[Vision2020] Christ Church and freedom of religion

[Taro Tanaka]

There are several reasons. To start with one of the less important reasons 
--

The people in Christ Church are sinners like everyone else, and it shows. 
Judgment starts at the house of God precisely because God loves His people 
and wants to purge us of dross. I think many of the problems we've seen 
around Christ Church have this dimension.

A more important reason is probably the fact that Christ Church is doing a 
lot of things right. History is the history of spiritual warfare, and there 
is always conflict wherever and whenever the church is doing its job right. 
That doesn't mean we should be spoiling for a fight (we are called, as much 
as possible, to be at peace with all men) and it certainly doesn't mean that 
the presence of opposition from outside the church is a 100% reliable sign 
that the church is "right on target." But it is a fact that Jesus says to us 
in John 15, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated 
you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye 
are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the 
world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not 
greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute 
you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these 
things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him 
that sent me."

Believe me, if Christ Church was not succeeding in the truest sense of the 
word, it would not be meeting with even a tiny fraction of the opposition it 
receives now.

Amid this, Christ Church has to do what it has always had to do: remain 
focused on Christ and fulfill the church's prophetic duty to share the truth 
of Christ's gospel. Everything else can be committed to Him. Moscows 
intoleristas don't have anything to fear from Christ Church, but they do 
have good reason to fear God. Since the intoleristas arms are too short to 
box with God, they try to take it out on Christ Church instead. They're 
shooting the messenger.

-- Princess Sushitushi

Paul Rumelhart wrote:

>That falls in line with what I've always understood about their views.  I 
>respect that.  So why all the fighting?
>
>Paul
>
>Taro Tanaka wrote:
>
>>The short answer is that nobody connected with Christ Church believes that 
>>faith is something that can be coerced, and any attempt to coerce faith is 
>>futile. At the same time, obviously every Christian wants to see the 
>>entire earth converted to Jesus Messiah. We call on people to submit 
>>voluntarily to Jesus Messiah.
>>
>>-- Princess Sushitushi
>>
>>_________________________________________________________________
>>FREE pop-up blocking with the new MSN Toolbar - get it now! 
>>http://toolbar.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200415ave/direct/01/
>>
>>=====================================================
>>List services made available by First Step Internet, serving the 
>>communities of the Palouse since 1994.                 http://www.fsr.net  
>>                               mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
>>====================================================
>>
>

_________________________________________________________________
FREE pop-up blocking with the new MSN Toolbar - get it now! 
http://toolbar.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200415ave/direct/01/