If people left the UPCI for the WPF due to what they saw as a slipping away of the standards, etc. then of do you think they'll return since the UPCI began reaffirming its stand for the protection of those issues? I think a lot of people have too many ties to the UPCI to be apart of the WPF which is now very similar. I also believe that many of the moderate/conservative preaches left because they weren't sure where the UPCI was trying to stand on the holiness issues. Now that the UPCI is declaring their stance I think the returns are inevitable. What do you ladies and gentlemen think?
Bro. French did. I don't think Bro. Booker, Bro. Coon or Bro. Godair will ever turn their back on the WPF. They've invested too must time in it.
__________________ Jeremiah chapter 4 and verse 21 KJV
How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?
1 Cor. chapter 14 and verse 8 KJV
8For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?
Joel chapter 2 and verse 1
Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;
There's nothing to go back to. They have burned too many bridges. The East Coast side went out with a bang- letter writing, accusations of UPC depravity, etc. How could they ever go back- they closed that option themselves. Of course, I can hear them now, pounding their chests, proclaiming their stand to the end.
They won't. Those who orchestrated the move handled it poorly and unethically, and so they would have to lose major face in order to return. I guess it COULD happen, but it's highly unlikely.
People should never paint themselves into a corner.
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"God, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. And sever any tie in my heart except the tie that binds my heart to Yours."
--David Livingstone
"To see no being, not God’s or any, but you also go thither,
To see no possession but you may possess it—enjoying all without labor or purchase—
abstracting the feast, yet not abstracting one particle of it;…."
--Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Song of the Open Road
I don't think they will ever go back as a whole, simply because of "positions". I agree that the two orginizations are all but mirror images of each other, whatever doctrinal differences there are within the WPF and UPC already exist within the UPC itself, they are minor differences.
I hope I am wrong, I think the more unity we have the stronger God's church is. However, I am neither UPC or WPF, if fact I don't belong to any denomination, denominations simply divide God's people over trivial issues and personal preferences.
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"Resolved: That all men should live to the glory of God. Resolved, secondly: That whether or not anyone else does, I will." ~Jonathan Edwards
"The only man who has the right to say he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ." ~Dietrich Bonheoffer, The Cost of Discipleship
"Preachers who should be fishing for men are now too often fishing for compliments from men." ~Leonard Ravenhill
[COLOR="Red"] I agree that the two orginizations are all but mirror images of each other."
Not in one aspect- the WPF ministers are constantly expounding on their version of pastoral authority. They are all about fellowship with other ministers- to the detriment of the body. At all the meetings, etc. it is constantly advertised for all the special 'minister and families only' functions. (This is more than the usual!) Their sermons (generalization, i know- but a lot) are about obeying the pastor, submitting to leadership, loving your pastor, etc., etc. Propagating this type of message where faith is placed in man over God, will only lead to crumbling foundations.
While I believe pastor authority is Biblical (and by that- very clear in its limitations and role), the WPF meetings have gone over-board. Soon, I believe you will start seeing fall-out in church ministry and saints under some of these leaders that have become 'pentecostal popes.'
The cry of 'enough' is bound to start reverberating in some of these churches.
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