JimFoxvog wrote:I chose the word "persecution" from jcdonner's post that I quoted. I agree that churches treating nonconformists in ways that could be experienced as unkind is different from the persecution of torture and execution that our forebearers received. I know the criticism and judgement met out in churches can be very painful, might at times lead to suicide, but it's different. I see Romans 14 calls for accepting one another, even if we our opinions differ on what practices best glorify God. Shouldn't we do that unless the different practices are actual violations of New Testament teachings? Should we have a pink shoelace sect and a white shoelace sect?
i want to express this without being contentious, this is a question as much as an observation ..
if all reasoning/decisions were left to liberal believers, more conservative believers would quickly cease to exist. this, across denominations. it's not (always) willful intent to destroy, but destruction results.
there is more than human reasoning.
(it appears to me) the more liberal believers become, the more reliance on human reasoning, alone. important matters are lost when human reasoning is central:
Proverbs 3:5
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not on thine own understanding.
there is no reference to pink shoelaces in scriptures. but there are references to submission to the church. the concepts of submission and obedience are easily rejected. there is no one answer, scriptures acknowledge this:
Romans 14:4
Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls.
And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
i'm thankful we have no state church, folks are allowed to worship if+how they believe.
paradoxically, (liberal) human reasoning (likes) national decrees (conformity) for all matters.
when they do it, they call it freedom, and/or human rights.
.. appleman, where is your book?!