re: Church Celebrates Transgender Pastor's Transition With 'Renaming' Ceremony

quote:

---

No need to spread lies.

---

LINK

quote:

---

had a significant influence on German antisemitism by his virulent anti-Jewish statements and writings.

---

quote:

---

"First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools … This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians …"
"Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed."
"Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them."
"Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb …"
"Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. For they have no business in the countryside …"
"Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them …"
"Seventh, I recommend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow … But if we are afraid that they might harm us or our wives, children, servants, cattle, etc., … then let us emulate the common sense of other nations such as France, Spain, Bohemia, etc., … then eject them forever from the country …"

---

"On the Jews and Their Lies", a book written by Martin Luther, was quoted in over 20 different speeches given by Hitler from 1933-1939

That's not a cloud of saints embracing him, that's a legion of demons.

If the Almighty intended for you to be born with a hoyner, he would have graced you with one upon your birth into this world. I am beginning to feel that I stand alone in my firm belief that God does not make mistakes.

quote:

---

Church Celebrates

---

quote:

---

Transgender Pastor

---

This is... no. Just, no. This is another paving stone on the road of the great turning away. I am ashamed that "Christians" are helping to pave that road.

quote:

---

coming to the realization of who he really is

---

...Matthew 16 reads:

quote:

---

Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in Heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

---

The Lord Christ transformed Simon to Peter, a change of name in the service of the Almighty, for his God. Nowhere in the scripture does any servant, or representative of the Lord's word, convert Mary to Murray or Eve to Steve.

quote:

---

"Both I and this congregation thought it was even more important because of that; to be a bold voice that says, Christians also believe transgender people are good and created in the image of God," said the pastor.

---

ive been a christian my whole life and i will whole heartedly disagree

Luther wasn't anti-semetic (race). He was anti-Jewish (religion). There's a big difference there because Luther didn't want Jews killed off like Hitler did because he hated them as a people. Luther hated their religion and sought to convert them all to Christianity.

His earlier writings were actually overgenerous towards the Jews because he believed they would quickly turn to Christianity if they were just exposed to the truth. As the Reformation went on, his tone towards unconverted Jews became more and more harsh, just as his ton towards papists, anabaptists, and other Christians that rejected his beliefs.

Luther's tone should not be emulated as it wasn't done in love, but that's a far cry from hating Jews just because they were Jews. He had a love for the truth of the Christian faith and wanted all people to embrace it. This led him to dislike all opponents of the faith, including the religious Jews.

And with that, there's no more evidence that Luther was mentally ill than Jesus, who claimed to see demons and interacted with them. Luther was spearheading the advancement of the truth of the scriptures being given to the world and therefore would have likely been under greater attack by demonic forces. Naturalists who don't believe in the existence of the supernatural might think he was mentally ill for his views on the demonic world, but that doesn't make him so.

Also, there is no evidence that Luther asked for a priest and recanted his beliefs. On the contrary, he uttered speech against the papacy in his final days.

quote:

---

Christians also believe transgender people are good and created in the image of God," said the pastor.

---

What part of "all" is giving you trouble?

And if this church wants to do this, what business is it of ours?

quote:

---

2 Timothy 4:3-4. 3/For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4/They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

---

Interesting how all the foretellings are vague, ambiguous and general enough to always be interpreted as true...and usually by every generation at that.

Every single person alive today would be a Christian if the Bible said a guy named Hitler would invade a place called Poland on September 1st, 1939 at 4:40 AM. Lay out one such prediction per generation in your 2000 year old inspired text and God never has to worry about anyone going to hell.

Weird

Is that operation called an addadicktome?

quote:

---

your entire faith is based off a book whose words can be twisted to mean anything you want them to mean

---

not entirely true. this only happens when people are not properly trained in hermeneutics/exegesis; i.e. biblical interpretation. they can say it means something false and even build a praxis around it but, they're totally glossing over multiple passages that condemn misinterpretation such as romans 2:15, et al

i realize that someone could complain that it's special pleading to say only certain people hold the "correct" interpretation but that would ignore the historical precedent of doctrine. the meaning of biblical doctrines are not really a secret and they aren't terribly hard to understand with proper training. those doctrines have been the same since the time of Christ. it takes some significant gymnastics to arrive at things like queer theology

this all started in the 1800's when continental thinkers began to search for alternative interpretations to scripture by initially rejecting the miracles recorded in the gospels and the bible as a whole. these skeptical projects branched out in several ways and the liberal church we see today is the result. situations like the op are built on "progressive" interpretation that rejects the inerrancy of scripture. when that happens, an untrained person can pretend the text means anything but, it really doesn't and it's not hard to show that to any reasonable person.

a fun example happened recently when td jakes (modalism) entered a dialogue with jack graham (trinitarianism). once jakes started examining the scriptures with a trained expositor, he rejected modalism. i guess my point is people can see that they're not being genuine. progressive interpretations aren't bringing new or useful scholarship to the gospel and it's being rejected because people intuitively know it. the liberal church is basically dead. the more they accommodate and compromise, the more they diminish.

quote:

---

I'm done with organized religion

---

this is a good point. many people are just like this. they are rejecting traditional institutional churches in favor of non denominational. many of those churches are growing and thriving