Re: CCC
Submitted by Forgiven on March 31 2000 15:39:55
In reply to CCC submitted by Ford Prefect on March 30 2000 17:15:19
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Abuse is not a reason for no use - rather it means we need to seek the right use. Of course there have been times when established churches have sought to marginalise new religious movements by the weapon of excommunication - from the time of the book of Acts to the present day. This doesn't mean that sometimes they weren't right. By definition we tend to hear about the occaisions when they were wrong - as it the survivors of such challenges that are there to write the history books; the small sects that died out under the sanction of the church tend to be know only to Church history specialist. Such a move must be the final resort - and as a result of a clear division over an issue that does relate to salvation. Ultimately it is a legitimate exercise of the authority that God has vested in His church - so at some point we must submit to that action because otherwise we are setting ourselves up against God. I would argue that its primary use lies in the area of behaviour - it is here that the issues are usually clear cut and the danger to salvation most apparent. But the bible instructs us to cut ourselves off from Unitarians (see 2 John) and many of Paul's letters are extremely negative about the proponents of certain theological positions. It's always hard to lay down hard and fast rules to situations where the real issues may not the same from case to case. In doctrinal cases we are always looking to determine whether the person 'Knows God', at one level regardless of the form of the faith which they are espousing. Because in practice people don't necessarily follow through the logic of their belief, it may be that that for one person what they are saying doesn't in practice reflect a breakdown of their relationship with God - but for someone else it does. There are times when I'm grateful I'm not a church leader - let always remember to pray for them! |
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