Greetings in Christ

[Beau Jangles]

Hi @Beau Jangles and welcome to CF. Looking forward to getting to know you better and sharing the word of God with each other. God bless you and yours.

Hi, sister for_his_glory. Thank you so very much for the welcome. I appreciate it very much. God bless you!

 

[Beau Jangles]

@Beau Jangles my brother in Christ.

I'm one of the "Moderators" here, and wish to extend a hand of loving brotherly welcome to you.

I recognize you as a member from another ON-LINE Christian forum, and it's very nice to see you here.

This is a wonderfully Godly site, and the ADMINISTRATION leaders here are incredibly GODLY and LOVING and PATIENT.

I hope you are blessed being here, as much as I have been.

God bless you my brother.
My name is OLIGOS

Well, how about that? Hello there, Seasoned by Grace! Yes, I remember you and here we are now. How wonderful to see you again! Congratulations on being one rightly chosen to help out in the leadership of this forum. I'm so grateful to have found myself here and am looking forward to participating where the Lord may be able to use me.

My heart longs to reach out in His body of believers in edification and encouragement. What I desire is to be a blessing. I sense that in spite of all we experience in various trials and set-backs, continuing to build one another in the faith is vitally important in these days of His soon return. It seems more imminent now than ever before. God bless you, brother, Oligos!

 

[Seasoned by Grace]

Well, how about that? Hello there, Seasoned by Grace! Yes, I remember you and here we are now. How wonderful to see you again! Congratulations on being one rightly chosen to help out in the leadership of this forum. I'm so grateful to have found myself here and am looking forward to participating where the Lord may be able to use me.

My heart longs to reach out in His body of believers in edification and encouragement. What I desire is to be a blessing. I sense that in spite of all we experience in various trials and set-backs, continuing to build one another in the faith is vitally important in these days of His soon return. It seems more imminent now than ever before. God bless you, brother, Oligos!

Beau Jangles my dear brother
Present yourself here to all others in TOTAL LOVE in God's grace and mercy, with a desire to be there for others as you were on the other forum, and God will use you here wisely to be a blessing and encouragement, and to help others grow and mature in His TRUE WORD, and in their lives.

God bless you Beau Jangles
My name is OLIGOS

 

[Beau Jangles]

@Beau Jangles my dear brother
Present yourself here to all others in TOTAL LOVE in God's grace and mercy, with a desire to be there for others as you were on the other forum, and God will use you here wisely to be a blessing and encouragement, and to help others grow and mature in His TRUE WORD, and in their lives.

Thank you, brother. This means more to me than mere words are able to express.

 

[stovebolts]

What attracted me to a closer walk with the Lord was when Mom started seeking the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and began attending a congregation advocating the indwelling of His Presence.

Yeah, they don’t exactly teach that in the cofc lol!
God led us to our present church, and we feel like family. It’s been a wonderful experience.

 

[Beau Jangles]

Yeah, they don’t exactly teach that in the cofc lol!
God led us to our present church, and we feel like family. It’s been a wonderful experience.

How right you are, brother. The Church of Christ is adamantly dead set against the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. They are a very good and dear group of well-intentioned people and they do love Jesus. But, they simply do not understand. Mom found out about this renewal experience back in about 1970 when singer/actor Pat Boone authored a book and titled it, New Wine*.

This was in reference to the Day of Pentecost in Acts II when the first account of the indwelling came upon the disciples and others gathered up the upper room tarrying. The risen Saviour had advised them before His ascension. Mom was wanting a closer walk as previously mentioned and began seeking this experience from Pat's book, hungering for more of Jesus.

She found it alright! Hallelujah! Of course, she wanted me and my sister to come right along and find the fullness of His presence. It didn't take long to encourage us in this way also. Seeing worship and absolute abandon in the Lord was so attractive and we began longing for this as well. The Jesus People Movement had already begun approximately three years prior.

The unfortunate thing for Pat Boone was when they discovered his experience, they dismissed him from the congregation. He went on for the Lord and didn't allow it to discourage him. In 1971, Mom took me and my best friend to see Pat at a meeting in San Jose, Calfornia. There was worship before the service, my buddy and I saw the young people loving Jesus with hands raised.

Let me tell you, this was really something to see first hand. We took serious stock in our lives and entered on in not long after the seminar meeting. Praise the Lord! Here's something I'd like to add to this. All my friends from high school also came to Christ one by one over the next few years. Two even became ordained ministers of the gospel. Our Father in Heaven is indeed good!

ACTS 2:13 KJV "Others mocking said, These men are full of ...​

https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Acts-2-13
13 Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine*. 14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: 15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.

 

[stovebolts]

The Church of Christ is adamantly dead set against the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

I wouldn’t say that. What I would say is it’s an issue of culture and nomenclature. When you use that phrase, your using it in ways that facilitate a specific doctrine within the Pentecostal churches. Of course, these doctrines are part of the fabric contained within the weekly messages from the pulpit and individual prayer life.

The church of Christ believes one receives the Holy Spirit upon water immersion and views water immersion as the instrument which God chooses to impart the Holy Spirit.

What Ive noticed is this. The churches of Christ focuses on water immersion as being the focal point of receiving the Holy Spirit, yet they give no authority aside from the gift of salvation to this event. On the other side, water immersion holds very little value other than a profession of ones faith. Thus, water immersion denies the receiving of the Holy Spirit and the authority of God unto salvation. Instead, other signs such as tongues etc are signs of salvation.

In my theology, I lean more toward reconciling these two truths.

 

[Beau Jangles]

I wouldn’t say that. What I would say is it’s an issue of culture and nomenclature. When you use that phrase, your using it in ways that facilitate a specific doctrine within the Pentecostal churches. Of course, these doctrines are part of the fabric contained within the weekly messages from the pulpit and individual prayer life.

The church of Christ believes one receives the Holy Spirit upon water immersion and views water immersion as the instrument which God chooses to impart the Holy Spirit.

What Ive noticed is this. The churches of Christ focuses on water immersion as being the focal point of receiving the Holy Spirit, yet they give no authority aside from the gift of salvation to this event. On the other side, water immersion holds very little value other than a profession of ones faith. Thus, water immersion denies the receiving of the Holy Spirit and the authority of God unto salvation. Instead, other signs such as tongues etc are signs of salvation.

In my theology, I lean more toward reconciling these two truths.

Yes, I understand certain splinter sects from the Church of Christ exist and the denominations of them have some different points of their doctrine. Some allow the use of instrumentation, while others shudder at the thought of bringing a piano or Hammond B-3 organ into the building.

The congregation where I attended took the water immersion of baptism to also confirm and fulfill the steps of recognized salvation. It was considered complete at that time and not previous at the confession of faith. Our church affiliation felt the Pentecostal movement was heresy.

Also to note, there is separate recognized First Church of Christ, United Church of Christ, and Reformed Church of Christ, etc. Their doctrines vary accordingly. All of them are known to be of the Arminian theology, rejecting the aspect of what is known as the security of the believer.

Just a mention. My father's side of Free Will Baptist Church affiliation also does not believe that salvation is certain and cannot be revoked. From my understanding, all other Baptists feel once you are saved it is firmly set. The shed blood of sacrifice covers all past, present, and future sins.

This goes into an issue of OSAS vs. OSNAS discussion and/or debate. I now choose to opt-out. The reasons being are this. I've been on both sides of the fence on this topic and found the essentials are balance and doctrinal understanding by a thorough study of God's word. It is a key factor.

Fin.