Re: End times prophecy checklist...
Posted: Thu May 12, 2016 10:57 am
God will straighten us all out, in the next life. And I can guarantee two things: 1) That there are correct understandings and interpretations of all Scripture and theology; 2) But NO one person or denomination is going to have it all perfectly correct - else we'd all have the mind of God. So, we ALL have to be very careful of denominations with long traditions - or even less lengthy ones, because human beings, when they organize together, particularly in regards to those at the top of a denomination, like to put their stamp on what they have determined as the definitive position/interpretation on various theological issues that the Bible COULD or MIGHT support, but that it wasn't ever meant to. And so, unless the Bible is very clear on an issue, the danger is that the wrongful sensibilities of key people that are founders of a Christian denomination can mix wrongful human ideas and interpretations into their theological beliefs. And, further, denominations typically have key things they favor theologically - rightfully or wrongfully - and then morph these things into a SYSTEM of how to look at it. And to the people making these mistakes, they are often certain their beliefs are correct and that they are trying to honor God. But whether their intentions are good or bad, whenever Scripture is not the measure of determining proper doctrine, then the opinions of man begin to become considered as if the are of the Lord Himself. And this is VERY dangerous. It leads to bad doctrine and practices. And to object to a certain tenant of a denomination's teaching - even if it is alien to or only a creative understanding of Scripture - a person's non acceptance of such will be used as a litmus test of orthodoxy - but not per the Bible, but per what the denomination teaches about the Bible - which can be two very different things.And debating with ES and Byblos shows how believers can disagree with each other on certain issues, even strongly disagree, yet at the end of the day, we can still call each other Brothers in Christ.