Quote:
Originally Posted by Trapped
And this is how the church should be. If God is unity and diversity, so should the church be. Lee wanted a church that was unified and uniform, but with no diversity. That is not God.
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There is a verse that says, "The voice of the L
ORD divideth the flames of fire" Psa 29:7 KJV
God divides, and it's okay. There are seven distinct flames sitting before God. Moses saw them on the mountain, I daresay, because God told him, "See that you build everything as you saw it" and he built a candlestick with seven flames. Multiplicity is good, in this regard. Division is not bad, but really what we'd call "multiplication". One flame became seven. But the light was one. God divided the flames and it was good. (and, did you ever see lightning?)
Those flames dancing over the heads on Pentecost, did they look "exactly identical, with no differences whatsoever"? Really? How do you know? 120 flames dancing. What a sight.
Answer: we don't know if they looked identical or not. We see star differ from star in glory and evidently that's okay (1 Cor 15:41). Let's not presume identical appearance if it isn't stated or even inferred from common, everyday sense of the words as they were written.
Regarding the Trinity: Does
"the Son sits at the Father's right hand" mean anything if the Son is actually the Father? I daresay, no. Let's not change words as they were written, or ignore them, and then make that change or avoidance a pre-condition for fellowship.
As I get older, my reading of scripture "hardens" as meanings derived from one passage carry over to other sections. Gradually a picture emerges. I become convinced that I "see" a meta-narrative emerging in the Word of God. Okay, that fine, but suppose I insisted on everyone agreeing with my emerging vision as necessary for all Christian fellowship? What kind of person would I be then? Not very receiving, nor charitable. Jesus met people where they were.
If my readings cut others off from fellowship, then what good are my readings? If I insist that all Christian fellowship is dependent upon everyone being "absolutely identical, with no differences whatever" with my peculiar vision, what am I setting us up for? Slavish imitation followed by 'storms' and 'rebellions'.