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Name: James Robinson
Gender: Male
Interests: The Word of God,
The Spirit of God,
The Light of God.
Expertise: Verbosity
Occupation: Student
Message: message me
Member Since:
4/27/2006
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| Thesis: The BASF should specify whether we practice open or closed fellowship.
Definition of Terms:
Open Fellowship: Anyone who wishes may break bread during the memorial service.
Closed Fellowship: Only those who meet certain criteria may break bread during the memorial service.
Reasoning:
Ecclesias in the Great Lakes region currently use two different criteria to determine who may break bread. Some allow "those who believe the principles summarized in the BASF" (conscience-based fellowship), while others allow "those who believe the principles summarized in the BASF, and belong to an ecclesiaf that consistently meets on that basis" (ecclesia-based fellowship). Although both of these are forms of closed fellowship, they both have a major deficiency:
Neither form mandates that those who practice closed fellowship on that basis must themselves believe, uphold, or practice closed fellowship with others.
This means that a Christadelphian can, with complete consistency of conscience, break bread in a Christadelphian ecclesia Sunday morning (practicing "closed fellowship") and then take communion at a United church every Sunday night (practicing "open fellowship"), since the BASF, the basis under which they are breaking bread at the Christadelphian ecclesia, says nothing against it.
Therefore, Christadelphians are allowed to be inconsistent about whether they practice open or closed fellowship.
Therefore, to alleviate that inconsistency, the BASF should be changed to specify whether we practice open or closed fellowship.
Importance:
Much of the current strife in the Great Lakes region is due to people who break bread on the basis of the BASF also breaking bread on the basis of other criteria. This behaviour is technically permitted, but to many, morally abhorrent. Changing the BASF would resolve that inconsistency.
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| To give credit where credit is due, this point is totally stolen off of John Billington.
When adults have a disagreement, they don't get into a fistfight. They talk it over, like adults, they figure out their differences, like adults, and then they figure out how to come to an acceptable compromise. Like adults.
If they get into a screaming fit and start hurling abuse at each other, they're not acting like adults, they're acting like little kids. If they start running around and rounding up supporters and trying to make themselves big and strong so that they can intimidate the other side, they're not acting like adults, they're acting like kids. And when they go screaming to the local authority figure, they're no different than little kids running screaming to their mommies.
That's what Paul says in I Cor 3:
I Corinthians 3:1: And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
I Corinthians 3:2: I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
I Corinthians 3:3: For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
If we can't settle our differences with our brothers and sisters without getting into a fight, we're acting like little children. And it doesn't matter what sort of horrible heretical doctrine they're preaching, if we deal with it as children, then we're children. Not mature adults. Mature adults don't fight. They talk it out, they figure out what the real problem is, and they logically, reasonably, and carefully work out a solution. Like adults. And God's servants need to be adults, not children.
II Timothy 2:24: And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
II Timothy 2:25: In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
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| Today I got talked to at meeting for using the word "suicide" in my public lecture. Evidently it makes some people feel awkward.
Well, if I can't talk about it in a church, I'll talk about it here. Let's talk about suicide.
You know who in the Bible committed suicide?
Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ died by his own will.
John 10:17-18: Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
And you know *why* he committed suicide? To save life.
John 12:24: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
If you're not willing to kill yourself for God, he doesn't want you. If you're not willing to collapse the house on top of yourself for God, he doesn't want you. If you're not willing to fall on the grenade, or take the bullet, or put your neck on the line for God, he doesn't want you.
And the amazing thing is, like Jesus, if that's the reason why you commit suicide, you might die, but you won't lose your life. You'll gain it.
Matthew 16:25: For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
But, you know who else in the Bible committed suicide?
Judas Iscariot.
That's apparent.
Matthew 27:5: And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
And you know why he committed suicide?
Because he didn't want to face the pain. Because he didn't want to deal with the consequences of what he'd done. Because he just wanted to give up, and fade into blackness, and let go. Because it was too tough for him, and he gave up.
And you know what? When he killed himself, he didn't save anyone's life. Instead, he just ruined it. Ruined his own life, and the lives of anyone who still loved him.
Suicide is the best possible way to get exactly the opposite of what you want. When you commit suicide, you devastate anyone who loves you, and you please anyone who hates you. You hurt the people you care about, and you help the people you hate. Why would you ever do that?
Because you're too selfish to deal with the pain. Because you're too selfish to realize that sometimes, what God really wants isn't a dead sacrifice, but a living one.
At some point, you're going to really hate your life. You're going to wake up every morning wishing you were dead. You're going to start fantasizing about driving into a telephone pole at 100 mph, or shooting a bullet through your mouth, or going to sleep and never waking up again. Just because you so badly want the pain to stop.
Don't commit suicide.
Pray. Pray hard. Tell your troubles to God, and tell them to him again, and complain about it, and scream about it, and plead with him to make it stop, make it stop, make it stop. But don't commit suicide.
Sing hymns. Sing at the top of your lungs. Sing until your throat hurts and your eyes are raw and you can't tell if the pain's worse in your throat or in your head. But don't commit suicide.
Run. Run like a maniac. Run as far and as fast and as long as you possibly can, and don't stop until your chest burns and your legs ache and you want to collapse on the ground from sheer exhaustion. But don't commit suicide.
Eat. Eat chocolate. Eat ice cream. Eat an entire gallon of ice cream if you have to. But don't commit suicide.
Read books. Watch movies. Watch anything that'll keep your interest. Watch pornography if you have to. But don't commit suicide.
Guess what? Things hurt. Things can really hurt. But committing suicide just because things hurt only makes the people you love hurt more. And even if you hate your life, keep living it for the sake of their lives. Keep living, not because you enjoy it, not because it's fun, not because you want to, but because you care about them. And because you know how bad it is to hurt, and you don't want to make them hurt like that.
And, over time, it will get better.
There are two different types of suicide. One saves life. That one's required for any Christian. And another just destroys it. And that one is totally prohibited. Not just for any Christian, but for anyone who cares an ounce about anyone in the entire world.
And if it makes you awkward to talk about suicide, just wait until you lose someone really close to you. Then you won't care.
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| There are some passages in the Bible that I've never really understood. Deuteronomy 24:1-4 is one of them.
Deuteronomy 24:1: When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.
Deuteronomy 24:2: And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife.
Deuteronomy 24:3: And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife;
Deuteronomy 24:4: Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.
I'd always wondered, if her new husband dies, what's wrong with letting her go back to the old one? Why is that a problem?
Well, my Mom was telling me about the way things are in Panama, which is a highly Catholic country. And the way things evidently work there, only a "marriage in the church" is considered a real marriage: you can be living with another woman (or three), and the woman you married "in the church" might be living in Canada married to someone else, but you're still "married" to her because you're "married in the church", and that was the only "true" marriage. And so, what happened in Panama was, there was a couple who used to be Catholics, but got converted, and became Christadelphians, and got baptized together, and were members of the ecclesia there. And then, the guy's ex-wife shows up, and he leaves his current (Christadelphian) wife and children, and goes back to living with her.
And thinks that it's all perfectly all right, because it's his ex-wife who he was "really" married to, since they were "married in the church". His current wife wasn't "really" his wife, since he was already "married in the church" to somebody else. And so he's perfectly justified in going back to his ex-wife any time he very well wants.
And that's absolutely disgusting.
You wonder why Deut 24:4 calls that an abomination before the LORD?
Guess what: you divorce someone, and marry someone else, that old marriage is dead, dead, dead, dead, dead. You and your ex-wife need to pick up the pieces and move on. You can't just decide "Oh, I like this other girl now, but if that doesn't work out I can always go back to her." The old marriage is dead. You killed it. You'd better be absolutely sure before you divorce someone that you can't make it work. And you'd better do your very best to make this new one work, because there's no backing out.
Otherwise, it's just absolutely disgusting.
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| There's a certain story out there that you might have heard before:
Once there was a man whose house was in a flood. He stood on the porch as the waters rose. A boat came by, the driver urged the man to get on board but the man said he was waiting on the Lord to save him. The waters rose, the first floor was flooded and as the man looked out his second story window, another boat came to rescue him. The man turned the boat away, saying he would wait for God to rescue him. Finally he was clinging to the chimney on the roof. A helicopter flew overhead and dropped down a ladder. The man waved it off, saying Jesus would save his life. Finally he was swept away in the waters and drowned. At the pearly gates, he saw God and said, Lord, all my life I did as you asked but when the time came you did not save me. And God said, "I sent you two boats and a helicopter, what else did you want?"
This story isn't in the Bible. There is, however, a story in the Bible that's oddly similar:
Daniel 3:13:
Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Then they brought these men before the king.
Daniel 3:14: Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?
Daniel 3:15: Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
Daniel 3:16: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
Daniel 3:17: If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
Daniel 3:18: But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
In both stories, people refuse to accept deliverance, even when it's easily available and offered to them. There's something different about the Bible's story though: God delivers them.
Daniel 3:26: Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, came forth of the midst of the fire.
Daniel 3:27: And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.
Maybe Shadrach, Meshech, and Abed-nego were who the author of Hebrews was talking about when he talks about men of faith "not accepting deliverance." Because if you truly believe, you're willing to die for it. Whether you're delivered or not.
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