Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Ask God -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Emile Vidrine who wrote (9486)	11/16/1997 6:09:00 PM
From: Cisco	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 39621

Emile, Isn't a Christian's union with Christ the central truth of the whole doctrine of salvation? Didn't Jesus tell Nicodemus that "Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God?" Doesn't Paul write, "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and all were made to drink of one Spirit." Wasn't Paul writing the Christians at Corinth to warn them not to let their desire for special spiritual gifts divide them but to remind them that they were all unified in one Spirit? It seems to me that Paul was emphasizing that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is the initial experience that all Christians share and should not be confused with some special experience or gift. I believe this is where theological word games sometimes divide Christians and destroy fellowships. If one accepts Jesus's and Paul's implications that all Christian are "born" of and "baptized" by the same Spirit but believe that some special gift such as speaking in tongues is required as necessary evidence of that experience, then one must also conclude that anyone who does not experience that gift is therefore not saved. A conclusion that clearly flies in the face of Paul writings to the Christians at Corinth. I believe most leaders who advocate the necessity of the Pentecostal experience have avoided this problem by empahasising it as an additional experience of grace. I have come in faith to agree with Boice when he wrote: "We conclude that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is for all Christians and is the equivalent of our being united to Christ in salvation. Christians are also to be filled with the Holy Spirit, an experience of grace which will express itself in witness to Christ, but there is not a single instance in the New Testament in which any believer is urged to be baptized with the Holy Spirit or even commanded to be, for the simple reason that he cannot be urged to seek something that has already taken place in his life. This baptism of the Holy Spirit or union with Christ is the foundation and basis from which all other personalized spiritual blessings flow." In my past 26 years as a Christian, I have had many friends within the charismatic and non-charismatic Christian communities. I have known several in both communities who I believe were filled with the Spirit and whose lifes bore the fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and selfcontrol). I have also know some in both communities who claimed special gifts but their life rarely showed the fruits of the Spirit. I have come to conclude that "it is not how much of the Holy Spirit the Christian has, but how much of the Christian the Holy Spirit has." (Hobbs) I like your analogy of a Marriage (a union of love involving a harmony of minds, souls, and wills). A union that brings with it new legal responsibilites along with changes in relationships to each other and society. Cisco

To: Emile Vidrine who wrote (9486)	11/17/1997 9:52:00 AM
From: gregor	Respond to of 39621

Dear Emile : Thank you for that anointed response. I read everything you wrote ; let's see if I understood it. May I blend some of my thoughts with all you said; and please correct me if you see any untruth in my reasoning. The actual recording of the marriage license in the Lambs book of life, begins the union between Christ and his church. That marriage whether viewed as corporate or individual is our basis for the union between God and man, it forms the framework of our relationship between God and man and it IS the covenant relationship that we have with God. From the actual act of writing a name in the Lambs book of life, then in actuality we have more than an ENGAGEMENT with Christ. Whereas, an engagement is an act of intention to marry; we have in Christ actually gone a step beyond that, for the marriage certificate, the marriage license has, therefore been given. The legal, binding, agreement we have in Christ is his and our act of resolve to carry out and consumate the marriage. The time between the consumation of the marriage and the actual ceremony is of course that brief time we all have left on this planet, a day or two to God. The revelation that you have given me ,in this, is that we are more than engaged to Christ. Apparently, therefore in biblical times, just as the bridegroom could not see the bride or vice versa once the marriage had been announced, until the return of the bridegroom, and I understand this period of time was usually a year or so; then there must have been some formal arrangement between the two families or two individuals at the time the marriage was announced... Thank you again.....In Christ....gregor