For those wondering about me...

[Smellin Coffee]

...my friend Chris Kratzer said it better in a recent FB post of his, than I ever could. His testimony closely mimics mine:

Chris Kratzer
October 27 at 2:07 PM ?


I was the good Evangelical who prayed to God for true freedom in Christ to manifest in all my life. She led me out of American Christianity and awakened me to my complete wholeness, beauty, and divine splendor, as is. Along with the bravery to be it--to be me.

I was the good Evangelical who read my Bible, precept upon precept, asking God for divine truth. She led me out of the Bible and into the mind of Christ within me.

I was the good Evangelical who, in passionate pursuit of the will of God, dedicated my heart to learning the ways of loving my neighbor as myself. She led me to see all people as equal and affirmed unconditionally.

I was the good Evangelical who pleaded with God to show me the true Gospel Jesus brings to the world. She showed me pure Grace, its universal, all-reconciling power, and my full union and irrevocable communion with the Trinity.

I was the good Evangelical who begged God to reveal any evil within me. She pulled opened my soul to expose the countless scrolls of false, pus-ladened, condemning, shame-filled, hateful, bigoted, homophobic, sexist, racist, greedy, and religious lies I believed about God, myself, and others.

I was the good Evangelical who asked God to reveal the evil around me. She thrusted back the curtain of conservative Christianity that me eyes would finally see the true evil seeking to devour me.

How do you know when you have been a good Evangelical?

When, in answer to all your prayers, seeking, and following, Jesus leads you out of it.

Grace is brave. Be brave.

 

[Ransom]

I was the good Evangelical who prayed to God for true freedom in Christ to manifest in all my life. She led me out

Says it all. He's a fool.

 

[Twisted]

I haven't "wondered" about you for years.

 

[Edwards]

My experience is that the God of the Bible has never let me down.  The scriptures are the pillow that I lay my head upon because through them I can get nearer to God and the nearer I get the less this world clings to me and the more I can experience Him.  I am acutely aware  of my weakness, all that I am is by grace alone and I have no idea why God loves me so much.    The experience I have with Jesus is not what I want it to be but it is real even though I have to battle each day, striving to get nearer.  You seem to be in turmoil.  You want more, which is good, but you are looking in the wrong direction.  I do appreciate your post though because you have changed since the "old forum" days and I have wondered what happened.  May God's grace be upon both of us.

 

[Smellin Coffee]

May God's grace be upon both of us.

I believe it already is!

I definitely understand where you are coming from and appreciate the graciousness of your concern.

Blessings to you too, my friend!

 

[ALAYMAN]

Here's a link to the moment when he made his exodus from orthodox Christianity.  So much wrong, so little time, but one glaring point easily discerned from his finger-wagging-tongue-lashing-hit-piece was his obsession with (like so many Hyles-style IFBs...and yes, I know he is/was a Methodist, not a Hylesite) performance-based Christianity.  When the starting point of your Christian life is "what do I have to do" rather than "what has He already done and doing in me" then burn-out is sure to ensue.

On a personal note Smellin', on what basis do you validate the authenticity of your belief system?  Who's to say objectively and ultimately that you or Kratzer has found the right path and saw the right light?  Maybe like Paul, you're following an angel of light that has you fooled?

 

[brianb]

So basically you are like the old Quakers who believed in an inner light rather than the Bible. Weren't you in a Baptist General Conference church for a while? What happened there? It seems that that kind of church would have fit you. I was at one for a year and they weren't abusive or anything like that - actually they were pretty libertarian and the pastor was a little ahead of his time - in the eighties before the contemporary era began in the 1990's. 

 

[Smellin Coffee]

So basically you are like the old Quakers who believed in an inner light rather than the Bible. Weren't you in a Baptist General Conference church for a while? What happened there? It seems that that kind of church would have fit you. I was at one for a year and they weren't abusive or anything like that - actually they were pretty libertarian and the pastor was a little ahead of his time - in the eighties before the contemporary era began in the 1990's.

The church plant I was involved with is a GBC church but I left after about 3 months.

 

[Smellin Coffee]

On a personal note Smellin', on what basis do you validate the authenticity of your belief system?  Who's to say objectively and ultimately that you or Kratzer has found the right path and saw the right light?  Maybe like Paul, you're following an angel of light that has you fooled?

I am using the same source you believe as you do: faith. The only difference is, our faith lies in different ideals.

Neither of us know for certainty which (if either) position is right. I don't know how to fix my furnace but if my tech comes out trying to repair the wiring with an axe, I know he is doing it wrong. Based on my personal experience and after studying the Bible, I certainly may not know the right direction, but it is clear (to me) both Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism are "doing it wrong".

I'm sure in many points, I am wrong. But laying out facts and after 5 decades of seeing behind the scenes of both Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism, I cannot link either system anywhere close to what Jesus had taught. I know others believe they are following Jesus because it is the White European, Big Business Jesus that our culture introduced to us and the one we are most familiar. Black Christians who follow Liberation Theology do the same from their heritage too. There is probably correct and incorrect theology from both cultural perspectives.

So asking the Holy Spirit for her help (yes, the Holy Spirit is female in the Bible, both OT and NT), being willing to reject the man-made doctrine of biblical inerrancy and searching for meaning and direction in and through Jesus' recorded teachings (accepted by faith, of course), I've come to the conclusions I have at this point. This is where I began to see Pauline contradictions and see the gospel he taught didn't seem to line up with those of Jesus or the Apostles.

This doesn't mean these conclusions/opinions are finalized. Like a river, as facts and understanding (historically, culturally) uncovers, the water shifts and bends based on those ideals. There is no room for church or even creed in Proverbs 3:5-6.

What is expected of me then? Simple. Do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God. That's it. Bringing JUST that to churches, Fundamental and Evangelical, just doesn't cut it for them for me to be involved any longer. I've given it 5 decades and haven't much time left than to heed and practice Micah's words.

 

[voicecrying]

So asking the Holy Spirit for her help (yes, the Holy Spirit is female in the Bible, both OT and NT),

A couple things I am curious about:
1. Aren't we supposed to pray to God the Father?
2. I know nothing about the biblical languages, so this is a question from ignorance - can you explain why John 14:26 says when "he" is come rather than when "she" is come? From what I read, the pronoun used there is neuter - did not the original language have mascualine & feminine pronouns? So why the use of neuter?

 

[Smellin Coffee]

So asking the Holy Spirit for her help (yes, the Holy Spirit is female in the Bible, both OT and NT),

A couple things I am curious about:
1. Aren't we supposed to pray to God the Father?
2. I know nothing about the biblical languages, so this is a question from ignorance - can you explain why John 14:26 says when "he" is come rather than when "she" is come? From what I read, the pronoun used there is neuter - did not the original language have mascualine & feminine pronouns? So why the use of neuter?

1. Yes, but is it wrong to pray to Jesus the son or the Spirit the mother?
2. I'm not an expert either but most Jewish rabbis I've read in reference to the subject, always declared the OT version as being feminine. Wikipedia shows other cultures (non-white) as accepting the Spirit as female too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_of_the_Holy_Spirit

Jesus compared God to a widow who lost her mites as well as himself to a mother hen.

Being a non-binary being, it seems to make sense God is both and neither male and female so whichever pronoun used would be sufficient and correct.

 

[Walt]

... led me out of the Bible...

This really says it all.

 

[Smellin Coffee]

... led me out of the Bible...

This really says it all.

Yep. God isn't contained in a canon, especially not in a singular interpretation of a specific canon.

 

[brianb]

Is it just me or is it a little annoying for someone without an IT background to use the word binary?  The LGBTQ+ crowd uses it a lot. I guess it's to make them seem smart.

 

[Twisted]

Is it just me or is it a little annoying for someone without an IT background to use the word binary?  The LGBTQ+ crowd uses it a lot. I guess it's to make them seem smart.

It's just you.

 

[Ransom]

Is it just me or is it a little annoying for someone without an IT background to use the word binary?  The LGBTQ+ crowd uses it a lot. I guess it's to make them seem smart.

"Binary" is an adjective for consisting of or being marked by two parts. It isn't exclusive to IT--think of a binary star, or a binary explosive. Even the IT industry uses the term "binary" in multiple ways: binary number, binary operator, binary tree, etc.

Human beings are mammals, so we're sexually dimorphic: the male and the female of the species are physically different. Hence there is a genuine "gender binary," with a tiny set of outliers (those who are intersex).

 

[Baptist City Holdout]

Is it just me or is it a little annoying for someone without an IT background to use the word binary?  The LGBTQ+ crowd uses it a lot. I guess it's to make them seem smart.

I think Pastor Steven L. Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe,  Arizona could pay his respects to that issue.

 

[Twisted]

Is it just me or is it a little annoying for someone without an IT background to use the word binary?  The LGBTQ+ crowd uses it a lot. I guess it's to make them seem smart.

I think Pastor Steven L. Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe,  Arizona could pay his respects to that issue.

LOL!

 

[Bob H]

Beware....... it's a road of no return.




"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."

 

[brianb]

Is it just me or is it a little annoying for someone without an IT background to use the word binary?  The LGBTQ+ crowd uses it a lot. I guess it's to make them seem smart.

"Binary" is an adjective for consisting of or being marked by two parts. It isn't exclusive to IT--think of a binary star, or a binary explosive. Even the IT industry uses the term "binary" in multiple ways: binary number, binary operator, binary tree, etc.

Human beings are mammals, so we're sexually dimorphic: the male and the female of the species are physically different. Hence there is a genuine "gender binary," with a tiny set of outliers (those who are intersex).

Those are all traditional uses of the word. Transgendered people have been around for decades in my lifetime (and well before that) and I've never heard them use the word nonbinary to refer to themselves until the 2010's when they wanted to add more genders and even change the meaning of the words they, them and their when they could just invent a new word (actually they have done that) or state that they are he/she or she/he.