There are only gospels to the UN-stable and those who pervert God's word.
They tend to defend rather than explain sometimes, but you are missing an important piece: They only believe in one gospel today. Rather, two-gospels is how they divide dispensations in scripture. They only believe there is one gospel to day.
lol, John 3:16 does not have a lot of wiggle room even for MADness.
I'm not MAD, but I've discovered you have to ask first, throw down a gauntlet later. Their dispensationalism actually makes better sense to me than the majority of dispensationalism.
That is a perfect description of MAD. they wander back and forth between Paul and Jesus, but sadly Jesus always gets relegated to subservience to Paul in their MADness.
I'm not MAD but they are very consistent in their theology. They do follow Christ. Following Paul is following Christ. There is no conflict per say for them.
You will in no wise enter into the kingdom of God without a child like faith.God said it, I believe it, and that settles it for me.
I think it is important to realize they believe you are reading somebody else's mail with that. They do not despise or reject anything the Lord Jesus Christ says, they rather run it through a filter first to ensure they are actually being consistent (obedient) to the gospel.
I follow the RISEN and ASCENDED LORD Jesus Christ, just like Paul did.
This is the sticky part. Some of them will believe you cannot be saved, but most will rather question you further to discern that. They believe the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'd suggest this part of the conversation is about Lordship and works based salvation vs. grace based salvation. With them, I've memorized Ephesians 2:8-10. It'll help conversing with MAD to memorize that verse. A lot of conversations with them turn around belief in it.
Nope that would be MADness that does that. I stay with what Jesus and the Apostles taught. I do not have a preferred Apostle to make Jesus subservient to that is uniquely Roman Catholics and MADness.
Interestingly, they are the only ones that read Hebrews the same way I do. That alone got me listening a bit more and speaking a bit less. You are not the only one that sees MAD and/or HyperDispensationalism this way, but I think most of it is because the structure of categorizing their systematic theology is so foreign to the rest.
I guess I'm saying give them a bit more of a listen so you can more effectively discuss these with them. I'm not MAD. I'm just saying I appreciate where I agree with them and when it comes to the gospel, think they understand salvation by Grace alone.
YOU cannot find ONE verse where any Apostle ever said do not follow another Apostle about their teaching of the Gospel. You made that up and I believe that is called a LIE.
Not a lie, they are embracing Paul's message and embracing his opposition to Peter over Judaizing. Even if you never buy into their understanding, understanding them is good for reflecting on your own theology. I've appreciated the bible more simply by reading a good many of these threads.
Because the lot did not fall on Paul when Judas was being replaced.
They have a good answer for this too. In addition to Hebrews, I agree with them on this too (and a good many other points).
Food for thought and hopefully contemplation. -Lon