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What should we believe?: Difference between revisions
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Those inside the message expect that we are looking for followers (we're not) and those who have left are simply looking for guidance. | Those inside the message expect that we are looking for followers (we're not) and those who have left are simply looking for guidance. | ||
=Don't follow | ='''In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things love'''= | ||
Any subject on which equally devout, equally humble, equally Bible-believing and Bible-studying Christians or churches reach different conclusions, must be considered secondary not primary. We must not insist on these as fundamentals but instead respect each other’s integrity and acknowledge the legitimacy of each other’s interpretations. The best guidance came from Rupert Meldenius at the beginning of the seventeenth century: ‘In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things love.’<Ref>John Stott, “But I Say to You …”: Christ the Controversialist (Nottingham: Inter-Varsity Press, 2013), 39.</ref> | |||
=Don't follow us!!= | |||
We are not pointing to ourselves, to any man, or to any church. Paul said that we are to follow the teachings that he laid out in scripture (2 Tim 1:13). Peter said the same thing: | We are not pointing to ourselves, to any man, or to any church. Paul said that we are to follow the teachings that he laid out in scripture (2 Tim 1:13). Peter said the same thing: | ||
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:''Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Heb 13:7–9.</ref> | :''Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Heb 13:7–9.</ref> | ||
Paul is telling us that we are not to follow a single man but those leaders (plural) that provide a godly example of a Christian life in word and deed. And we are to judge their teachings based on scripture. | |||
=Believe what the church has always believed= | =Believe what the church has always believed= | ||