Today, reply centers on agreement of essential doctrine and teachings in the church with a believer’s personal expression of faith. There are many Christian believers who dismiss instruction, study of the Bible, church history and policy in favor of their own heartfelt experiences and sacred discoveries. Some do so because they want to deny what they do not understand. Others seek a surrender of the self to GOD by their own immersion in the shared practices and teachings. Doctrine appears through preaching and formal presentations that should articulate, explain and reveal the workings of faith that is a spirit content from the makeup of GOD. Faith is made up only of faith, and is inseparable from other aspects of divinity such as forbearance, forgiveness, holiness, joy, longsuffering, loving-kindness, meekness, righteousness, wisdom, and wrath against sin. Faith should acknowledge and initiate practical expressions of doctrine and teachings that make visible the active presence who is GOD. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of GOD,” thus, faith is built upon doctrine that provides order and structure for cooperative interaction. The correctness, fullness and perfection of doctrine are to be sought as a necessary focus and exercise of faith. One of the fighters at “Yahoo! Answers” using the ID “anonymous” (Level 2 with 306 points, a member since December 27, 2016) posted the following:
Must I believe that the Holy Ghost impregnated Mary to be a Christian?
THE GOLDEN ARROW: Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.) For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. (Philippians 3: 13-21, King James Version, KJV)
THE DOUBLE DAGGER: Obstacles To Developing Believers (07/24/2017); Operations of Christian Faith (04/28/2017); Benefits of the Rosary (02/14/2017); The Mother of GOD? (12/09/2016); Can A Church Not Be “Religious”? (07/27/2016); Sadducees and The Cross? (03/13/2016); Is Mary A Goddess? (08/25/2015)
“anonymous”, prophecy is a process of GOD that relies on spirit. The wholeness of sacred truth that declares the Creation of heaven and earth by GOD requires acknowledgement of spirit (we say, breath, life essence, word) that can not be apprehended relying on finite intellect, logic, and carnal reason. It is important for Christian believers to understand the Incarnation of GOD as one of the many sacred operations whereby the fullness of divinity is being made knowable, known, “visible”, and accessible to all created beings and living creatures.
The divine fullness (we say, the three persons of the GODhead, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is a single Deity who has put forth all that exists, all that live, and the settings for their continued duration. To communicate, exchange and interact with GOD do require elements and features that are flesh and blood, material, secular and social, yet, to fully comprehend divinity is impossible without the elements and features put forth as spirit content from the makeup of GOD. In addition to authority, power, and sovereign will are such divine provisions as covenant relationship, election, sacred law, miracles, prayer, priesthood, divine promise, repentance, sacraments, and sacred knowledge.
Sinners are to become developing believers who are gradually built up and transformed to exist as companions to immortal, incorruptible divinity. The same oneness without sameness appearing within the GODhead should be seen in assemblies and communities of faith. There may be great diversity; and only occasionally will all display the same level of commitment, knowledge, maturity, or zeal. Believers are called into dependency and self-government under the dominion of Christ that sometimes is mistakenly called “free will.” All are to be grounded and operate on the basis of their own endowment of faith. Where the imparted spirit from GOD is the primary endowment for unity, the secondary mechanism for accord and agreement is the fixed, unchanging doctrines and teachings from GOD.
There is far more to be said and correctly examined in order to gain the blessings to be had through the full fabric of Christian belief. (For example, the birth of Jesus Christ pertains to eternal purposes of GOD, the suspension of time and space as obstacles to the action and movement of divine spirit, the fulfillment of sacred promises, the restoration of prophecy, and the completion of things begun before the foundation of the world, and are not merely a matter of human appetites, sexual excitement, and animal reproduction. Yes, all Christians should acknowledge that, through operations of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is the child that would be given birth through Mary.) Even so, I trust this fragment will be useful. Be it unto you according to your faith.
THE BLACK PHOENIX
Washington, DC
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