18 This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may fight the good fight, 19 keeping faith and a good conscience, which some, having rejected, suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. 20 Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme. 1 Timothy 1:18-20 (LSB)
I had an aside conversation for several days a few years ago via email with a person claiming that he wasn’t emergent. However he continually proclaimed their teachings while trying to cast doubt about what I proclaim as the pure unadulterated doctrine from the Word of God. His point that he kept trying to pound into me was that it wrong for me to be associated with the Christian Research Network. Why? He kept trying to show me how divisive everyone one at CRN was and that I shouldn’t associate with them.
His point of contention was that the posts and comments from the writers and researchers at CRN were causing disunity in the Body of Christ. My counterpoint to all of his arguments was that it was wrong to compromise the truth for the sake of unity. I suppose it finally became obvious that I would not budge from my stand on the truth being the truth because he finally stopped emailing me. Then I posted What my Obedience to God Costs Other People. That resulted in a few days of conflict with several other people who also claimed not to be emergent, all the while proclaiming emergent teachings. They were determined to get me to back off of my position on the truth that genuine Christians are those who are called to obey God in all things. Then I heard from the one that initially contacted me. He claimed that I was a lost cause. He repented of wasting his time with me and trying to get me to change.<Continue reading post>