Not a very pleasant topic, is it? But neither are our fleshly natures.
A mother said that when a child walks around a puddle on the sidewalk instead of splashing in it, they are growing up.
I believe that much of the appeal of compromised religion is that it appeals to our old nature. People will cling to that which pleases the flesh.
G.B. Shaw said that marriage is the most licentious institution of all. That is the secret of its popularity. Sometimes we can learn from such cynics.
Churches that contain true doctrine also include the classic false doctrines that people seem to want.
"But surely such an idea as hell does not appeal to our natures," you may say. But hell does affect our fears and thus is a primo control device. Protestants, rightly assured of salvation, may believe that by their proper use of their (fallen) wills they have escaped hell. "Oh, what a good boy am I!"
They would be shocked if accused of feeling better than others who they feel have rejected Christ and are on their way to everlasting suffering. But as long as you maintain that salvation is a result of your action, the fiction of superiority is there. An image of "I" is being worshiped. Self and one's superior denomination are everywhere lifted up.
Whoops, I forgot. Baptists say that they are not a denomination, since they are the original church. Keep these people away from encyclopedias! Even keep them from Baptist historians. The shock of truth might be too much for them.
I love Baptists, but if some of the air were let out of their egos, I would love them even more.
A little challenge. Show me a false doctrine that does not appeal to pride. Put another way, show me a doctrine that appeals to pride which is not false.
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