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Changing One's Postition is Allowable and Encouraged |
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Posted By: blessings2you
Although some think to be committed to the Word of God means taking a position and never moving from it; I do not believe this to be true. In fact, I believe it is necessary to maintain an open mind on matters so as to continue to learn and grow. There is a danger in taking a position on a matter and vowing to never change, and that danger is that you can be wrong.
We believe what we believe mainly through what we have been taught. None of us have been taught 100% truth on all matters. In all of our belief systems there are things which are dead on right and things that are dead on wrong. Most of what we all believe is predominantly right with strings of error or lack of proper understanding mixed in.
I attended a three year Bible College/Leadership training program back in the 1970's. I was relentlessly taught certain things to be true. Many of these things there was no room to question on. It was the position of the group and to represent the group, you had to teach and promote certain things to be true. Most who go to any type of seminary or Bible College sponsored by a particular group experience the same thing.
The overwhelming problem with this is when what is taught is wrong. Correcting wrong teaching is infinitely more difficult than receiving instruction to begin with. Most people are taught certain things in various matters and spend the rest of their life never questioning whether those things are really true. How many people do we know who hold fast to "old wives tales" handed down from generation to generation which have no scientific or logical basis for truth?
We all receive a ton of e-mails (forwards) stating outrageous claims about a person, place or event. In times past, people would latch on to these things and they quickly became "urban legends" otherwise known as accepted truth. Places like Snope and others have arisen to be the vanguards of truth and take the time to investigate rumors and let everyone know if something is right, wrong or in between. Thank God for these places which do this or people would believe everything they read (or none of it).
The point is that we all must attain the balance of being firm in our convictions yet open to learning more and even changing our positions if need be. Personally, I have always had more respect for someone willing to change their position on a matter than someone who would never consider doing such a thing in a million years. I am not speaking about politicians who change their position to get votes or a "waffler" who changes his position every ten minutes. I am talking about the ability to honestly change one's thinking on a matter upon further research or teaching.
A matter just came up on this site a couple of days ago where I publically announced a "change of position" on a topic that had come up many times in previous blogs. I did this because I genuinely felt bad for "shooting my mouth off" about a subject before thinking it through. This really bothers me and it is why I am sharing this with you.
I thought I had purged myself of wrong teaching during the years I spent starting from scratch in the Bible and allowing the Word of God to speak for itself instead of simply believing whatever I was taught. During those years my positions changed daily on various subjects until I kept reading and re-reading the Bible long enough to get a grasp or feel for the entire Word of God and not just one section of it. I succeeded in getting rid of huge chunks of wrong teaching and replacing them with the simple truth of God's Word.
Every now and then I find an area never explored or researched and sure enough, I find my position is what I was taught or learned 30 or more years ago. Sometimes that position ended up being right; but many times it was wrong or only partially right. When I find one of these skeletons in the closet I am repulsed and make myself either research the subject or at least honestly and prayerfully think it through. I feel this is the least I can do to protect the integrity of God's Word in my own mind.
In the situation which recently came up, I realized that I had mistakenly spoken my "position" in previous comments. I had simply spoken an old position I had never dealt with. So, after dealing with the situation I found I had indeed changed my position on certain matters. Now what? I decided whenever the opportunity arose to present my real position I would. I consider this being honest as opposed to "waffling" or indecisive.
I share this with you only for the purpose of exhorting all of us to be good "Bereans" in our own minds and search the scriptures daily to see if these things be so. We all need to challenge our own positions once in awhile and ask ourselves WHY do I believe such and such and WHAT basis do I use to believe this. If we find we have mindlessly decided something is a certain way without ever honestly checking it out, we should cease having a position on that matter until it is investigated. In other words we need to "snope it".
One of the things I love about this place is the ability to find out which areas in my life I still need to address and work on. I am constantly saying things that if I would just stop and think about what I just said, I would find I really don't believe it; I just said it because I always have. Let me say publically that if I have offended anyone with a comment that was irresponsible, inaccurate, immature or flat out wrong; I apologize and beg your forgiveness.
I have made a commitment to myself to slow down and THINK before engaging fingers when typing comments (and of course blogs as well). I think I have finally learned once and for all that haste makes waste, especially when dealing with positions not thought out or thought through. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be mistaken, misunderstood or wrong in what I say. I want to speak the truth in love, as far as I know it. Thank you for your ear.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-By 2.5 License
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Posted: 05/03/08 7:04am - Total Views: 383 - Category: Personal
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mkmills |
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Posted by:
mkmills 
(Posted: 05/03/08 7:53am)
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Good Blog, my friend! You made numerous good points.
I am a writer. Currently, I am working on an essay entitled: of Lies and Discernment. At the present it is 16 pages long and will grow to 20+ before it is finished. Therefore, it's far too long to share with you or others, here. I will mention a couple of key points.
1. Good lies are replete with truth...the more truth the better.
2. We are all, no matter how mature in Christ, susceptible to believing something that is not true. In fact, we all do. It may be some doctrinal point or some lesser point of Christian tradition. If as Christians we think we're immune to being sucked into believed a truly well-crafted falsehood we deceive ourselves. Moreover, we actually open ourselves up to deception. For in our Pride, we place our own power of discernment above that of Christ.
3. The only possible way to guard against believing some false teaching or taking a portion of Scripture out of context is to keep Christ first in our lives; beyond any teaching or doctrine. He must be our focus; not something else. I quote the following from the essay:
"The purpose of a lie will be to always draw us away from Christ; to place our focus on something else. Anything else will do. The purpose of Truth is to always lead us to Christ. To that end, nothing else will suffice."
Finally, I'll end with a quote from A. W. Tozer, a pastor and Christian writer who died in 1963. This quote is from his book, Of God and Men, published in 1060. In this part, he was writing about growing in Christ and how to keep him first.
"Retire from the world each day to some private spot, even if it be only the bedroom (for a while I retreated to the furnace room for want of a better place). Stay in the secret place till the surrounding noises begin to fade out of your heart and a sense of God's presence envelops you. Deliberately tune out the unpleasant sounds and come out of your closet determined not to hear them. Listen for the inward Voice till you learn to recognize it. Stop trying to compete with others. Give yourself to God and then be what and who you are without regard to what others think. Reduce your interests to a few. Don't try to know what will be of no service to you. Avoid the digest type of mind - short bits of unrelated facts, cute stories and bright sayings. Learn to pray inwardly every moment. After a while you can do this even while you work. Practice candor, childlike honesty, humility. Pray for a single eye. Read less, but read more of what is important to your inner life. Never let your mind remain scattered for very long. Call home your roving thoughts. Gaze on Christ with the eyes of your soul. Practice spiritual concentration.
"All the above is contingent upon a right relation to God through Christ and daily meditation on the Scriptures. Lacking these, nothing with help us; granted these, the discipline recommended will go far to neutralize the evil effects of externalism and to make us acquainted with God and our own souls."
In Him,
Michael
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youaregolden |
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Posted by:
youaregolden 
(Posted: 05/03/08 7:53am)
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Thank you for your honesty Blessings! I have been shown so many times where I believed something wrong and we can do one of two things. Either get mad and frustrated and say "I am NOT wrong." Or we can humble ourselves and say "oh, I was wrong." and seek after the truth.
God Bless! 
YSIC,
-Golden 
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allforhim |
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Posted by:
allforhim
(Posted: 05/03/08 9:08am)
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Amen, Blessings, I echo your thoughts. God has done a lot in the past couple of years to undo some false beliefs I had and to open my eyes to Truth. I think that we all would do well, to think and pray before we post something that sounds like "absolute Truth" or a firm doctrine of Christian belief. We must forever be searching the Scriptures, seeking Him, asking the Holy Spirit to guide us, and like I said in another blog, not to "prove a point" but to see what the will and heart of God is. It is sad to see a difference of opinion interfere with relationship when we take such a harsh stance on some things that may not be true, instead of letting Christ's love and the Truth of God permeate our hearts. Is it more important to be right or more important to be forgiven? Not my words but my pastor's. May His Truth always prevail over our silly pride! Thank you Blessings! Andrea
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papillionkiller |
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Posted by:
papillionkiller
(Posted: 05/03/08 11:54pm)
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So true.
I was fortunately taught as a young Christian;
to be a Christian is to be in continuing growth in the word, the spirit, your faith in Christ and as a human being over all.
I have been wrong in the past and even now I fine myself going over questioning and evaluating areas of belief.
This site truly has helped in that area, I might add, I have much enjoyed the examinations and growth I have received from this site.
Something I must keep in mind - we are each at a different level of understanding in our personal Christian walk.
The important thing is to learn from each other and (as you say so well) not be afraid to look inward and make changes when needed.
Well said,
P-killer
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kraftykatz |
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Posted by:
kraftykatz
(Posted: 05/05/08 7:19am)
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Amen, Amen and Amen again.
So many can not see that we as individuals CAN be wrong no matter how much we think we have it right. It all goes back to what we were taught.
That is why I never accept the word of someone that this is what God says and they are under the Holy Spirit so they are right and I must agree because God's word says they are right and heres the verse to prove it.
There will be some who read this blog and say how right you are, but continue to be the same as they are now.
KraftyKatz
 drinking tea
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Member Biography |
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I served as an ordained minister for many years with a Biblical research and teaching ministry. Although I am no longer affiliated with the group, my love for "working the Word of God" and teaching it is as strong as ever. I belong to no specific denomination or organized group....
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why do you believe what you do
