"Our differences are enough to separate some of my friends—your brothers and sisters in Christ—from you. And perhaps to separate them from me, now that I’m publicly speaking to you. And I don’t want to minimize either the sincerity or the seriousness of some of their concerns (things like: humor, worldliness, pragmatism, authority).
But I perceive some things in common which outweigh our differences—which the Lord Jesus shall soon enough compose between us, either by our maturing, or by His bringing us home. I long to work with those, and count it a privilege to work with those whom My Savior has purchased with His blood, and with whom I share the gospel of Jesus Christ. I perceive that we have in common the knowledge that God is glorified in sinners being reconciled to Him through Christ. This is not taught by other religions, nor clearly by the ancient Christian churches of the East, or by Rome, by liberal Protestant churches, by Mormons, the churches of Christ, or by groups of self-righteous, legalistic, moralistic Christians. And not only do we together affirm the exclusivity of salvation through faith alone in Christ alone—we agree on the sovereignty of God in life and salvation, the regenerate nature of church members, the importance of church membership and discipline, the baptism of believers alone, the priorities of expositional preaching, and evangelism, the importance of authority and a growing appreciation for the significance of complementarianism. These are not slight matters. And they only fire my desire to encourage you and cheer you on, until you cross that finish line that the Lord lays down for us."
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Jim, I was too busy last Friday and actually did not see this post. Veeerrrrry interesting, but not surprising at all. Dever says, "I long to work with those, and count it a privilege to work with those whom My Savior has purchased with His blood, and with whom I share the gospel of Jesus Christ. [the NAchurch would agree with this, as do I] I perceive that we have in common the knowledge that God is glorified in sinners being reconciled to Him through Christ. [Again, the NAchurch would embrace this concept.] This is not taught by other religions, nor clearly by the ancient Christian churches of the East, or by Rome[because they exclude all from salvation who do not subscribe to their regimen of belief], by liberal Protestant churches[because they do not exclude anyone], by Mormons[because they do not recognize the deity of Christ], the churches of Christ[because they...oops. That's our heritage, but that's not us at the NAchurch!], or by groups of self-righteous, legalistic, moralistic Christians[i.o.w., traditional churches of Christ]." Yup. -pj
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