Testimony of Lost Sheep

[aron]

LS, Welcome to the forum. I’d like to unpack your comments. It’s often easier to solve problems by reducing them to manageable size.

Originally Posted by Lost Sheep

One topic that always seems to come up is regarding the trinity. Apparently, what the LC teaches is both modalism and tritheism. I can't say I'm well-versed in the Bible so I don't understand what trinity actually means.

Regarding the trinity, my impression (and other observers as well) is that the LSM teaches modalism, in that the Father became the Son, became the Life-Giving Spirit. They protest that they don’t teach this, but that’s what I remember. Clearly.

But the trinity as a subject is a swamp. You can table it without worrying. Return to it in 10 or 15 years, and you might make some headway. Really. True religion is to behave well, and visit widows and orphans in their affliction; James said this, and it’s true. To love one’s neighbour is to give to those who won't repay you in this age, to treat well those who don’t treat you well, and to do unto others as you’d have them do to you, even if they don’t!

Originally Posted by Lost Sheep

I don't think I can blindly read the Bible footnotes from mainly one person, be highly encouraged to borderline forced to read their ministries to be accepted…I dislike the idea of being force fed someone else's "opinion" of the Bible. Is there truly this need to work hard to fulfil the "Lord's economy" and "recover" the church? Or is it enough to just believe and call on His name as Romans 10:13 says?

I say there’s one question which we all should face: do you believe that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead on the third day? If you do, you’re a Christian. If you don’t, then you’re not a Christian. It’s really that simple.

Of course, that is my opinion. This forum is full of them, and they don’t often align; but you get to pick through them and create your own journey. My own reading is formed by the speech that the Galilean fisherman Peter gave in Acts 2. God raised Jesus from the dead. That was the message. This is repeated by the Pharisee Paul, almost verbatim, in Acts 13

26 “Fellow children of Abraham and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent.
27 The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath.
28 Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed.
29 When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb.
30 But God raised him from the dead,
31 and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people.
32 We tell you the good news: What God promised our ancestors
33 he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm:
‘You are my son;
today I have become your father.’
34 God raised him from the dead so that he will never be subject to decay. As God has said,
‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.’
35 So it is also stated elsewhere:
‘You will not let your holy one see decay.’
36 Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed.
37 But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay.
38 Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.
39 Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.

The Good News is the proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. That God loved us and sent His Son, that we might believe, and not perish, is what distinguishes the Christian from the Atheist who doesn’t believe in God, and the Islamist and Buddhist who don’t believe that Jesus is the Resurrected Lord. We do believe.

Beyond that, try to find the love of God in your heart. Find someone who’s bereft of love, and find a way to transmit that love. It might simply be a smile and a greeting.

The first Church Schism* occurred several centuries after Christ, when the now fully-gentile churches began to argue over the meaning of the Greek word we'd translate “nature”; the Syrians, Egyptians, Iranians (Persians), Ethiopians and some others walked out and never came back. Even today, when asked what it was about they smile and say, “It’s complicated”.

So don’t fuss about the meaning of words like “trinity”. Just believe into Jesus Christ and find love. The capacity to love is already in you, but you have to be calm and still to find it. And "Love" in the Christian ethos is not an emotion, but an action, carried out continually - give to those who don't give back, bless those who curse, pray for those who persecute and despise.

"If you believe in your heart, and confess with your mouth that God has raised Jesus from the dead, you shall be saved". It's really that simple. Then, try to love. God will meet you there.

*Chalcedon