The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Doctrinal pride and cold formalism

And in many cases this is false. Some turn to false accusations such as their opponent’s lack of humility, meekness and agape love, because they themselves refuse to study the Word of God and defend their “false” position(s) (or have studied the Word of God with the incorrect hermeneutic and come up lacking). In addition, they have no knowledge of what the terms (humility, meekness, and love) actually even mean (in a biblical sense). If one is meek and humble before the LORD then he will also be bold and share the truth. Most of the time truth can be shared calmly, but at other times--it can't! A mother who is seeing her child about to drink some Drano doesn’t calmly sit by and just let it happen if she loves her child!!! She in tough love will slap the child’s hand and grab the poison to save the child. She realizes a temporary sting is better than a dead child. How much more dangerous is false doctrine—the doctrine of devils (1 Tim 4:1). Doctrine and its defense are important and at times it takes different methods to get the truth across (1 Tim 4:6, 13; 1:3; 5:17). While the Word of God says in 2 Timothy 2:25 “In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth,” many fail to fully understand and discern what the term “meekness” really means. So what do you think meekness means (in a biblical sense)?

D. Webster once stated;

Look at what books called Christian are circulating now and look at the state of the world! There is an urgent call today for truth.

I agree with you Joe, that is why I used the word "some" and I gave one such example.
I also believe you hit the nail on the head in your example of what is being circulated around the world that is called "Christian. Many people just want their ears tickled and when someone challenges one of those books with Scripture, the response they get back isn't exactly loving.
As you can probably tell, on that last point I have been the recipient of more than one angry rebuke for daring to question someone's favorite author.
As someone who by nature doesn’t enjoy angry confrontation, I can tell you that sometimes I have had to ignore my feelings and instead go with what I knew I should do, sigh…
May the Lord grant us wisdom in times like that.

Tom


Tom