The Power of the Tongue- Or As Dan Edelen asks, "Has The Christian Blogosphere Lost its Collective Mind?"

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. Proverbs 18:21 NASB

Yesterday I posted about the problem of division in the church. As I mentioned, what led me to write about the subject was the fact that I came across a rather disturbing website which singled out various men of God as hell-bound heretics. As I considered the premise of Mr. Fish's argument, that all doctrine is essential for salvation, and any deviation from what he consider's to be truth, is a damnable offense, it brought to mind the broader issues of division within the church. It isn't hard to find a good Calvinist vs. Arminian debate on the net these days. For the most part, people tend to remain respectful. But, there are those who insist on name calling and judging the salvation of those who disagree with them. I had one person say that my comments were "nasty" and ask me if I was even a woman, just because I said that I didn't think that calling other Christians heretics was a very nice thing to do.

In my experience, there is a tendancy in these kind of discussions towards wanting to be right, instead of wanting to lead others to truth. We really do need to prayerfully consider our motivation when we debate doctrine with fellow believers. Do we really practice love towards those who we disagree with? Do we want to illuminiate the truth to them, or do we just want to argue? Wanting to be right, just for the pleasure of proving others wrong is a sin. It's called pride.

Dan Edelen posted a wonderful piece on this subject on his blog. You can find the link here. You might also want to check out a post by Bill over at the Thinklings website.

It is my sincere hope that the Christian blogosphere will embrace the suggestions Dan makes and that we will prayerfully consider our motivations before we open our mouths in the future.

I am not suggesting that it is wrong to point out false teaching in the Church. Clearly we have a biblical obligation to do so. However, I believe it is the manner in which we do so that is important. Just because we might not know/can't see the person we are presently engaging in a heated debate with, it is not an excuse for manners to go out the window. Furthermore, I submit that so-called heresy hunters who spew forth hate on the pages of their websites, are in no better shape than the worst heretics they call out.

May God have mercy upon us and forgive us for our the evil we do with our tongues.