Eric Svendsen is Founder and Director of New Testament Research Ministries and a Tutor in New Testament at Greenwich School of Theology, U.K.
Most of you will have no idea what I'm talking about so forgive me. But Mr. Svendsen has made some comments about me and this site. I would have preferred to address them in private, however, since I was unable to locate and email address for Mr. Svendsen and he is obviously monitoring my blog I will post here.
Mr. Svendsen, I welcome you to read, post, comment, email me on any subject you find here. However, I do wish to make one thing perfectly clear. This site is my own personal site. I represent no one but myself. It is not owned, edited, run or even approved by the company I work for.
It is very important that you understand what are my words and the words of others. I always try to make that clear. For the record, I would expect anyone belonging to any denomination to whole heartedly believe that theirs is the true Church. If you do not, you are wasting your time. I am not ashamed of my faith. I also do not seek to force it upon those who disagree. You can see by many of the comments, there are many non-Catholic who post here as well. They and you sir are welcome to respectfully debate, challenge, and disagree.
It is unfortunate you do not know the entire story and I am not at liberty to share it with you. It is my hope that despite the differences we have, all of us can return to the single belief that unites us all as Christians and that is the saving message of Jesus. I welcome you and invite you to join the discussion. Together we will discover the Truth. Not my truth, or your truth, but THE TRUTH.
May God bless and guide you,
Shaun Pierce
8 comments:
"It is my hope that despite the differences we have, all of us can return to the single belief that unites us all as Christians and that is the saving message of Jesus."
Amen!
As to the denominational thing, I really don't believe that any single denomination is the one true church. We as Christians are all part of the one true church as long as we have Christ as the center of our faith.
Unfortunately, Mr. Svendsen's blog doesn't allow comments.
NTRMin has a public message boards for anyone to post comments here http://p077.ezboard.com/bntrmindiscussionboard
I used to live in Pittsburg, and I used to listen to WORD-FM, until I moved away in 2001. Back then, Don Matzat was the host of the 3-5 talk slot.
I mention that because there was a disclaimer back then that Matzat did not speak for WORD-FM's staff or management -- and I assume that the same was used for Marty Minto's show. Funny that somehow Mr. Minto's comments were "alienating", but yours -- on the exact same topic, but from the other side of the fence -- are not.
Here's the really stunning thing to me, Mr. Pierce: you have the same opinion that Mr. Minto has. You believe that the Reformation had a valid reason and that those reasons are true today. The only question is whether you trust the Magisterium's view or the Reformers' view more.
Doc:
Thanks for your post. I'm going to assume something from your words and forgive me if I am wrong. You seem (like many othes) to hold a common misconception when it comes to "Catholic" salvation. Works are a result of faith. They do not earn you salvation. Works are done in obedience to the teachings of Christ and the Church. There is an internal and external change when someone is saved.
We keep going in circles around so many issues that in reality we agree on! I'm not saying every issue but I can honestly say if you compared you understanding of salvation to mine I think you would fine us very close.
Judging by the rants of Eric Svendsen he is an angry, misinformed man who is more interested in pushing his personal version of theology than being a loving Christian.
"Judging by the rants of Eric Svendsen he is an angry, misinformed man who is more interested in pushing his personal version of theology than being a loving Christian."
Two points:
1. I'm not at all sure how someone can call Svendsen "an angry, misinformed man who is more interested in pushing his personal view of theology than being a loving Christian" without first citing evidence to this (which is not the same as offhandedly dismissing Svendsen's statements as "rants"). On the contrary, it would appear that the previous comments are more in line with ad hominem invective than those by Svendsen.
2. Svendsen pointed out Pierce's errors and called him on being false in applying one standard to himself and another standard to Minto. Since when was pointing out error or falsehood = unloving? Uncovering error is part of love, as 1 Corinthians 13:6 teaches us, that love "rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth."
"Be honest, Chuck Gratner. It’s really about money and sponsors, isn’t it Chuck Gratner? It’s really about how much you and your station can line your pockets, isn’t it Chuck Gratner? It’s really about the embarrassment and shame that accompanies the truth of the gospel, isn’t it Chuck Gratner? It’s really about not having the courage to stand for truth that’s no longer popular in an spiritually adulterous generation, isn’t it Chuck Gratner? That’s just a bit too much to ask, isn’t it? So, as a result you end up being darkness in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation, and you end up cloaking the word of life so that the hapless followers of false gospels can be confirmed in their error and feel good about that error. Isn’t that really what it’s all about, Chuck Gratner?"
That doesn't strike me as particularly loving. At best it's detraction and at worst it's calumny.
I think this tagline for his blog says it all:
"We do theology for you . . . so you don't hurt yourself"
So blindly trust you for all the answers? Um... no thanks.
Post a Comment