Holy Spirit IS the Bible

[B.H.]

Well, being a Muslim now I shudder at the thought I once thought that Allah was a trinity. All these ideas about the holy spirit are just an academic exercise in Christian theology for me now.

[FinallyFree]

I guess somehow I missed that teaching about the Holy Spirit. I remember being taught that the Holy Spirit helps you pray & utters groanings or something, but no speaking in tongues or anything like that.

[Ivy]

Ivy, in speaking of the early CoC church fathers, Barton Stone and his side of the movement were devoted believers in the power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Christians. They always claimed that the Spirit was still active, and that Christians needed be open to the power and urgings of the Spirit.

It was the Alexander Campbell side of the movement that had little or no use for the Holy Spirit. They were content to first confine the Holy Spirit to the days of the apostles, and then confine the Holy Spirit to the printed word. I think Campbell was uncomfortable with the idea of the Holy Spirit because he tried to be a rational thinker, and he wasn't able to rationally explain something like the Holy Spirit.

Unfortunately, Campbell had a much more charismatic and persuasive personality than did Stone, and it was the Campbell side that won out.

Thank you for that bit of history, Opie....it sure explains a lot. If the Stoners had won out, how different things might be for the cofc today.....

[SolaDude]

When a CofC'er like me thinks about, I simply remember nothing spiritual about the CofC....only intellectually/rationally "thinking" yourself into Christ...in fact if memory serves me right, red flags immediately went up if anyone intimated at some kind of spiritual perception or apprehension of God....God was to be seen, appreciated, and understood only through a book substituting itself for any and all forms of spiritualism/spiritualistic apprehension of God.....

[FinallyFree]

When a CofC'er like me thinks about, I simply remember nothing spiritual about the CofC....only intellectually/rationally "thinking" yourself into Christ...in fact if memory serves me right, red flags immediately went up if anyone intimated at some kind of spiritual perception or apprehension of God....God was to be seen, appreciated, and understood only through a book substituting itself for any and all forms of spiritualism/spiritualistic apprehension of God.....

I agree with you. I don’t think the CofC is spiritual at all.

[Ivy]

When a CofC'er like me thinks about, I simply remember nothing spiritual about the CofC....only intellectually/rationally "thinking" yourself into Christ...in fact if memory serves me right, red flags immediately went up if anyone intimated at some kind of spiritual perception or apprehension of God....God was to be seen, appreciated, and understood only through a book substituting itself for any and all forms of spiritualism/spiritualistic apprehension of God.....

Absolutely true. Their hackles would go up if anyone talked of a "better felt than told" experience of God.

It seems ironic to me that while they want to ingest and interpret the bible through intellect only, they are also at the same time anti-intellectual.

[SolaDude]

When a CofC'er like me thinks about, I simply remember nothing spiritual about the CofC....only intellectually/rationally "thinking" yourself into Christ...in fact if memory serves me right, red flags immediately went up if anyone intimated at some kind of spiritual perception or apprehension of God....God was to be seen, appreciated, and understood only through a book substituting itself for any and all forms of spiritualism/spiritualistic apprehension of God.....

Absolutely true. Their hackles would go up if anyone talked of a "better felt than told" experience of God.

It seems ironic to me that while they want to ingest and interpret the bible through intellect only, they are also at the same time anti-intellectual.

Yeah.. But you can go through their hymnal and find spiritual verbiage ironically....

[Shrubbery]

Yeah.. But you can go through their hymnal and find spiritual verbiage ironically....

Many of the songs are borrowed from the denominational hymnals.

[SolaDude]

Yeah.. But you can go through their hymnal and find spiritual verbiage ironically....

Many of the songs are borrowed from the denominational hymnals.

You mean they weren't from Paul?....oh, no....

[Ivy]

Does anyone remember them changing words in songs because they weren't scriptural?

I remember someone saying that "Have a Little Talk with Jesus" was unscriptural, because you couldn't really do that.
Also because it says something about a "little prayer wheel turning", and that wasn't scriptural.

They also changed a phrase in Amazing Grace.....from "that saved a wretch like me" to "that saved someone like me".....because "I'm not a wretch".

And they changed "When we all get to Heaven" to "When the SAVED get to heaven". They didn't want anyone in the assembly to
mistakenly think they were going to heaven if they weren't.

You can't make this stuff up.