Building Straw Men and Persoal Attacks

and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32 ASV)
...When I was an atheist I had two forms of attack that I employed to make the Christian uncomfortable and this caused them to abandon the discussion and I could the declare victory. This only impressed the unlearned but that was my peer group, then. I am worried because most of the people sitting on the pews, on any Sunday, are not saved people and the same two tactics I employed in the sixties have crept into the church.
... One of the methods is to, what I term, build a straw man to ride down on your trusty white steed. This is best done by listeing to what your opponent has not said, accuse him or her of saying or implying it and tear the idea to pieces. The second, favored method, is the personal attack known as killing the messenger. When these two forms of attack they are very effective because the defender must now leave the discussion lying where it is ad defend him or herself while the attacker gloats about the victory accomplished.
... The truth of the matter? The Humble Christian has in fact told the truth and the attacker has damaged their immortal soul. Perform this method of attack often enough on a Christian, successfully, and you will close their mouth...a.k.a. destroy their witness.
... The Christian does not lose their salvation but they are no longer effective tools in the hand of the LORD on the Mission Field that they reside in.
... My point? The followers of Christ must learn the lesson of keeping a tender heart but of having a thick skin. Couple this with te lesson taught in Romans 12:1, become a living sacrifice, and you have a mighty Christian Warrier that, in the hand of God, is used to accomplish the purposes of the Kingdom. We must lear to take heart, even in the face of what the world calls defeat. Actually, I have read the Book al the way through the end and guess what? God wins!

Reading the Bible and Heresy

... In 2Tim. 2:15 we learn that we are to handle the word of God carefully or that we are to study to understand what God has said. Since the day of my salvation, I have held tight to the truth that "no" book can be understood without reading the entire book. In the case of the scriptures I have made it a practice to read the Bible through, from beginning to end just as I read a novel. I will, in the case of a novel, put it on the shelf, after reading it and the best ones are reread after a few years. With the Bible, I do not read it through every year, in fact it has taken me as long as three years, reading just one chapter a day and I have been so focused on a topic study that I have gone through long periods 0f time where I was not reading through but was instead researching a particular topic or two. The point is though that no one scripture, nor any portion of scripture can be taken from the Bible and isolated, this is how heresy begins. It sounds like the scripture is correct because we've heard those words from the Bible before so it gains popularity because man likes to have the upper hand and, generally, we are to lazy to check it out ourselves. After all, didn't that preacher teach it?
...A great example of this is 1Ti 2:4 who would have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. (CEV) This is one of the verses used as a mainstay to support Universal Salvation. This scripture must, however, be taken in the light of what the rest of scripture says and since I have only used one of the heretic's favorites, I'll only point to one place to refute the case and illustrate the truth;
Mat 7:13 Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby.
Mat 7:14 For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few are they that find it.
Mat 7:15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. (ASV)
... The case is made by the Universalist that 1 Tim. 2:4 is the perfect will of God and for that reason all men will be saved. They totally ignore that Jesus taught, in The Sermon on the Mount that there would be few that will find the path and they lend no importance to the fact that Jesus, throughout the Bible taught more on Hell and the perils there-of than He did on Heaven and the rewards.
... For the Christian that desires to follow God and has not been able to find it in themselves to develop the habit of daily study of the word of God, I have a very inexpensive, paperback book that will be found essential after it is purchased. Where to Find it in the Bible, by Ken Anderson is less than ten dollars and is very simple to use. I cannot urge you strongly enough to own a Bible that is easy for you to understand and to keep this book by Ken Anderson with it.