At least we should congratulate Anne Rice for her perspicacity.

I agree with you. It is unlikely Anne Rice was ever truly a Christian. Her Catholicism makes that unlikely.

We do need to pray that she is touched by the true Gospel and comes to faith.

-st

I believe we will find Catholic believers in heaven, but I don’t believe they will make their way there via the Catholic gospel. They will be saved by grace alone, through faith alone.

“Beyond the debate there still remains the fact that there is an institution, a collection of separate body pieces that clearly are ordained to carry on the work of Christ.”

That assumes that the church is an institution. The church may have chosen to gather in an institutional form but that is not what the church is and rejecting the institution doesn’t mean rejecting the church. I am not defending Ms. Rice but in many ways the institutional form of the church has been a far greater impediment to the Gospel witness than atheism or Islam.

The problem is that many don’t understand that in the local churches and different denominations there are people that are of God and those that are not so you have tares among the wheat and that’s where most of the infighting comes from.

The true church is the new Jerusalem above…the olive tree in which we abide by faith. Not everyone proclaiming to be of Christ abides in the olive tree. As long as she continues to believe…she abides and is a member of the true church….perhaps just not a member of the Christian community.

A most amazing letter to Ann Rice was featured at:

http://karenzach.com/2010/a-letter-to-anne-rice/

Thanks,

Dave Lindsay

I can understand the hoopla, but I fear that most responses (including this one) seem to be missing the point- there are many who feel similarly to Anne Rice, and her statement serves as a warning call for all believers to examine more closely. There’s a rapidly growing number of Christ-followers who will continue to distance themselves from the mainstream Christian faith that they believe has been aggressively hijacked in the course of the last 10 years. Prodical? Not quite. Humility rather than righteousness will better serve the church at this point in history.

But I like the title of this post… because many of the reactions seem like “personal” responses.

-Marshall Jones Jr.

Share A Word With You - Your Most Important Relationship
Every time a soldier dies in battle, it’s a tragedy. It doesn’t matter how just or unjust we might think the war is or which side he’s on. It’s still a tragedy. But if there are degrees of tragic, then there’s one kind of battlefield death that seems the most heartbreaking of all. They call it “friendly fire” - when you accidentally shoot or bomb your own fellow soldiers. In the Civil War, General Stonewall Jackson was killed accidentally by his own men - “friendly fire.” In Vietnam, in Iraq, probably in every modern war, it has always been an awful tragedy when one of your own is brought down by a weapon you fired.

I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “The Ultimate Battlefield Tragedy.”

God is a Father who has had all too many of His children brought down by “friendly fire,” and you know He’s got to grieve over it. In churches, in ministries, in families, in youth groups, in relationships there are way too many bullets fired at one of our own instead of at the real enemy from hell who seeks to destroy us. Would you open your heart to this possibility? Could it be that you have been taking shots at a fellow soldier in God’s army; a brother or sister in Christ? Someone Jesus gave His life to save.

It happened to two women who had served on the spiritual front lines with the Apostle Paul. They had the unusual names of Euodia and Syntyche. Don’t blame me. Blame their parents. I remember one Bible teacher who used to refer to them as Euodious and Stinky. But I don’t think that’s really in the original Greek. We won’t go there. But let’s go to our word for today from the Word of God in Philippians 4:2-3 . Paul says, “I plead with Euodia and Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the Gospel…whose names are in the Book of Life.”

The great apostle is almost on his knees begging here for these two women, who used to fight together for the lives of lost people, to stop fighting with each other. Somewhere along the way, something came up that made these two warriors take their eye off the ball. And they started shooting at each other, acting as if she’s the enemy instead of the prince of darkness. Satan loves nothing more than to see Christians doing his work for him…wounding a child of God, discouraging a child of God, damaging the reputation of another child of God, distracting and derailing someone who could be making a difference in the battle.

In combat, a soldier is crushed when he realizes that he’s wounded one of his own. But often among believers, we feel like we’ve done a good thing by bringing down that brother or sister, a righteous thing - they deserve it, after all. But none of us has the right to shoot at someone who has been purchased with the same blood of Christ that we have. Believers shooting at each other - few things are more damaging to the cause of Christ, more discouraging to our young people, more disillusioning to unbelievers, and more heartbreaking to Jesus.

Hudson Taylor’s successor in the leadership of China Inland Mission knew how mission critical it is to fight the right battle and the right enemy. He said, “I will not send a person to the mission field unless he has learned to wrestle with the evil one. If he has not learned to wrestle with the evil one, he will wrestle with his fellow missionaries.”

Your brother, your sister - they’re not the real enemy. And wrestling with them isn’t the real battle. Don’t waste any more bullets on one of your own. In the army of God, “friendly fire” is not only the ultimate tragedy, it’s an enemy victory.

That is not what Anne Rice is experiencing. She is simply young in faith and still lacking in coorperation with the gifts of the spirit. She certainly is like many if us were when we first began the journey and in need of prayer.

I simply felt the need to make the correction because too often I find Christians chock up frustrations in their walk to the dark night when in fact it’s a lack of devotion that is causing the issue.

Although Scripture does not record that Jesus specifically mentioned Peter’s threefold denial, Jesus’ threefold questioning of Peter’s love to reinstate Peter as an apostle would no doubt have spoken very clearly to Peter regarding his denial. So, in effect Jesus does more than just mention the denial, he shames Peter and requires his threefold affirmation.

*Sigh* same old, same old.

I am very curious if she were a member of a Church and you had taken a few months to go through Matt.18–to no avail, should the Church vote to remove her from the fellowship?

Look forward to your reply,

Alpheus

I wish people would read and investigate for themselves what Anne said, and is standing for, instead of following what others assume and say of her. Which is a huge issue here with American Christianity.

While God can and very well probably will bring good from this, I cannot help but realize that her denunciation of Christianity will make many people say, “See? Conversion isn’t permanent. Salvation isn’t really eternal.” And what a great slander to the Lord that is!

Yes, Anne Rice should be loved … and Christians should always “speak the truth in love” as is written in Eph 4:15 … but Anne Rice’s actions in denouncing Christianity must certainly not be condoned.

It serves as a reminder to me that our churches need to keep their attitudes in check. We believers have been saved by grace and need to view unbelievers as a vision of what we ourselves could become if not rescued by Jesus and as fellow humans that we should treat with agape love. In that respect, I see the point she is trying to make.

Great, great piece: balanced, pastoral, irenic, careful, and wise. Sincerely, thanks.

Wyman Richardson

Grace.