The posting of quotes of human authors does not constitute agreement with either the quotes or their sources. (I try to confirm the sources that I give, but may miss on occasion; please verify if possible.)
“This idea of fellowshipping with liberals, modernists, and every ism, schism, and spasm of this broadminded religious age originated in Hell, not Heaven, nor in the Bible.” -- Oliver Boyce Greene
“The gospel is already sweeter than honey. It is bitter only to those who are spiritually blind and spiritually dead. When a man understands what it is he will live and die for it.” -- Mark Osgatharp
“Iron, till it be thoroughly heated is incapable to be wrought; so God sees good to cast some men into the furnace of affliction, and then beats them on his anvil into what frame he pleases.” -- Anne Bradstreet, from The Poems of Mrs. Anne Bradstreet
“We preach Christ crucified, not Christ customized.” -- Heard
“The only bee that cannot bear honey is the ‘used-to-be’.” -- Herman Johnson
“Christ went more willingly to the cross than we do to the throne of grace.” -- Thomas Watson
“Grace is the salt which seasons our discourse and keeps it from corrupting.” -- William Harris, in the Matthew Henry Commentary
“It’s not love to affirm delusional beliefs a neighbor has, that’s actually cowardice and it trades basic truth for momentary comfort.” -- Allie Beth Stuckey
“Everything I have above nothing; God gave it to me. The least I can do is say, ‘Thank you.’” -- S. M. Lockridge
“Affirm that the Bible establishes two offices and make sure that every titled job in a church, no matter what you call it, complies with the duties and qualifications of one or the other.” -- Jonathan Leeman
“It’s not about the ‘plan’ of salvation, but the ‘man’ of salvation – Jesus.” -- Herman Johnson
6 comments:
"fellowshipping with liberals" is fellowshiping with a lost religious man, while pretending he is saved. The old joke about New Evangelicals was that the Liberals would pretend New Evangelicals were intellectuals, and the New Evangelicals would pretend the liberal was a Christian. True today as it ever was.
Did not mean to publish anonymous
Jim
My perspective re: this quotation ("“Affirm that the Bible establishes two offices and make sure that every titled job in a church, no matter what you call it, complies with the duties and qualifications of one or the other.” -- Jonathan Leeman") is that I have never seen that done! Actually, I don't think it ever even crossed my mind … Got some work to do here. As I think about it now as I write this, I wonder if that is a little simplistic. Is every teacher in the NT either an elder/pastor/bishop(overseer) or a deacon? Is every form of "serving one another" (say, organizing a fellowship meal for the assembly or taking a meal to someone in need) something that must fit under one of the two "officer" headings? And an aside: are there still evangelists (Eph. 4:11) whom God gives to His churches in this era, and, if so, is an evangelist filling an "office"? Anyway, lots & lots of questions were provoked by that quotation. Thank you for it.
E. T. Chapman
Hello, Brother. I think that is a worthwhile thought-provoking, and difficult, quote. Too often churches do not think about such things. I personally am unsure how far it could be taken. I wonder if idealistic might be another adjective we could use to describe it. It could be especially hard to fulfill in a small church, I think. I do believe that the history of the church I grew up in and others connected to it shows they tended to used elders and deacons as teachers, and deacons to fill offices such as clerk, treasurer and trustees. (I do not think our church ever called anyone a trustee, but I do find that terminology in other church records.) I found the article that quote came from, in case you would like to read it. If you do, I would be interested in your thoughts. https://www.9marks.org/article/church-staff-belong-in-two-buckets-elder-qualified-or-deacon-qualified/
Thanks for the explanation, Jim. No problem. I appreciated your sharing that old joke -- which though a joke contains a lot of truth.
Thank you, Brother Vaughn, for the thoughts and the link. I read the article. I think there is a valid point made. I still have lots of thinking on this, but limited brain-space and time for it. :)
E. T. Chapman
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