As much as John put on an outward appearance when he came onto this forum, his purpose was to join our church, and sadly, we had to reject him from the church. I wanted to post this so you all understood what was going on.
If you read John's initial post, he says that he came out of the Catholic Church, but nowhere in his post did you see one mention of the Lord Jesus Christ, not one mention of his sin, or guilt, or repentance of sin, or anything that even remotely indicated that he was converted and born again in Christ.
I want to remind everyone that the Bible does NOT say, "If thou shalt leave the Catholic Church and confront thy priest, thou shalt be saved." After John had put in a request to join our church, one of our members asked him for a testimony because there was no testimony in his introduction post, but John simply copy/pasted his introduction post above to answer that inquiry, and that sent a red flag up in many of our minds.
One of the elders of our church began to question him on specific details about his conversion unto Christ, and each time he question him, John would change the subject away from his own sin, and talk about the sins of the Catholic Church. He never confessed one thing, and then when the same elder pointed that out to him, he changed the subject against to complain about how many "edification" points he had, demonstrating that a number on the side of his profile was more important to him than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
To this, I wrote my own response in support of our elder that had addressed John, and it was at that point, John said:
"From the very beginning, though I have been treated with kindness from other members in the forum, I have sensed that you and some of the other members had some dislike for me. The recent posts from you and Tim confirms a lot of my suspicions.
If you do not like me or disagree with, that's fine - I will not waste your time, and more importantly, my time. There are no hard feelings and I will leave peacefully. I do, however, pray that God rebukes you and the involved members for the biased actions and intentions against me."
What he ended up doing is using your friendly words as an excuse to falsely accuse those of us who told John the truth about his sin. Thus, his reaction was contention and malice, not reasoning from the Scripture. We reasoned to him with many Scriptures, but he refused to hear.
Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out; yea, strife and reproach shall cease.
-Pro 22:10
This is why I would warn other members of this forum not to just react in immediate gladness when someone joins and says they have left the Catholic Church because many people leave the Catholic Church every year, but they are not born again in Christ. Many have left the Catholic Church to become witches, pagans, and Muslims, so we need to hear their testimony of Christ, not of "Christianity."
Of course, John has said he would leave peacefully, and I hope he was telling the truth, but I have left his account on this forum so that, one day, if the Lord gives him repentance to the acknowledging of the truth so he would be saved, then we might welcome him in, but without repentance and faith in Christ, an actual conversion in which the Holy Spirit makes him born again, he is not of Christ, and we need to make sure John hears that message because the condition of John's soul is INFINITELY more important than expressing niceties over someone joining the forum. We can be friendly, and tell people the truth at the same time, so let's make sure we practice what we preach.
And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come. The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
-Mat 10:21-28
