In Reply to: Re: Dear OT2 (and others) repost...marriage etc. posted by Farmer on February 12, 2010 at 08:15:28:
Farmer:
I really appreciate your sincere and genuine friendship, here on ExCOG/Family postings. Quite a bit of your character comes through, and you seem like a really good guy, trying to benefit others as much as possible. You seem to have already come to some deeply-held convictions after long prayer and carefult study, with the attendant pain of much experience.
I feel I have as well. I have been out a very long time, after a relatively short TF membership (in late '71; out mid to late '74).
That can be good or bad, depending on one's viewpoint; I suppose. I feel I left for the "right reasons", long ago, but have freely admitted I chose a season of sex sin after leaving rivaling most TFer--all of mine was straight-up adultery, with no pedophilia, or even a consideration of it, so I cannot indentify, but I feel compassion for the sin--how horrible to have been tricked into it by Satan; especially as being something godly--what spiritual and physical FILTH!!!
Obviously, the type of repentance needed there is not "light"/Calvinistic, but of the type where there is someone who goes through what James described (amazing how we memorized it from the "set card" and were so littlte affected by it!)--"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." People MUST be counseled as to the necessity of complete repentance, and reconciliation with God: "If any man see his brother sin a sin [which is] not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it." 1 John 5:17
I wish I could have seen the compassion in the face of Jesus when He informed those trying to trap Him wiwth questions about adultery adn divorce, when He said, "...in the beginning , it was not so...".
Wow. There was perfect love in God's original plan, and the Fall(s) were/was real (angels and man), and free will was real--predominant, actually--the primary audience, at first, was ALL the angels, fallen and unfallen.
And, God demonstrated His perfect prior knowledge, in that Christ is described as "...the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world...".
And God struggled, and continues to struggle, to convey His love for us, along with His commands and attitudes towards divorce and re-marriage, all through Scripture. In Hosea, He demonstrated His HIGHEST will in the matter, where there was reconcilation and remarriage, where God Himself took one of the spouses, dried up [her] life, sent [her] lovers away, Himself, and brought [her] back; to [her] spouse and, most importantly, to Himself.
"Healing people lightly", spoken of in Jeremiah 8:11, says the sin involved is the deception of lying, and "...saying 'Peace, peace', when there IS no peace. That was done in TF, as well as by some of the people you mentioned.
Making light of sex sin is especially destructive, as TF, as well as the rest of society, has learned; if people would just open their eyes!
Being "...left with nobody but Jesus..." is not al that bad, as you said. Sometime that is EXACTLY what we need, for the next step of submission to him (2Pe1), so we can partake of just a little more of His nature; which of course, we NEVER deserve, but He is UTTERLY loyal--we have until death to correct those sind unto death (1Cor 6, Eph5).
Severe events of correction by God, and other "grievous" things He HAS to send our way (His "goodness" and "severity" are BOTH His necessary goodnesses--Romans 11), really DO teach us of His reality on our lives; inarguably--His comforting presence in hard times IS sweet.
That's a good note to end on--I have to wake up these kids, and get them to go home for a three-day weekend. Monday is "President's Day"--celebrating both Washington and Lincoln, as well as the birthdays of all our OTHER presidents--a good day fro Social Study and American History teachers to teach from.
'Later, brother. I do hope that our friendship continues to grow and deepen--I appreciate you!
OT2