Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
how could WL mesmerize so many of us that none dared question such a teaching, which bulldozed God's word in this manner?
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Perhaps many actually did question WL; those questions were variously referred to as "storms", "quarantines", "turmoils", and "rebellions". So people were indeed 'voting with their feet'.
And there may have been a stronger correlation than we realize, between WL treating the Word in such a cavalier manner, and he and his movement treating those saints so roughly, who couldn't fully submit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
Peter had spent three incredible years with Jesus... then they all tried to make sense of it, and to relay the meaning of their experiences to others who were presently incomprehensible.
Thus, the appeal to scripture... why Peter, attempting to explain the outpoured Spirit to the incredulous throng, referenced Psalms 16 and 110. God had poured out His Holy Spirit, and this Spirit allowed men like Peter to look into scripture and see Jesus. The Spirit allowed men to see Jesus as fulfillment of scriptural type, and the same scripture allowed them to show others “the promised Holy Spirit... which you now see and hear” (Acts 2:33).
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When we prayerfully consider God's word, even weeping like Mary at the empty tomb, the promised Paraclete will come alongside and help us see "this Jesus". The Spirit comes through the word of God, and this Spirit in this word reveals this Jesus.
So, conversely, what happens when we dismiss God's word as of none effect, as merely the vain imagination of fallen men, and unequal to our own concepts? We risk the loss of the promised Spirit, and the frantic human organization-building efforts that follow that loss are exposed as such by the bedlam (lack of peace, harmony, and brotherly love) that accompanies the efforts.