Letter from Bro. Chester Wright to Bro. Haney

[Sister Alvear]

Real repentace comes from the heart not just fleeing emotions.

[Michael Phelps]

Originally Posted by Steve Epley

Repeating the sinner's prayer is like infant baptism, sprinkling, the Trinity, purgatory, etc. it is NOT in the Bible.

Neither is having two services on Sunday, grabbing people in the altar and yelling "let go, hang on" in their ear, telling them how to pray to receive the Holy Ghost, passing an offering plate, and a HOST of other things that we seem to think are necessary to have church.

[Sister Alvear]

Wonder how we ever got so deep in traditions?

Not that all traditions are wrong some are good however just reading we see lots of traditions.

Another thing I have noticed over the years if anyone does anything different than our "normal" we are quick to voice our opinion. However our normal may be just as strange to them!

[Sister Alvear]

I see both sides of this story. In a little pagan village in the backlands of Brazil many years ago I watched an old barefooted mother trying to understand what the preacher was saying. I walked over to her and said, Mother say, Jesus I am sorry for my sins and she repeated me. I said mother say, Jesus I will be baptized in your name, she repeated and I started to say, Mother ask Jesus for the Holy Ghost but before I could say anything she was talking in a heavenly language.

Many a sinner I have prayed with that knew nothing more than to repeat what I was saying. Yet somehow God saw their sincerity and filled them with His precious spirit.

Repentance is a deep subject for an educated mind for someone in the darkness and chains of idolatry who has never learned to pray just takes the missionary at their word to tell the ONLY God that they are sorry for their sins...and He forgives them.

In your world and in your country Americans have some concept of repentance and how to repent however not all people are quite that blessed...

[Sister Alvear]

2 Peter 3:9. God does not will that any should perish---but that all repent.

[ManOfWord]

Nothing wrong with tradition unless the tradition gets elevated to that which is required for salvation. At that point, the tradition surpasses its usefulness and achieves "idol" status. Then when you come against the "idol" look out......you're a liberal, compromiser, who hates truth and is led by the devil!

As I have stated myriad times before, convictions are great and everyone needs them. However, when convictions get elevated to being the WORD and then tied to salvation, I think that is heresy of the worst kind! Nothing can be worse than messing with God's salvation. That makes something salvational that God never intended. I fully believe that God grants liberty in convictions, but not in soteriology. When we tell folks things that they MUST do to be saved, stay saved, that God's word does not require, we are taking fire into our own bosom and will receive the same judgment as the Pharisees.

Nothing wrong with telling folks things that can be harmful etc. but to use salvation to get them to submit is satanic. IMO

[tv1a]

I've been branded a heretic by some when I say a person doesn't have to repent to be filled with the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost will be given to whoever wants it without conditions. I have never prayed with anyone who was in a repentant state who got the Holy Ghost. Everyone I prayed with was in a worship mode. I don't want to go stray too far from topic about the methodolgy I was blessed to discover was the beginning of questioning non-biblical mandates. Why were people getting baptized and filled with the Holy Ghost not getting grounded. My conclusion is a lot of people were acting like the Holy Ghost was a drug or a shot of whiskey. There is an element of euphoria when one is filled with the Holy Ghost. But like the drug addict who starts out smoking a joint, the pot doesn't have the same kick as it did when the addict first began to smoke the stuff.

My goal in future soulwinning is to assess the need and allow God to tell me which step is needed at that particular moment. If it's the Holy Ghost, or baptism in Jesus name, or repentance. I will allow God to direct me in how to lead people to the wells of salvation.

I don't give a flip if the world knows I believe in Acts 2:38. If I do my job as a soul winner correctly, the results will come without the browbeating and pressure to conform to my belief.

Originally Posted by Sarah

Good post, tv1a. After feeling the convicting power of God, new people need to be taught how to repent. After that, hopefully they are in a church where the HG and baptism in Jesus' name is preached. If they are sincere, they will receive it.

[tv1a]

If you are going to make statements like this you better back it up with scripture... Galatians 3:1 is my favorite anti-legalist scripture.

Originally Posted by ManOfWord

Nothing wrong with tradition unless the tradition gets elevated to that which is required for salvation. At that point, the tradition surpasses its usefulness and achieves "idol" status. Then when you come against the "idol" look out......you're a liberal, compromiser, who hates truth and is led by the devil!

As I have stated myriad times before, convictions are great and everyone needs them. However, when convictions get elevated to being the WORD and then tied to salvation, I think that is heresy of the worst kind! Nothing can be worse than messing with God's salvation. That makes something salvational that God never intended. I fully believe that God grants liberty in convictions, but not in soteriology. When we tell folks things that they MUST do to be saved, stay saved, that God's word does not require, we are taking fire into our own bosom and will receive the same judgment as the Pharisees.

Nothing wrong with telling folks things that can be harmful etc. but to use salvation to get them to submit is satanic. IMO

[joyful238]

I haven't read all 45 pages. I read the first 4 pages and then the last 2 pages (not enough time or energy to read all of them). However, I have say my two cents here about what people are saying about Bishop Chester Wright.

I cannot believe you would bash a man (and don't say that isn't what you were doing) that you don't know. First, has anyone substantiated that this letter was from him? If you really want to know, I'll go up and ask him on Sunday. I go to his church. You talk about how the "older generation" needs to become more relevant and how he is saying all this stuff in this letter (which you don't even know is truly his) because he is old and not relevant. Well, first, about myself - I am 30 years old and wasn't raised in the truth so I'm not old and not just getting this from my parents/family.

Our church has awesome outreach to our communities. We have a homeless outreach where we do Bible studies weekly at McD's and buy them food during it. They are picked up for every service. We have a food giveaway weekly to whomever in the community needs it. We have Bible studies and services in about 5-10 local prisons (don't know the exact #) and have for MANY years (also don't know that #). We have over 20 daughter works, 2-4 of them are in different languages. We offer interpreting to around 5-7 languages if anyone needs it for the evening services. Our youth groups go out almost weekly and go out into the communities and do witnessing. I think they have taken youth they met on the street and baptized in the river (bay). We do Bible studies on around 10 college campuses in the area. We do a huge free carnival on Halloween night (alternative) for the community. This is just a SMALL fraction of what we do to reach out.

I didn't say any of this to brag, but just to give another perspective to those who seem so set in their negative beliefs towards him. He is my bishop and I honor and respect him highly.

[tv1a]

No one is doubting his credibility, just his methodology of handling an issue and his reluctance to accept non-traditional methodologies.

Originally Posted by joyful238

I haven't read all 45 pages. I read the first 4 pages and then the last 2 pages (not enough time or energy to read all of them). However, I have say my two cents here about what people are saying about Bishop Chester Wright.

I cannot believe you would bash a man (and don't say that isn't what you were doing) that you don't know. First, has anyone substantiated that this letter was from him? If you really want to know, I'll go up and ask him on Sunday. I go to his church. You talk about how the "older generation" needs to become more relevant and how he is saying all this stuff in this letter (which you don't even know is truly his) because he is old and not relevant. Well, first, about myself - I am 30 years old and wasn't raised in the truth so I'm not old and not just getting this from my parents/family.

Our church has awesome outreach to our communities. We have a homeless outreach where we do Bible studies weekly at McD's and buy them food during it. They are picked up for every service. We have a food giveaway weekly to whomever in the community needs it. We have Bible studies and services in about 5-10 local prisons (don't know the exact #) and have for MANY years (also don't know that #). We have over 20 daughter works, 2-4 of them are in different languages. We offer interpreting to around 5-7 languages if anyone needs it for the evening services. Our youth groups go out almost weekly and go out into the communities and do witnessing. I think they have taken youth they met on the street and baptized in the river (bay). We do Bible studies on around 10 college campuses in the area. We do a huge free carnival on Halloween night (alternative) for the community. This is just a SMALL fraction of what we do to reach out.

I didn't say any of this to brag, but just to give another perspective to those who seem so set in their negative beliefs towards him. He is my bishop and I honor and respect him highly.