# How would you respond?



## Notthemama1984 (Dec 10, 2009)

I was talking with a fellow classmate about studying the Scriptures harder and was told 



> the Romans wanted power, the greeks loved philosophy, gnostics wanted knowledge and Paul wanted people to know Christ so bad he wished he were cursed that they would know truth, too simple



He then followed this up with


> one can stay in the seminaries and discuss appologetics among each other or do what many neglect, which is to demonstrate our faith by our good deeds toward men



I am running into this type of thinking more and more. As long as you tell people, "Jesus loves you." It really doesn't matter how hard you study.

(oh and what set the stage was me reading a passage of Pink that he felt was too deep for his taste)


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## Herald (Dec 10, 2009)

Ask these people whether God will excuse willfull ignorance of His word from those who preach it. "Let not many of you become teachers my brethren, as you will incur a stricter judgment." Fulfill Paul's command to, "study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman who needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." The student must also remember that what they learn they must live. The two are inexorably linked.


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## Contra_Mundum (Dec 10, 2009)

"Love the Lord your God with all your ... Mind." This is what a disciple is--one who loves the Lord Jesus Christ. Not half-way, not only with the "feelings" or only the "body". The whole man, including the mind that directs the strength, is God's instrument.

If the good news really isn't, but it is "good deeds" instead; and if people just need "good examples" that they think they can imitate; or that folks just need to "follow Jesus" (when most of Jesus "followers" quit on him by about the 1/2 way mark of his ministry, see John 6:66), all I can say is:

people like that don't even know Paul, or Christ; nor are they familar with the gospel, or what a life of dying-to-self is about. They aren't disciples themselves, so how can they make them? Sweeping away the wholly-committed, along with those who are in fact nothing but intellectual dilletantes, is a self-righteous reaction to criticism. Such persons are drunk on the spirit of this present age.


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## PresbyDane (Dec 10, 2009)

Tell them to stop reading Franz of Assissi


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## Notthemama1984 (Dec 10, 2009)

PresbyDane said:


> Tell them to stop reading Franz of Assissi



No worries there. If Pink was too deep, I am sure Franz is as well.


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## Osage Bluestem (Dec 10, 2009)

I think that a lack of interest in the details show a lack of interest in the truth. I would be concerned about the genuine conversion of a person who was not interested in learning about God.

Your friend may have just been in a bad mood or in a more evangelical state of mind at the time as opposed to a theological state of mind.

But if one is consistant in that mindset (that you revealed) then that one is banking on feelings and what they want to hear instead of what is actually true.

God must be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth.

John 4:24 KJV
[24] God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

If one is not striving to know the truth about God and worship him in truth then that one is not following the Word of God.


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## coramdeo (Dec 10, 2009)

One reason I love this board is because y'all challenge me to go deeper to understand your discussions.


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## MMasztal (Dec 10, 2009)

Ditto on Rev Buchanan's post.

The comments sound like the typical emergent babble. To them, the Gospel is about what you can do, eg, feed and clothe the poor and try be like Jesus when we all know the Gospel is primarily about what Jesus did.


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## larryjf (Dec 10, 2009)

One will want to study the Scriptures diligently only if they are in love with Christ.

Those who are not in love with Christ will not have much interest in learning more of His love towards them.


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## Semper Fidelis (Dec 10, 2009)

Tell him that the Apostle Paul disagrees with him, profoundly, and says so clearly in 2 Tim 3-4. He also does not say that the thing of CHIEF importance was _his_ personal life and witness but the testimony of the death and resurrection of Christ (1 Cor 15).


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## BJClark (Dec 10, 2009)

Chaplainintraining;



> one can stay in the seminaries and discuss appologetics among each other or do what many neglect, which is to demonstrate our faith by our good deeds toward men



What good deeds are required, and how many of them must he do? 

will he only give them physical food for the body?? what about nourishment for their soul? Or does he not deem that to be important??

Will he only give them physical water to drink, but not the eternal living water?

Will He only give them physical clothing yet not teach them to be clothed in Christ's righteousness??

How much of their physical needs will he provide for them? and how many will he provide those things for?? There has to be a number so that it can be adequately checked off in that little box of good deeds done... "I did this and this today"..and how can he know if that number is sufficient? And what about the next day..will he provide for the physical needs of the same ppl or different ppl??

and how will he teach Christ and know how to fully do so, if he doesn't even want to study what Christ did??

I'm curious why he's even there, he can do those things without being a preacher..


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## Jack K (Dec 10, 2009)

"How would you respond?" asked the OP.

Well, there's usually a kernel of truth in people's complaints. So while I share your appreciation of the study of God's Word, and I too have little tolerance for the "just be loving" crowd, I think we must acknowledge there have been Bible scholars who are not loving and we don't want to end up like one of those.

So we explain the need to study, yes. But we also take the complaint to heart. We make sure we let our own study transform us, showing that theology IS practical. There's nothing more practical than a deeper knowledge of the truth of the gospel, because by this we grow in love.

So I'd suggest we need more than an explanation. We need to prove the anti-study crowd wrong by how we live. Else they'll never buy our explanation.


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## lynnie (Dec 10, 2009)

I don't think this has anything to do with theology at all. It has to do with a generation that does not want to study anything, period. Talk to any teacher. Kids don't do homework and they don't want to do hard academics, period, whether theology or chemistry or history or whatever. School performance is seriously dropping compared to when I grew up.

They all want to sit in front of videos and TVs and computers and text each other all day, they don't want to read hard books. They want everything in quick bites, not in long intense deep books that require mental effort.

This is a battle that every parent today must fight. Force your kids to read books, and make them do homework.


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