Subversive Christian Unity

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I highly recommend that you click this link and look at an engaging and funny cartoon which gets at a very serious issue. The problem addressed is not only one of personal error but also the root cause of many separations and schisms, various misunderstandings people have about the nature of God. Which Jesus do you worship? - Adam4d.com 'via Blog this'

Didache. The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (translation Roberts-Donaldson). : The Didache is a short manual of Christian practice from the first century (or possibly the second). It is still of significance because it gives us important clues about the continuity of what we do and say in our times with what early Christians did and said. Christians back then had many of the same moral concerns as we do now: You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit pederasty, you shall not commit fornication, you shall not steal, you shall not practice magic, you shall not practice witchcraft, you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is born.   (Ch. 2) They recognized, perhaps more clearly than we do today, the problems associated with money-grubbing false teachers: Let every apostle who comes to you be received as the Lord. But he shall not remain more than one day; or two days, if there's a need. But if he remains ...

I am pleased to report that many people of my acquaintance, pastors and teachers in various denominations, are speaking out against lightweight, cheap grace, thoughtlessly feel-good Christian sentimentality, and against the moral lawlessness that frequently accompanies a gospel of all sunshine and lollypops. A gospel that speaks as if the Christian life is free of trials and torments and troubles makes me wonder just how that is even slightly plausible, but there is an answer of sorts in Hebrews 12:7-8. via  http://www.whatisthegospel.org.uk/ A related ill in the church world is thinking that it is not nice or proper to talk much about our trials. That idea is all wrong--we should talk more about our trials. If we do not tell others what is going on with us, we may lead other people who have troubles in life to think their problems are somehow new and different, despite 1 Peter 4:12-13. It is not quite a matter of misery loving company, more a matter of helping others ...

At present, these are the most-read posts on the blog. The deconstruction of love Sep 15, 2015 Science versus religion is a phony issue Jul 14, 2014 The true bride and the bimbos Apr 3, 2015 Reality, fantasy and ecumenism Oct 17, 2015 Jesus the Commie May 8, 2014 Cessationism on the duck farm Aug 24, 2015 What is included in the kerygma? Nov 30, 2012 Dating is hard! Nov 16, 2015 Gays and Christianity: The same old story Sep 19, 2015 Charismatic abuses and abusers Apr 10, 2015

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via  Facebook I have remarked before on the lite beer antinomianism in which the preaching of God's grace makes people complacent about their sins. There is no progress toward amendment of life because God's grace has you covered. It is a simpleminded little transactional model in which God pays off our tab as we run it up. The message is insidious because it is so nearly the gospel, and it is easy for anyone to understand. Thus, it is readily accepted as the truth. But God's grace should be leading us (even if quite slowly sometimes, for we drag our feet) toward greater holiness, not complacency about our unholiness. That is not to minimize the troubles I and others have with besetting sins which, for some, become a combat of a lifetime's duration. But we are fighting, that is the difference. We do not shrug at our sins. Sometimes the message of God's grace is orthodox when it comes out of the preacher's mouth, but turns antinomian as it enters ...

What if we say that the real doctrine of a church is what the lay people understand and take away from church to put into practice in their lives?  How much difference is there, in that practically realized doctrine, from one church to another? If it is the Spirit that empowers and enables and guides our deeds and lives--well, there is only one Holy Spirit and we would expect him to want the same sorts of things from us whether we are Baptists or Catholics or Orthodox or whatever else we may happen to be. Whatever else we may be. . .or whatever we may think or pretend we are. For if there really is one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God, then it must be that the practical outworkings are going to be similar across the board--if indeed Christ's Spirit lives within us. The practical outworkings of real and sound Christian faith look very similar across our denominational and doctrinal boundaries. We are of one faith more in our deeds than our words. We all know about thi...

Canterbury, 15 Jan. 2016.   Frank Augstein/Associated Press Thinking that Christian doctrine cannot be stretched to encompass the whole of the gay rights agenda is "homophobia," a secular sin, in that what forbids it is the church of fashionable opinion.

Submitted for your consideration: a clear explanation of liberal Episcopalian thinking on what they style marriage equality. It was posted months before the Anglican primates' gathering in January of 2016, at which the primates called into question the direction the Episcopal Church had taken in this matter. I present this video so that you can get a clear view of what it is that a certain segment within the Episcopal Church is currently defending. Their rhetoric at the moment is a bit shrill; you cannot expect to get a clear understanding of the question from it. Here the matter is laid out calmly. Of course, my point here is to try to clarify the discussion by returning it to its real subject. Source:  http://www.episcopalrochester.org/content/lay-deputy-update-neil-and-susan-talk-marriage-equality-church