Proceeding According to Plan
by Todd Deaver
Near the end of his post in which he provides “Some Answers,” Greg says,
However, if we are not in agreement as to the Inspiration and Authority of Scripture (Inerrancy) and if we are not in agreement on God’s Way of Salvation (How One Is a Christian) then I cannot see the possibility of progress on the many other issues which trouble us.
Greg, you may remember that at our Nashville lunch we came to an agreement on this matter, which was subsequently confirmed in private e-mails. Jay and I fully accept the inspiration and authority of scripture, and this was confirmed in your first post (“As We Begin“) as a point of agreement: “we are agreed that God has spoken authoritatively in Scripture and that the Bible is a reliable and sufficient source for Christian teaching.” As we told you then, Jay and I haven’t studied the inerrancy controversy in any depth, but neither of us is inclined to argue against inerrancy. That is not a point of contention in this discussion.
Our agreed focus is on what the Bible teaches. If you show that the Bible teaches your view of apostasy, Jay and I will accept it as God’s authoritative will. So please, let’s carry on.
Also, we agreed in Nashville that apostasy would be the first issue on the table. To a certain extent Jay and I do differ with you and Phil over who is and isn’t a Christian, and we are more than happy to address those differences in this forum. But, as we’ve discussed, there are good reasons for dealing with apostasy first–and the scope of God’s grace for Christians–before dealing with the scope of God’s grace in conversion.
We aren’t dodging the issue; we look forward to dialoguing with you about it. We do appreciate your accommodation to our preference on this point.
Explore posts in the same categories: Apostasy
GraceConversation.org 
April 24, 2009 at 8:47 AM
Who was the true “Christian,” the Prodigal Son (who needed three truckloads of grace) or the older son (who stayed home and did what was right)? God addressed this issue in the story. ‘Right’ does not always gain favor from God, epecially when it is done in the wrong spirit. ‘Wrong’ at least receives the grace of God and finds favor when we humbly coem back to the Father and ask for forgiveness.
I am a Prodigal. I am in need of much grace. I like finding favor with the Father when I come back up the road. I get to celebrate while others are complaining about the favor I am getting. Heh, Heh.
April 25, 2009 at 1:57 PM
Unfortunately, when we have spent our lives isolated from the larger body of Christ, surrounded by and walking with only those who think precisely as we do, we seem to lose the capacity to discuss disagreements of any real consequence. If the discussion runs much deeper than how many communion cups we have, we vapor lock and don’t know how to even enter into dialogue without first demanding affirmation of almost all our doctrinal positions. Our default setting has historically been that if another man questions anything significant about our views, that he is not even our brother and thus is not entitled to having his views even considered.
I hope things develop past this high-center point on this discussion, but my confidence level is pretty low at this point. Please keep up the effort, brothers. ALL of you.