There was a company called Greatcomm who specialised in selling their product. Their product was the best and could change the world if everyone bought it. Sales were slipping and had been for a while so the CEO decided to try a couple of different things.
The first thing he did was change the product. This ended badly because the older product was far superior.
Then he tried to employ people to do all the work that the other employees should have been doing.
Then he decided to get motivational speakers to come and speak. Which sounds like a good idea, but after a while they fell away from the good product and started trying to sell the additional steak knives instead.
He would put on confrences and get togethers in a hope for people to find their purpose of selling this product and being part of this great company. But the confences liked the steak knives more than the real product. Even though the steak knives go perfectly with the real product, and there is nothing wrong with the steak knives in fact they are great, the main product stopped being sold.
Eventually the company went broke and moved into selling steak knives instead of the whole package...
Monday, November 17, 2008
Greatcomm
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6 comments:
The great commission included a command to make disciples of all nations and baptise them.
Do you notice the Salvos do not follow the baptism clause? Rather, they wriggle their way out of it with a surprisingly liberal interpretation of the meaning of baptism.
A touch of liberal theology when it suits. But not when it comes to belief in eternal torture in Hell.
Looking at this further, the Greate Commission involves the propagation of the "Good News". But is it really good news, if 99.9999% of people are going to Hell?
Be realistic, the church is not going to catch the vast majority of people before they die into endless punishment. Get all excited on and fire for God as much as you can, you ain't gonna save that many people.
It's not good news at all. It's horrible news: accept Jesus or else. How can I enjoy eternity knowing that untold billions are suffering? Maybe people in Heaven whilst they are pissing on the denizens of hell, can laugh at them with a cruel reminder of "that'll learn ya for not accepting Jesus into your heart".
1) Our doctrine of baptism is sound and backed up by scripture. Head into the training college and have a look at some of the books on that subject for further clarification
2) Our doctrine suits the wesleyan holiness example, we actually put into practice our theology which isnt so different to others (next to no one says that you need baptism or you go to hell)
3) Not good news? If I have the cure for AIDS is that good news? Yes it is. But its not good news if you reject it. It doesn't make thr cure any less good though
4) the way I deal with the burden of people going to hell is that I try to tell people how good God is, urge them to be saved, and pray for them.
5) maybe your needs would be better suited on an appologetics website. Im here to blog on mission and holiness, whilst i do enjoy a bit of appologetics here and there and certainly in my ministry, I cannot afford the time on this blog to do that... If however you wanted to hang out with me either where I work or live then I am more than happy to do so!
James,
When it comes to the doctrine of baptism there are real problematic exegetical issues that have arisen out the Army's distinctive interpretations of text that have to do with baptism. When one speaks about interpreting the biblical text according to a certain tradition, one has really made certain assumptions about what should have priority in interpretation - namely the tradition rather than the Scripture itself. Thus every theological system has certain key ideas that are essential to the system, so essential that without them the system would collapse. The Army's position on the scaraments in general and baptism in particular fit into this. Thus the real exegetical weakness in the system comes in its attempt at distinctives. It is at this point of distinctives that we are the most vulnerable exegetically. GG
I agree that when we start in tradition it colours what we're going to believe... I wont go into it now but I really believe the salvos theology of baptism is extremely strong. Same with the sacraments... Stay tuned, i'll post it in the next few days... then let me know what you think... thanks for the comments!
Looking forward to you defence of TSA's position. Please don't fall for the spiritualisation of texts or using a translation that suits your case. Only sound exegetics will do.
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