Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
Evangelical is showing signs of thinking independently. Don't assume s/he is a program parrot.
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The Bible is very balanced when we read it on our own. Once we read someone's books, however, we automatically become skewed in the writer's direction. That might not be a bad thing, but if that's all we have, then we really are not connected to the "pure word" of God.
Yes, the Bible does tell us that we are members one of another, and part of the body of Christ, and what we do affects other members, but the Bible also instructs us in many places to personally "
test all things, hold on to the good" (I Ths 5.21), "
prove by testing what the will of God is" (Rom. 12.2), and "
prove what is well-pleasing to God." (Eph. 5.10) With much practice, we each will then have our "
faculties exercised in order to healthily discriminate the good from the worthless."
We should never consider this personal practice to be "independent" thinking. Rather it is the kind of thinking that helps us by the Spirit to renew our minds and to work out our own salvation.