The serpent was the first to use hermeneutics . Adam and Woman liked it too, at first.
I like when Jesus said to take up your cross and hermeneutics and follow me... and don't forget your vibes and feelings.
Remember that time that Satan tried hermeneutics on Jesus three times, and struck out.
Cowboy hats in church, that's worse than sodomy.
Okay, I will be serious now. You need to talk to someone smarter than me. So, I will share these words from C.S. Lewis:
"I hope no reader will suppose that "mere" Christianity is here put forward as an alternative to the creeds of the existing communions — as if a man could adopt it in preference to Congregationalism or Greek Orthodoxy or anything else.
It is more like a hall out of which doors open into several rooms. If I can bring anyone into that hall, I have done what I attempted. But it is in the rooms, not the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals. The hall is a place to wait in, a place from which to try the various doors, not a place to live in. For that purpose the worst of the rooms (whichever that may be) is, I think preferable. It is true that some people may find they have to wait in the hall for a considerable time, while others feel certain almost at once which door they must knock at. I do not know why there is this difference, but I am sure God keeps no one waiting unless He sees that it is good for him to wait. When you do get into the room you will find that the long wait has done some kind of good which you would not have had otherwise. But you must regard it as waiting, not as camping. You must keep on praying for light: and, of course, even in the hall, you must begin trying to obey the rules which are common to the whole house. And above all you must be asking which door is the true one; not which pleases you best by its paint and paneling.
In plain language, the question should never be: "Do I like that kind of service?" but "Are these doctrines true: Is holiness here? Does my conscience move me towards this? Is my reluctance to knock at this door due to my pride, or my mere taste, or my personal dislike of this particular door-keeper?"
When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall. If they are wrong they need your prayers all the more; and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them. This is one of the rules common to the whole house."
- C. S. Lewis
I guess that is good advice, for you and me both.
I grew up in a pentecostal, charismatic style church, and still have very strong connections with one, actually two, due to family and friends. Even so, my primary church now is liturgical, the worship style is high church, even though it indeed has its charismatics, me being one of them. The Holy Spirit certainly moves there in that liturgical church, to me in a powerful way. When you have the charismatic along with liturgy, worship comes alive . Even reading the Bible becomes an act of worship & devotion. And with the prayers and hymns, it is like a whirlwind, or an accent, or something like that. I wish I could take you to church with me one day.
I do rightly criticize so -called christian progressivism, because it revolves around false teaching and justification of sin, and very much it also revolves around pain and brokenness. And, I see that pentacostals, charasmatics, non-denominationalists go too far in throwing out the Church Fathers, Tradition, the Creeds, and go way overboard with their criticism of such. Way overboard. I know. I lived it.
But I agree with C. S. Lewis too.
Taking from what Lewis wrote , being in a room in the house of the LORD, that is what is most important. I guess ChristianChat is like a hallway.
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Sounds like you have found a good church.
