Coffee Break
Why do we allow the world to steal biblical principles, twist it a little, take God out of it and claim it for themselves. Then we as Christians refuse to apply those Biblical principles, because now we think that it originated with satan. We don't search the Scriptures to ascertain whether it originated from God or not. We must remember that satan is not a creator. He is a thief and came to steal, kill and destroy and he succeeded and left the church powerless.
Why do we allow it?
Aufgepaßt - ich komme!
Coffee Break
Coffee Break
Another example is the twisting of meditation. It is a Biblical principle, yet we are afraid of it, because of Eastern connotations that have been attached to it.
Posting Freak
When we meditate on his Word... yes.Originally Posted by Freek
On our navel.. no.
♪ Each day may Christ become clearer, His Cross dearer, Our Hope nearer. ♫
Worship Warrior
Well, you hit the nail on the head when you said that people don't search the scriptures. By not knowing the word, they have no idea how to rightly discern what is and is not of God. They will either assume that TM is okay because God said to meditate on His word OR they will not meditate in any form (that they are aware of) because they assume mediation in any form is Eastern Mysticism. There was recently a question about "Oneness Blessing" which is a counterfeit of the New Testament practice of laying on of hands. People will either not see the difference and accept the Eastern practice OR they will reject any practice of laying on of hands. It just boils down to a lack of knowledge.
Hsa 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you ...
Worship Warrior
Exactly, Christian meditation is thinking on the word...chewing on it with our mind... The counterfeit is TM (Transcendental Meditation) which simply opens the body/mind/spirit to receiving unholy spirits.
Formerly moonglow
And in case you didn't notice, I didn't just roll over and play dead and accept that..I posted about it to confirm (make sure) I was right about this kind of teaching..its not in the bible. Even though I have read the bible many times, it doesn't mean I remember every single verse in it. I forget more then I remember...
So while I was pretty sure this teaching wasn't in the bible, I did want to double check it. And we should do that on anything actually.
I will admit however in the past I didn't know better and I did just take the word of pastors..especially ones I really liked and not checked it out. Now I know better. We have to remember that even pastors and bible teachers are imperfect human beings and make mistakes too! I don't think its because they are trying to mislead people in many of these cases. This pastor's teaching was very sound and backed by scriptures up until that point...and then after that..this pastor continued with sound teaching and backed up everything with scripture. This was one minor point in the series of teachings going on. So do I assume the worse? And think this pastor is a wolf in sheep's clothing because one thing was wrong? Or do I put it off to human error?
I think as Christians we can many times be too leery, too suspicious to the point we feel we have to check every single word that comes out of a teacher or preachers mouth to find fault so we can say...you are a wolf in sheep's clothing...then go around denouncing them. Did you know its in a sheep's character to be jumpy and to scare easily? So much so they won't drink from a running stream but their shepherd has to build a little dam to still the waters so they will drink from it..
Psalm 23
A Psalm of David.
1 The LORD is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
Of course that might not be true since I heard a pastor on the Christian radio station say this..
At any rate...I think we need to have a balance here. Yes check it out, but don't just assume they are wolves..give them the benefit of the doubt like we would like the benefit of the doubt when we are in error.
Good topic you brought up! I am sure it will get people to thinking.
God bless
"People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; We drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; We drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated?" - D A Carson
Coffee Break
I was not referring to anyone specifically. The thread just reminded me of how prevalent this attitude is in the church. I apologize if it came across like that. I'm angry and I want to share my thoughts on this topic. The Power of Positive Thinking is another example. It is Biblical, but it has been stolen. I can go on about this for ages.
Formerly moonglow
I know...and I understand your frustrations on this..I really do. Not too long ago someone started a thread about things commonly believed but weren't true. One example was the three wise men. The bible doesn't actually say there were three..only that three gifts were given, so the 'idea' there were three wize men got started in some older songs..and it just got carried on and on...I was not referring to anyone specifically. The thread just reminded me of how prevalent this attitude is in the church. I apologize if it came across like that. I'm angry and I want to share my thoughts on this topic. The Power of Positive Thinking is another example. It is Biblical, but it has been stolen. I can go on about this for ages.
They did a very long thread on 'assumed' things that weren't true. It was pretty interesting.
God bless
"People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; We drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; We drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated?" - D A Carson
Coffee Break
It gets worse. We even join the ranks of the enemy and shoot our own soldiers. Why???
Salt may sting
Pride.
moonglow, I 've not heard of building a dam for sheep to drink before, but it's certainly true they need still water, or at least any ripples going away from them - or the water gets up their noses.
Grand Master
The Power of Positive thinking is not Biblical at all. It is the idea that we can create and alter reality strictly by the constructive power of our minds. The principle is grounded in the mystical assumption that we are all gods and therefore our wills have creative power over the universe, if we learn to tap into that power (a form of enlightenment).I was not referring to anyone specifically. The thread just reminded me of how prevalent this attitude is in the church. I apologize if it came across like that. I'm angry and I want to share my thoughts on this topic. The Power of Positive Thinking is another example. It is Biblical, but it has been stolen. I can go on about this for ages.
This is the same lie that Satan told Adam and Eve in the Garden, ""your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God" (Gen. 3:5).
In the link you included above, the poster directed people to the Berean Call website. Their whole mission statement (in fact, their very name) is that believers need to prove what they believe from the Bible, instead of taking things for granted, a tribute to the Bereans who "examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true" (Acts 17:11).
The problem here as I see it, is that we don't only need to know what is in the Bible, but what is meant by such terms as the Power of Positive thinking (which the Berean Call is diligently striving to do). We are most certainly commanded to think on edifying things "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things" (Phil. 4:8), but we most certainly are not supposed to accept the mystical practices of trying to achieve our own wills here on earth through psychokinesis. It's another religion altogether.
We needn't fear but we also must not participate. God outlines what we're supposed to do in the Bible. Biblical meditation is commanded, but God says we need to meditate on His word (Psalm 1:2), while Eastern meditation involves clearing your mind (very different) and subjecting yourself to the influences of untested spirits.
It is critical in discernment not to fall into the misdirection of Satan's lies, and we avoid this by following exactly what the Bible teaches, so I agree we need to search the scriptures daily to ensure we know what that is, but to step away from the forms of godliness that are not from God is essential to worshipping Him, as well.
Grand Master
Hi Moonglow,
I personally don't spend much effort trying to determine motives. The Bible tells us that there are wolves in sheep clothing and tells us how to guard against their influence, but it doesn't say that we are responsible for trying to identify them all.
What we are instructed to identify is error, not motive. If someone will not renounce their error when confronted in a Biblical manner, that is different, but error just needs to be corrected, and not all error - if it's a smaller matter or a non-salvic disagreement in interpretations, we see in Titus we are warned against foolish contentions. That way we can avoid the suspicions and just do what we're told. God will sort the wolves for us. They are the ones who will oppose His word when confronted with it (1 John 4:1).
Posting Freak
Frecs probably has this or a similar verse in mind....
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
(Php 4:8)
♪ Each day may Christ become clearer, His Cross dearer, Our Hope nearer. ♫
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