Evangelical Christians, question?

Question

Background Info: I was recently at a joint religious conference with my congregation and another one. I am Episcopalian and the other congregation was S. Baptist.

Anywho: My priest and a minister got into a debate on Christianity. My priest was very respectful to what the minister had to say and truly listened to what he had to say. He took awhile before answering so that he could think out his answers, etc.
The evangelical minister though was not so respectful, though. He was very uppitty like his beliefs were the right beliefs and he did not need to listen to or even consider someone else's view point.

Why are Evangelicals like this? Is it because you know you're right and everyone else is wrong? Why is there no dialogue with you guys? Are you guys just THAT sure that you have the one and only truth and anyone else who has a different view point is going straight to hell no questions asked?

Oh Goodness people. I didn't say ALL of you are like that.
And no, I have never met an evangelical who was interested in dialoguing with someone who had different beliefs then they did. Their interest was in changing the other person's beliefs, but not in questioning their own.

Episcopalians have much different views on salvation then evangelicals do. Things are simply not that cut and dry. I was always taught to look at the historical context that the Bible was written in.

Answer 1

We aren't like that. Some people are but most aren't. Some evangelicals feel that the Episcopalian faith isn't Biblical (I'm not saying it isn't....just some evangelicals feel that way).

Answer 2

Please don't judge all evangelicals based on this one person.

Is it possible that this particular evangelical was just not a very mature person or he wasn't good at debating. Is it possible that he was not as well educated?

We need to evaluated the validity of Christianity by looking at Jesus Christ and not his flawed follwers.

One of the requirements to becoming a Christian is to admit that you are not perfect.

But when you ask "Are you guys THAT sure", my answer is "Yes I am!"

John 14:6
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

The Apostles said about Jesus:

Acts 4:12
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

Its also possible that your thoughtful and respectful Episcopalian was totally mis-informed and was arguing against the Bible and against what is historically accurate.

That kind of thing occurs every day on Yahoo.

Some church denominations have totally re-written history to make their own denomination look important or correct. And the people who do that really believe the lies their denominations have taught them. They will argue their denominational view points to the death.

However sincerely we believe certain things or how smooth our delivery is, that does not make the smooth talker correct.

The issue is what are the facts?

The facts are recorded in the Bible.

For several years I was conducting Protestant services in my Navy Reserve unit and the official chaplain was an Episcopalian Priest. He was better educated than I was, a much smoother talker, but he was a religionist and I was a Christian and that was very noticable even by the non Christians in our unit.

So after a few months, the services I was conducting had over 100 in attendence and the Episcopal Chaplain only had about 10 or 15.

Part of the reason for that was that the other guy prayed prayers out of a book and I prayed for the people accoring to how they requested prayer.

And the following month, several always came forward to remind the group how we prayed last month for this or that and how God had answered those prayers.

I wasn't preaching religion, I was preaching a relationship and I have a relationship with God. I know Him. He is my friend.

Perhaps that was happening at the debate you observed?

Pastor Art

Answer 3

I just saw this question pop up. Perhaps I can offer some feedback. First I need to say that not every evangelical pastor is as tactful and appropriate as they should when people disagree. I did not hear the answers but perhaps he was arrogant or perhaps it was simply the certainty of his answers that was offensive.

Let me offer an example. If you knew that a particular plate of food served to a patron at a restaurant were filled with poison, no one would question your attempt to blundgeon in and rip the plate off the table. It would be disruptive, but once the facts came out the patron would be very grateful.

Back to the question at hand. There are times in which two people cannot be right. For example, evangelicals and historically Christians believe (and I think you would agree a literal reading of the Bible) would say that you must put faith in Jesus Christ in order to be saved. So Buddhists or others would not be included. There are some in Christian churches who do not take this seriously. While we shouldn't demean them, logically both cannot be right... In fact, there are many who depart from the historical beliefs of Christians.

So here is a general intro to the question of beliefs and even whether we can know "truth". In the gospel accounts, it was either Pilate or King Herod who asked Jesus "what is truth". He was persuaded by philosophers that it was not possible to know truth. Evangelicals do believe that we can, at least on essential matters have guidance on truth through the Bible. Properly we should have humility because there are still reasonable questions, but for those who do not believe truth is relative and subjective, this may be offensive.

If you post the issues, it may be easier to discuss them intelligently.

Ray

Answer 4

Hello. I respect both Episcopalians and Baptists. I do not think it is right however, to generalize all evangelicals to the same degree as the minister that you are referring to. Yes, you did not say that all Evangelicals are like that but the very question of, "Why are Evangelicals like this?" is a question with an general scope of all Evangelicals. I do agree with you that a debate should be done with open-minds and mutual respect and I do not in anyway support the attitude of the said minister, since it is both offending and "un-Christlike." I cannot answer why the minister was like that but i can say that Evangelicals should not be like that, and many of them are not like THAT. Sad to say, there are also many who are just like the minister who offend people by winning their arguments but losing their audience.
Lasly, in defense of the minister, I think that in a debate you should be absolutely sure of your stand. If you doubt your own argument then the debate is already lost even before it starts. So i think that the minister is right in making his stand, just as the priest did with his, i'm sure. And since the debate is about religion, which is absolutely truth, only one of them can be right because there can only be one absolute truth. If the priest and the minister say some things that are contradicting each other, then only one of them must be telling what is true. And that truth cannot be swayed whether or not the one saying it has the right or wrong attitude. If you are siding with the priest because he was more likeable, or if you're that the minister is wrong because he is disrespectful then obviously, you did not objectively listen to the arguments presented in the debate. A debate by nature tends to bring out the passion among the debaters, i'm sure that the priest also did not waver in his own beliefs, because if he did then he would've lost the debate.

Answer 5

The Word of God can stand by itself and can reasons anytime without a priest or minister. God's word are very much objective in His purposes and will never be use in specific religious group's argument.

Only the Bible is the true living word of God and contains all the truth. You can not get truth by getting answers from the Evangelicals, Episcopalian or any other religions or atheist or gnostics --- they are humans and sometimes carnal in nature. Bible clearly declared that we should not trust in flesh or man's insane imaginations or ideas.

I advise you NOT to let the Bible be used in any petty or major misunderstandings, so that anyone will not marred or disdain the scriptures.

Read the Bible...

Answer 6

Unfortunately some of us pastors do act that way. It is unfortunate that more ministers and christians for that matter are not more humble and loving. Thanks for the reminder. We tend to forget that we are all on the same team, and most of the things we tend to separate on are not eternity issues. If someone agrees to join in a discussion forum like you attended they should at least respect and consider the arguments before "dumping" their memorized speach.
I'm a Nazarene and I think my mind is fairly made up considering what I believe, but I would still enter this type of discussion with respect and decency. And I would hope we would still be friends and go for coffee together afterwards even if we did not agree with each other.

Answer 7

Everybody knocks the LDS church (Mormons), and yet in my experince these are the real people who shove and force feed reilgion and thoughts on every last soul on earth and dont even respect people of the same faith. These holy rollers are nothing more than salesmen for your souls. If you think you can buy your way into Heaven with these guys and gals selling your souls to the slavery of hell Id rather be athiest and be far more free minded than shallow and closed like these fools.

Answer 8

Without knowing the specific issues and the subsequent conversational exchanges it is hard for me to agree or disagree. I do understand your frustration about the arrogance of some people. The worst folks are the ones that smile at you condescendingly like your a little child and do not have understating. I hate that.

Those events happen. The only thing you can do is respond with kindness any way. You are not responsible for their action to you. You are only responsible for your own actions to them.. God bless.

Answer 9

I agree some ppl are only interested in getting you to see things from their point of view alone! Not listening to any other "arguments" that may cause them to "question" what they believe. (Their minds are like concrete, thoroughly mixed up & permanently set!) However, there are ALOT of folks in this world that are like that, of ALL different walks of life, and of all different "religious" viewpoints.
Which is sad really....but anyone that REALLY is seeking the TRUTH will find it! For it is not far from us at any given point.
I have a relationship with Jesus Christ, and not a "religion".
I am open for discussion anytime :)

Answer 10

DOCTRINE OF BIBLICAL SEPARATION.

It is a matter of keeping purity. Dialogues do not work (in general sense) because you cannot discern the spirit behind the heretics. EVERY FALSE TEACHING IS ACCOMPANIED BY A FALSE spirit. We are commanded to do the will of the Father in heaven (Matt 7:21-23), commanded to preach and not dialogue. Men are commanded to repent at the preaching of God's Word, not dialogue.

Christ Jesus came as our great high priest (Hebrew 4:14), and He confessed that the redemptive work is finished in Him. Any instituition that perpetuates priesthood today (ie Romanist, Anglican, Orthodox, Marthomas........) despise and deny the full effectual priesthood of Christ ---- thus are they saved?