Good day, brothers and sisters in Christ

[primero]

This is me trolling around in search of a Christian forum where I can be comfortable.
I am with a number of forums but mainly have been with UKCWF since 2005 under the usernames of Oneoff and 02BFREE consecutively.
Would I prefer to be mainly here?
In order to find out I’m re-introducing myself, but this time with brutal transparency so that I can move on if this is not for me.
I am 73 years old (in the flesh) and over 60 years old (in the spirit).
Maturity has mellowed my youthful naivety enormously and I now decline to acquiesce to any man made Creeds or Statements of Faith that seek to define what constitutes a Christian, which I believe to be a matter only for personal, or God’s determination.
Vast sectors of Christendom therefore deny me full fellowship and I count myself very fortunate to have found total acceptance within my local Presbyterian Church who (to date at least) have not sort to ‘partition’ me.
I am a totally unprejudiced free thinker (well as best as I can manage after prayerful commitment to what I believe to constitute the Word of God) and that knocks many ‘sacred cows’ on the head.
I try hard to hold my faith as I believe Christ to have taught it but the passage of such considerable time, and the historical record of the development of the early church and Reformation Christendom clouds the issue so utterly that I major on what I call ‘circumspect deference’ in diffusion of general theological dogma.
If I am dogmatic about anything beyond my faith in the exemplary life, teaching, atoning death and resurrection of Christ the incarnate Son of God, and the communicative work of God’s Holy spirit, it is the conviction that God NEVER reveals anything to man for the purpose of underpinning any sect or denomination that operates to divide the Body of Christ, in respect of which Christ prayed to His Father “would that they might be one, even as we are one, that the world may know that thou hast sent me”

The major sticking point will be my conviction (which I will be happy to explain from scripture) that the ‘Word of God’ is not primarily what was written ‘ink on parchment’ so to speak, and pronounced, by man, 400 years after Christ, to be a collective, literally inerrant Text Book.
But so what? My scriptures are the same as your scriptures. I just believe that their use for divisive ‘thus saith the Word of the Lord’ denominationalism would not have had so much ‘sting’ had they been pronounced for what they truly are i.e. only loosely interrelated, separate books, written without the intent of collective ‘Holy Text Book’ pronouncement.
I will differ from some on their degree of inspiration in that I cannot endorse the ‘robotic pen’ conviction, but then differences of opinion are common on that count throughout Christianity.

Lambaste me for this and I’m off.

Peace in Christ
Primero

[JM]

Originally Posted by primero

This is me trolling around in search of a Christian forum where I can be comfortable.
I am with a number of forums but mainly have been with UKCWF since 2005 under the usernames of Oneoff and 02BFREE consecutively.
Would I prefer to be mainly here?
In order to find out I’m re-introducing myself, but this time with brutal transparency so that I can move on if this is not for me.
I am 73 years old (in the flesh) and over 60 years old (in the spirit).
Maturity has mellowed my youthful naivety enormously and I now decline to acquiesce to any man made Creeds or Statements of Faith that seek to define what constitutes a Christian, which I believe to be a matter only for personal, or God’s determination.
Vast sectors of Christendom therefore deny me full fellowship and I count myself very fortunate to have found total acceptance within my local Presbyterian Church who (to date at least) have not sort to ‘partition’ me.
I am a totally unprejudiced free thinker (well as best as I can manage after prayerful commitment to what I believe to constitute the Word of God) and that knocks many ‘sacred cows’ on the head.
I try hard to hold my faith as I believe Christ to have taught it but the passage of such considerable time, and the historical record of the development of the early church and Reformation Christendom clouds the issue so utterly that I major on what I call ‘circumspect deference’ in diffusion of general theological dogma.
If I am dogmatic about anything beyond my faith in the exemplary life, teaching, atoning death and resurrection of Christ the incarnate Son of God, and the communicative work of God’s Holy spirit, it is the conviction that God NEVER reveals anything to man for the purpose of underpinning any sect or denomination that operates to divide the Body of Christ, in respect of which Christ prayed to His Father “would that they might be one, even as we are one, that the world may know that thou hast sent me”

The major sticking point will be my conviction (which I will be happy to explain from scripture) that the ‘Word of God’ is not primarily what was written ‘ink on parchment’ so to speak, and pronounced, by man, 400 years after Christ, to be a collective, literally inerrant Text Book.
But so what? My scriptures are the same as your scriptures. I just believe that their use for divisive ‘thus saith the Word of the Lord’ denominationalism would not have had so much ‘sting’ had they been pronounced for what they truly are i.e. only loosely interrelated, separate books, written without the intent of collective ‘Holy Text Book’ pronouncement.
I will differ from some on their degree of inspiration in that I cannot endorse the ‘robotic pen’ conviction, but then differences of opinion are common on that count throughout Christianity.

Lambaste me for this and I’m off.

Peace in Christ
Primero

Hello Primero.. seems you may find here others who hold to a similar train of thought and belief.

This a forum of people 1st

The types of people you will come across here are.... people with varied beliefs..some believe in Christ, some dont, some like to debate, some dont, some believe in salvation to those who believe, some believe in salvation for all. Some think they have God and life figured out.. and there are those who are more transparent who are willing to admit they dont..

This place is very varied.. and we all dont agree at times but thats fine.. meeting people in life is like that right

I personally liked what you said here

" Maturity has mellowed my youthful naivety enormously and I now decline to acquiesce to any man made Creeds or Statements of Faith that seek to define what constitutes a Christian, which I believe to be a matter only for personal, or God’s determination. "

I agree.

Well hope you stick around a while... I look forward to reading some of your threads..

[Sazzy]

It's nice to meet you Primero It's always refreshing to have another viewpoint on things.

[Dave Robb]

Hi O2BFREE

Welcome

[The servant]

Originally Posted by primero

This is me trolling around in search of a Christian forum where I can be comfortable.

Peace in Christ
Primero

Hi Primero
I would second what JM said above, without going into a lot of text, I have said here often I believe God wants free thinkers not church slaves.

You sound like a free thinker, I believe in beauty in the eye of the beholder, I do not like to stand on the ready made opinions of others!
Welcome and I also hope you stay around for some conversations here.

Peace and Light

Peter

[Someday]

Welcome to ITPOG

Blessings

[redfox]

Hey primero! Good to meet you. I hope you find this forum welcoming.

I may not necessarily agree with everything you believe, but I will always respect your beliefs.

Although having said that I am young in my faith and not at all sure what I do believe.

You said that you could justify from scripture that the Word of God is not primarily what was written ‘ink on parchment’ so to speak, and pronounced, by man, 400 years after Christ, to be a collective, literally inerrant Text Book.

I would love to hear your justification for this belief. Could you explain??

Love Jack

[The servant]

Originally Posted by primero

This is me trolling around in search of a Christian forum where I can be comfortable.
I am with a number of forums but mainly have been with UKCWF since 2005 under the usernames of Oneoff and 02BFREE consecutively.
Would I prefer to be mainly here?
In order to find out I’m re-introducing myself, but this time with brutal transparency so that I can move on if this is not for me.
I am 73 years old (in the flesh) and over 60 years old (in the spirit).
Maturity has mellowed my youthful naivety enormously and I now decline to acquiesce to any man made Creeds or Statements of Faith that seek to define what constitutes a Christian, which I believe to be a matter only for personal, or God’s determination.
Vast sectors of Christendom therefore deny me full fellowship and I count myself very fortunate to have found total acceptance within my local Presbyterian Church who (to date at least) have not sort to ‘partition’ me.
I am a totally unprejudiced free thinker (well as best as I can manage after prayerful commitment to what I believe to constitute the Word of God) and that knocks many ‘sacred cows’ on the head.
I try hard to hold my faith as I believe Christ to have taught it but the passage of such considerable time, and the historical record of the development of the early church and Reformation Christendom clouds the issue so utterly that I major on what I call ‘circumspect deference’ in diffusion of general theological dogma.
If I am dogmatic about anything beyond my faith in the exemplary life, teaching, atoning death and resurrection of Christ the incarnate Son of God, and the communicative work of God’s Holy spirit, it is the conviction that God NEVER reveals anything to man for the purpose of underpinning any sect or denomination that operates to divide the Body of Christ, in respect of which Christ prayed to His Father “would that they might be one, even as we are one, that the world may know that thou hast sent me”

The major sticking point will be my conviction (which I will be happy to explain from scripture) that the ‘Word of God’ is not primarily what was written ‘ink on parchment’ so to speak, and pronounced, by man, 400 years after Christ, to be a collective, literally inerrant Text Book.
But so what? My scriptures are the same as your scriptures. I just believe that their use for divisive ‘thus saith the Word of the Lord’ denominationalism would not have had so much ‘sting’ had they been pronounced for what they truly are i.e. only loosely interrelated, separate books, written without the intent of collective ‘Holy Text Book’ pronouncement.
I will differ from some on their degree of inspiration in that I cannot endorse the ‘robotic pen’ conviction, but then differences of opinion are common on that count throughout Christianity.

Lambaste me for this and I’m off.

Peace in Christ
Primero

Knock! Knock! are you still around Primero? Iwas looking forward to some of your points here.

Peace and Light
Peter

[JM]

yeah.. havent seen him around

[Someday]

New folks do not seem to hang around here too long. Some do, but something seems to make them either lurk or stop coming all together. Perhaps we are scary and over the top. Or maybe some do not like their beliefs questioned or subjected to scrutiny?

Maybe they just prefer to read and not participate?

Anyway, hope ya are still around primero

Blessings

Someday