For Mr. Geezer, commenting on the Catholic church, i appreciate your point of view. I understand what you are saying. It is, largely, the view my own mother had of that church.
However, God uses all things to draw folks to him. In my blog reading i've come across several bloggers of the the Roman Catholic flavor, & the ones i choose to follow have terrific faith. In fact, quite frankly, i've much to learn from them. The depths of their faith is sometimes astounding to me. My own husband (not a blogger, he's got 4 total posts at his blog, i wrote one) is Catholic-raised & has terrific faith. When he ran up against some of these extra-biblical doctrines, he questioned the teacher. When he was given inadequate answers, he rejected the doctrines but continued his faith.
I very much appreciate your point:
Catholics need to be evangelized. They need to hear the true Gospel. They need to hear that they are not made right before God by being in a church, or by being baptized, but by receiving Christ . . .
However, i believe this to be true for ALL churches. Not just Catholics fall into this trap that believing that "being good" or following doctrine, laws, rules or other ordinances set by a church will "save" them. That said, i do believe that God calls his people & that God can use all translations of the Bible to do so. Yes, some translations can have certain slants we may not agree with, but God can still use it. His Word does not return void.
Also, not just Catholics fall into the problem of having doctrine that is unscriptural. Just about every church out there tends to put more emphasis on one point of scripture over another one. Sometimes it is a mild diversion, sometimes it is a dangerous one.
We have, i believe, much to thank the Catholic church for. From the beginning of Christianity we had only the Eastern Orthodox & Roman Catholic churches. The Catholic church maintained our scriptures & teachings for 1500 years. Yes, much was done in the name of the church that was unholy, to say the least, & their doctrine took a turn that most Protestants do not accept. But the scripture was still there, waiting for us to return to it & study what was said. And it was there because of the Catholic church maintaining it thru the years.
I don't draw lines anymore saying "This church is 'Christian' & this church is not." I try to learn from the teaching. Everyone needs to be "evangelized" even if they grew up in a Baptist church. It is too easy to miss God's "narrow path" even if we have found some other narrow path that seems right.
Amrita, as always, thank you for your gentle comments & loving heart. :)
We attended the First Baptist church this last week. In general, we like it pretty well, tho to be honest, as much as i enjoy the Pastor, 60+ minutes of sermon is too much for me. But one thing he said this past week that Duane & i both struggled over was on "The fear of the Lord." He equated fear with trust. We just don't see that. This pastor said, "You trust most the one you fear most." We find a lot of holes in that thought.
I fear our government a lot, but i don't trust it at all.
I fear an out of control gang, or police department, or shark, but i don't trust it.
In reading other blogs on faith & doubt, those that struggle with those issues the most seem to be the ones who came to be a Christian due to their fear of hell or of condemnation.
So i just don't see this point at all. But i've decided that i don't mind sitting in a sermon where i disagree with someone. If the pastor had not said this, i think we would have walked away saying, "That was a good sermon," but not remembered any of it. This stuck it in my mind to study on at a later date.
I wonder if the word "fear" as in "the fear of the Lord" is different than the way we use the term fear today?
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Reading this over, i guess i do draw some lines: New age "all paths lead to God" are not Christian. I struggle with calling the teachings of Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses "Christian." I'm speaking of churches that preach the Gospel & believe in what is stated in the Apostle's & Nicene Creeds.
I studierd in a Catholic Convent school and taught there too for sometime, we did not agree with the extra Biblical doctrine s an d practices but grew up respecting them.
I think th e fear of the Lord is upholding God as your Master and Ruler, also living responsibly knowing you are answerable to Him. It is not a cringing , servile, undermining type of fear. It is experiencing the grandeur of God. Can 't express it enough.
Thank you, Amrita. I agree. "Fear" & "awe" are closer, i think than "fear" & "fright." I don't think God wants us to come to him because we fear hell, but because we desire him.
Hope things are well in India. :)
He [God] said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” Gen 22:12 (ESV)
Please deliver me [Jacob] from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. Gen 32:11 (ESV)
Then whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, 21 but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field. Ex 9:20-21 (ESV)
Fear has a bad rap, I'm thinking.
Abraham feared God.
Jacob feared Esau.
Egyptian servants who feared the word of the Lord survived God's wrath in the form of a horrific hail storm.
The common denominator is obedience, acting upon the belief that disobedience would bring disaster.
Abraham was willing to sacrifice his only son, based on his belief in a God Who would do what He said.
Jacob prayed fervently for rescue because he believed Esau was angry and powerful enough to avenge Jacob's deceitfulness.
The Egyptian servants believed that what God said would happen, would indeed happen. So they acted on that believe.
I'm thinking the pastor you listened to was aiming at this point: If someone tells us to do something, yet experience has shown us that this person is unreliable, or weak, or ignorant, we will easily dismiss his warning or command.
But if experience has shown us that the person is quite reliable, as well as very powerful and wise, we will quickly obey or act upon his advice. More than that, we will fear the consequences of NOT following his words.
Thus, it is right to fear God.
And only God.
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