Featured Baptism as a public declaration and "spirit of Jezebel"

Ok, what on earth do these two teachings have in common?, you may be asking. It's like trying to find the common denominator between King Arthur and anti-lock brakes. Yet I have found one.

I have come across many false doctrines for which people have attempted to offer scriptures, although that turn out to not be valid, but they at least open up the discussion. e.g.- Romans 8:17 - for humans getting all of God's powers (by Mormons), Malachi - 3:10 for tithing our income in church, etc. I'm sure people offer some verses for the prosperity gospel, but I can't think of any at the moment.

These are the only two false teachings I've heard so far for which no one even offers a verse to try to justify. For example:




The first one uses a wedding analogy to get by having to provide a scripture for the belief. The second simply speaks of the existence of a Jezebel spirit as if it's already established.

Neither of them even attempt to offer a verse establishing that teaching, unlike other false doctrines. This makes them unique. I have seen many videos and literature on these topics that also avoid giving a scripture. These teachings offer scriptures for their side points, but not the teaching itself. I can understand a little more when people fall for the other type of false doctrines mentioned earlier if they don't dig deeply. What I have been trying to understand is the mechanism or mindset of people who say they believe only things in the Bible, yet still accept teachings such as these with 0 attempted scripture references.

My best guess is that those who believe in these teachings, and probably more, somehow equate other sources as equal to the Bible on which to build church practices and policies.

The floor is open.

 

sooda and EllenBrown,
Lol, agreed. You get what I'm saying though right? You see that these two completely skip over providing a scripture for their respective beliefs?

But these beliefs have a following. I'm assuming that neither of you subscribe to these beliefs, for which I'm glad. What do you think however leads people to believe supposedly Christian teachings that are so unbiblical, that no one even attempts to offer a verse for them? I'm speaking about people who do study the Bible a lot and still fall for it. Thank you.

 

Agreed. Yes, but we can't say that they're all con artists. But let's say these teachers are all con artists. I'm talking about the followers. What puts Bible students in such a state to accept a teaching based entirely on someone else's word, and it never occurs to them to ask for a scripture reference?

I suspect part of it is that they are initially taught to rely on the Bible only so much, and taught to rely as much on the teacher's narrative. So that the Bible student who falls for these think they are going by the Bible, and don't even realize how much of it is not the Bible. But I think that's only part of it.
Thank you.

 

Thank you. I agree that it could be conditioning and herd instinct, and I also think church culture is powerful, but that might be the same as herd instinct.

I'm not close enough to Mormonism to be familiar with "Temple Recommend". Is that a term deferring to church authority like Jehovah witnesses have with Watchtower Society? I think that their lack of capacity to comprehend shows that it's more than about the teachings themselves. I think there's a lot of psychology involved.

There is that element. I think that prosperity theology has fertile ground where people play loosely with scriptures.

 

Would you please elaborate?

 

My greatest condolences on your losses, both your initial losses in 2004 and the losses of support you experienced afterward. I've worked in suicide prevention and am familiar with the impact of these things. I'm glad you had the Mormon support and sorry that their leaders withdrew their support. I'm glad that you find security in God and hope you will be able to find a fellowship who will reflect the love God has shown you. I don't believe God would want you to feel you're on your own in this way or unwanted by others who are seeking Him, based on scriptures like 1 John 3:16. This is how God expects His people to treat eachother. I am glad you have found solace and strength in God and hope it will only get better for you from here. If and whenever you just need someone to talk with, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. You don't have to be feeling sucidal to talk to someone. They can also help connect you with local mental health supports if you wish.

 

Thank you. Will chew on this.

 

May I ask you to explain #5? Does it mean living as a good example before family? Or not participating in unapproved activities with family? Or something else? Thank you.

 

Thank you. That's good. I wish more churches would practice more accountability with regard to how they treat family members.
With that in mind, I will work on my reply to the temple recommend. Thank you.

 

Mormonism doesn't apply to my original post, as Mormons do not "claim" to only follow the Bible. If they were to believe in baptism as a public declaration or a spirit of Jezebel, and although I could be wrong I don't think that they do, they could easily just refer to one of their other three books.
So this will be a side point but I hope will not Cedar rail the point of this thread.
Numbers 2 and 6 sound like policies put in place to censor their membership. Anytime babe faith-based worship structure ( since you're not calling at church) put that much authority on one individual, there's trouble. Sounds very similar to the Catholic hierarchy and the Pope. Anytime a group prohibits remembers from being exposed to outside information in order to protect our beliefs, there's trouble. Every Church bears that risk with their members. Healthier churches simply educate their members as to what's out there and why they believe the contradictory teachings are false.

Thirdly, this snippet of the Mormon culture looks so different from the pattern of the New Testament Church in the Bible. neither Peter nor Paul we're in charge of the entire worldwide Church as seen in Acts 15 at the council in Jerusalem. And there was accountability, but there was no micromanaging. I'll place the burden of accountability on the members as well as the leadership Hebrews 3:12. In Jesus's parable of the weeds, a lot of the sorting out happens at the end. Forgive me if I got something's wrong with how you guys function. That's just my impression for now based on what we've discussed so far.