Quote:
Originally Posted by Igzy
Well, I didn't want to turn the subject to deputy authority. The question what "exercise the spirit" means is a worthy one for discussion. But I just don't think such phrases are themselves the problem. I think the problem was who was using them and what for.
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And there is really something in that idea.
And I think it is the collection of little phrases of uncertain meaning that could be manipulated in some or fashion that collect together into a system of error. A place where the truth is so intermingled with bits of error that in retrospect it is actually dangerous to try to use what you think is sound because it is difficult to determine if you have found all that erroneous leaven and excised it. (And since the mixture of wheat with leaven does not just make a mixture, but changes the very nature of the thing it was mixed with. There is no longer simply wheat or leaven. There is leavened bread.)
So while this one phrase it not, by itself, such a big deal, it is a really big deal when we look at the sum of all the similar playing with words, whether just redefinitions like taking only one definition of "religion," or some of the word choices Nigel brought up in the recent article.
The issue is not this term v that term. It is the collection of peculiar terms. It is convincing us that being out of sync with the rest of the body of Christ was a good thing. And talking in religious mumbo-jumbo was a significant part of it.