Quote:
Originally posted by De6
Ok,I was raised in a Missionary Baptist Church. At the age of 12 I started going to a Seven Day Adventist Church. I stopped eating pork,but I was NOT about to start washing somebody's ashy FEET. Anyways,I stuck with the whole Seven Day Adventist thing for a while. Then, I left and I attended a Gospel Assembly...BORING. There was no TRUE worship in that place. They sang from OLD hymn books, read (NOT PREACHED) a few scriptures, did communion, and left. But,my heart yearned for that good old Missionary Baptist way,so at the age of 13 I was back to my roots. I MUST say,from what I obsereved in my "exploration" of different religions, a lot of churches pick up these doctrines based on two scriptures in the Bible,but they do NOT comply to the WHOLE doctrine. Is it just me that has noticed that or WHAT? What is that ALL about?
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I am not a theologian, but it is pretty simple. . . just as easy as you and I may read a scripture and disagree about its meaning and relevance, is as easy as another "denomination" may spring up based on interpretation of a scripture or a feeling of how important particular scriptures are to salvation. Doctrinal differences (within Christianity at least) just boil down to emphasis on particular aspects of the bible. Some people take scriptures literally and thus you have the more extreme and strict denominations, while others look at scriptures figuratively or simply as a moral and philosophical guide. The COGIC church I attended didn't allow women to wear pants, spoke harshly of women that cut their hair short or wore make-up (especially finger nail polish), and promoted a number of other legalistic views based on scriptures I still have yet to find to clearly address these things. They also do not "allow" women to be preachers, pastors, or bishops, and strongly discourage that path for women in favor of lesser roles within the church, that are 'in proper order'. I thought I'd seen it all until I came across what apostolics believe about women
http://www.apostolic-ministries.net/doctrine.htm#preach . It is not you. . . . some denominations are just really extremist in their views based on a few scriptures that operate as the core of the denominations beliefs.
These are the "official" COGIC beliefs
http://www.cogic.org/dctrn.htm which are based on a number of scriptures, thus is valid from a literal doctrinal standpoint. What happens often times is that people have their own issues, or beliefs, then try to back up those beliefs with scripture, instead of reading scriptures and trying to understand them objectively with the intention of arriving at a central truth. That may be why it seems that an entire denomination just harps on a few verses. Those few verses are usually the ones that support the legalistic aspects of a denominations beliefs.