Posted by Skep on April 29, 2011 at 06:53:05
Wanting to follow up our conversation but having been short of time I just now reread your posts and I think you do want to say something but I am at a loss as to what you really want to say. From an initial topic (freedom and choice) your posts move to a multitude of questions and issues. I have no problems with that except that the initial topic got lost.
Having read the posts in the thread it seems you want to know whether I am Christian, if I believe this or that portion of the Bible, or whose book I have read or which faction I belong to. You have decided that my ideas and those of LTE (long time exer) are the same and therefore we must be “friends”. I am not sure how that happened. Understanding where others are coming from when we try to communicate with them seems to be legitimate but I wonder about your conclusions. I don’t know who LTE is. For all I know, my new neighbor with the loud dogs is LTE, or maybe he is you. But it doesn’t matter to me because we are discussing points of view and not ourselves. I haven’t asked you if you go to this church or read and adhere to this or that doctrine.
In fact, it seems to me that you have difficulty believing that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. You also seem to have difficulty believing that the Holy Spirit is our teacher, that the HS came to the world for the original apostles and disciples and not for anybody else or that the HS can actually lead us into all truth. If that is the case or not, it is okay with me.
I agree with you that Berg may have been saved at the end of his life. I don’t know that. But you seem to find it difficult saying and accepting his salvation during his life. I don’t. I think he was a liar and a cheater and a fake all along. He was a user of people and an abuser. He is not a good role model to follow as many portray him. I don’t see anything in him that I can say it is redeeming of all the evil that he caused.
Having said that, because of what he did I am saved. Because of his words I learned to accept the leading Words of God through the Holy Spirit. Because of many of his stories I did learn good things. I don’t deny those good things and several others that I was able to learn while being in TFI. I recognize that Berg had to teach good things to advance his evil teachings as well.
But, unlike you, I don’t give him credit for anything because those messages came through from God in spite of him. I don’t think he was saved during his life, even as I concede that God is mercy and forgiving. As you said, let God judge.
So, why is it that you said that? Where is your hurry to present Berg as being saved at the end of his life? Is that because you are afraid of your own salvation? But I stop here because that is between you and your belief in the contract you accept from God. I don’t know what that is, and, frankly, it is none of my business just like it is not your business to come and tell me God said this and that to me. I am not saying you do but it is clear that you want to meddle with my contract with Him.
For the record, I have no problems sharing with you my beliefs, but maybe you should do the same. In fact, when you make and assumption about a person’s belief you should also add something like “…because I believe this and that on that point”. Conversations are a two-way street with communication flowing in both directions. That is edifying. Conversations are not debates or poker games to be won.
By the way, resisting the HG is not necessarily a sin because the still small voice will just leave you alone to cook in your own juices (or somebody else’s who has infected you with his/her doctrines). The sin that cannot be forgiven, nor in this life and not in the other, is to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. That particular blasphemy is when a person prevents others from exercising their will in the name of God, it is to push something onto them in the name of God, it is impersonating God, just like Berg did. Maria has done the same thing. Will God forgive these people in their deathbed? I refer you to your own words, let Christ be the judge. So, I am going back to that initial topic of freedom, decisions, and the results of Berg hijacking people’s wills and freedom as a result of his resistance to the HG.