STG :) Spiritual touretts eh?

I'm glad your faith is precious. But my faith get's debated just about every day mate...debated.. attacked.. harangued... abused.. etc...

c'mon..live dangerously :) RISSSSK more.... u'll know ur alive then old son.

Well... no matter.... keep your faith between you and the Almighty...
but remember.. please.. the Lord Jesus did say "Go...make disciples"
"Proclaim..to all nations"

The Gospel is simple.. We are sinners and alientated from the Almighty.. God is holy, and desires us to be reconciled to Him. The Lord Jesus is the one who said 'I am the way' etc. He died for our sin.

Gibo expresses his faith differently from some...but if I may.. I encourage you to be supportive of his love for the Lord, if not for his method of expressing it.

"Let us therefore stir one another up to love and good works" Heb 10:24

Calling him 'insane' is not exactly brotherly :)

David, I draw your attention to a recent post by your dear brother runner http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=8176#129508

Is that a comment which you consider would "match the experience and example of the early Christians and the teaching of our Lord?"

Is it a comment which you consider justified and appropriate or one that deserves some brotherly correction?

R0bert

David add you dear beloved brother Gibo to the previous question. He chimed in with his whole hearted support for runners vile claims and in fact went further. I checked for clarification just in case it was Gibo not understanding runners comments and his response is at

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=8176#129561

Do the words and actions of these two christain brothers "match the experience and example of the early Christians and the teaching of our Lord?"

Are you willing to correct them (in love) or do you save that for those outside the faith?

A couple of simple questions, it will be interesting to see what you do with them.

R0bert

Dear Robert.... I'm wondering why you make me the judge and arbiter of other OLO posters who happen to share the Faith?

If they make comments which are offensive or annoying.. just say so and refute them yourself.

I understand that 'righteous indignation' can go a bit overboard at times, but it is not my position to point to the supposed sins of Christians here when some secular person says of them "Look Lord.. we found this woman committing adultery.. the Law of Moses says she should be stoned"

Becaue let's face it... the motive behind highlighting Christians perceived errors or bad judgement is in fact a cloak for one's personal disposition spiritually.

They can stand or fall on the basis of their comments just like anyone else can.

You are asking me to judge people.. you should know that my approach by and large is to judge 'ideas'....

Perhaps if we were in the same fellowship and I had personal contact with Gibo and/or Runner.. we could discuss our approach and look at ways of improving our presentation overall.. but hurling verbal rocks from a distance at 'people' (rather than ideas) who don't happen to be saying things about me.. is a tall order.

Polycarp, you say you judge ideas.
However your refusal to judge the ideas of other Christians actually leaves this argument in tatters, because you're making selective commentary based on the religious nature of the individual in question.

You're doing the opposite of judging ideas. You're only judging those made from outside the Christian faith - meaning, that you're judging by the people.

Why aren't you willing to judge the ideas of other Christians?

Surely you can see that to everyone else, when you make so much negative judgement about comments from people in other philosophies, but refuse to make similar judgements about negative comments from those within your philosophy, it appears very hypocritical.

I'm not saying this to have a dig at you, I mean it quite honestly. Can you objectively see this?

Plus, you said earlier that your faith gets "attacked and harangued" yet many of the other Christians on the site don't seem to attract the same kind of responses. I don't think it's your 'faith' that's being attacked, rather, it's the way you're presenting it and the selective way in which you make judgement, as I've outlined above.

David, "but it is not my position to point to the supposed sins of Christians here " - yet you seem to make it your position "to point to the supposed sins of" non christains. You spend a lot of effort pointing to the failings of other belief or non belief systems and sometimes christains who take a much more reasoned approachg to faith then runner and Gibo. I seem to recall some attacks on Foxy's faith in days gone by.

You saw fit to ask StG the following questions "So.. you claim the Lord Jesus as your Savior? can you help us to understand you and explain what you mean by being 'Christian'?

Does your understanding of your faith position match the experience and example of the early Christians and the teaching of our Lord?"

You got all bothered because I refered to meyself and a couple of other former christains as "recovered former believers" refering to that as "insult Christians in the most disturbing manner". As far as I can tell you judge moderate muslims because they are not vocal enough in judging the extremists in their midst.

David I don't "make me the judge and arbiter of other OLO posters who happen to share the Faith?" - I use the example to highlight your unwillingness to challenge some of the most offensive of comments when they come from your fellow extremists.

You describe runner and Gibo accusing other posters of being paedophiles without any supporting evidence as "'righteous indignation'".

There is nothing righteoues about either of your good buddies.
If you had shown the guts and integrity needed to state in plain language the problem with runner and Gibo's claims you might have redeemed some of your very tattered reputation but you passed up that opportunity.

R0bert