Wednesday, August 17, 2005
DiscipleDave@aol.com
I've been reading DiscipleDave's "book" at http://members.aol.com/discipledave/book/Index.html?f=fs and find he has a narrow view of Christianity, along with some errors. I attempted to send the following to him 3 times but all three attempts were delayed and then failed. Here is the message I sent:
I read some of your postings on "Serious Faith" and then went to your website. You have some interesting ideas. Like most people you pick and choose Bible verses to support your statements, even if they are taken out of context. I guess there is nothing wrong in that as long as you don't lead people astray. Satan, the King of Lies, knows full well that the best lie has elements of truth interlaced within and uses the Bible often to corrupt God's Word.
From your chapter on, "The Righteous" I believe you misquoted Romans. You stated:
"ROMANS 3:17: But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have OBEYED from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. (BIBLE) 18: Being then made free from sin, (GRACE) ye became the servants of righteousness. (NOT SIN)"
Your passage above actually comes from Romans 6:17-18 but is taken out of context. At a minimum it should be quoted from Romans 6:15 through verse 23 on the subject of "Slaves to Righteousness" or better yet you should quote all of chapter 6. Romans 3:17-18 says: (starting at verse 10...)
"As it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes."
Looking at this it appears that the Holy Spirit used the correct verse, through your typing, I.e. Romans 3:17. So there are no righteous people and all continue to sin. Even Paul, in the same letter to the Romans, admitted he continued to sin. Did he truly not accept Jesus as Christ? Romans 7:7-25 speaks about Paul's struggles with sin. Read the entire section but here are verses 14-20:
"We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it."
There is a subtle piece of information that you missed in your dissertation: sin continues to live in me even though my spiritual self has been cleansed. I only recognize it as sin through the law to which I am no longer bound. So are their no righteous people? Of course there are, all of us that belong to the body of Christ through faith in Jesus. Read Romans 3:21-31 on "Righteousness Through Faith."
- TCH
I read some of your postings on "Serious Faith" and then went to your website. You have some interesting ideas. Like most people you pick and choose Bible verses to support your statements, even if they are taken out of context. I guess there is nothing wrong in that as long as you don't lead people astray. Satan, the King of Lies, knows full well that the best lie has elements of truth interlaced within and uses the Bible often to corrupt God's Word.
From your chapter on, "The Righteous" I believe you misquoted Romans. You stated:
"ROMANS 3:17: But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have OBEYED from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. (BIBLE) 18: Being then made free from sin, (GRACE) ye became the servants of righteousness. (NOT SIN)"
Your passage above actually comes from Romans 6:17-18 but is taken out of context. At a minimum it should be quoted from Romans 6:15 through verse 23 on the subject of "Slaves to Righteousness" or better yet you should quote all of chapter 6. Romans 3:17-18 says: (starting at verse 10...)
"As it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes."
Looking at this it appears that the Holy Spirit used the correct verse, through your typing, I.e. Romans 3:17. So there are no righteous people and all continue to sin. Even Paul, in the same letter to the Romans, admitted he continued to sin. Did he truly not accept Jesus as Christ? Romans 7:7-25 speaks about Paul's struggles with sin. Read the entire section but here are verses 14-20:
"We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it."
There is a subtle piece of information that you missed in your dissertation: sin continues to live in me even though my spiritual self has been cleansed. I only recognize it as sin through the law to which I am no longer bound. So are their no righteous people? Of course there are, all of us that belong to the body of Christ through faith in Jesus. Read Romans 3:21-31 on "Righteousness Through Faith."
- TCH
