New forum additions!

Romanos

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Hi all,

Even though this was noted in the Site Updates Log, this topic will explain how these forums will work. The first forum addition is the addition of the Charismatic section within the Denominational Discussion category.

The second and more major addition is the addition of the respective Male/Female forums. The temporary method to gain access will be to post within the Member/Admin Center to request access to the respective forum for your gender. We are currently looking at adding a method to where new registrations can select their gender and gain access immediately upon registration.

We hope you enjoy the additions, and as always, thank you for your support!

In Christ,
Romanos
The Community Support Team
 

tango

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A question about the "Charismatic" denominational area.

I'd identify as broadly charismatic but utterly and absolutely reject the silliness associated with the likes of Bill Johnson and his ilk. I'm assuming you're going to have broadly similar rules to CF about "teaching against" the denomination, so how do you expect the "Charismatic" section to work given the kind of stance that someone like me would take, namely that God's gifts are for today but that abuse of the gifts and much hypercharismatic teaching bears more resemblance to sorcery than divinity?
 

Romanos

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A question about the "Charismatic" denominational area.

I'd identify as broadly charismatic but utterly and absolutely reject the silliness associated with the likes of Bill Johnson and his ilk. I'm assuming you're going to have broadly similar rules to CF about "teaching against" the denomination, so how do you expect the "Charismatic" section to work given the kind of stance that someone like me would take, namely that God's gifts are for today but that abuse of the gifts and much hypercharismatic teaching bears more resemblance to sorcery than divinity?

Would you be wanting to see a sub forum added within the Charismatic forum? Sorry, just trying to understand.
 

tango

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Would you be wanting to see a sub forum added within the Charismatic forum? Sorry, just trying to understand.

Just wanting to clarify how it's intended to work. One thing that annoyed me intensely on CF was the way people could start a thread, tag it "teaching" or "fellowship" or some such and so avoid having any questions asked about the theology they were presenting.

If the forum is going to allow people to promote theology (of any flavor) while disallowing other members to test it against Scripture (including people who disagree with the teaching) then my view is that it would be taking some of the very worst failings of CF and making a carbon copy of them.

Personally my preference would be to get rid of the denomination-specific forums completely because my view is that they tend to encourage segregation rather than a common quest for the truth. If people are asking "what does my denomination say about Hesitations 4:13" then by definition they are excluding the interpretations placed on the verse by other denominations, and therefore closing their minds to the possibility that someone else might have a better answer.

Not wishing to be offensive or anything, but the thing in my signature about following Crowley rather than Christ is something I believe needs to be watched, and anything that makes it more comfortable to pick and choose what interpretations of Scripture are allowed to suit the reader seems to play into "do what thou will shall be the whole of the Law", albeit dressed up in a few Bible verses.
 

Lamb

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I love having denominational forums. As a Lutheran, our theology is foreign to a lot of people so we do enjoy having our own little corner :)

I don't think that people appreciate having their beliefs picked on in their own forums. That could remain in the main Theology forums I would think.
 

tango

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I love having denominational forums. As a Lutheran, our theology is foreign to a lot of people so we do enjoy having our own little corner :)

I can appreciate the desire, but if your theology is based more on human tradition than Scripture wouldn't it make sense to see where it diverges from Scripture? (Just to be clear, I say "if" meaning "if" - I don't know enough about Lutheran theology to take a stance on how well it aligns with Scripture).

I don't think that people appreciate having their beliefs picked on in their own forums. That could remain in the main Theology forums I would think.

This is where the word "charismatic" could be particularly thorny. I'd self-identify as broadly charismatic in that I believe the gifts of the Spirit are for today and that God will move if we only give him a bit of space, but at the same time I reject just about everything from churches such as Bill Johnson's Bethel church that are also considered to be charismatic.

If we are to "test all things, hold fast what is true" how do we do that if we disallow people with differing viewpoints to make a case for why what we do has diverged from what Scripture calls us to do?

On the flipside, where Scripture is silent there's no reason why we shouldn't follow human tradition as long as we don't promote tradition to the place it is regarded as sacred.
 

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That's why I think the main theology forums should be for discussing errors. If a thread bothers you in a denominational forum then begin one in the theology forum asking about it and asking for scriptural basis.
 

tango

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That's why I think the main theology forums should be for discussing errors. If a thread bothers you in a denominational forum then begin one in the theology forum asking about it and asking for scriptural basis.

Fair point.

I'm still not sure about the issue with whether, as a broadly charismatic person, it would be considered against the rules to seek to describe what I see as the excesses of the charismatic movement within the charismatic forum, especially since I don't use a denomination-specific icon.
 

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Yes, I like it also as I have seen the attacks on WOF and spirit filled charasmatic as well. It is always good to have a safe place
 

Romanos

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Yes, I like it also as I have seen the attacks on WOF and spirit filled charasmatic as well. It is always good to have a safe place

Glad to hear you like the changes. :)
 

tango

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Glad to hear you like the changes. :)

I didn't get an answer to my question yet - as one who is broadly charismatic but utterly opposed to the likes of Bill Johnson (who is also undoubtedly in the "charismatic" camp), are the forum rules going to prohibit me speaking against what I believe to be falsehoods in his teaching?
 

Romanos

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I didn't get an answer to my question yet - as one who is broadly charismatic but utterly opposed to the likes of Bill Johnson (who is also undoubtedly in the "charismatic" camp), are the forum rules going to prohibit me speaking against what I believe to be falsehoods in his teaching?

Would you be picking apart his teachings? I'll talk this over with GenesisGirl and I will make sure to get back with you, more than likely by tomorrow.
 

tango

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Would you be picking apart his teachings? I'll talk this over with GenesisGirl and I will make sure to get back with you, more than likely by tomorrow.

I'd want to look at his teachings and say why I think they are wrong, suitably referenced of course :)

To be honest if you're going to create a lot of areas where teaching can go totally unchallenged then I'd respectfully suggest you're repeating a mistake of CF and recreating one of the reasons I lost interest in CF. It's one thing to say that, for example, a non-Catholic isn't welcome to butt into every Catholic thread to mock the "silly Catholics" but I think it's another thing entirely to say that groups aren't effectively allowed to watch over their own.

In the spirit of Gal 6:1 I think a forum needs to make it easy to offer Scriptural correction to others, not create little corners where people can escape being tested.
 

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I'd want to look at his teachings and say why I think they are wrong, suitably referenced of course :)

To be honest if you're going to create a lot of areas where teaching can go totally unchallenged then I'd respectfully suggest you're repeating a mistake of CF and recreating one of the reasons I lost interest in CF. It's one thing to say that, for example, a non-Catholic isn't welcome to butt into every Catholic thread to mock the "silly Catholics" but I think it's another thing entirely to say that groups aren't effectively allowed to watch over their own.

In the spirit of Gal 6:1 I think a forum needs to make it easy to offer Scriptural correction to others, not create little corners where people can escape being tested.


Perhaps I do not understand this all correctly but you are wanting all the denominational forums to have any members enter and tell them how wrong their beliefs are? We surely would lose those members who enjoy their little sections of the site if that were to be allowed.

If you are referring to the charistmatic forum, it really is not a denominational one since there are charismatics from all denominations and within that group are differeing beliefs. In there I believe it's fair, without flaming to show how others can be wrong by using scripture.
 

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Perhaps I do not understand this all correctly but you are wanting all the denominational forums to have any members enter and tell them how wrong their beliefs are? We surely would lose those members who enjoy their little sections of the site if that were to be allowed.

The bit I don't understand is that if our faith is supposed to be a quest to become more and more Christ-like it rather implies that we need to know more and more what Christ is like. To my mind that means we need to know what is true, not necessarily what our preferred denomination says is true. Since there are so many denominations it stands to reason that at least most of them are wrong about something. Wouldn't you rather discuss your beliefs against someone else's with a view to finding what is true and abandoning anything you believe that runs counter to Scripture, than hide in a little huddle with like-minded people who can join together and pat each other on the back, assuring each other they are right?

If iron sharpens iron, why would we want to sheath the iron? We need rules to make sure that the sharpening is done in love rather than out of a desire to intellectually crush someone else, and with a desire to find truth together. But if we allow little huddles to rest secure in their beliefs and never be challenged, how do we do anybody any favors? It also raises another question of how far away from orthodox Christianity does a group have to be before it does get overtly challenged? Would you create, for example, a Mormon sub-board where Mormon teachings must not be challenged? What about Jehovah's Witnesses? What about universalists? What about Jews, or Muslims, or Hindus? Where does the desire to "contend earnestly for the faith" (as Jude put it) meet the desire to not lose the members who want to avoid having their beliefs tested?

If you are referring to the charistmatic forum, it really is not a denominational one since there are charismatics from all denominations and within that group are differeing beliefs. In there I believe it's fair, without flaming to show how others can be wrong by using scripture.

Charismatics are from all denominations but here it seems we've got another potential can of worms. If denominational forums don't allow the challenging of that denomination's teachings, should the charismatic forum be a denominational forum at all? As you say there are people who identify as charismatic across many denominations, and when it encompasses just about everything from the sense that God can and does do miracles today, to the rather silly excesses of the "name it and claim it" theologies that often bear more resemblance to the New Age movements than Christianity, what (if anything) counts as charismatic teaching that should not be challenged?

For that matter, just as I don't consider it helpful to allow denominations to hide away in little huddles and avoid having anything they believe tested, I don't believe it is helpful to allow charismatic groups to get a free pass on being tested. If anything the charismatic groups warrant more testing, simply because of the increased involvement in what some would call the "spirit world". When concepts like "seeing the spirit realms", "spiritual anointing", "moving in the spirit of the prophetic" etc are thrown around like candy it's worth taking a step back to look at just how (and indeed whether) the teachings align with Scripture.

There does often seem to be a tendency to assume that anything labelled as "Christian" must therefore be from God, and if anything supernatural happens to anyone who even loosely claims the name of Christ the assumption is that "God is at work", when a closer inspection sometimes casts doubt on what, if indeed any, spirit was behind a claimed "miracle".
 

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How do I get access to the female forum?
 

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I added you to the usergroup so please let me know if this does not work and I will attempt to fix it later when I return.
It worked yay thanks.
 

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I would like access to the females forum too please. :)

Sent from my RCT6203W46 using Tapatalk
 

Romanos

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