We are told to be more kind.

Alright....at least twice in the last two days I have commended someone on their post.

Their response??? Zip....zilch....nada!!!!!

They just keep right on with their Yorkshire Terrior attacks of a personal nature.

So what's the use??

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2000

Answers

Brother Danny:

A person who has been deceived can be reached with kindly teaching, brother Danny. But deliberate false teachers and liars cannot be reached by the use of any such thing. These are those whom Paul said "their mouths must be stopped" (Titus 1:10-12). ANd he told us to "REPROVE THEM SHARPLY" (Titus 1:13). Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, John, and most certainly John the Baptist did not coddel false teachers. For they all knew that kind words, fair speech, and fained love and concern are the weapons of liars and deliberate deceivers.

This is the reason that your kind words did not matter. I highly recommend a return to SHARP REBUKES for that matters to them! Ha! That they cannot bear and are we not told "resist the Devil and he will flee from you". We are not told to be kind to the Devil and he will respect us in the morning and will not devour us during the night! Ha!

You have proven what Jesus and Paul and the others who were miraculously guided by the Holy Spirit to give us the truth knew all too well. Gentleness is not to be reserved for those who are liars and deliberate deceivers and seek unity so much that they are willing to include the Devil himself if he will but make us all happy and feeling good.

Satan appears as an "angel of light" and those of us who fight with him therefore appear to be attacking "Angels"! WE cannot avoid that appearance. We must fight Satan even when it makes us appear to be fighting angels.

So, my recommendation is that we reserve gentle words and kind treatment for those who are being deceived and the sharp rebuke for those who are deceivers.

Your Brother in Christ,

E. Lee Saffold

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2000

Danny,

You said, "at least twice in the last two days I have commended someone on their post. Their response??? Zip....zilch....nada!!!!!" I don't know whom you are referring to, nor which postings from you or from them. You did compliment me on a couple of my postings in which I responded to some things Connie had said. Thank you for the compliment.

One thing you need to keep in mind if you address anything to me is the time difference. I think you are in Indiana now? There is about 13 hours time difference between here and there. I didn't see that posting from you until about half an hour ago. (Right now, here in H.K. it is 9:45 a.m. on Friday, 25 August -- probably around 8:45 p.m. on the 24th where you are.) When you wrote, I was probably sound asleep in bed. By the time I saw it, it had been followed by quite a number of other postings, and the same was true in all the threads I'm currently following. So I gave my first attention to those. Now I'm finally caught up and can respond to this.

You've got to admit that what you said to me was a slightly "back-handed" compliment (something like saying, "you're as 'mean' as I am"), but I appreciated it nonetheless.

-- Anonymous, August 24, 2000

Danny,

I saw you make a nice complementary post to Connie. I would like to commend you for it. You may think it's late, but I just read the post today.

She's taking a break from reading the forum.

But Danny, you should be kind whether or not you receive credit for it from other people, right?

-- Anonymous, August 27, 2000