Introduction
Ever notice how seldom conversation gets beyond the weather or maybe who'll win the game next Sunday? Wouldn't it be great to get more upfront and personal sometimes? That's my hope for this website--to provide a forum for an honest exchange of thoughts about spiritual matters.
It ain't easy. We tend to refrain from expressing our convictions or asking spiritual questions, even to folks we know pretty well? If you're like me, you know getting personal can be risky. Better to keep quiet than maybe being misunderstood or embarrassed.
Do you find this can be a problem even in church circles where we are supposedly seeking truth?
Preaching has its place as do Bible studies, but how welcome a little more give and take might be! So often we have little opportunity to voice our own convictions, questions and comments.
This blog offers you a solution. You can freely respond by it or email to any of the articles on this web and thoughtfully express your views incognito or whatever. The opportunity exists to develop either limited or extensive dialog on spiritual issues.
I'm a writer, not a talker. Writing makes it so much easier to thoughtfully and carefully express ourselves in full. The reader, too, gains advantage, able to evaluate what's written, free to agree, disagree, or simply ignore without question or comment. I like that, a whole lot less risk for misunderstanding and dissension.
If there's one thing certain, believers are not always going to agree on every issue. Making scripture alone our sole test for truth can sometimes be a lonely road, but I know no other way to dispel wrong traditions and perceptions that divide the Church. You may consider certain of my writings as controversial, even heretical. Judge for yourself but on the basis of scripture alone, not tradition, please. Surely Christ was not "orthodox" in His day.
May we honestly express ourselves, as we walk together on the way found only in Christ. If you're interested in searching out and discussing spiritual truth, I look forward to your response.
Larry Gibbons
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posted by Larry on February 26th, 2010 at 11:56 PM
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Larry says:
Thanks, David, for your input. It would be a joy to talk with you sometime, as you obviously love God and appreciate your relationship to Christ. I do challenge your remarks about the pre-existence of Christ and his identify with His Father.
Your mention of John 17:5 where Jesus spoke of the glory promised him is addressed in the article Two births or only one? Question: Does the mentioned glory refer to that which Christ enjoyed in the beginning or was it the glory promised to Christ in the future for his work on the Cross?
You quote John 8:58 where Jesus said, before Abraham I am. In searching out the Greek text for the phrase, I am he. it is so translated repeatedly even in John 18:6,8 at Gethsemene when all fell down at his words. Always the translators have added he except in the one instance of John 8:58, which otherwise would point to him as the Messiah. There are certainly other cases of translator bias because of the Trinitarian conception.
Finally, your quotation of The LORD said to my Lord mentioned in Psalm 110:1 and so many other places shows the Lord to be a man. The Greek word adoni translated Lord is never ever used of God but only and always of man. See the article The use and significance of the name Lord God. See also Gods names the key to understanding.
Let me close by remarking on your mention about my saying Jesus having a leg up on us. You interpreted it as meaning he had no sin nature, but true as that is, my point was he had no advantage of being God but was like us in every respect.
I hope some of this may be helpful, and I look forward to a continuing dialog.
May 3rd, 2010 at 6:15 PM