The t.r.u.m.p ignorantly speaks Scripture

[Grailhunter]

What is said here and what is implied.
There are a lot of people that do not go to church and or do not believe in going to church or supporting the church.
So they criticize the churches or they criticize the teachers.
What scripture supports that attitude or that behavior.

For the first three centuries Christians risked their lives to gather in house churches, catacombs, out in the wilderness to praise and worship the Lord. Now a days you would have to use a cattle prod to get them to go to church.
Non-participant Christians, giving lip service to the Lord.
How will an armchair preacher fair on Judgment Day?

 

[GeneZ]

I agree. We may be coming from two different places doctrinally, while both being saved.

That is exactly why I want to keep coming back to the text itself.

Neither your theological system nor mine should get to supply a missing step and then treat that step as Scripture.

If Scripture establishes:

many bad teachers → very few sound teachers → believers must find one of those few to reach full maturity in Christ,

then I want to see it and accept it.

But if Scripture does not establish that chain, then neither of us should add it.

And I don't think believers coming from different doctrinal places is unusual.

Philippians 3:15–16 is especially interesting here because Paul is speaking about maturity and still says that if believers “think otherwise” about something, God can make that clear to them, while they continue walking according to what they have already attained. Mature believers are not presented as necessarily possessing an identical doctrinal package.

Romans 14:2–6 makes the same point from another angle. Believers can reach different conclusions about food and days, and Paul does not tell one side that spiritual maturity requires duplicating the other side's conclusion. He tells each to be fully persuaded in his own mind and to act unto the Lord.

1 Corinthians 8:7–13 likewise shows believers possessing different levels of knowledge and different consciences, while still belonging to Christ.

And 1 Corinthians 12:4–27 describes one body with different gifts, ministries and functions. The unity of the body does not require every member to be identical.

So our different starting points don't bother me.

The question is whether we are both willing to let Scripture correct those starting points, wherever the text leads.

What if you exposed yourself to one of the good teachers?

And, saw a major difference in content and approach?

And, noticed the teachers who teach what people approve of are in a vast majority?

 

[Spiritual Freedom]

What if you exposed yourself to one of the good teachers?

And, saw a major difference in content and approach?

And, noticed the teachers who teach what people approve of are in a vast majority?

I would gladly expose myself to a good teacher.

In fact, if someone could show me from Scripture that something I believe is wrong, I would want to know it.

But that raises the important question: how do I identify the good teacher?

A major difference in content and approach does not establish that the teacher is sound. Neither does being unpopular. A teacher can be very different from the majority and still be wrong.

And even if I granted that a vast majority of teachers tell people what they want to hear, that still would not identify which minority teacher is correct.

That is why I keep coming back to testing the teaching itself.

The Bereans listened to Paul and then examined the Scriptures to see whether what he taught was so. Acts 17:11.

Paul says, “Test all things; hold fast what is good.” 1 Thessalonians 5:21.

So yes, expose me to the good teacher.

But then let me test what he teaches against Scripture.

If it survives that examination, I want it.

If it does not, the fact that the teacher was unusual, unpopular, highly educated, or different from the majority cannot make the teaching true.