How to Succeed at God's Work
- Thread starter Vince Massi
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A major failing of HAC is that they did not teach us how to deal with tares. For decades, I had a problem with the fact that some born-again saints were as wicked or wickeder than the lost. Several years ago, I learned that these people have never been born again.
Tares are a weed that are so similar to wheat that they look, grow, thrive, and wither under the same conditions. But the fruit tares bear is slightly poisonous, and they have no productive use.
Remember that the story of the wheat and the tares is a parable, not a statement of no-exception doctrine. The servants realized they had tares, and they told the Master, but not anyone else. As we'll see later, most people wouldn't have believed them. The Master ordered them to leave the tares alone until the harvest--you can't get rid of tares, God won't help you get rid of tares, and God won't send people to get rid of tares. Having lost people among the saints is a normal part of Christian life.
Tares are a weed that are so similar to wheat that they look, grow, thrive, and wither under the same conditions. But the fruit tares bear is slightly poisonous, and they have no productive use.
Remember that the story of the wheat and the tares is a parable, not a statement of no-exception doctrine. The servants realized they had tares, and they told the Master, but not anyone else. As we'll see later, most people wouldn't have believed them. The Master ordered them to leave the tares alone until the harvest--you can't get rid of tares, God won't help you get rid of tares, and God won't send people to get rid of tares. Having lost people among the saints is a normal part of Christian life.
Who are these HAC people on here the you are "helping"?
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Vince Massi said:
The parable of the tares isn't about "Christian life." The field is the world.
Recovering IFB said:
Another question Vince will ignore and not answer.
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Galatians 5:18-21 lists the traits that prove that a person is unsaved, regardless of his profession of faith:
"19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,
20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."
Notice "selfish ambitions." The KJV translates this word as "strifes." The Greek word refers to people who are willing to fight to advance themselves.
In my first church after graduation, the pastor¡s wife had steadily seized pastoral authority, bullying the staff and accomplishing nothing. They had 75 kids in children's church, and the pastor put me in charge. We worked hard and got it up to 300. One day I was called into his office where an enraged group of women, led by his wife, demanded that they be put in charge of children's church. None of them went soul-winning, but they won.
Three years later, children's church was running less than 10 kids.
I later learned from Christian school teachers that many of them had similar experiences. A person would seize a successful ministry, claiming to be a superior Christian whom God had appointed as a leader, and then they would wreck the ministry.
Some time back, I drove the scorners into rage by talking about people who seize church positions without God calling them. Galatians 5:19-21 shows that these people are not born again.
"19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,
20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."
Notice "selfish ambitions." The KJV translates this word as "strifes." The Greek word refers to people who are willing to fight to advance themselves.
In my first church after graduation, the pastor¡s wife had steadily seized pastoral authority, bullying the staff and accomplishing nothing. They had 75 kids in children's church, and the pastor put me in charge. We worked hard and got it up to 300. One day I was called into his office where an enraged group of women, led by his wife, demanded that they be put in charge of children's church. None of them went soul-winning, but they won.
Three years later, children's church was running less than 10 kids.
I later learned from Christian school teachers that many of them had similar experiences. A person would seize a successful ministry, claiming to be a superior Christian whom God had appointed as a leader, and then they would wreck the ministry.
Some time back, I drove the scorners into rage by talking about people who seize church positions without God calling them. Galatians 5:19-21 shows that these people are not born again.
subllibrm said:HeDied4U said:
Is that a flock of scorning crickets or a plague of locusts?
Just a bunch of slandering crickets waiting on Vince to explain exactly how he was supposedly slandered.
I do realize they will be waiting an eternity for an answer that will never come.
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Vince Massi said:
No such thing.
(This, according to Vince "Captain Oblviious" Massi, is "rage." LOL!)
Who is Vince talking to here anyway?
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Recovering IFB said:
Ten or so imaginary friends from HAC that he is helping.
Apparently, they are all afflicted with short-term memory loss, hence the need to repeat himself every time.
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Ransom, I noticed that in rejecting that parable of the tares, you traveled to another parable in which Jesus said "The field is the world." But in this parable, the field contains wheat, and Christians are not of the world.
Sorry, Ransom, but Satan plants tares among the saints. They look, act, and even think like Christians, until they bear fruit. And one of the fruits they bear is seizing positions God doesn't want them to have.
Sorry, Ransom, but Satan plants tares among the saints. They look, act, and even think like Christians, until they bear fruit. And one of the fruits they bear is seizing positions God doesn't want them to have.
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Vince Massi said:
One, I do not "reject" the parable of the tares. You would be wise not to confuse your bluster with the word of God.
Two, Matt. 13:36-43 is not "another parable." It is Jesus' own explanation of Matt. 13:26-30.
If I can point out any other areas where you ignorantly misrepresent the words of Scripture or of other posters, don't hesitate to ask.
No such thing.