Thank you Twn Heretic, for addressing the issues I razed and not attacking the man. If I speak untrue then defend but I am just as you all, I have opinions, based upon my reading and philosophy of "my" interpretation of the word of God. Yes I can see how easy it is to be way out there, I just have to look at all the differing religious institutions, but you can't knock me for trying. And as for Knight, it was a small thing I said about him. If you look closely I only judged his avatar not the man, later I even clarified it by saying that it Is a small thing because man looks at the outward appearance but God looks at the heart; and that I don't know the man nor his heart. My real issue is with Leaders - Our Christian leaders to be more precise. Go with me for a bit. How many think that Christians are actually to blame for the attack on the twin towers, not the sinful world around? Let me explain. Bible says, sin abounds where there is no love. We are the body of Christ, the greatest comandment and second to it is to love (active love) so who better should know how to love than us? Is it such a stretch to take responsibility for it or was it just some random exo-cosmic blahblahblah. So what does this have to do with our leaders, they are to concerned for numbers, insurance, salaries and bank accounts to tell us little sheep, and the lost, lame and blind the truth - that we are responsible for our every word, action and thought. Sounds pretty dim but no we have a savior, who loves us and gave himself for us that whoever believes on Him should not perish. So inorder to cross over we just need to believe that we are saved. I think that we need to repent, believing that we are saved. They don't teach us that, they are more concerned with finding more ways to charge for getting the gospel out. The lord overturned the tables, not because they weren't allowed to sell offerings, the OT had sanctioned it, He was upset because they were thieves, they were gouging believers and making it hard for the poor and lost to get the gospel freely. I believe people who are in places of leadership or whoever puts themselves in places of prominence, representing the Lord, have a greater responsibility to be spotless.
Town Heretic: that is why I don't listen to secular music, but for the record I said only about 89%. Regardless, there is enough within the confounds of the Christian contemporary world - that glorifies God. Why settle for less.
I also said "legitimately" gives the appearance of evil to do wrong, sneering nor all the other trivialities would not be worth my time denunciating, you will have to give me a little bit more credit.
No I don't imagine anyone is still nieve enough to offer meat to idols nor even fall down and worship stone carvings, that was a sort of parable to say that if my brother conceives a thing to be a struggle then I should be concerned enough about him to cease and desist, simply for his sake, providing it is not "sneering". It is like war - is my freedom worth all the souls that we have to kill, and send to hell, to have it? No, I can suffer a little bit of communism or tyranny for a mere 80 yrs if it might possibly mean that no one gets killed, they see my love and sacrifice for them and accept Christ. The sufferings of this lifetime are nothing compared to the rewards Christ has stored up for us in eternity.
I do believe we are not our own, we are bought with a price, this is the temple of the Holy Spirit and cigars (among other things) do hurt the temporal but "it is not what enters into a man that defiles a man but what comes out of a man because it proceeds forth from the heart. I think the real concern is for the eternal, and the eternal is our love and concern for one another. Which obligates a brother to rebuke the wise and brothers so that they have life and that we don't give the world reason to laugh at God.