:winner:
I remember Newness! But I have to say I'm loving the nick Lively Stone especially after the explanation of it you just gave!
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I'm not sure if I was booted but I didn't do well with the CARM forum. I was always being jumped on by the Calvinist's...it was a bunch of Heresy Hunters too.
Jumped on by the Calvinists? Who would have thought!:D
People seem to love to warn me all the time for things everyone else is doing. I speak what I believe and they get all upset and yet others are doing the same thing. I get called names all the time. I think it is more that I speak about the Truth and it gets people under conviction. They don't like the truth.
Nikos, it's like Susan said... it's not your beliefs that get you warned (or banned): it's your tact. Or lack thereof.
As Christians, we are called to the Great Commission. We are sent as sheep among wolves, and are commanded to, "be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." (Matthew 10:16).
When you approach people in the manner of a juggernaut, that's neither wise nor harmless. It simply drives them away and displays none of God's love nor grace. It's not a difficult challenge to understand why (while you are telling the truth), you often drive people away and end up being warned.
Calvinists are my Brethren. So are Arminians. I am neither one. That does not make nor break me.
The core beliefs of a Christian are to understand that we have sinned, that sin brings death, that there is nothing we can do to save ourselves. That Jesus freely gave Himself to save us, and that we are to understand and confess that we deserve death and condemnation and that only the blood of Jesus can save us and that we need to acknowledge and accept it in order to be saved.
Calvinists and Arminians both believe this. That makes them both my kin.
There is nothing I've ever seen in the Bible that tells me that we need to question or determine how we got here in order to be saved. Personally, I'm just eternally grateful that I got here at all.
It's when we make the decision and initiative to begin cutting branches off the Tree of Abraham that we get ourselves into trouble. God warned us (through Paul) that it's very easy for Him to ungraft the rest of us and leave the Kingdom solely to the Jews if we can't behave with each other (Romans 11:17).
All I'm saying is, a little tact goes a long ways. Truth means nothing if it is not presented with love.
Pardon my French... but if you pee on a seed and command it to grow... you're technically correct, it does need to grow. But it's not going to. It needs water, not urine.