Take It, Leave It, Flush It or Chunk It

That’s my new motto when it comes to what I post here on this site.

I am not an elder. I’m not on staff somewhere. I have no formal theological training.

I am, as my tag line describes, an amateur, which means that this blog of mine is not done as a profession. If you want to read a professional blogger, then you are most assuredly on the wrong site.

I am reformational, which means that, while I line up theologically with the Reformers, I do not see myself as being completely reformed, or having arrived at perfect truth. I don’t like saying that I am reformed because that brings with it the connotation that I have no further improvements to make. I am ever-reforming, and so I call myself ‘reformational’.

I am credo-baptistic, which means I am unashamedly Baptist in my understanding and beliefs of what I believe Scripture teaches and shows regarding the nature, mode, practice and meaning of baptism.

I am a theologian. One does not have to be a scholar to be a theologian. In fact, EVERY Christian should be a theologian. Theology is defined online as the rational and systematic study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truth. In short, being a theologian is being someone who studies the things of God, and every person professing faith in Christ should doing that.

Now, having said all that, let me say that I am pondering whether or not to close comments on this site, at least for a season. It has been my experience that what usually ends up being controversial and divisive and dishonoring to our Lord are not the posts of any given blog, but the resulting comments which follow those posts. If I close comments for a while, basically the message conveyed will be, with respect to what I have written, that you can take it, leave it, chunk it or flush it.

Please know as well that this is not coming as a result of any admonition or rebuke of me by my elders or anything like that. I have just been wondering lately how edifying to the body the comments section of blogs really are.

So, I’ll inform you here in the near future if I decide to take that step of closing comments. Personal emails relating to posts and their topics are and will always be welcomed. And perhaps that may be the best way to communicate with a brother regarding differences of opinion relating to whatever has been posted on this site, regardless of whether or not comments are opened or closed.

My thinking though, is that if a person’s opposing views will only be seen privately by one person instead of publicly for all to see, they probably won’t take the time to send the private emails to differ with what has been written. That’s my opinion, anyway…take it, leave it, flush it or chunk it.

Grace and Peace,
Brian