Email quoted:
Hello XXXXX, and thanx for your email. This is Alias Svensson. I'll
write some of my thoughts your email brought to me. I hope you
understand my english, it isn't always perfect I guess. (Don't know if I
ever said it, but I live in Gothenburg, Sweden).
> I enjoyed our conversation on Friday. I
>think we see the main thing is, Jesus is the way, the only way. Sure,
>all demoninations have their rules and regulations, and all have
various
>ways of using their doctrines to interpret the scriptures. I think
>that's where we differ, our hearts are in the right place, we just
>verbalize differently.
>
Well I agree that Jesus Christ is the way and that what he has done for us is the main thing in the Scripture. The "overall message" in the Bible is "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (Joh. 3:16). This is the saving message to us, and everone trusting in Gods grace, this gift of God, has what the Word promise: forgiveness, eternal life & a loving Father in heaven. Everyone trusting in Jesus Christ (who is both God & man) must be a christian, because Jesus Christ bought us free from all judgment & punishment.
Still, there are great differences between different denominations & churches. They have different teachings, beliefs and confessions. There is a great SPLIT UP in christianity today, and it has been for several hundreds of years. False teachings, human thoughts comes in the way often. Even if people read the Scripture and believe in God they can think "Can this & that posssibly be true?", "Did God really create everything in 6 days" etc. That is human thoughts. Gods own Word is clear, and the Scripture says God cannot lie. Human may think wrong, understand wrong, interpret wrong, but God is clear, and his word is true.
XXXXX, i do think we should take all kinds of heresy and non-biblical thoughts seriously. The scripture says we shouldn't be with false teachers. I think we should take the word and follow the word, not follow people, not what people like and prefer, just what God say to us in his word. There are different churches & denominations because not all people accept all Gods word, they specualte by their own, they understand the Word wrong, they don't want to listen etc.
I think there are some great differences between different denominations. I would like it NOT to be, but I must say, there are some big differences. Baptism is one thing. Baptists, lutherans & catholics have a very different understanding of baptism. I'm a lutheran myself. Lutherans do not say "Baptism is just a symbol" like baptists do. I gave you some verses explaining this. Lutherans don't say "You have to be a grown up person to be baptized", "children cannot believe", "there or no orginal sin", "baptism is something you do as a christian, showing others what you believe". Do you know what the differtent is between Law and Gospel? Law is something you do, good deeds, well, any kind of action (even in mind). We see baptism as Gospel, not Law, not something you do (for God, or yourself, or other persons). We see it as Gospel, something you receive, just grace, not law. The Scripture says baptism takes away our sin, clean us from sin, gives us forgiveness and holy spirit. We believe that.
Yesterday I got a magazine from a sister-church of the one I visit. (I visit LBK "Lutherska Bekännelsekyrkan" (enlish: "Lutheran Confessional Church" - the sister-church in america is W.E.L.S. Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod). The Magazine is called "Northwestern Lutheran". In an article John F. Brug writes about "Church Fellowship". He writes:
"Christians are joined together into one body regardless of their sex, age, wealth, or nationality. Whether male or female, young or old, rich or poor, white or black, Lutheran, Baptist, or Catholic, all who believe in Jesus as their Savior from sin are members of one family, the holy Christian church. How wonderful to know that there is "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all" (Ephesians 4:5,6). All believers are joined in the fellowship of saving faith."
This is important. Jesus Christ is our savior, not the church I go to, not the denomination, not something I've done by myself etc. But we should be careful because of all non-biblical thoughts (put above Gods word), all heresy & split. Myself, I'm convinced that the catholic teachings about how to be saved is not biblical & wrong (they do not seperate Law & Gospel correct), I'm also convinced that baptists have false teachings concerning baptism because they think baptism is just a symbol, they do not accept what the Scriture says about this. There are other things too baptists believe that I do not accept (they don't accept orginal sin etc.) I grew up in a baptist family so these things aren't that easy for me. My parents are still baptists, and I tend to fall back in some baptist thinking sometimes, though I'm a convinced lutheran today. Jesus is our savior and we cannot save ourselves in any way. You don't make your salvation, you receive it - and you find it in Gods word (and the sacraments. There is promises connected to baptism too, Mark. 16:16, Acts 2:38-39, Acts 22:16 etc). The word may be enough for a person to be saved, that man who hanged beside Jesus weren't baptized I guess, and he was saved because he believed. The word contains ALL what God has given to us through his Son, not only a part of it. Same with baptism. And lutherans believe you have to believe to be saved, baptism without faith is nothing, and they believe baptism makes you born again (John. 3:5, Tit. 3:5), baptism makes you believe, so they baptize children convinced they recieve salvation through baptism.
That article.. John F. Brug writes: "Still, we must also learn how to recognize and avoid dangers to the true unity of the church. How can we identify those Christians with whom we may safely practice fellowship? Since we cannot judge the faith in a person's heart, we must base our outward fellowship with another Christian on how that person's confession agrees with biblical doctrine. Although church fellowship is defined as "working together", not every sort of working together is God-pleasing church fellowship. John defines God-pleasing fellowship as "working together for the truth". We, therefore, cannot work or worship together with anyone who departs from the true teachings of Scripture or who persists in sin. ///and Brug quotes 2 John 9-11, 2 Cor 13:8/// For this reason the WELS belief is that Christians should not worship, pray, or join any spiritual work with people who promote or support false teaching." (Northwestern Lutheran, sept 1997, p.30-31).
If you wanna know more about what I believe (and WELS too), take a
look at http://users.aol.com/gr8xchange/twb/eng_home.html
-- it's a
brief explaination of WELS belief.. "This We Believe". You can read about
different things, such as creation, the scripture, baptism, the church,
salvation etc. I agree to these things.
>I was hoping to further the discussion on Satan a and his ways. If you
>still want to talk, please reply. It's much easier for me to respond
>thru e-mail than it is on the chat boards. Too much internet would be
>noticed around here, if you know what I mean.
Well what do you mean? :) Ok, write to me about your thoughts!
>
>One of these days, when I get my husband to understand that he wants a
>computer at home (he's almost there), I'll be able to talk more freely.
>
>Hope you had a good weekend. I'm really looking forward to this coming
>weekend. My oldest son (15) is getting baptized.
>
>Talk to you later.
>
>XXXXX
>
Thanx for you email.
Alias Svensson