On the omniscience of God

[VladtheDestroyer]

This is not an attack. I am certain that the people who are most involved with this forum have likely been put up to sacrifice more and have dedicated themselves more and have a better understanding of most things than I have. Actually I am not only certain of this, I know that it this a fact.

 

[JudgeRightly]

No one has the right to charge people to teach them God's word.

You seem to be missing the thrust of my argument:

People do not have the right to any service that someone else provides. That's theft.

The only exception is if they offer that service for free. And even then, you still don't have a right to it.

As you said, if someone doesn't want to pay someone to have them teach them the Bible, they don't have to take such a class.

But if someone is offering such a class, and they charge you for their time teaching it, you don't have the right to refuse to pay for their provided service. You have the option of not using their service, of course. But should you decide to use it, you are obligated to pay for it if they require payment for their services.

In a nutshell: you don't have the right to their life.

Bob Enyart never "charged" people for any of his material! He always made it clear that if you didn't have the money, he would just send it to you for what ever you could give.

Bob Enyart Live

science, philosophy, theology, morality, criminal justice, the Bible, apologetics

store.kgov.com

You cannot find most of the products available there for free elsewhere.

And the latter still isn't "for free."

And he did not want to build an institution! He was against that! He taught that institutions will become increasingly wicked over time!

He made the decision that his ministry would be dissolved, dismantled, after three generations as a result. A wise decision, if sad.

 

[VladtheDestroyer]

The only exception is if they offer that service for free. And even then, you still don't have a right to it.

That's a good point. But even though I might be wrong about some of the things I am saying, there is still something that frustrates me about your last post. Even if I cannot explain why.

 

[JudgeRightly]

your last post

#1079?

 

[VladtheDestroyer]

#1079?

Yes

To part of me it seems you are playing too much by "their" rules and not considering the power of God.

 

[VladtheDestroyer]

I think institutions take power away from Christianity. In the west we build Christian institutions to teach people to fight against other western Christian institutions. While Christians are slaughtered elsewhere in the world.

 

[VladtheDestroyer]

While we were busy trying to figure out how many thousands of dollars someone should pay to study the Bible, this baby was getting whacked in the head with a machette by people who came to slaughter Christians in Nigeria. This was on Christmas of last year. Yes. Christmas.

 

[Clete]

This is such a great point that others are also beginning to raise. Why are Christian colleges charging people $40,000 to study the Bible when they can study it themselves for free at home?

Being self taught usually doesn't hold a candle to getting a good education, regardless of the field of study. Theology is no exception. The trick, however, is finding a school that is teaching good theology.

We don't need institutions.

I disagree. There is great value in standing on the shoulders of giants. There is great value in studying under talented teachers who have spent the time to not only learn the material in depth but have spent a great deal of time and effort in figuring out a systematic method of both understanding God's word but also of teaching it. Good doctrine is built precept upon precept and it's a great help if you find yourself learning from people who have already gone through the process of figuring out which precepts to start with and in what order they are best presented and learned.

We are doing it all wrong. There are over 2 billion people in this world who claim Jesus as their savior. We need a network. Paul didn't build an institution. He built a network. That's why he was traveling all the time. It's time to end all institutions and build this network again.

What are schools if not major nodes in a network? People don't generally choose a seminary to attend at random. They choose them based on whatever flavor of Christianity is taught at that school. The schools are just outgrowths of churches of various denominations, right? Some Presbyterian evangelists comes to Princeton, New Jersey and plants a church which grows and grows and a few dozen years later the Presbyterian Church founds Princeton Theological Seminary.

So which of the institutions do you get rid of? The denomination, the seminary which they founded, the local church with thousands of members that wouldn't exist if not for the denomination, the church on the corner with three hundred members that wouldn't exist without first having been the tiny house church with a dozen members that was start by the one Calvinist guy that came across the pond from Germany after the revolutionary war ended?

The point there being that growing into large institutions is the nature of such networks.

 

[Clete]

God is more powerful than the government.

No one has the right to charge people to teach them God's word. God's word is strong enough so that those who teach it will be sustained. The Holy Spirit will move people to sustain it. Paul and the early Christians were not sustained by miracles. They were sustained by the charity inspired by teaching God's word. Nothing has changed since then.

How do you think the people who teach the Bible in places like China or countries in Africa are sustained? Where Christians can be slaughtered and imprisoned by default. If anything, we should be paying $40,000 to learn the Bible from them. Not from people who are guaranteed to live comfortably in their modern homes in Arizona for the rest of their lives. Bob Enyart never "charged" people for any of his material! He always made it clear that if you didn't have the money, he would just send it to you for what ever you could give. He wasn't a great business man! He was a great teacher of the Bible! And he did not want to build an institution! He was against that! He taught that institutions will become increasingly wicked over time!

Most international missionaries have attended a seminary and are financed by churches that believe they are qualified to be missionaries because they attended that seminary - for good reason.

 

[Right Divider]

Being self taught usually doesn't hold a candle to getting a good education, regardless of the field of study. Theology is no exception. The trick, however, is finding a school that is teaching good theology.

And there lies the problem...

Most of the schools of Theology teach Churchianity instead of Biblical Christianity.