We have been attending a church lately but don't know if that's where we will make our permanent church home. Last Sunday we visited Cornerstone Church of Knoxville. I have some friends that go there, and really wanted to try it out. Mrs. Dude checked the website and everything looked great. We showed up Sunday and the place was gigantic but we were immediately greeted and walked through how to check the children in and things went smoothly. The music was fantastic and we were really enjoying ourselves thinking this might be a great place to learn more about. Before the senior pastor took the stage one of the other members got up and talked about the importance of reading, and during his speech about buying some of the books in the bookstore he mentioned that this church ascribes to the Westminster Confession of Faith. The Senior Pastor said the same thing during his sermon, so we decided to look into this when we got home. I was unfamiliar with the Westminster confession until I learned it was Calvinist. I am not a fan of Calvin but I still needed to know more about the whole Westminster thing. Turns out it relies heavily on predestination, which I do not believe that God chooses to send people to hell before he creates them. This removes all free will from the equation which is ludicrous. Additionally, this statement of faith believes that only certain infants who die go to heaven, and that the Pope is the Anti-Christ. I am no fan of Catholicism, but the Pope isn't the Anti-Christ.
When one of the members of Cornerstone called to ask about our experience we said that we loved everything but couldn't ascribe to that confession of faith. Long story short he defended his position for about 25 minutes before he admitted he did not know what the WCoF actually said. The conversation was always pleasant but there were a couple of times where we were told we needed to study the scripture more so that we would come around to believing God may have created me to go to hell no matter what I do. We pointed out our position based on:
| that if you confess with your mouth Jesus {as} Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; |
| For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. |
These two, of many, verses show that your decision is important. I DO believe God knows whether or not you will reject Him, I DO NOT believe he chooses for you to reject HIM. We also said that if you plan to ascribe to this elitist narrow point of view, you should perhaps call yourselves Presbyterian since they are really the only folks that ascribe to these points of view. Sects of the Presbyterian Church broke away from the main branch in the early 1800s over these very points. At this point the member said "What about Job?" "God did terrible things to Job." This is incorrect God selected Job, but Satan orchestrates all evil, no evil comes from God. Sometimes he allows it to happen but he does not do it. It was a good conversation, I hope he felt as well about how it went.
2 comments:
You definitely have to research churches today before you commit. I had a similar experience with Powell United Methodist, now just called Powell Church.
Attended the service and loved it. Music was great. Message was great. Friendly people. The works. But when I got home and began to look on the United Methodist official website, I began to notice some glaring positional differences in what I believed were standard Christian positions.
The first thing I saw was a disturbing statement that I read as the church being pro euthanasia.
The second statement said the UMC "understood that abortion was prevalent in the world" and hoped that women would make the correct choice.
The final straw was a statement that said the UMC supported the U.N. in its endeavor to spread peace throughout the globe.
While these things may not be a big deal to others, they are a big deal to me. So I emailed the pastor of Powell Church and asked him for the church's official position on euthanasia and abortion. Then I asked him specifically how he could justify the support of the U.N. based on their decided anti-Israel policies. You know, Israel being the children of God and all. And whether any money collected from tithes went to the U.N. One week, no response. Two weeks, no response.
I wasn't going to get a response from the pastor, so I email the UMC and got a response the next day. The woman I corresponded with said the church's official position was anti-euthanasia. So I misread that statement.
She copped out on the U.N. questions saying that was for the UMC board to decide, so she couldn't give me any specifics.
And here's the nail in the coffin. When it came to abortion the church took no official stand because it was such a lightening rod issue. She said they hoped a woman would choose life but stopped short of condemning the slaughter of innocent children.
After reading her statement, I have no intention of going to a Methodist church. If you can't take a stand on something like that how long will it be before you have homosexual pastors?
I could have told you about the UMC, sorry you wasted your time. "Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors."
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