ignored, which I think is a dangerous thing for Christians to do.

Having said all of that, I don't envy the moderators' and admins' jobs. It's got to be very difficult to maintain order on such as huge forum. I'm sure that I would get fed up with people's shenanigans after a while, and I probably wouldn't do any better. So, Lord bless those in charge and give them wisdom!
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I had no idea they were the same people. Maybe they will get my message here. I don't know what their ad revenues are like, but it is smart from a business perspective to keep costs down by getting volunteers to moderate for free if they are still doing that.

I think they had a different owner when I was there last. They wanted to be a big tent site, but their policies come down one way or another on certain issues. Only allowing chaplains to do certain things is a stance on clergy-laity doctrines. Not allowing discussion of wives submitting to husbands in a marriage forum (with an exception maybe if you just quote scripture without commenting) pushes the forum in a liberal direction. The new policy against allowing prophecy takes a stance on that issue and formally rejects certain aspects of the operation of the Holy Spirit in the forum. If the Holy Spirit is not welcome to speak through people's posts there, why should I bother to join in?

 

[Hidden In Him]

You do know that this forum, CB, is run by the same people, right? But I don't see silly moderating here like I did there.

I got off CF because a certain mod seemed to have my number. I spent a year on there mostly on the prayer wall praying for and encouraging people, but that didn't matter. All I can say is, be nice to the atheists on that forum, lol! Freedom of speech is completely ignored, which I think is a dangerous thing for Christians to do.

Having said all of that, I don't envy the moderators' and admins' jobs. It's got to be very difficult to maintain order on such as huge forum. I'm sure that I would get fed up with people's shenanigans after a while, and I probably wouldn't do any better. So, Lord bless those in charge and give them wisdom!
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I think I know who you were over at CF... glad you're a member over here now : )

The great thing about this place is we have the freedom to self-police, including putting people like atheists in their place when we have to. I wasn't even being all that mean to an atheist one time but rather just beating him at his own game (he was being sarcastic), and they had big problems with it. CF is run better now because they have things much more segregated, but to this day that left a really bad taste in my mouth. I felt disowned.

 

[Prayer Warrior]

The new policy against allowing prophecy takes a stance on that issue and formally rejects certain aspects of the operation of the Holy Spirit in the forum. If the Holy Spirit is not welcome to speak through people's posts there, why should I bother to join in?

Yeah, I would definitely have a problem with this one. I posted encouraging words in the prayer forum and often told the person if God gave me a scripture for them. I was never called down for that. In fact, I wasn't called down til I started posting in the politics forums. That's where people get really nasty, lol.

 

[A_Man]

Concerning exorcism, CF had a segment of the forum devoted to the mentally disabled, and I think there were instances of spiritual abuse in the name of casting out demons so they established the rule. But it still went on in private.

No idea what the policy is here on prophetic utterance. You should address @lforrest on it. Not a thing to toy with, however, so best to make sure you truly are hearing from God before engaging in any of that here. If you walk in the real thing, you will eventually encounter some opposition from the Cessationists (we do have a few), and if you do not, you will encounter much stronger opposition from the Continuationists, who will take serious exception to the real gift being misrepresented.

Just a fair warning,
Blessings in Christ, and welcome to ChristianityBoard.
Hidden

I would love to be prophesying left and right, the real thing of course. I have gotten the occasional word of knowledge in the past. Maybe some of it was prophesying, but I do not go around with thus-saith-the-Lord words. I respect others doing so if the word is genuine.

What I see in scripture as that it is likely possible to do so without knowing it, and prophesying may also show up when we sense the Lord giving us a piece of advice to share or even a scripture. Prophesying can be mundane-looking in some cases. If I want to let my 'yea be yea' and my 'nay be nay', I should take agreements seriously.

Cessationist with a Reformed understanding who consider prophesying to be faithfully ministering the scriptures should not agree to it either. The rule contradicts good Christian ethics and obligations on both sides of the Cessationist and Continuationist divide.

Did your post tag that user so that he (or she?) will read this thread. Sorry, I do not know the individual.

 

[Prayer Warrior]

I think I know who you were over at CF... glad you're a member over here now : )

The great thing about this place is we have the freedom to self-police, including putting people like atheists in their place when we have to. I wasn't even being all that mean to an atheist one time but rather just beating him at his own game (he was being sarcastic), and they had big problems with it. CF is run better now because they have things much more segregated, but to this day that left a really bad taste in my mouth. I felt disowned.

Thank you! Same to you. :)

I'm probably older than most of the mods (I'm not young), so I felt like the mod treated me like a child. Maybe the mod would say that I was acting like a child, but I typically utilized a lot of self-control. I hated leaving there. So many people need prayer. I still click over and pray some, but I don't post.

Here on CB most of us are fairly mature, so we do tend to police ourselves and each other if things get out of control....

I appreciate your posts here. God bless!

 

[A_Man]

Yeah, I would definitely have a problem with this one. I posted encouraging words in the prayer forum and often told the person if God gave me a scripture for them. I was never called down for that. In fact, I wasn't called down til I started posting in the politics forums. That's where people get really nasty, lol.

If you agreed to the new rule against prophesying, is it possible you violated it by sharing a scripture the Lord gave you?

From a pragmatic point of view, a forum that wants to have Presbyterians and Charismatics on it should not have a rule that prevents them from offering Biblical advice in a post according to their own interpretation of the rules. I saw a lot of that on Christian forums, in the past with the marriage forums making about a large percentage of the teaching of of the New Testament specifically directed to married couples off topic, and with the new rule forbidding believers from letting the Holy Spirit speak through them in the forum. The Holy Spirit may speak scripture and direct people to share scriptures, too.

I think part of the problem, though, is our dishonest culture where people do not take agreements seriously. Long T&Cs on company websites tempt people to agree without reading. It has become the norm. I tried a little bit of online business that did not really go anywhere. I was tempted to make a mile long T&C so no one would read it. But I realized I might be complicit with their dishonesty by tempting them to just click if I did that, so I kept it down to a reasonable length, maybe a page or so. The CF agreement isn't very long, maybe a couple of pages, but I think a lot of people just agree or haven't thought deeply enough about prophesying to form an opinion.

 

[Prayer Warrior]

If you agreed to the new rule against prophesying, is it possible you violated it by sharing a scripture the Lord gave you?

From a pragmatic point of view, a forum that wants to have Presbyterians and Charismatics on it should not have a rule that prevents them from offering Biblical advice in a post according to their own interpretation of the rules. I saw a lot of that on Christian forums, in the past with the marriage forums making about a large percentage of the teaching of of the New Testament specifically directed to married couples off topic, and with the new rule forbidding believers from letting the Holy Spirit speak through them in the forum. The Holy Spirit may speak scripture and direct people to share scriptures, too.

I think part of the problem, though, is our dishonest culture where people do not take agreements seriously. Long T&Cs on company websites tempt people to agree without reading. It has become the norm. I tried a little bit of online business that did not really go anywhere. I was tempted to make a mile long T&C so no one would read it. But I realized I might be complicit with their dishonesty by tempting them to just click if I did that, so I kept it down to a reasonable length, maybe a page or so. The CF agreement isn't very long, maybe a couple of pages, but I think a lot of people just agree or haven't thought deeply enough about prophesying to form an opinion.

I never saw the rule you're talking about, so maybe they added it after I joined. I don't know that they considered my offering scriptures to be a violation. Like I said, no one ever called me down for it.

I will say that I tend to do as the Holy Spirit leads no matter what. This may sound bad to some people, but I have to obey God rather than man in these cases when I KNOW it's God leading me.
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[A_Man]

I never saw the rule you're talking about, so maybe they added it after I joined. I don't know that they considered my offering scriptures to be a violation. Like I said, no one ever called me down for it.

I will say that I tend to do as the Holy Spirit leads no matter what. This may sound bad to some people, but I have to obey God rather than man in these cases when I KNOW it's God leading me.
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As you should.

There are people that are fearful that people who are not being led by the Holy Spirit will claim they are. But creating rules not allowing people to follow the leading of the Spirit is not a Biblical way to deal with that problem. The tendency to make such rules is a problem not only in online forums, but also in churches.

 

[farouk]

I think I know who you were over at CF... glad you're a member over here now : )

The great thing about this place is we have the freedom to self-police, including putting people like atheists in their place when we have to. I wasn't even being all that mean to an atheist one time but rather just beating him at his own game (he was being sarcastic), and they had big problems with it. CF is run better now because they have things much more segregated, but to this day that left a really bad taste in my mouth. I felt disowned.

With all moderator functions there is the promise and there is the actual performance. It's hard...

 

[Hidden In Him]

What I see in scripture as that it is likely possible to do so without knowing it, and prophesying may also show up when we sense the Lord giving us a piece of advice to share or even a scripture. Prophesying can be mundane-looking in some cases.

This would be an interesting debate. I tend to take a somewhat different view there, but it's been awhile since I looked at the scriptures concerning it.

Did your post tag that user so that he (or she?) will read this thread. Sorry, I do not know the individual.

Yeah. My post tagged him. He's our primary moderator, so he would be able to tell you about our policy.

 

[Hidden In Him]

Here on CB most of us are fairly mature

And older in age, as membership goes. I'd venture to say the average median age here among active members is between 55 and 65. Hence more maturity spiritually as well.

I appreciate your posts here. God bless!

What a nice thing to say! I appreciate yours, too, Prayer Warrior. :)

 

[Prayer Warrior]

As you should.

There are people that are fearful that people who are not being led by the Holy Spirit will claim they are. But creating rules not allowing people to follow the leading of the Spirit is not a Biblical way to deal with that problem. The tendency to make such rules is a problem not only in online forums, but also in churches.

I completely agree with you. Most churches would not allow anyone to prophesy during the service. I have been in a few churches the have allowed prophecy. God has used me to deliver words from Him.

It's such an incredibly powerful gift, but I don't think most church leaders are equipped to discern whether messages are from God, so they throw out the baby with the bath water and don't allow anyone to prophesy even though Paul said to be eager to prophesy. Same with the gift of tongues.

1 Corinthians 14:39-- Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues.
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[farouk]

I completely agree with you. Most churches would not allow anyone to prophesy during the service. I have been in a few churches the have allowed prophecy. God has used me to deliver words from Him.

It's such an incredibly powerful gift, but I don't think most church leaders are equipped to discern whether messages are from God, so they throw out the baby with the bath water and don't allow anyone to prophesy even though Paul said to be eager to prophesy. Same with the gift of tongues.

1 Corinthians 14:39-- Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues.

@Prayer Warrior I think the fact that the Bible is now complete - whereas in transitional Apostolic times it was not - is an important perspective.

 

[Prayer Warrior]

@Prayer Warrior I think the fact that the Bible is now complete - whereas in transitional Apostolic times it was not - is an important perspective.

Just so you know, I think that cessationsm is completely unscriptural and very destructive for the church. I've debated this backward and forward, and I really don't want to debate this right now. I've heard all the cessationist arguments and disagree with them--vehemently. God has used me to prophesy in church at times with church leaders confirming the word God led me to give. There's no turning back from what I know to be from God. To do so would be to violate His calling and rob me of much joy in being used by Him.

Hope you understand. I know that this comment is very direct, but it is honest.

 

[A_Man]

@Prayer Warrior I think the fact that the Bible is now complete - whereas in transitional Apostolic times it was not - is an important perspective.

And I do not see any scripture which, reasonably interpreted, argues that prophecy or other gifts will cease when the Bible is complete, but that sounds like a topic for the debate or other forums if you are interested. Debate forum posts do not have to follow formal debate rules do they?

 

[amadeus]

It must be a hard job, yes...

I was a moderator once on a forum owned and operated by a good hearted and fair Catholic man. It had been a good forum for a while, but I only lasted a few months. I found that to do my job properly as a moderator according to established written rules, sometimes I would have go against my own belief as to what was right or worse what I believed God would like to see. I could not do it and resigned my position.

 

[lforrest]

To clear the record, when Whipp Media purchased this forum they kept the same set of rules and mod team we've had since Hammerstone founded it. They are hands off for the most part, but we have added a few rules in response to disruptions that popped up.

Prophecy is allowed here. I've noticed false prophets can't help themselves from being abusive. If the prophecy is strange or unorthodox it may be moved to the unorthodox forum. Where the location provides a heads up for anyone reading it, and doesn't squelch the Spirit if I mess up and put a real one there.

 

[A_Man]

To clear the record, when Whipp Media purchased this forum they kept the same set of rules and mod team we've had since Hammerstone founded it. They are hands off for the most part, but we have added a few rules in response to disruptions that popped up.

Prophecy is allowed here. I've noticed false prophets can't help themselves from being abusive. If the prophecy is strange or unorthodox it may be moved to the unorthodox forum. Where the location provides a heads up for anyone reading it, and doesn't squelch the Spirit if I mess up and put a real one there.

My post was about the rules in Christianforums.com. Are you in charge of that one, too?

 

[Jane_Doe22]

My post was about the rules in Christianforums.com. Are you in charge of that one, too?

My understanding is that they are run by two different teams that just happened to be owned by the same company (a company that doesn't really intervene with things).

(Disclaimer: I'm totally not part of management in any way, this is just my understanding as a forum resident).

 

[lforrest]

My post was about the rules in Christianforums.com. Are you in charge of that one, too?

No, I know nothing about that forum.