Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered
The message also covered spiritual principles, life lessons and holy warnings. Talked about God's sovereignty and governmental righteousness by not submitting, disobedience, rebellining and not denying the self which is a great sin. This then brings in His punishing judgement according to God's governmental righteousness. God is loving and merciful but disciplines and chastises. And this should be a warning to us they believe. Ed Marks was using the examples of Saul and David.
But in a earlier message Minoru Chen said death is even worse than sin.
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Unregistered, thank you for giving us a further glimpse of what is being spoken.
Are you the same unregistered who has posted 4-5 posts on a few threads the past day or two?
Unregistered, I hope you know that this kind of speaking from a church is one of the characteristics found in what are called "abusive churches". Abusive churches often use Old Testament stories to rail and threaten and oppress. I mean.....look at all the words you used to describe their speaking in just this short paragraph:
warning, governmental (I know the co-workers throw a lot of threatening weight behind that word), submission, disobedience, rebellion, deny the self, sin, punishment, judgement, discipline, chastise, warning, death.
Do you feel edified or built up or encouraged or at peace or even......safe in God's hands hearing that?
The Bible tells us that Christ died to set us free so we would be free. That God loves us so much that He gave up His only Son to save us! That death no longer has it's sting, and that we are not to fear death because the One who saves our soul will not let us go. That He made us individual and unique members in a body and gave us specific gifts to be used according to His granting. That we were made for good works and to love people. Christ came to save sinners, not to condemn them. God loved us WHILE WE WERE SINNERS, and He doesn't love us any less after salvation, either. Yes, He disciplines His children like any father does, but the ratio of discipline and condemnation in the local church is grossly lopsided compared to the emphasis of it in Scripture.
Death, unregistered, is actually from God. God is the one who punishes us with death for our sins. This is a huge upside down teaching in the local church, which teaches that death is of Satan and of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But the Biblical record is that "the wages of sin is death" - in other words, death is our wages, our payment, what we earned because we sin. But God doesn't want anyone to perish, so He sent His Son to save us. This is where death comes from (punishment for our sins), and as children of God who believe in the Savior, we should be free of the fear of death. As you sit in those training meetings, I hope you would not let the fear and condemnation and "death threats" affect you. There are many healthier places out there. We are here if you ever want to talk more about how you are doing in the local church.
Trapped