christians, be honest, how many of you?

Question

be honest, how many of you thought ted haggard was a good and holy man before the whole male prostitute scandal? how many of you if he wrote a book claiming it was the inspired word of god would have believed it? i guess the same goes for anyone who follows the teachings of any religious leader who has been embarrassed in a scandal, like haggard and many catholic priests, and what i'm hearing now is many leaders of mormon churches as well...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Haggard

pope, i mean people lie, even people writing books claiming to be "god inspired".

so you're all admitting that it's likely that those who wrote the bible could have lied, being that it was written by men.

Answer 1

Who's Ted Haggard?

Answer 2

Christians fail. Famous Christians fail famously. We can still give Haggard the benefit of the doubt regarding his salvation, but no Christian would ever think anything he wrote or could've written, before or after the scandal, would have been the inspired word of God. Only the Bible is the inspired Word of God, and Christ is the Word made flesh. We don't look to any preacher as the final authority. We look to them for guidance, and generally they know their field. Even Haggard didn't think homosexuality was good, or He wouldn't have hidden it. His theology was correct, but his behavior failed to live up to what he knew. In the time of Jesus the religious leaders were the Pharisees. Jesus said of them,

"The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach" (Matthew 23:2-4).

Most ministers practice what they preach as best they can, sinners though they are. Some better than others. Nobody can be perfect in this. But sometimes sin has gotten ahold of one and brings him down. I do think there is a major difference, however, in the number of such cases between the various religious groups you just listed.

Answer 3

If Ted Haggaard wrote a book that he claimed to be "inspired by God" before his fall I wouldn't have believed it if it had anything in it that contradicted the Bible. If it was completely in agreement with the Bible I'd say God's Word inspired him to explain already known truths. If it in anyway contradicted the Bible, he would have been exposed for being a false teacher.

Many people claim to be Christians, but they should never be trusted if their words or actions don't back up Biblical truth. We should only rely on God's Word in the Bible, never on the words of men.

There are many "professing" CHristians that I feel are false teachers (Benny Hinn, Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, Bill Gothard, etc...) It doesn't matter what label they attatch to themselves... if they contradict God they are not God's.

Mormonism doesn't have the market cornered on false teaching.

BTW- Ted Haggard can be forgiven- but I think he has lost the privelige of preaching. If you cannot be faithful in your most basic human relationships, how can you be faithful to anything????? The Bible says a pastor must be blameless, etc...- which makes him ineligible to be a pastor.

Answer 4

All of us have the potential to fall, IF we don't keep our eyes on Jesus, Who is the author and finisher of our faith (Heb.12:2)

As Christians, we have to crucify our flesh , otherwise....we, too, shall end up as the Ted Haggards of the world.

"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." (Galatians 5:16)

Edit:
You wrote this: "so you're all admitting that it's likely that those who wrote the bible could have lied, being that it was written by men."

We admit NO SUCH THING!

What we are saying is, God is perfect, His Word is truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. God does NOT fail!

It is human beings who fail, and fall, because of 4 reasons:
1. We choose to disobey God's laws and walk in our own
ways
2. We yield to the devil's temptations rather than "submitting
to God and resisting the devil."
3. We have not learned to 'die to self,' renounce the flesh,
take up the cross and follow Jesus.
4. The Lord has delivered us from Egypt (i.e. signifying the
world, re: the story of Moses & the PHARAOH), but many
Christians HOLD ON TO Egypt in their hearts.

Answer 5

I don't know who Ted Haggard is. I tend to ignore people who claim to be religious who are on the media. I don't judge them, but I believe it's very difficult to live a truly christian life when you're in the spotlight. (I also wonder about the personality type that craves the spotlight but claims to be chrisitan.) I will read books that claim to be "God Inspired" but I don't assume that means that God actually inspired it. The Bible is the ultimate God inspired book and I use it as my guide and measure for anything else.

Answer 6

Actually, I had never heard of Ted Haggard before that incident. I don't tend to watch much in the way of televangelists. However, I do believe that Christians make mistakes the same as anyone else. I feel bad for him, his family and his church, and hope that he has repented and has found his way back to the Lord. I would not ostracize him because he made a mistake, even such a colossal one as he did.

Answer 7

I was unaware of the Ted Haggard until the scandal. I do not follow evangelical cults of personality, which is what this was. No one claiming their words are inspired by God (in the biblical sense) is correct, and they commit grievous heresy. As usual, I point to the fact that Christians are redeemed sinners, saved by Christ, not perfect people in this life. We are all limping to eternity in our fallible sinful bodies.

Ath

Answer 8

Any true Christian, since that is who you are asking this question to, The Word of God is the only teaching we follow and believe. Just because a man says he is a man of God, does not make it true. The Bible teaches us that in the Last Days, many will come in my name, but are not. They are not men of God, they do not follow the Word of God, They are False Prophets and we are to beware of them. We don't follow any Religious Leader, we follow the Scriptures of the Holy Bible.

Answer 9

Don't know who you are talking about. However to answer the bigger question..the Bible does not say that when we become a Christian we become perfect. It does say that our hearts and minds will begin to change and we will strive to stop sinning. It also says that we will probably be tempted even more as we try to be less sinful. So that implies that we will fail, and the more we are known the more our failures will be known to others. The Bible also tells us that we cannot lose our salvation when we fail to be perfect; and if we truly regret and do not want to repeat a sin all we have to do is ask and God will forgive us.
Something else that non-believers are not aware of the Bible tells us that we are to practice the same type of forgiveness. Remember the Lord's Prayer...and forgive us our debts (trespasses, sins, etc.) as we forgive out debtors (those who have trespassed, sinned against us.)

Answer 10

First of all I don't follow a priest or preacher. I follow Jesus Christ. I follow the one who gave up His life for me, not the one who now has a job because of it. I don't even know who Ted Haggard is, but he is a man just like any of us. Man in this sense is not meaning male but rather mankind, the human race. Everyone is a sinner for when we are born we are born into sin nature. I cannot condemn Mr. Haggard for his actions because I am guilty of sinning as well. I have lied before. Even if I only did it once that would have been enough to mark me as a sinner. However, because of what Jesus did for me on Calvary I am able to be cleansed of my sins and can enter the gates of Heaven with Jesus as my pass. Nobody but Jesus is perfect. A lot of people think "well how can he really have been perfect?" The reason people don't understand is because people tend to base facts off of their own circumstances. However, Jesus didn't have the same background, intentions, personality, characteristics, that a lot of people have. He really did live a perfect life. No errors, no mess ups, no sins at all. He never lied, cheated, had sex before marriage, had gay sexual thoughts or interactions, murdered, stole, anything that would be considered a sin. He never even thought a sin. He was in fact perfect in everything He did. Most people can't believe it because everybody they know are not perfect. It is difficult to imagine someone who never sins. But that is what He did. So all the haters need to stop trying to pull and pry His story in every which way and just accept the fact that He is God and He was man and He is the one who died on the cross and rose from the grave so that we can have eternal life. He paid the biggest payment of them all. He gave His life. All we have to do is believe. How simple of a gesture it is to just believe. Stop trying to pry Jesus apart and just believe. Quite frankly it irritates me to think that Jesus went through all that torture and pain just to save a world just to turn around and have people questioning and prying apart whether He even existed or not. Screw your conscience. Just believe. Most of the time your conscience is tempted and swayed by the devil especially if you don't believe. He will keep make you ask questions and get you confused about what is really important. All Satan wishes to do is keep you from accepting Christ because Satan wants you to go to Hell with him. However by doing this Satan actually is helping God. Whether Satan believes it or not he is in fact witnessing for Christ. All who mention the name Satan is actually witnessing the name of Jesus. Think about this. Let's say someone came out and tried to convince you that you should follow Satan. You don't like the idea (let's assume) so you decide to explore other options. By rejecting Satan you make your way into a church to ask someone about God. So in fact there's the possibility that in fact he just used reverse psychology to help drive people to Christ. You can't out smart God. He knows all and sees all. That's just the way it is.