I’m afraid you are so wrong about leaning on your ‘so wrong’ statement. It doesn’t say anything. Now I left a lot to chew on, is this the best you can do.I am afraid you are so wrong in leaning on your own understanding. Peace, Carlan
Tell me how to get more specific than **tongues of fire **as part of the coming of the Spirit. I don’t understand what you don’t understand. It is a physical sign of the spiritual reality.You leave a lot to the imagination with open-ended generic statements like that. If you want to get specific then we will both know which way to go with the discussion. Thanks
In Christ,
Blackie
Did you read my post where I was talking about misguided religion trying to codify a move of the Spirit. Do you understand that. Your ‘sign’ misses the point. Let me give you an example. When a person is born again, regenerated, that is done by the Holy Spirit converting the heart of a sinner into the heart of a believer. That is an unseen action of the Holy Spirit in the heart of people. Then he comes religion and they are going to formerlize, ceremonialize, ritualize, and codify a supernatural, spontaneous move of the Spirit and put that into some kind of definitive code that works like a machine anytime the formula is invoked. The Catholic Church attempts to codify regeneration into the structural mode of water baptism, which is called baptismal regeneration and is contrary to the scriptural understanding of regeneration. Now, give me a break. When the Holy Spirit regenerates a man and converts him from a sinner to a Christian, that happens independently and apart from water baptism, it doesn’t happen when one is baptized. To propose such non-sense is to fundamentally misunderstand how the dynamics of spiritual transactions and realities work and are executed in believers. You can’t codify the New Birth, that is a spiritual experience executed and transacted exclusively by the Spirit. Water baptism does not regenerate, but it does symbolically represent externally what has already been transacted internally in the New Birth.Tell me how to get more specific than **tongues of fire **as part of the coming of the Spirit. I don’t understand what you don’t understand. It is a physical sign of the spiritual reality.
I read your post which is why I replied. I think you are getting down into semantics by saying religion lacks relationship. That is saying something like marriage lacks relationship. This is the kind of conversation that leads no where. My contention is that sign and symbol are intertwined and symbol reflects a reality that is of a relationship of Christ and His Spirit.Did you read my post where I was talking about misguided religion trying to codify a move of the Spirit. Do you understand that. Your ‘sign’ misses the point. Let me give you an example. When a person is born again, regenerated, that is done by the Holy Spirit converting the heart of a sinner into the heart of a believer. That is an unseen action of the Holy Spirit in the heart of people. Then he comes religion and they are going to formerlize, ceremonialize, ritualize, and codify a supernatural, spontaneous move of the Spirit and put that into some kind of definitive code that works like a machine anytime the formula is invoked. The Catholic Church attempts to codify regeneration into the structural mode of water baptism, which is called baptismal regeneration and is contrary to the scriptural understanding of regeneration. Now, give me a break. When the Holy Spirit regenerates a man and converts him from a sinner to a Christian, that happens independently and apart from water baptism, it doesn’t happen when one is baptized. To propose such non-sense is to fundamentally misunderstand how the dynamics of spiritual transactions and realities work and are executed in believers. You can’t codify the New Birth, that is a spiritual experience executed and transacted exclusively by the Spirit. Water baptism does not regenerate, but it does symbolically represent externally what has already been transacted internally in the New Birth.
So, I’m not talking about external signs, I’m talking about religion taking spiritual realities and attempting to foolishly codify them into some cold, stiff, dry ceremony where nothing is transacted in reality. Christianity is not a religion, why not? Because religion lacks relationship, which is what constitutes authentic Christianity.
In Christ,
Blackie