@e were warned about times like these, 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 2 Timothy 4:2–4 NKJV - Preach the word! Be ready… | Biblia biblia.com/bible/nkjv/2-timothy/4/2-4
I have to be reminded it's a spiritual battle and standing with Christ will never be easy. We are up against the ruler of the world, bible believers will know what I'm saying. But I believe the battle is ultimately the Lord's and He tells me not to be afraid of the hordes that come against christians and their beliefs.
I got chills reading that Marie, excellent reminder. I know I have to be in the world for now, but I am not to be of the world. I go into battle every day, and make it really hard on myself, it's not people that mess with me/us, they are just vessels but can choose one day who's vessel they want to be. I know Who's I want to be, and I know by reading the bible, there were no, perfect "fully human" vessels.
This thread is not about evolution, @Jaspurr Miller , this thread is about the Christian church being overwhelmed from the inside. If you want to discuss evolution and other non-religious topics, please do so in one of the evolution threads. Off topic posts may be deleted for SEO reasons. Please try to stay on topic.
Isn’t there an Atheist thread? Yup….there is one which brings us back to asking the question of why do Atheists insist on getting into Christian threads? I mean, Atheism isn’t causing any turmoil in our churches. They have their own churches. The question of evolution isn’t causing much of an upheaval in our churches. Maybe the question of the differences between the Jewish rendition versus the Christian one about Adam and Eve but that certainly doesn’t cause much of an uproar. No, we Christians have problems and none of them come from non-believers but rather from within the Body of Christ. Some believe strongly about this element and others believe strongly about that element but to be sure, all of us can agree on one thing and that is that Jesus died for us all. Do note the difference in @Don Alaska’s post when he stated that he is reluctant to reveal his questions for fear of weakening someone else’s beliefs and an Atheistic type of post which deliberately tries to intimidate and weaken others.
Yes, the trouble is from within and for me personally, it's when I forget my first Love. I was attending a church on a regular basis but again, I looked around and listened and rarely heard the Word, Jesus, talked about outside the sermon. Someone seeking Christ and salvation would not have been able to distinguish the gathering from a worldly gathering of people yacking about everything but God. But instead of staying, and talking about Christ, and how I was studying the bible, I left to do it by myself So I doubt that was what God wanted me to do. I wandered off from reading the bible, and came here and bought into some conversations where I definitely couldn't be known as someone following Christ.
Churches should not knuckle under to the secular. What was once true is still true or it was never true. I have spouted about my "Lighthouse" philosophy before here so I won't repeat it.
Don’t beat yourself up Denise. As it is revealed in Ecclesiastes, there is a time and place for everything, Even Jesus fellowshipped with friends and others without mentioning the Good News.
No they shouldn't and it's the christians that are there that I for one need to seek out, unless it's completely corrupted because I couldn't stand that.
True Bobby, yes He did, and I know it's ok to do that as long as I don't join in on, for example, the gossip that goes on where I live. If I hang with the wrong neighbor I'm more apt to get drawn into their worldly stuff than I am to try and talk to them about what I believe. Being around people that here that believe is something I'm so grateful for the last, few days. Glad we have this section, thanks @Ken Anderson
Nearly 200 churches sue to leave liberal United Methodist body and keep property amid split over sexuality https://www.yahoo.com/news/nearly-200-churches-sue-leave-110010051.html Nearly 200 United Methodist churches in Georgia filed a lawsuit last week against their own denomination's regional body after they were temporarily halted from disaffiliating, marking another escalation in tensions among mainline Protestants over issues of sexuality and church authority. The lawsuit filed by 186 Methodist churches in the UMC North Georgia Conference is the latest step in the contentious schism fracturing the second-largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. in recent years as generally conservative local congregations seek to break away from the liberal mainline denomination, according to UM News.
The UMC is a corrupted body. Their underlying motivation is corrupted, and their manipulation of the rules is corrupted.
That is the way to do it. Large numbers of churches leaving at once. I really don't know what the main body would do if the churches just started ignoring the conference dictates and policies. I supposed they could sue each church individually for the property occupied or something, but I suspect the bad publicity and th legal fees would soo become too much of a burden for th conference to bear, especially if the individual churches stopped contributing to their own demise.
If I recall correctly, it's tough to coordinate the exodus because the vote to leave is at the individual congregation level and not at the District level. Those in Georgia now have their District hierarchy deciding to withhold approval to disaffiliate--even though the District has no such authority to do so--in an effort for a Book of Discipline rule (that's beneficial to the departing) to expire in 2024. This is just as sneaky as the UMC deciding to not hold a General Conference after COVID made them skip it for 2 years, because these issues would be on the agenda. Everything surrounding the issue of Gay & Questioning pastors and Gay & Questioning marriage and disaffiliation has been mismanaged in an underhanded and sneaky manner. There is no good faith, in all of its connotations. This all reminds me of a daily email I receive that discusses a selection from the Bible. Here is yesterday's: Proverbs 29:12 (12) If a ruler pays attention to lies, All his servants become wicked. It all rots from the top, huh?