Dr. McMahon,
Well, I guess I am going to have to play my "new guy" card. After my introduction and internalizing of the tenets of the reformed Christian faith only within the past several years, I find myself equipped with an entirely new method of approaching teaching within the church. I don't measure up intellectually with many that post on this board (in fact I often find myself lost after reading the 2nd or 3rd post out of 20 and have to just give up and move on.) Also, my biblical knowledge is quite at the baby-stepping stage.
Notwithstanding the above assessment, I do seem to be able to spot error in teaching (usually in others.....my own numerous failings somehow seem to be hidden to me). When this happens, I have a chat with my pastor and eventually come to an understanding of where the problem lies (it's either me or the teaching).
So I clicked on the second link in your post and within the first three paragraphs I saw several things that just didn't seem to fit in with the teaching of the Bible as laid out by the reformed Christian faith. Would you help me with these?
Here they are:
1. "the greatest Christian that ever lived" I guess that I have several issues with this statement. First, is this really true or even a valid opinion for one to hold. Paul professed to be the chief of sinners. I understand the work that the Lord accomplished through him, but I don't understand why the glory and/or credit would go to Paul. I think of the several strong soldiers for Christ that I have met in the past few years and while I would say many things about them, I don't believe I would classify them as "great Christians". Secondly, it just seems absurd that one might think they could pick the greatest Christian even from among those in the Bible, much less all that have ever walked the earth.
2. "He has written down his opinion" and "The place where you will find his opinion". Well, I really have a problem with this for obvious reasons. While the author does state after the second excerpt that this opinion was stated in a "letter which the Holy Ghost inspired him to write", it seems to be in direct contradiction to the concept of God's Word being
His Word...inerrant and infallible. I just think that describing Paul's writing as "his opinion" really dilutes the power of what he wrote.
Well, anyway, there's the short version and if I am misreading or just being too critical I can handle being told so. Your feedback is much appreciated. I did find the remainder of the article very faithful to what I understand the Bible to say.
in an effort to give the glory to God alone,
Larry
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