Nathan, you a real piece of work. You have injected yourself into this situation and are acting as an apologist for a group of people you do not know, and are opining on a topic and offering support to them and the simple fact remains that you do not know what you are talking about. You just don't get it and you don't seem to want to get it. The following is a quote from another thread, from another person, that pretty much sums up what I want to communicate to you:
Quote
Developing emotional maturity is never an easy process. We always look to others to hold our hand. We find human hands to be imperfect, so we look into the sky for a guiding hand that is flawless (the 68-year old hand of a sociopath in your case).
Instead of me concluding here with a statement of what emotional maturity is, how about you think about it and figure it out for yourself, because actually no one else can do it for you. Psychologists, counselors and religious leaders will try to give you that answer. But emotional maturity might be something different than looking to others for answers.
Seems to me, Nathan, that you have locked in on Ole as being the source of Truth. You need him, or somebody else, to tell you what to think, basically, since you are so bewildered and confused along your walk of faith.
This is from [
www.batteredsheep.com]
Take it to heart. Do you recognize yourself here? Look closely at 1 through 5.
The eight signs of immature, carnal Christians are:
[b:a45fbc56bc]
1. Reliance on an extra-biblical standard of authority such as:
* A leader (author, guru, pastor, or infallible pope);
* An experience (feeling or alleged revelation)
* A sectarian group, movement, or organization (denomination);
* A tradition (selective, truncated fragment of church history);
* A document (confession of faith, or study-Bible footnotes);
2. Fear and avoidance of:
* Talking to certain Christians who may challenge you
* Preaching on certain Bible texts or topics
* Allowing certain questions to be asked
* Discussing certain biblical topics
* Reading certain theological articles or books.
3. Unquestioned, uncritical agreement and allegiance to a human leader.
4. Unteachable and unwilling to listen to others from an open Bible.
5. Inability to think for oneself and form conclusions independent from outside influences and patterns of thinking received from others.
6. Reading an inordinate percentage of books by one author or publisher.
7. Leaders micromanaging details of disciples' lives that are normally areas of Christian liberty.
8. Cloning personality traits that are normally areas of Christian liberty.
[/b:a45fbc56bc]