People Standing Firm In Christ?

[Covenanter]

1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 

 

The Bible is not crystal clear on some things but it definitely is all truth and quoting scripture never stirs the pot.....

 

I'd like to respond to the OP seriously - while I have been accused of heresy, I believe I am accepted on this forum as a true believer, even if my views on eschatology are at variance with some of you. 

 

No, I do not claim to be 100% right, nor to have 100% understanding, nor 100% sanctification. I do claim, in Christ, & by the Holy Spirit, to have 100% justification & 100% eternal security. I also believe that my teaching is substantially in accord with Scripture.

 

Can I claim 100% in accord with Scripture? If I thought any of my teaching were contrary to Scripture, I would change it. But, there are aspects of my teaching that I am not 100% sure of, but on balance I believe to be true & Scriptural, & edifying for me & my hearers.

 

Prophecy is an obvious area where true believers can profoundly disagree; also the significance of modern Israel, the age, spiritual condition of those to be baptised (we profoundly disagree with the KJV translators), & also the amount of water to be used - immersion or sprinkling. Tithing is another area, paid ministry, music & hymns & Psalms or Psalms only.

 

In some of these areas. quoting Scripture does "stir the pot." For instance quoting the baptism of Cornelius & friends leads to the understanding that baptism should be indicative of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, therefore with water from above - sprinkling, whereas quoting Romans 6 leads to immersion as the understanding. Is there room for disagreement? If a person on his deathbed, or in the Arctic or the Arabian desert seeks baptism, do we allow sprinkling? Or if a mature Christian who  bel;ieves the KJV comes to us from a Congregational church, having been baptised as a baby (justified by the analogy with circumcision), or baptised as a believer by sprinkling (Heb. 9:10, 1 Peter 1:2), do we refuse them membership. Do we reject the hymns of Watts & Wesley as the poetry of unbaptised pretending Christians?

 

I am not trying to "stir the pot" but to direct the thread constructively.

 

Jude makes it clear that there are doctrines we MUST stand firm on:

³ Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. ⁴ For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Any ideas - on topic?

[candlelight]

Don't worry about it Covenanter.  I was accused of being a Pharisee, last week.  At first I was shocked, as that has never crossed my mind.  Then, I got over it.  Don't take it to heart, brother.