Strange combination... I know... I still believe in the filling of the Holy Spirit as well as all of the Spiritual Gifts (yes... even the supernatural ones!). You see, we have this tendency to take doctrines that have been abused (and trust me... the doctrines of Spiritual Gifts have been abused!), and act as if they do not exist! We NEED the Holy Spirit if we are to live a life in service for the Lord... and we need His gifts! Sadly, we treat the Holy Spirit like a cancer that we wish wasn’t there, and this is truly sad indeed!
The issue with most (certainly not all) charismatics is that they seem to diminish the importance of Scripture in relation to their spiritual "experience". They are more interested in hearing a "word from God" than they are in reading His revealed Word in the Scriptures. This is very dangerous...
The issue with most (again, certainly not all) in the reformed movement is that they seem to de-spiritualize Christianity in favor of a tangible intellectual pursuit. We tend to fear that which we cannot understand, and this leads to our ignoring the very power that beings about salvation itself. We would rather debate obscure theological issues than go out and express the love of Christ, an act that requires the power of the Holy Spirit!
So there you go! A little background never hurts! So, what does this have to do with what denomination we are? Glad you asked! While we may differ on some lesser doctrines... we are in agreement concerning the following issues:
- We must realize that salvation is a miracle wrought by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.
- We must acknowledge that God is the supreme Sovereign of the universe, and that we can do nothing outside of His Holy Will.
- The reformed movement (and the entire Church for that matter) desperately needs the supernatural power that flows from the Holy Spirit in order to truly bring about positive change in the Church today.
- We must not seek after "Signs and Wonders." We must seek God through His Scripture and earnestly pray that His Glory would shine through all that we think,say, and do.
- We must be in complete submission to the Holy Scriptures. We must hold all things in subjection to them! The entire Christian experience is subject to the Word of God, and anything contradictory to His Word is to be cast out completely.
- We must (forgive the cliché) practice what we preach. We must love God with all of our heart and our neighbor as ourselves. This is the GREATEST command in scripture!
- We must study to show ourselves approved! Intellectual pursuit is not to be frowned upon, so long as it is accompanied by supernatural power of God in bringing about our understanding.
This only scratches the surface!! But, it gives you an idea as to where we are coming from.
We find it hard to place ourselves in a "denomination" for the simple reason that it is unprecedented in scripture. We are not "anti-denominational" in any way, we just do not see such divisions taught in scripture, therefore we will abstain from labeling ourselves as such. We follow "The Way (being Jesus Christ)."
If we are to be labeled, we would prefer our label point directly to Christ... instead of a man-made institution.
7 comments:
walking the walk.
practicing what we preach thats good
Hey all;
Yeah, it's a great thought, like Kenny said, "Practicing what we preach."
We all hear the old "walk the walk" stuff, but it doesn't mean anything until we DO it...
Until we live it.
The Father of Corrupt Theology has it down just right:
"We find it hard to place ourselves in a 'denomination' for the simple reason that it is unprecedented in scripture."
John Bunyan has this great quote that runs something to the effect of:
"I know not whence these factuous titles [denominations] come from, but I trow, it must be from Babylon or the Pit of Hell itself."
WHEN DID DENOMINATIONS START ANYWAY? CERTAINLY NOT WITH CHRIST.
"Factions" have been around since the beginning of organized religion. Israelites split up, Pharisees, Sadducees (sp?), etc.
Man will always try to complicate what God has made simple.
As my good friend says, "Timothy was circumcised because he was going to speak to Jews! He didn't want any barriers between them! He wanted the only barrier to be the truth of the Gospel itself!"
Wow: no barriers.
i had some hard times in my life for the past few weekss and this came to mind how that its all about doing what is right even if things do go wrong -- i know its more than just professing the right stuff , that its living it. thanks for the encouragment
Wow. Thanks Kenny.
I too needed to hear that from someone else.
It's like he said in the article;
"If we are to be labeled, we would prefer our label point directly to Christ... instead of a man-made institution."
We just have to live our life in Christ, rather than bound by anything else.
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