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Sword of the Lord


John81

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When I first found Online Baptist I was unfavorably impressed at the amount of folks that read, listened to and watched ministries that were outside of their own local church. I think I made a few posts to that effect.

To this day I continue to wonder......why? We have local churches for a reason, they are to edify, teach, comfort and build up God's people and reach out to a lost world.

There is a very real danger in exposing ourselves to teaching outside of our church. Scripture tells us that the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. This precludes the truth being found outside of the church that Jesus built. God puts us in our local church because that is the best place for us; it is here that we learn, grow and serve our Lord.

When we expose ourselves to outside influences that have the ability to work against the teaching of our local churches, we weaken the ministry of our church and open ourselves to possibly dangerous teaching. Within our churches we have control over what is being taught and by whom. There is real value in associating ourselves with like minded brethren. Conversely there is a real danger, especially for new Christians, of exposing ourselves to questionable teaching and preaching from outside of our church.

Ask yourself this: would you call a man to pastor your church that you had no idea about concerning his beliefs and practices? Of course this question is ridiculous, but then this is exactly what we do when we allow ourselves to be exposed to all the different teaching, even among IFB's.

A perfect example of what I am talking about is what we see going on here at OB, with some who claim to be IFB and yet have exposed themselves to so much that is not fundamental, or even Baptist that they become almost heretical.

 2Th 2:15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

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On 2/25/2016 at 1:54 AM, Critical Mass said:

Hey, why don't you get yourself a subscription to Peter Ruckman's Bible Baptist Bulletin. You might get off the baby bottle.

Be gone you foolish heathen and enemy of Christ!

"For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, [even] his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified [him] not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools," - Romans 1:20-22

Edited by swathdiver
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6 hours ago, Jim_Alaska said:

When I first found Online Baptist I was unfavorably impressed at the amount of folks that read, listened to and watched ministries that were outside of their own local church. I think I made a few posts to that effect.

To this day I continue to wonder......why? We have local churches for a reason, they are to edify, teach, comfort and build up God's people and reach out to a lost world.

There is a very real danger in exposing ourselves to teaching outside of our church. Scripture tells us that the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. This precludes the truth being found outside of the church that Jesus built. God puts us in our local church because that is the best place for us; it is here that we learn, grow and serve our Lord.

When we expose ourselves to outside influences that have the ability to work against the teaching of our local churches, we weaken the ministry of our church and open ourselves to possibly dangerous teaching. Within our churches we have control over what is being taught and by whom. There is real value in associating ourselves with like minded brethren. Conversely there is a real danger, especially for new Christians, of exposing ourselves to questionable teaching and preaching from outside of our church.

Ask yourself this: would you call a man to pastor your church that you had no idea about concerning his beliefs and practices? Of course this question is ridiculous, but then this is exactly what we do when we allow ourselves to be exposed to all the different teaching, even among IFB's.

A perfect example of what I am talking about is what we see going on here at OB, with some who claim to be IFB and yet have exposed themselves to so much that is not fundamental, or even Baptist that they become almost heretical.

 2Th 2:15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

And yet, you agree with "outside sources" here on OB?  LoL

Edited by Standing Firm In Christ
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Oh, my goodness! This is what the argument of the month is now? Seriously?

Here's my take:

You answer for what comes into your home. If God has shown you that you ought not have the Sword, then you ought not have it. I am in agreement that there is sometimes stuff in there that ought not be, and that the paper is nothing like it was when the Rices edited it. The paper has reflected the changing thoughts in the IFB

That said, there is still some benefit to it. So if someone doesn't want it, accept that without making a federal case out of it. Discuss why you like it, fine. But don't try to make the case that the person who doesn't is just nit-picking. The truth of the matter is that as Christians today we don't nit-pick enough. If someone likes the paper, fine. Discuss why you don't without charging the person who does with crimes against Christianity (slight exaggeration there).

There are some pastors who encourage their people to read the Sword. There are some pastors who do not, but they do encourage folks to read O Timothy. There are even pastors who encourage their folks to read Revival Fires. And there are other publications that pastors like, too. If you're concerned about it, you could ask your pastor what he recommends. (FWIW, Revival Fires is an evangelistic paper. It is designed primarily to encourage people in their soulwinning efforts. I have not seen the paper in years, so I don't know what's being published, but I know Dennis personally and know that his burden has been souls from the get-go. That doesn't mean someone has to read the paper, though.)

But here's my issue.

John began a thread with a genuine concern that he has about a paper that he's read for years. Some agreement, some disagreement. But it's not the agreement or disagreement I think is the problem. It's the WAY it's been presented. For pities' sake - are we not adults? Can we not have a differing opinion about a NEWSPAPER without being charged with being hypocritical? Alan, I get that you like the Sword, and that's fine. But it's just not true that someone who doesn't want to pay to receive the Sword because of its content is a hypocrite if they come here to OB. (for no other fact that nobody pays to be on OB, for just one thing). Rather than going on the attack, would it not have been better to say hey, I like the paper - could you give specific examples of what you don't like about it. FWIW, this repentance issue may not have affected you or folks you know, but it most certainly has had an effect on churches. I've seen it and heard it personally. It's a serious danger that needs to be taken seriously, not dismissed because it hasn't affected one personally. And, apparently Cloud isn't so harsh that his paper isn't widely read even amongst folks here...

(Edited to add: the above paragraph is not an attack on or endorsement of anyone...and it is not an open window to pile on anyone, either. Sad that I feel the need to add that.)

I also agree with Jim, to a certain extent. Too many people go outside their churches for their doctrinal teaching. That can be dangerous. This is where discernment needs to come in. God's Word teaches us that we are to be careful of what we allow into our lives via our eyes, ears, etc. 

We  no longer get the Sword. We had it for years (in fact, we still have several of the first issues published). And we enjoyed it. After not receiving it for a good while, a friend got us a subscription. We enjoyed that, as well. We did notice that there were things that ought not be in a biblical publication. But we continued to read the good stuff. When the subscription ended, we opted not to renew it because we didn't want to add that expense to our budget.

We no longer get Revival Fires. As I said, I know Dennis personally (For a short time before he went into evangelism, he pastored the church my folks went to, and I worked for the evangelist he worked for. His wife and I were good friends, too.) and I know that he loves souls. However, there were reasons we quit getting the paper.

We have never subscribed to O Timothy simply because we haven't. We've read many of the issues, and we do like Bro. Cloud (we also know him personally).

We no longer get BBB. There are biblical reasons for that. 'Nuff said.

There are other papers that we used to get that we no longer do. For a variety of reasons.

People choose what comes into their homes. If their choice doesn't line up with yours, great! Discuss why. We all purport to love the Lord. Can we not have ONE conversation without snide, stupid, belittling remarks, defensive attacks, etc.?

 

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