Quote:
Originally Posted by Igzy
... another point to consider is that those who regard the parables of the mustard seed and leaven as negative are in the vast minority. Although, more do interpret the leaven as negative, few interpret the mustard seed that way.
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I am increasingly of the opinion that there is something to be said for the wisdom of 2,000 years of collective opinion. That is a lot of vetting.
This comes from one who occasionally hazards rather provocative theses, I know. But my conjectures are merely what I am chewing on today, metaphorically speaking. And I present them to the collective not so much to sway the masses (though I do like the occasional "nice point there"...) but rather to open it up to objective scrutiny in Jesus'
ekklesia. I've said it before: I treasure people like
OBW coming along and slicing and dicing my ideas.
On the flip side, I've been interacting online on a forum peopled by quite a few "ministry die-hards". When I offer a critique of Lee's conclusions, they respond with some version of "You just need to pray more; then you'll get it", or if they are feeling uncharitable they tell me how dark my heart is, that I am "twisting" the Word (which of course was "cut straight" by "the Oracle"), and so forth.
The overall impression I get is of a less carefully-managed version of Lee: they have made an emotional commitment to an hypothesis (e.g. 'one church per city'), and under the polished veneer of logic and God's Word there fairly quickly surfaces an immature and petulant insistance on being the first, the last, the only.
So I have decided that
my only emotionally-vested, intransigent insistence should be upon the notion that God loves me so much that He sent His only-begotten Son, that I might believe into Him and be saved. That and a few other basics ("Love your neighbor as yourself" comes quickly to mind) seem to sustain quite well in all venues. Beyond that, though I work long and hard on my ideas, I (hopefully) am willing to let them go within the fellowship of the ekklesia.