Nevertheless, if you are a new reader, welcome. Your participation on the blog itself or, as so many seem to prefer, privately through email is a blessing to me.
bill
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Friends,
It is a false value held by the CGGC and other groups concerned with following Jesus--and who are dominated by shepherds--to care about creating and maintaining mellow relationships among people at the expense of wholehearted passion for and adherence to truth.
However, truth is the essence of Jesus-following. Jesus said, "I am...the truth..." And, He often warned of falsehood.
The New Testament warns of false Christs and false apostles, false prophets and false teachers. It proclaims that salvation is only for those who hold firmly to the true gospel. It also states that those who believe something other than that gospel believe in vain. (1 Corinthians 15)
I now suspect, based on the fruit it is producing, that the leadership of the CGGC, at least on the General Conference level, has abandoned the genuine New Testament gospel to so great an extent that it is guilty of heresy.
My head is still spinning and my heart is still pounding over Ed Rosenberry's eNews statements:
At the luncheon on Tuesday when the panel was asked as leaders how to implement change in a pre-existing institution like the Church, the University, or business...and,
...it was quite interesting to learn that the leadership challenges in banking are not that much different than those in the Church.-------------------------------
I have attempted to explain away these statements to myself in a way that permits me to see, in Ed, belief in orthodox Christian truth that is consistent with the Gospel proclaimed and lived out in the Word of God.
I have tried. But, with great sorrow, I have failed.
Instead, I have concluded that no one who believes that the Father is God, Jesus is God and the Holy Spirit is God and that they are One could possibly make the statements that Ed has made.
People who believe in the Trinity and whose lives produce fruit of that belief embrace the reality that, since Pentecost, God inhabits His people and that the church is a living body; it is an organism, not an organization; it is certainly not an INSTITUTION and it can not be compared, as Ed compares it, to a university or a business, particular a bank.
People who embrace the Trinity believe that the community of saints/disciples/followers of the Way make up a unique community in the world and that this community is united and empowered by the presence of God Himself.
People who confess what the Word teaches about God and God's people do not believe--and they can not say--anything that even remotely resembles what Ed says about the church as institution or the similarity between leading the church and leading a bank or other business or a university.
I am appalled and I fear for the soul of anyone who can say what Ed has said AND for the souls of all the people who can accept these sentiments without qualms.
I see a new Trinity in the fruit of what Ed Rosenberry, and of those on his staff who (publicly, at least) walk in lock step with him: A false Trinity not of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, but one of the Father, the Son and the institutional church.
Read their writings. There is much about the church as an institution. There is, however, no Holy Spirit in the things they say or write. In fact, they never speak or write about Him.
God help them. God help us.
We must repent and we must address the issues of what we believe about our Christ and His Body.
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