“Regardless of what a mess we’ve made of Christianity, our failures cannot change at all what God has accomplished.  He became incarnate, Jesus Christ the Son died, and our sins are pardoned.  He is risen, and death, chaos and the devil are defeated.  What is done, is done.  Irrespective of what we make of Christianity, God’s work and accomplishment are finished and they are inscribed in human history.” -Jacques Ellul, The Subversion of Christianity

As quoted on the White Horse Inn broadcast ”Finding Truth in a World of Spin” (3/4/2007).

Greg,

That was a another stimulating White Horse Inn broadcast last night, and a great send off for me as I head out of town.

Stan

John 3:16
I have had various people, especially one sister tell me that all churches are the same.  She see only the mess and I can understand why(it is a looooong story).  All God has had me say to her is that as long as the core doctrine of the church is Jesus Christ, his life, death and resurrection, and that is the salvational issue, there will be things in churches that make them different and they are not salvation issues. 
For me, I see a large family of Christians who are my family now and I thank God for that.
Diana

Posted anonymously by: Phen

How true. There was a time when even though I had friends outside of my former church, I could not see past them being less than Christian. Now I see these people as people like me for whom Jesus died and there is clearly no male or female, no Jew or Greek,but all one,for real. Since Jesus has made us all one, there is no partition shutting us from each other. Thank you Jesus for that. Saying it is one thing, but putting it into practice is quite another and only the love of Jesus can help us accomplish that."Oh love of God how strong and true.”

Diana and Phen,

Good points. CS Lewis had a great term for what you both are talking about, and it is “Mere Christianity”.

There are many peripheral points of differences, but if we agree on the essentials, then we are all one in Christ Jesus. Worshipping on certain days, abstaining from meats, should not divide true Bible believing Christians.

Stan

Posted anonymously by: Phen

It was always troubling to me that there was such an emphasis in Adventism on the SDA ministers who “converted” to Adventism - drug users, cave dwellers, ex-catholics, ex-jews, current high profile doctors to mention a few.
It was always like a badge of honor so the virtues of the church organization could be promoted. We called them the “giants” in the church and promoted Adventism to the hilt.
I listened to a ministry one day (they walk through the bible every year)and the bible reading was Deut.32:1-4. The speaker talked about leadership. He said there should be “no boasting, no pointing to your own ministry, only to God.” This was the very topic I was planning to mention here on the forum.
Yes, Paul had to defend himself when he was imprisoned “for the testimony of Jesus” but he always preached Jesus. Acts 9:20 says that “straight way he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.” He also said in
1 Cor.1:29-31 and 1 Cor. 2:1,2 “if anyone wants to glory, let him glory in the Lord… I came not to you with excellency of speech or wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God, for I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”
He even said at one time, in other words, you think that I cannot boast too? I will boast but it will be as a fool, and he went on to tell them all the things he could tell them about “fleshy” things. He even talked about the visions he had from God but that too would be foolish if he did not exalt Jesus alone.
Many times we talked about the “giants” in the SDA church, but we forget what happened to the giants of flesh, one met a man called David.
Welcome back Stan.