Cheryl Schatz

Mark,
You said:

No issue with John 6 and surrounds, but please don’t compare me to a JW.

I am not comparing you to a JW. You have to understand one thing – my ministry since 1988 has been caring for JW’s and ex-JW’s and bringing them to the Lord. It is the experience that I live, so if I share the way I do things with the JW’s because the practice is an important one that brings to light the complete context, it is not because I see you as a JW. It is explaining why I do what I do in the context of my life work. You are even lucky that I can speak to you without talking about the JW’s with every second sentence.

When I was first called to this ministry I had dreams of witnessing to the JW’s for 18 months straight. And that is every single night! And every night I would remember my dreams even sometimes waking up in the middle of a dream. In my dreams I would be chasing the JW’s down the street trying to share Jesus with them. Those were amazing dreams back then because I was SO shy, I could hardly look a person in the eyes.

Even when the dreams finally stopped, my passion for the JW’s did not stop and I had to share with everyone, whether they wanted to hear or not, the joys of sharing Jesus with the JW’s. I am finally able to move on to other subjects, but I still see the reason why I do things as touching the ministry to JW’s. It isn’t meant to offend anyone. It is just the love for these people that comes out especially when I explain why I do certain things. Does this make sense to you?

I have seen you over and over again proof text aswell- it’s just inevitable in this sort of dialogue on theologies. The issue is whether a proof text contradicts a clear teaching on scripture- that’s where it is dangerous.

Sorry, my friend, but I don’t do that. You see “proof texting” is not finding a text that appears to contradict another passage, but it is taking one particular text outside of its context so that it is in contradiction to the passage where it resides. So that if one gives a meaning for a verse that is refuted by the context of the passage that the verse resides in, that is a “proof text”. That is why I push for the context, not just one verse. Greg Koukl an apologist has a teaching on this called “Never read a Bible verse”. He says that one must read the entire passage that the verse is in and if we did that instead of taking a verse outside of its context, much of the confusion would disappear.

I’ll leave you to introduce the context if you like with John 6. You never know we might actually agree on something- let’s hope hey!

Yup, I’m sure we can work on agreeing on several important things. I will try to get to that tomorrow.

By the way, i would also like to apologise if i have offended you or others in any of my comments in the past. PLeaer continue to rebuke me if you feel like i overstep the mark. After all, we should all be striving to holiness and sanctification and helping each other to do that.

What a great remark! I accept your apology and I appreciate the spirit with which you brought this up. Thanks! Hopefully any others who may have been offended will understand your heart a little bit better as we all strive to know and understand the Lord Jesus better so that we can be molded into His image.

Bedtime for me. It is only 11 pm but the late nights have taken their toll. I’ll try to catch up some more as I am able tomorrow. I’ll answer the more recent comments first before I start John 6. Then maybe we could just go through that passage and leave aside the unanswered comments/questions until we have finished the passage. Is that a reasonable plan?

G’Night 😉