When it's hard to fellowship

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Jason
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When it's hard to fellowship

Post by Jason » Sat Sep 19, 2009 2:01 pm

I'm finding it very difficult to have fellowship with other Christians because of dispensational theology. It seems that whenever we get together they all want to talk about who the anti-christ might be and how we ought to be "standing with Israel" because they are God's chosen people and the war of Magog is about to break out. I was at a fellowship meeting that I usually enjoy but this past week they started going through the dispensational timeline of events and everyone was so captivated by the very Tim Lahaye flavor dispensationalism. This puts me in a terrible delima: Do I speak up and tell them they're wasting an opportunity to learn something useful or do I keep silent and know in my heart that I'm letting them believe fables?

After praying in my spirit, I decided to speak up when the leader (a man much older than me) had finished and simply recommended Steve's book on Revelation if they wanted an in-depth treatment of the subject. I explained that they were discussing the futurist view but there are other views, and left it at that. The problem was, it caused some confusion in the group and I felt like I'd made things worse by speaking up. It was very much a "black sheep" kind of feeling. The last thing I want is to break fellowship because of theology but this particular theology is so mainstream that it's hard to find a group that's not intoxicated by it. When someone in our group asked the leader about the coming wars with Israel, the leader spoke very boldly about each detail in the "timeline" and it annoyed me to no end.

I was involved in another fellowship group recently, just going through the book of Genesis, and the teacher saw fit to draw a parallel to what's going on right now with Israel and the end times. Good heavens, can I not be raptured from these discussions! They seem to follow me around. I almost want to become a dispensationalist again just so I can have fellowship!

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TK
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Location: North Carolina

Re: When it's hard to fellowship

Post by TK » Sat Sep 19, 2009 4:13 pm

i guess I'm pretty lucky because it seems that very few people in my church are die-hard dispensationalists- in fact there doesnt seem to be a whole lot of discussion about it. "end times" is very rarely if ever mentioned from the pulpit.

TK

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AaronBDisney
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Re: When it's hard to fellowship

Post by AaronBDisney » Sat Sep 19, 2009 5:24 pm

I hear it thrown into most sermons here and there, but not deeply discussed at the church I attend.

My pastor asked me the other day how I thought it was all gonna wrap up. So I told him that I found dispensationalism to have very little (if anything) in its favor. I had brought this point up with him a couple of years ago and he pretty much told me I'd flipped my lid. This time he listened, was unconvinced, but did not seem to think I was crazy for seeing things as I have come to. Small steps but progress.

Though he's pretty well entrenched in the doctrine of our denomination, he's a godly man that wants the truth and so I'm just praying that this will be something he considers. It's not the issue to end all issues, but the ramifications concerning the power of the potentially unstoppable church invading the territory that dispensationalists would like to concede to the "Laodicean age" is what's at stake. That's what makes this such an important issue to get right to me.

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Sean
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Re: When it's hard to fellowship

Post by Sean » Sun Sep 20, 2009 1:57 am

You could try talking to the leader in private and explaining that there are different views of the subject and that you don't understand how spending time on this is so important if the next event is the rapture. I mean, it's not like were learning this stuff to help us get through the tribulation or something. It seems we should keep our focus on making disciples and teaching them all things Jesus commanded. It may not go anywhere but it's worth a try.
He will not fail nor be discouraged till He has established justice in the earth. (Isaiah 42:4)

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steve
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Re: When it's hard to fellowship

Post by steve » Sun Sep 20, 2009 9:39 am

Sean, you are being much too sensible!

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mikew
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Re: When it's hard to fellowship

Post by mikew » Mon Sep 21, 2009 12:48 am

I think the book "Four View of Revelation" was written for this type of situation. As I understand things, the author wrote the book for the very purpose of diffusing the energy in debates on eschatology by showing that each view is has good arguments. So then there is less reason to promote the controversial points of eschatology.
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steve
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Re: When it's hard to fellowship

Post by steve » Mon Sep 21, 2009 11:38 am

I can confirm that opinion.

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