The PuritanBoard - View Single Post - What is the Purpose of the Puritanboard?

JohnV · #12 (**permalink**) 06-28-2004, 12:47 PM

When I first joined this Board I kept up with every post. Every post. But then it was a lot less than it is tody. Now I can't keep up anymore. As such, the paedo/credo debate has not received my attention like should have. What I am saying is that I too got the attitude that I heard it all before, and I don't need to hear it again. That is a wrong attitude to carry on this Board. I have as much a need to listen to a new voice saying the same old things as that person has a need to say them to these old ears. I should be listening to the person, not just the arguments.

At first I laid back on many threads, reading mostly and submitting my own views sparingly. As I got to kow everyone, I realized that I too needed to let others get to know me. So I posted on things that I felt strongly about, or that I felt I knew something about that would benefit others. At the same time I practiced my writing skills and my articulation. But mostly I sat at the feet of the ones who were educated, were wise, and were spiritually gifted. I have come to some very important decisions in my life, and this Board has been ery helpful in making them. (Decisions whch were of much more import than which strings to buy for my guitar.)

I wish to champion the dispositon of the Board. It may not have been perfect, but this Board has shown itself to be a reflection of that very ideal which I have found sanctifies discussion of any kind. The unity I see Eph 4 and Philip. 1-2 teaching is a kind where our being of one mind is the means to overcome not our differences, but our own and each others' misunderstandings and erroneous views. These latter we will have all our lives, but that does not mean we cannot have unity in being of one mind.

Yes, I think that there is a certain view within our Reformed setting that is only a reflection of the world's modern philosophies instead of Scripture. But it may yet be that I am wrong. I am convinced, but I know the difference beween being convinced of that and being convicted by the Word. The former is not necessarily the latter.

So I think it is important to learn to submit to each other, even when we think ourselves to be convinced of certain things which disagree with what others are convinced of; because we each bear the mark of our Saviour, not the stamp of each other. The mark of salvation is on my brother, and we both bear our misunderstandings and erroneous views until the Spirit frees us from them. Whatever we are given to know is of grace, whether we know a lot of a little. We should not despise that grace in our brothers.

We may have failed from time to time, but yet this Board makes a great effort to esteem that grace that is in each of us, and to guard the dignity of Christ's body.