When I was growing up, cohabiting was an exception rather than the rule. Today, in the place where I was born, it is becoming to be in vogue, I see and observe how they think, I got cable connection to Manila. Now where I am living, it is the way things are, it is the rule rather than the exception.
Has this really made things better? Today young people involve in it are more insecure and find less meaning in life, they were taught to make common what is supposed to be sacred. So is it any wonder they are messed up in their minds? Perhaps they even got this from their cohabiting parents too.
What prompted this in my thinking? I was going through my devotions daily reading again for the nth time Epistle to the Hebrews...Heb 13:4. Try not to clobber me with the Pharisee card, it is not about that...and I will try not to call you an anti-nomian...
4 Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
Updated:
Imagine if you are a pastor and you have cohabiting folks in your congregation and everyone in the membership knows about this. Would it not be so tempting for the pastor to say nothing, since, these people might go away and attendance will drop, and possibly the giving will drop too? It is a hard choice, and I pray those who want to be true to God's word might call them to repent.
Often times we know what we must do, we just lack the courage to do it.
Imagine if you are a pastor and you have cohabiting folks in your congregation and everyone in the membership knows about this. Would it not be so tempting for the pastor to say nothing, since, these people might go away and attendance will drop, and possibly the giving will drop too? It is a hard choice, and I pray those who want to be true to God's word might call them to repent.
Often times we know what we must do, we just lack the courage to do it.
6 comments:
It's the norm in America. One woman had three children with her live-in boyfriend and came up for communion, which was denied - years ago. I pointed out that he was defying the Word of God and teaching his daughters to do the same. That was some years ago. I performed their marriage and started him on member's classes.
The live-in arrangement is so common that women say, "We've been together for eight years, married for five."
Pr. Greg,
It must be trying times of a faithful pastor who wants to be in line with God's word. Now that the pressure numbers are on, it is very tempting to compromise and say nothing.
What if you did not do the hard thing, where would that man be today?
I have seen what mess it has done to our young people here. They are not secure because they could not put a label to their relationship. They have kids but their parents status are in limbo, so constant confusion and insecurity that the relationship will be broken.
They do not know it but it is actually wrecking havoc in the fiber of the society here.
LPC
Other pastors, even in the same "conservative" denomination, will gain members by taking them away from ministers trying to adhere to some kind of discipline, whether it involves doctrine or such issues as living in sin. WELS has pastors taking members from other WELS pastors by bribing people with popcorn and soda during the entertainment-style service. How is that for scraping the bottom of the barrel?
Pr. Greg,
Ah sheep stealing.
I saw this sort of thing as a Pentecostal/Charismatic once before. The A/G here even a.) promoted the establishment of an A/G church right in the same block as another A/G church. I have mates whose churches got split by elders who ran to A/G for protection, and the A/G execs did harbor the culprits.
I thought this lack of ethics only happens amongst Pentecostals but it is happening in American
Lutheranism, I am appalled.
WELS has gone Pentecostal, and they are making the believers as merchandise.
Disgusting.
It is right for you to be an independent Lutheran. My pastor thinks the same of me, he thinks I will be much happier in an independent Lutheran church.
LPC
I was asked about which seminary a Lutheran could attend. Your post above reminds me that the "conservative" seminaries are so hidebound here, so interested in their own traditions, that I would never recommend them to a serious Lutheran. The only one I could mention would be the least obnoxious, not the most faithful.
Pr. Greg,
It may hurt peoples ego but I am so appreciative of the truth that you spotted about sems. I believe it may be true here too, that is it comes up with sausages. Rather than having the tools to be strong and critical theologians, they spit out copy repeat after me pastors.
Also some people here claim to be confessional when in fact they are ignorant of what the confession says. They are definitely not ignorant or what Walter/Pieper said, yet they have not wrestled with some portions of the BoC.
LPC
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